I’ll do it later – Procrastination

by

 Malec and Associates

One common reason people come to therapy is a frustration with themselves over the stress and anxiety of procrastination. Procrastination is putting off a task or decision that can be made in a more timely manner. Writing a paper for a class, sending off paperwork, cleaning the house for an event, calling someone with difficult news, making an appointment for needed dental care. As you can see many of the things a person “puts off” has a feeling of “approach-avoidance”. Approach is the feeling that something needs to be done. Avoidance is a feeling that something has some negative aspects to it. “But wait a minute, I put off things that I want to do….how is that?” you may ask. Let’s look at a person who is getting married and needs to schedule an appointment with the event planner. She wants to get married. She wants to have a wedding. She is excited about planning her day. Why would she “put off” calling an event planner?

People procrastinate for a couple of reasons. Often a person feels overwhelmed. They imagine a task to be so daunting that they become paralyzed with anxiety. Sometimes a person is afraid of failing. They imagine they will fail at something they see as very important or that someone else will judge them if they fail. Occasionally, some people just don’t have the motivation to take the necessary steps to “gittr done” like scheduling a dental appointment.

In our example above, the person who is getting married and is putting off calling the event planner probably is overwhelmed with the process of planning a big day like her wedding. She may have people in her life she wants to please or make happy and this is creating anxiety over “getting it perfect”. In situations like this, a person is better off breaking the tasks down into small manageable steps. Using the phrases like, “I’m just going to get started….” can reduce the internal paralysis enough to pick up the phone and dial the event planner’s number.

For those folks who are just not motivated, that problem will be discussed in another blog coming soon.