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If You Procrastinate, This Might Be Why!

Pause. Breathe. Hope. Heal.

Dear Reader! To make life easier for you, I wanted to give you this information in a couple different formats. You can either read this blog post, or click the link below to download the podcast and listen to the episode on the go.

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Have you ever found yourself scrolling on your phone, cleaning your kitchen, or suddenly deciding to reorganize your desk instead of doing the task you actually need to do? You might be procrastinating.

Here’s the truth: procrastination is often about emotional regulation or distress. So when you’re facing a task that might feel overwhelming, boring, stressful, or tied to fear, like the fear of failure or the fear of not doing it perfectly, of course, your brain is going to try to protect you from that discomfort and that dysregulation.
 
One of the easiest ways that our brain does that is to help us by avoiding the task altogether. Instead of starting the report, studying for the exam, or sending that difficult email, you might find yourself shifting to something that feels easier or immediately more rewarding. In the short term, avoiding the task gives you a sense of relief, but in the long term, the stress often grows.
 
What’s important to understand is that procrastination is less about managing your time and more about managing your emotions. A helpful strategy is to lower the entry point of the task. Instead of telling yourself that you need to finish everything, aim to start very small. For example, you work on it for just five minutes, or you write one paragraph, or you open up the document, and you outline one idea. As soon as you reduce the pressure to be perfect and just focus on starting, your brain often realizes that the task is not as threatening as it first seemed.
 
The next time you catch yourself procrastinating, please try to be curious, ask yourself, what feeling am I trying to avoid right now on my website?

Here is a helpful feelings wheel to make this easier for you. Click on the wheel below to access this resource.

Remember, procrastination is not a character flaw. It’s simply a signal about the task that feels difficult or overwhelming. However, with some self-compassion and intentional small steps, you can move right through it.

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As you finish reading this post, remember to take a moment to pause, breathe, hope, and heal.  

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