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