Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: For the next five episodes, I'll be talking about the
Speaker 1: topic of procrastination. Today, we're talking about what procrastination is
Speaker 1: and why we put things off. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: we'll look at strategies for making progress even if we
Speaker 1: do feel resistance. Finally, we'll talk about when that resistance
Speaker 1: is a good thing, because procrastination is actually our intuition's
Speaker 1: way of teaching us something important. But first, a definition,
Speaker 1: procrastination means putting something off, even knowing will be worse
Speaker 1: off because of the delay. Sometimes delays don't matter or
Speaker 1: are even wise. If you put off checking email because
Speaker 1: you need to help a colleague who's really struggling with
Speaker 1: a project, you are choosing well. If put off writing
Speaker 1: a self evaluation that will help your manager argue for
Speaker 1: your promotion, that's procrastination. The first thing to know is
Speaker 1: that everyone procrastinates to some degree. In the past few weeks,
Speaker 1: I've put off a number of things that I definitely
Speaker 1: had time to do but chose not to, such as
Speaker 1: getting my car's oil changed and making an update that
Speaker 1: my marketing person keeps telling me to do with my
Speaker 1: Instagram account. People are most likely to procrastinate things that
Speaker 1: seem complicated or unpleasant, and I know this is true
Speaker 1: for me too. If something doesn't have a definite deadline,
Speaker 1: then it's particularly easy to put off to tomorrow what
Speaker 1: could be done today. People sometimes ask me if procrastination
Speaker 1: means they're lazy. I guess it could. But in a
Speaker 1: recent article for The New York Times, writer Charlotte Lieberman
Speaker 1: explored a different angle. Sometimes, she wrote, procrastination is about
Speaker 1: self doubt, low self esteem, anxiety, or insecurity. Staring at
Speaker 1: a blank document might be thinking, I'm not smart enough
Speaker 1: to write this. Even if I am, what will people
Speaker 1: think of it? Writing is so hard? What if I
Speaker 1: do a bad job. All of this can lead us
Speaker 1: to think that putting the document aside and cleaning that
Speaker 1: spice straw instead is a pretty good idea. I think
Speaker 1: Charlotte is onto something. There's some research finding that procrastination
Speaker 1: is about protecting our egos from the bruising nature of reality.
Speaker 1: One study found that when students were told that a
Speaker 1: test was an important judge of their abilities, they put
Speaker 1: off studying. When these students were told that the test
Speaker 1: didn't matter, well, then they felt no such procrastination urge.
Speaker 1: What's happening is that it's really scary to think that
Speaker 1: we might try our hardest, throwing our hearts into things,
Speaker 1: and still fail. So sometimes we try to protect ourselves
Speaker 1: by putting things off. If you put off studying until
Speaker 1: an hour before the test, well, of course you won't
Speaker 1: do well. That kind of failure feels more psychologically acceptable,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of a sad way to go through life.
Speaker 1: Developing the courage to risk failure is far more rewarding.
Speaker 1: We get better at things by doing our best, seeing
Speaker 1: where we come up short, and trying again. It also
Speaker 1: helps to realize that failure is generally not that big
Speaker 1: a deal. I like to think of the word failure
Speaker 1: in the context of weight training. Weightlifters will sometimes do
Speaker 1: reps to the point of muscle failure, and that's the
Speaker 1: word they use, failure. It's not a judgment. You're not
Speaker 1: a bad person because you can't lift those weights indefinitely.
Speaker 1: It's just a reality that we have limits. Weightlifters view
Speaker 1: failure as part of the process. You go to your limit,
Speaker 1: then rest a bit, then try again. And over time
Speaker 1: that limit moves. In Charlotte Lieberman's article, she recommended countering
Speaker 1: the procrastination cycle with self compassion. One study found that
Speaker 1: students who could forgive themselves for procrastinating on a test
Speaker 1: or less likely to procrastinate on a future one. So
Speaker 1: when you find yourself putting something off, rather than getting
Speaker 1: into a cycle of self loathing, simply say it's okay.
Speaker 1: Treat yourself just like you treat a friend. If she
Speaker 1: put off applying for a new job, you wouldn't tell
Speaker 1: her she's a miserable excuse for a human being. You'd
Speaker 1: encourage her and point out that this application is just
Speaker 1: a small thing standing between her and a great future.
Speaker 1: She's totally got this and you do too. So think
Speaker 1: about something big that you've been putting off. Would it
Speaker 1: change anything to recognize that failure isn't that big a deal?
Speaker 1: Would it change anything to tell yourself that you're still
Speaker 1: a great person whether you do this thing or not.
Speaker 1: But if you choose to do it, it might be awesome.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe not, but it might. Please. Tune
Speaker 1: in for the rest of the week for more on
Speaker 1: procrastination and ways we can get going on the things
Speaker 1: that matter to us in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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