19 – Procrastination: From Avoidance to a First Step

Procrastination is the gap between intending to act and repeatedly putting the action off. Sometimes the task is unclear. Sometimes you are tired, distracted, afraid of being judged or working within a system that makes starting difficult.

Rather than treating delay as a character flaw, examine the task, the feeling and the circumstances. The exercises here help you protect attention, make clearer agreements and take a manageable first step in life, work and relationships.

2. Business: Protecting Time for Important Work

You may spend a full day in meetings, messages and calls yet make little progress on your main priority. I know that pattern from my own experience as well as coaching. The activity can be legitimate work; the question is whether it has become a way to avoid a harder task or whether the role needs clearer priorities and capacity.

Being helpful can become a way to postpone difficult work. It can also be a legitimate part of your role. Look at the pattern: do you abandon an important priority for every request, and does the request really require you? Agree a response that supports colleagues without making constant interruption your default.

Even more concerning is the impact this has on your team’s growth. When you’re always available to solve everyone’s problems, you’re actually stunting their development. Think about it: if you always jump in to help, when do your team members learn to solve problems independently? You might think you’re being helpful, but you’re actually creating dependency.

Interruptions can make it harder to resume demanding work. A single average recovery time does not apply to every notification, and multiplying it by the number of interruptions is not a reliable estimate of lost hours. Instead, observe your own day: which interruptions break concentration, how quickly do you return and which requests could wait for a planned check-in?

Try a protected focus block for important work. Turn off non-essential notifications, close email and tell colleagues when you will respond. Keep an agreed route for genuine emergencies and responsibilities that require immediate cover. Choose a duration that fits your role; the point is to test whether uninterrupted time helps, not promise a day’s work in two hours.

“But what about my team?” you might ask. “They need me!” Here’s the truth: they need you to be an effective leader more than they need you to be constantly available. Set clear boundaries and expectations. Let your team know your focus times and when you’ll be available. Train them to batch non-urgent questions for designated check-in times. Most importantly, teach them to solve problems independently. When someone comes to you with an issue, instead of jumping in to fix it, ask them: “What solutions have you considered?” “What do you think we should do here?” “What would you do if you couldn’t reach me?” This might take more time initially, but it’s an investment in their growth and your future productivity.

Tomorrow, try one protected block—90 minutes if realistic, shorter if needed. Work on a defined priority with non-essential messages closed. Afterwards, record what you completed and what interrupted you. Initial discomfort may simply mean the routine is unfamiliar; it does not establish a particular chemical cause.

After your focus block, batch process all those notifications, emails, and requests that came in. You’ll likely find that very few things were truly urgent, and most issues resolved themselves or were handled by others. The beautiful irony here is that by being less available, you actually become more valuable. Instead of being the person who’s always there to put out fires, you become the person who prevents fires from starting in the first place. Instead of being the answer person, you become the person who builds a team of answer people.

Effective leadership includes availability where needed and protected time for the work only you can do. Agree those boundaries with the team, build their ability to make decisions and provide support at planned points. You do not need to be the hero in every small problem to contribute.

Focused time and clearer team ownership may help you finish important work within your day. They cannot guarantee shorter hours if staffing, workload or the role itself is the problem. Use the experiment to identify both personal habits and organisational changes needed.

4. Personal Growth: Taking a Manageable First Step

Delay may carry an emotional element: fear of judgement, perfectionism or uncertainty about what happens next. It may also reflect exhaustion, unclear requirements, limited resources or difficulties that need appropriate support. Explore those possibilities before deciding that every postponed task hides an emotional block.

Think about the last thing you seriously procrastinated on. Maybe it was starting that business you’ve been dreaming about, or perhaps writing that book you’ve been talking about for years. Now, here’s the question that really matters: what were you afraid would happen if you actually did it? Let me share something powerful: when we procrastinate, we’re often protecting ourselves from potential emotional pain. It’s like our brain is saying, “If I never really try, I can never really fail”. Or sometimes, even more subtly, “If I never finish this, I never have to face how good (or bad) I actually am at it”.

Here’s an interesting pattern I see often: the more important something is to us, the more likely we are to procrastinate on it. That’s not a coincidence. The things that matter most to us carry the biggest emotional risk. It’s easier to procrastinate on your dream business than on doing the dishes because no one’s self-worth is tied to how well they wash plates.

Imagine wanting to start a YouTube channel but never recording the first video. You may need editing skills, and you may also worry about being judged or having to sustain the work. Write down the practical gaps and the fears separately. Naming them gives you clearer options; it does not automatically make them disappear.

So how do we break through these emotional blocks? Let me share some practical strategies that have worked wonders with my clients:

First, we need to practice what I call “fear naming”. Write down what you’ve been procrastinating on. Then, write down all the possible negative outcomes you’re afraid might happen. Be honest – no one else needs to see this. Get those fears out of your head and onto paper where you can see them clearly. Now comes the interesting part: look at each fear and ask yourself, “So what if that happened?”. Follow each fear to its logical conclusion. Most of the time, you’ll find that even the worst-case scenario isn’t actually as catastrophic as your brain is making it seem. For instance, let’s say you’re procrastinating on launching your freelance business. Your fear might be “What if I fail and have to go back to my old job?” Okay, so what if that happened? Would it mean you’re a failure as a person? No. Would it mean you can never try again? No. Would you regret trying more than you’d regret never trying at all? Probably not.

The second step is “success chunking.” Break down your goal into such small pieces that they bypass your fear response. If starting a YouTube channel feels overwhelming, don’t make your first goal “become a successful YouTuber.” Make it “write down three possible video topics.” Then “outline one video.” Then “record one minute of content”. Each small success builds evidence that counters your fears. Every tiny step forward is proof that you are capable, that you can handle this, that the emotional risks aren’t as big as they seem.

Here’s another powerful technique: use “future pacing.” Close your eyes and imagine yourself one year from now. In one scenario, you’ve pushed through your fears and taken action. In another, you’ve continued to procrastinate. Which version of yourself do you want to be? What would each version say to you right now? Often, the pain of remaining stuck becomes greater than the pain of pushing through fear. That’s your turning point.

Delay sometimes protects you from discomfort, but it can have other causes too. Acknowledge what makes starting hard, choose a smaller step and check whether support or a change in the task is needed. Fear may remain while you act; its presence does not prove you are incapable or require you to ignore a genuine risk.

Taking a manageable step can give you evidence about what you can handle and what support is missing. Review what happened rather than judging the attempt by a promised transformation in your brain or a guarantee that fear will fade.

A postponed task is information, not a verdict on your character. It may point to emotional discomfort, practical friction, health, workload or competing priorities. Understanding the cause helps you choose a useful response, which may include support rather than simply more effort.

The goal isn’t to never feel fear. The goal is to build a new relationship with fear, one where it becomes a signal to lean in rather than pull back. Your dreams are waiting on the other side of that emotional block. Isn’t it time you started walking toward them?