The Hidden Reason You are Procrastinating

The best of us procrastinate — even when our intentions are to do the hard things first.

We never start our day with a plan to put things off. It just sort of happens.

Mark Twain’s advice to “eat the frog” isn’t that easy to follow. (Twain once wrote: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”)

It seems like such common sense. Shouldn’t we be able to make our list, and get things done, starting with the hardest tasks?

Apparently not.

But what if it isn’t just laziness on our part? Have we been looking at procrastination all wrong?

What if our procrastination isn’t about everything?

It might be about just one thing.

This isn’t about willpower — at least not in the way we’ve been taught.

Ever lose your ability to prioritize during times of extreme activity? (Me too.)

Suddenly, finding the favorite pen we’ve misplaced becomes as important as getting that high-level proposal out the door.

Why does that happen?

Because our brains will grab on to any distraction to not do the one essential thing we fear doing.

Priority fatigue doesn’t hit because of a lost pen or a deadline. Priority fatigue hits when the essential next step is to have a difficult conversation, create something new, or take action on something strategic — but we refuse to acknowledge it.

When we ignore the thing we fear, we get overwhelmed with everything else.

It’s easier to eat the frog when we know why we are eating it.

The work that matters to us requires us to put ourselves out there. And when our identity is on the line, we urgently do not want to fail. We have defense mechanisms in place to protect the way we see ourselves.

Author Stephen Pressfield writes in his book, The War of Art, “If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), ‘Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?’ chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

That sentiment isn’t just limited to writers and artists. It is true for professionals, entrepreneurs, teachers, podcasters and stay-at-home parents. Something in us is afraid we will fail at what we care about the most. So, our brain protects us from what we fear by drawing our attention to the nearest squirrel.

In our day jobs, this often looks like spending all our time reacting rather than creating. It is less threatening to let others drive our day. Much easier to lose ourselves in deadlines rather than carving out time to create something that moves us closer to our goal.

It takes discipline to stop confusing busy-ness with forward motion.

Knowing our “why” so we identify the most important work, and then starting with that thing we fear is tough. It is counter-cultural to invest our time in the most effective elements of our personal mission — or even to have a personal mission at all — especially when we are filled with dread that we will fail at it.

When eating frogs, speed is your friend.

Brian Tracy, author of the productivity classic, Eat That Frog, quips, “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”

Perfectionism, fear and insecurity chip away at what is essential. If we can execute quickly — before we start to question and second-guess ourselves — we can swallow that frog. The faster we can get from ideation to execution, the more likely it is that we will put something new out there. Doing hard things is easier when we just do them rather than think about them.

Besides, sometimes we can get around a squirrel-focused brain just by using our hands. Making the decision to do something, and then doing it, breaks through inertia.

David Allen writes in Getting things Done, “Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”

A little speed toward the finish line can remove that pressure in the long run.

Find the hidden thing you are afraid of.

If you discover you are procrastinating, and have been looking at it in terms of willpower, there’s a simpler way.

Take a moment and just pause.

Forget — even just for five minutes — all of the small tasks that are clamoring for your attention and identify the one big thing you are putting off that scares you.

The one that made your stomach sink a little just now as it touched the edge of your thoughts.

Doing that thing that terrifies you — the one that is keeping you stuck —will free you to leap forward.

Do it!