{"id":5813,"date":"2011-03-29T22:57:21","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T06:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=5813"},"modified":"2013-09-09T09:51:05","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T17:51:05","slug":"are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Guilty of Procrastination (Without Even Realizing It)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crossfitsaskatoon.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lazy-dog.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We all know what procrastination is. And perhaps you think it&#8217;s not something you struggle with at all.<\/p>\n<p>I certainly used to feel that way. As a student, I had no problem getting my essays in on time. In my first job after college, I found it easy to stay focused during the work-day.<\/p>\n<p>I saw other people who struggled \u2013 perhaps they&#8217;d spend hours or even days putting off some little task \u2013 but I didn&#8217;t think procrastination was one of <em>my<\/em> problems.<\/p>\n<p>But it was. And, to some extent, still is. Except now, I can recognize it for what it is.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if you&#8217;re guilty of procrastination too \u2013 without even realizing?<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Big Picture Procrastination<\/h2>\n<p>The sort of procrastination I&#8217;m talking about is <em>big picture procrastination<\/em>. It&#8217;s about putting off major tasks \u2013 ones which don&#8217;t have a deadline attached, but which would improve your life.<\/p>\n<p>Big picture procrastination looks like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You talk about being a writer, but you&#8217;ve never got beyond Page 10 of the novel you&#8217;re working on.<\/li>\n<li>When you moved into your house six years ago, you were planning to redecorate. It still hasn&#8217;t happened.<\/li>\n<li>You keep meaning to go back to college and get that post-graduate qualification &#8230; but it&#8217;s never quite the right time.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;d love to lose some weight, but you&#8217;re so busy that you just don&#8217;t have the energy to diet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You might well be <em>great<\/em> at getting little tasks done: you&#8217;re up to date on your emails, you&#8217;ve finished that report at work, you&#8217;ve done the filing. But the really big, important things in life just get put off again, and again, and again.<\/p>\n<h2>What Are You Resisting?<\/h2>\n<p>I came across the concept of &#8220;resistance&#8221; in the books of time coach <a href=\"http:\/\/www.markforster.net\/\">Mark Forster<\/a>, and I&#8217;ve also seen it used in Steven Pressfield&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles\/dp\/0446691437\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1301390868&amp;sr=8-1\">War of Art<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve ever had to write an essay, prepare a talk or make a difficult phone call, you&#8217;ll almost certainly have experienced resistance. It&#8217;s that sense that just <em>starting<\/em> on something is overwhelmingly hard; that you don&#8217;t have the time, or the energy, or the courage.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never met a writer who didn&#8217;t struggle with overcoming resistance on an almost daily basis. It&#8217;s <em>hard<\/em> to make the time to sit down and write \u2013 or paint, or compose, or do anything creative.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is, though, that<strong> the things which we&#8217;re resisting are often the very things which are most likely to make our lives richer and better.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Procrastination is Cunning<\/h2>\n<p>When you think of &#8220;procrastination&#8221;, you probably have a similar mental image to mine \u2013 a person surfing the internet, doodling, chatting, doing anything but work.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s an easy sort of procrastination to spot. The trickier sort is when you&#8217;re <em>using busywork to put off doing real work<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Look at some of the excuses which crop up when you think about doing one of those high-resistance tasks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I can&#8217;t work on my novel when the house is such a mess.<\/li>\n<li>I can&#8217;t redecorate when I&#8217;ve got so many emails to answer.<\/li>\n<li>I can&#8217;t go back to college when I&#8217;ve got all these community events to organize.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m not saying that tidying or answering emails or volunteering are worthless or even unimportant. But are they <em>really<\/em> as important as you&#8217;re telling yourself \u2013 or are they just excuses to stay busy, so that you never need to tackle the bigger tasks in your life?<\/p>\n<h2>How to Stop Procrastinating<\/h2>\n<p>I find that <strong>the best way to overcome resistance is to simply <em>make a start<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The sooner you get going, the easier it is; the longer you wait, the more resistance builds up. There&#8217;s never going to be an ideal time (and you know that, really).<\/p>\n<p>What big projects could you make a start on today? This week? This month? Tell us about them in the comments&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know what procrastination is. And perhaps you think it&#8217;s not something you struggle with at all.<\/p>\n<p>I certainly used to feel that way. As a student, I had no problem getting my essays in on time. In my first job after college, I found it easy to stay focused during the work-day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[30,6],"tags":[743,880,1135,66,186,4639,4629],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are You Guilty of Procrastination (Without Even Realizing It)? - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We all know what procrastination is. And perhaps you think it&#039;s not something you struggle with at all. I certainly used to feel that way. As a student, I had no problem getting my essays in on time. In my first job after college, I found it easy to stay focused during the work-day.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are You Guilty of Procrastination (Without Even Realizing It)? - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We all know what procrastination is. And perhaps you think it&#039;s not something you struggle with at all. I certainly used to feel that way. 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In my first job after college, I found it easy to stay focused during the work-day.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-30T06:57:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-09T17:51:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.crossfitsaskatoon.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lazy-dog.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pickthebrain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Falconer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.crossfitsaskatoon.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lazy-dog.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.crossfitsaskatoon.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/lazy-dog.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/\",\"name\":\"Are You Guilty of Procrastination (Without Even Realizing It)? - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/are-you-guilty-of-procrastination-without-even-realizing-it\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-30T06:57:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-09T17:51:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2da8ae162c097bdb749ab098472b4cc5\"},\"description\":\"We all know what procrastination is. 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