What’s Really Driving Your Procrastination and How to Beat It - WSJ 8/10/23, 11:58 AM

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/procrastination-causes-how-to-stop-64878a73

LIFE & WORK WORK & LIFE

What’s Really Driving Your Procrastination and How to

Beat It
That big, scary task? Make it as easy to tackle as the small stu! that fills your days

By Rachel Feintzeig Follow

Aug. 6, 2023 at 9:00 pm ET

Keith GunderKline knew he should get started on that five-year capital improvement plan for
the Ohio housing agency he directs. Then again, his inbox was filling up. A staffer needed help
redesigning a form. Oh, and the air conditioning in one of the agency’s buildings had conked
out and needed to be fixed.

“I didn’t have to get to that today,” the 69-year-old would reason as he put off the
intimidating report for months, grateful to focus on the daily diversions.

Administrative busywork, last-minute emergencies and the performative theater of another

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Administrative busywork, last-minute emergencies and the performative theater of another

useless Zoom call so often clog our calendars. We spend nearly a third more time
communicating with others than creating things at work, according to a recent analysis of
meetings, email and document usage from Microsoft.

We complain we’re so tired, or too busy, with no time to do the job. Yet part of us is surely
relieved there’s no time to tackle that presentation that would level-up our career, or the
book we’ve always wanted to write. Examined up close, the goal is terrifying, overwhelming,
amorphous. Where do you even start?

Looking important at work often comes down to moving through the office in a frenzy, says
Juliet Funt, author of a book about carving out space for creativity and reflection in the
workday. Meetings are social, and our attendance is proof that we’re needed. Hybrid
schedules mean many of us desperately want to be cc’ed on that email, so we’re top of mind
even when we’re out of sight. And there’s a high that comes with checking infinite teeny
items off our to-do lists.

“If we fail in little busy activities, we fail small,” says Funt. We’ve lost our tolerance for diving
into the big stuff, she adds. “Open time freaks us out.”

To get back to the important things languishing at the bottom of your to-do list, create your
own accountability. Funt recommends setting a timer for five minutes to get started on the
thing you’re dreading. Each morning, write your three to five most important tasks on a piece
of paper and keep it on your desk, returning to it whenever you have free time.

Imaginary perfection
We often procrastinate when we’re not confident we can deliver. A project that stays in our
mind can stay picture-perfect.

“It’s easier to keep it imaginary,” says Fuschia Sirois, a psychology professor at England’s
Durham University who studies procrastination.

Make it more tangible by putting up Post-it Notes or pictures in your office that represent
your dream, she suggests. Picture yourself at the finish line, and the steps it would take to get
there. Then remind yourself why the goal matters.

In a study from Sirois and a colleague, a group of participants reflected on how a task was
meaningful to their personal growth or someone they cared about. They ended up

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procrastinating less than people who simply focused on a positive part of the task.

The cost of procrastination

After being laid off in 2020, Jeff Krimmel landed a new job quickly. But his big goal of
expanding his professional network stayed on the back burner for years.

“It was just the enormity of, what does that even mean?” says Krimmel, a chief strategy
officer in Houston. He pictured attending weekly networking mixers after work or asking
strangers to lunch—and felt overwhelmed, convinced it would never work with two young
kids and a long commute.

To motivate himself, he thought about what would happen if he never built a network. He
remembered how vulnerable he felt when he was laid off. He pictured how another career
disruption would impact his family if he didn’t have robust connections to fall back on.

“That cost just wasn’t bearable any more to me,” he says.

Last summer, he committed to posting on LinkedIn every day. Maintaining a streak keeps
guilt from bubbling up, he says, and forces him to do something, even if it’s not perfect.
Metrics, like seeing how many people view his posts, act as markers to his progress.

A task that fits your mood

Nearly everything can be broken down into smaller pieces. At work on a book, Stephanie
Kramer wrangled all her to-do’s—comb through research papers, schedule calls—onto
various lists each Sunday. Then Kramer, the chief human resources officer for L’Oréal’s U.S.
business, would tackle the items based on her mood.

After a long day in meetings for her day job, quietly writing down the themes of an upcoming
chapter helped her reset. If she felt sluggish, sorting and deleting book-related emails jump-
started her.
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started her.

On Friday nights, after her two young sons were in bed, she’d work late on deep, creative
work.

“I felt very free,” she says, “like I was in this magic zone.”

Something’s off
Sometimes procrastination is a signal you need to do something differently. Ask yourself why
you’re really putting a goal off. Is it too aggressive? Is the timeline too fast or too slow? Do
you need help from a peer to get started?

Drew Bear, a tech worker in San Diego, was excited to start a podcast about the intersection
of faith and business. But the first episode took him 30 hours to produce. He obsessively
searched for software to speed up the process. Then he stalled completely.

After months of procrastinating, he realized the payoff didn’t feel worth the effort. He only
had about 40 subscribers. He decided to pivot to YouTube videos, where he thinks he’ll reach
more people.

There’s some shame in the fact that his initial plan failed, the 35-year-old says. But he’s
focused on his new path forward.

“When you do something you’ve never done,” he says, “it’s always harder than you expect.”

Write to Rachel Feintzeig at Rachel.Feintzeig@wsj.com

Sticky notes: iStock (3)

Appeared in the August 7, 2023, print edition as 'Tips for Tackling Those Projects You Keep Putting Off'.

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