The Real Reasons For Your Procrastination & The Sneaky Forms That Procrastination Shows Up As

Procrastination is the act of delaying and avoiding doing a task, decision

because it’s uncomfortable or scary

It’s normal but I know how frustrating it can be and how hard you tried to stop it

but it still keeps coming back at the crucial moments

While I shared tips and mindset shifts that are helpful to change how you deal with it

The reason I wrote this post is to help you make sense of it and become aware of its ways

I’ll share more solutions to help you beat procrastination on its track in this post

 The Sneaky Forms Of Procrastination

I came across and learned from my mentor Sam from the Perfectionism Project podcast

1- The Research Type

It can easily sneak up on you because it’s so innocent.

it can suck you in and take your time while giving a sense of productivity.

it’s important in some cases and stages but if it took all of your time and you feel that you need to do it or else you can’t create content, make an offer ..

that self-sabotage that is disguised as productive work which in this case a busy work

When it comes to research it needs to be time-bound and has an objective that you need to get from it

so, you don’t waste your time on and not do what matters

2-The Learning Type

There are always new things to learn about marketing, selling, content creation..etc

So, you can find new things to learn all the time. and because there’s new information you feel the need to know it all and

Yes, there’s might be something you need or that you’re missing but. Learning is important for us entrepreneurs but

It needs to be limited or else it can consume your time and turn into procrastination

If it prevented you from doing what matters in your business

I love learning and it can suck me in and that is what happened when I was not aware.

It seems reasonable to do but if it is not controlled. it’ll become a hindrance 

When it comes to business, there’s a principle I heard somewhere which is as follow 

Learn what you need right now that you’ll apply immediately.

Don’t go beyond that so, you can focus on what matters

3-The Decision Type 

When you have a decision you need to make but you’re in the process of making it.

You’re deciding but not yet maybe because you think you need more information,

Or you’re avoiding making the decision at all

because you’re afraid of what comes next subconsciously

This decision is like a chain reaction you need to do it in order to move to the next step but you’re not making it even though you have searched a lot

Example

choosing a platform to build your brand and business.

you’re looking at different ones and you want to choose the best one for you,

you already learned about all of them but you still didn’t choose

Make the decision and adjust and iterate as you follow with it.

Because no matter how long you think, search about what to do.

It’ll never feel enough, you must make it enough

Here’re Questions you can pounder upon to see what decisions you need to do right now to move your business forward

Why haven’t I made the decision? What decisions do I need to make that stop me from doing work?

4-The Distraction Type

Notifications, social media, watching youtube these things aren’t sneaky

But can suck you in and consume your time if you’re not limiting them.

Multitasking if it’s a habit f yours(check-in with yourself to find out)

The sneaky type of distraction is when you do work for another goal that distracts you from your business

This could be because you’re tired and you’re not giving yourself proper rest.

If that’s you you need to take time to rest because your brain will make procrastinate so, it could rest

5-The Overthinking Type

It’s sneaky because you think I need to think about it more, maybe something is missing, maybe I would reach the right answer.

You think it’s necessary, responsible and important to think about things before you make a decision

If you take too long to think about something like months, weeks

Then you’re just procrastinating and sabotaging yourself

You just want to avoid failure and feeling shame from doing something wrong though you know

 I was in this a few months ago with my niche. I was thinking about it for a long time I couldn’t reach a decision

Felt I needed to find the right niche.

Kept thinking ( is my niche clear, is it understandable. is there people who would benefit from it, but it’s not original …)

It took me months to decide on my niche and everything slowed down because

Felt I couldn’t do them while I still don’t have a niche

The easiest solution here once you catch yourself is to decide,

to end this thinking and take action now or as soon as possible

It’s a form of not making a decision, so, you need to make a decision.

Easy but what stands in your way are these messy thoughts

So, Clearing these thoughts out by being aware of them is crucial to answer the following questions to get the awareness to these thoughts and address them

Why am still thinking about X?

What am thinking about?

What am I afraid will happen if I choose something instead of taking the time to think about it?

Is there anything I can do to prevent what I am thinking that would happen if I choose something?

6-The seemingly needle mover Type

When you do things that are business-related that doesn’t need to be done even though your brain tells you otherwise,

Or when you do non-needle mover for longer than it should be trying to make things perfect, beautiful..etc

And end up not doing the important stuff but you feel you’d done a lot but you still don’t have any results.

It’s like trying to build a house by first picking the furniture instead focusing on building the house

A clear example of this is

editing a piece of content over and over, designing your website, organizing the files on your desktop

Instead of selling, making offers, building your community

First, you need to define the needle mover for you in your business

then measure how each thing you do contributes to the results

knowing that some tasks that are maybe important on a different stage but not your stage

7-The Overcomplication Type

The thought can be so fleeting and you’re unconscious of it.

It stops on your track when things are hard your brain doesn’t want to do them,

it wants to do what is familiar and comfortable

your brain think if it’s hard = pass, next

If you find yourself saying, thinking like

“ This is hard” there are a lot” so many” “oh, this is too much “ or any form of it

Note it

Shift it to the thought that makes it easy to follow through for instance

I can do hard things, it’s easy

Ask yourself what would make it easy?

As you can see procrastination

All about avoiding fear & pain, seeking comfort and immediate pleasure 

What other sneaky procrastination do you experience? Does anyone resonate with you

Why Do We Procrastinate?

1-Seeking Comfort And Pleasure At The Moment 

the concept of delayed pleasure and immediate pleasure

Our brains seek immediate pleasure.

up until recently, we have been driven by this mechanism to survive as well as all the animals in the jungle.

The immediate pleasure that we get from getting what we need from food, shelter… to survive we didn’t use to think about the future

We just focus on the day to day needs to survive so that’s why our brains favour immediate pleasure 

In modern times, things have been reversed. now the world is set for delayed pleasure, achieving any goal had delayed pleasure

eg. losing weight, building your business, graduating from school, building muscle…etc

I know you’re thinking but what about the immediate pleasure that we get from social media and such the creators of these things play into our old nature that’s why they have been able to suck us in

our brains favour instant gratification because it has been linked to survival and finding our needs.

It linked that way

So, we keep looking for them to survive but now we don’t need to but those circuits still present

One way to change

By creating pleasure at the moment where you associate with what you do instead of waiting for the far reward

Learn Associate pleasure with the act

2-Fear Of The Unknown Of The Next Step

This is another reason that seems strange but won’t be as we unpack it.

You’re procrastinating on writing your sales page

not because it’s hard but because you’re afraid of selling, of getting rejected, of no one will sign up…etc

Your brain try to stop all of that by making you procrastinate on the first step since it’s going to lead to the rest

How do you know? Simply ask why am procrastinating on doing this? What is the reason and

Let your brain answer and think about don’t stop for the first answer( come up with at least 5)

Then take action on that step immediately after

3-Fear Of Failure, Fear Of Rejection

Very common and normal to be afraid of this since we are social creatures and being rejected in the past meant death to us.

Our brain still function the same way it used to in ancient times but in modern times we won’t die if we get rejected

So, we need to teach our brains that

Rejection won’t harm you the only thing it will do is to make you feel disappointed, shame, sad, pain

That all comes from thoughts you have in your mind about what rejection means. It’s part primitive as I explained,

Part conditioning from our early childhood and what we concluded in the early days of our lives

The more you learn to disassociate your thoughts about yourself from what you do and how you do it  the much easier it is for you to accept rejection and failure

Since they won’t mean anything about you as a person they are things on their own that you do but not you

Rejection, failure is painful

Because we associate them with ourselves and who we are. we think we are not enough,

We are failures of a person, worthless that’s what makes it painful

Our society always reward people who get the results, the perfect scores

It never acknowledges the  effort we put in even if we fail

that’s why we don’t want to fail and try to avoid it at all costs even that meant

Not doing the thing itself without our brains realizing that this act is a failure by default

Unless we become aware nothing changes

Failure is the fuel to success you can’t make fire without oxygen thus

You can’t reach your goals without failure, mishaps and obstacles along the way

Teach it your mind by repetition, by finding moments where failure and rejection didn’t feel that bad,

By knowing why you’re so afraid of them and writing solutions to what to do when that happens

4-Lack Of The Skill Of Doing It Despite Whatever You Feel, Follow Through No Matter What

I intentionally wrote following through no matter what you feel like a skill because

It’s something you can train yourself to do as you train your muscle you can train your mind too

knowing it won’t change at once but will take time and repetition to happen but you keep doing it 

Also, we don’t all have the same mindsets.

Honestly, some people don’t have any problem with following through and don’t understand us.

On the other hand, we have low self-trust that we accumulated by our actions in the past

And changing your relationship with yourself and trusting yourself again takes time.

I know how much you want to do it fast, to change and do the things you want however it doesn’t work that way.

In Fact, if you try to do it that way you may freak your brain which will lead to procrastinating even harder than you want to.

The best approach is slow and steady to win while creating small rewards for yourself as you go on

These rewards can be simple as telling yourself how proud you are of it or giving yourself a gift that won’t hinder your actual goal

Buy yourself a book if your goal to read more so, you get the pleasure at the moment instead of buying yourself food when it’s not related

5-Fear Of Success

you are afraid of change to the best. you’re afraid of what success will lead you too..what!!

it sounds strange but if you think about it.

It’s similar to the fear of failure in that we try to prevent any pain that might come in the future

you’re afraid you won’t relate to the people around you, people will abandon you, you’ll lose friends,>>> you’ll be lonely

and there’s maybe another pain that you are afraid will happen

When you achieve your goal or move to the next stage like it’s going to be a huge responsibility on your shoulders

Even if you’re not doing it in a conscious manner your mind doing it subconsciously.

It’s very beneficial to look at it and consider it

In The End

When it comes to building a habit of following through,

Doing things at the first opportunity,

Doing things when they are not appealing at the moment and ultimately stopping procrastination

It’s a practice, consider it as an exercise for your mental muscle the same as you do with your body muscles.

Build the identity with every action you take whether this action was what you wanted or not

By enforcing that you are the kind of person who does things at the first opportunity,

Follow through and become bewildered when you don’t do it by saying that’s not like me

now it the time to learn how can you beat procrastination in this post

Wafaa