I'm circling back to procrastination, the subject of my October newsletter, to take a closer look at its energetic components and offer a few tools.
I delayed a lot before undertaking certain steps or projects this year... I was busy as always and in transition professionally after retirement and time was tight, but beyond that, something was holding me back; in short, I was procrastinating. I thought about procrastination and what it meant from an energy point of view...
Procrastination is often seen in a negative light, but it can sometimes be useful. It can be a conscious strategy, for example, not addressing a conflict with a colleague knowing that they will soon be moving to another workplace and that you won't be able to devote the time needed to resolve it; or not doing something that your partner has asked you to do, in the hope that they will forget because you don't see the point. Procrastinating is sometimes an unconscious strategy to create a sense of urgency missing to make the task a priority.
For me, the sense of urgency produces adrenaline (read energy) that keeps me on task and efficient. If I don't have constraints, I spin or spend much more time on the task than I need to. I've realized that I procrastinate to give myself constraints and tight deadlines, to which I am more faithful I if make a commitment with others.
At other times, procrastination is paralyzing and more a consequence of a lack of energy or of frozen energy than a strategy. I may have plenty of time and energy, I'm antsy but disorganised. The objective, the means to achieve it, the value or tangible return on the investment of time (= energy) is unclear. Or else, my energy is frozen because the task is heavy. It seems insurmountable and I don't know where to start.
In these cases, I start by doing a grounding exercise (conscious breathing, walking, or other energy exercises such as the spoon technique... I'll come back to this in a future blog), I activate my energy by moving around and then I sit down to make a nice mind map (also the subject of a future blog) to help me see things clearly, breakdown the task and find collaborators or accountability partners;-)
And in some cases, I give up if it's a case of better never than late! And I move on;-)
Do your own reflecting...
What do you use procrastination for? In what contexts do you use it?
Is it a conscious or unconscious choice, or a consequence of insufficient or blocked energy? What do you need to do to generate the energy you need to complete the task? What tools/strategies would be useful to you?
If you still don't know why you procrastinate, energy coaching will help you understand and learn a host of other tools to put your energy to work for you. Contact me.
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