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: This is the fifth episode in my five part series
Speaker 1: about procrastination. Today's tip is to get curious about procrastination.
Speaker 1: You can make big breakthroughs in life if you figure
Speaker 1: out what procrastination might be teaching you. We tend to
Speaker 1: think of procrastination as a bad thing, and generally it is.
Speaker 1: As we've discussed this week, the definition of procrastination is
Speaker 1: to delay, even knowing that you'll be worse off for
Speaker 1: the delay. It's no problem to put off work that
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be done in the first place. But
Speaker 1: studying for an exam that's critical for whether you'll get
Speaker 1: into grad school, that's a different matter. We've discussed why
Speaker 1: we procrastinate, and we've discussed strategies for making progress. But
Speaker 1: today I want to raise a different possibility, which is
Speaker 1: that some times our procrastination is teaching us something. We
Speaker 1: can reach real insights by getting curious about why we're
Speaker 1: putting something off. Sometimes we delay because things are boring
Speaker 1: or unpleasant. Sometimes we delay because we're feeling bad about ourselves.
Speaker 1: We don't want to try our best and risk still failing.
Speaker 1: But sometimes we delay because we know deep down that
Speaker 1: a particular project is not the right direction for our
Speaker 1: careers or our lives. The reason you are resisting is
Speaker 1: not that you have no self discipline. It's that your
Speaker 1: wise inner mentor is saying, no, this is not what
Speaker 1: you are meant to be doing. There are other things
Speaker 1: that are more worthy of your precious time. Now, I'll
Speaker 1: admit that it's not always easy to tell the difference
Speaker 1: between mere delay and an epiphany. I've put off writing
Speaker 1: scripts for this show because I got sucked into something else.
Speaker 1: But I truly love doing this podcast. Usually I just
Speaker 1: need a break and a snack and I'm good to go,
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's something else. About a year or so ago,
Speaker 1: I was asked to take on a project, and I
Speaker 1: tentatively agreed set about doing some work for it. Then
Speaker 1: I kept finding other things to do. I returned to
Speaker 1: emails promptly. I cleaned my desk, and if you know me,
Speaker 1: you know that cleaning my desk is usually the last
Speaker 1: thing on my priority list. Around the time I found
Speaker 1: myself daydreaming about how I might pay someone else to
Speaker 1: take on this project. I realized No, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: prison sentence. I could extricate myself. Of course, I couldn't
Speaker 1: extricate myself immediately. I still had to do the part
Speaker 1: that I'd agreed to do. Likewise, if you realize something
Speaker 1: isn't the right direction for your life, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you can get out of doing it, but you can
Speaker 1: ask yourself how you can make sure that in a
Speaker 1: reasonable amount of time, say the next few weeks or months,
Speaker 1: you can make sure you're no longer doing it. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that question can actually be the nudge you need to
Speaker 1: stop procrastinating. You realize that all that is standing between
Speaker 1: you and a future where you aren't doing these types
Speaker 1: of projects is getting your immediate deliverables done. Then you
Speaker 1: can volunteer for different things, or ask to be reassigned,
Speaker 1: or whatever it takes. What have you learned by getting
Speaker 1: curious about why you're procrastinating? Have you ever realized after
Speaker 1: putting something off that there was a really good reason
Speaker 1: you weren't doing it? If so, please let me know.
Speaker 1: You can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart
Speaker 1: media dot com, and if you have feedback on this
Speaker 1: five part series on procrastination, you can let me know
Speaker 1: that too. If people are interested, I might do more
Speaker 1: series in the future. 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 E the number four, then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot
Speaker 1: com 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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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.