Procrastination

Can anyone living honestly say they never procrastinate?

Has anyone ever not sought means to avoid some dreaded task?

You've never spent hours on YouTube watching puppies, kittens, horses, and maybe how to make something, anything but what you should be doing have you? What if you could turn procrastination into a worthwhile tool? Enter my newfound toy...procrasti-learning.

I don’t watch TV, I sit in front of my computer (so I look busy) and procrasti-learn. A quick Google search (more procrasti-learning) says “Procrasti-learning is the act of avoiding taking action on important tasks by instead learning more about them. It can involve taking more courses or spending more time preparing to feel ready”

It's so much easier, for me, to learn about what I should be doing instead of taking the leap and just doing it. Bottom line is whether I’m watching puppies and kittens or learning how to do a newsletter, it’s still procrastinating, just with a nicer term.

Let me suggest a couple tricks to minimize procrastination while procrasti-learning.

There are a ton of articles and YouTube videos on how to stop procrastinating and another Google search says to minimize distractions. Great in theory but I have 2 cats, constant distraction.

Examine your goal. Be realistic about your goals! It seems like everything is too big so to avoid getting bogged down, I do nothing. Great strategy! What I should be doing is a combination of several of their suggestions. Set a bite-size goal and put a time limit on it. My goal is to organize the paper on my desk. Stacking it in a pile and moving it somewhere else doesn't qualify.

Set a limit on your time. If you don’t put some kind of time limit on what you’re doing, you’re likely to go down a rabbit hole and not accomplish much. If I only have 20 minutes to make sense of my desks, I’m more likely to get it done.

Yay Rewards! This one I can totally get behind. I’m big on rewards. You need some kind of incentive to do the things you’ve been putting off because when it’s done and you’re sitting with your reward, you know you’ve accomplished something. No cheating! Spending 20 minutes and not being any further ahead doesn't count.

Speaking of rabbit holes, this is where procrasti-learning begins. It starts as “I wonder if…Can I…What happens if…Where is it written, who says I can’t and a curiosity that drags you down a dark tunnel to the gold mine hidden there. I procrasti-learn when I don’t want to do the task ahead of me so I let my natural curiosity carry me into waters I’ve never traversed before, not always with productive consequences.

It all boils down to the same thing. I’m not doing what I need to do to move forward, I’m escaping by procrastilearning.

This isn't simply avoiding, procrastilearning is playing with the possibilities before you commit to a reality. it’s a positive because even if you fail you’ve done something by learning what you may not have known before.

Today's procrasti-learning suggested that questions rather than statements could be a whole lot more engaging. Removing the boring lectures I so hated in University is a real accomplishment and while you're basking in the delight of that accomplishment, don't be surprised if you get an idea for your next newsletter, stay tuned for what I can't live without...next month