Hello friends!

I've recently noticed an odd pattern amongst my clients: they're great at overcoming procrastination, yet, the problems they present in coaching sessions also seem to oddly resemble the symptoms of procrastination.

This perplexed me. "What could be different about the two forms of procrastination?"

That's what this week's exploration is about.

This week's theme:

Advanced procrastination

Let's start with the basic form of procrastination using an example we're all familiar with: studying.

Procrastination for studying looks like this: "Studying is boring. I don't want to do it. I will do something else and not study."

High performers overcome this procrastination by pushing through the emotion: "Studying is boring. I don't want to do it. But I'll do it anyway."

They push through their boredom, complete the task of studying, and the feeling of boredom ends.

And that's where a lot of their success comes from.

Hopefully this all sounds familiar? Good. Let's move on.

Where advanced procrastination differs

The difference lies in the sequencing between 'task' and 'emotion'.

In the basic form of procrastination, the feeling comes and goes as you start and complete a task.

In the advanced form of procrastination, this sequencing flips: the feeling doesn't end when you complete the task — it arrives when you complete the task.

Some examples:

• You need to tell your manager that you can't make the client deadline → The feeling of disappointment intensifies once you complete the task of talking to your manager
• You need to make a big career decision when you don't have all the answers → The feeling of uncertainty intensifies once you complete the task of making the decision

What makes this advanced form of procrastination so subtle

We never look at high achievers as procrastinators, because even despite this odd form of advanced procrastination, you'll still see them working hard.

But that is the procrastination itself.

In the past, high achievers could simply overcome procrastination by pushing through the emotion and completing the task. But now? This system is backfiring. The high achiever is working their butt off to avoid facing the task which would force them to confront the feeling.

Going back to our examples from before:

• You don't want to feel like you've disappointed your manager, so you'll choose to work your butt off instead to see if you can avoid having that conversation (I've very much lived through this myself)
• You don't want to feel like you've made a bad decision, so you'll keep finding more logic and information and avoid making the decision

In both cases, the effort is the procrastination.

So there you have it.

Basic procrastination is when you avoid a task and the feelings that come with the task.

Advanced procrastination is when you avoid a task and the feelings that come after the task.

If you'd like to explore this more...

I cover this topic in more detail in this week's YouTube video, as well as what's needed for us to overcome this advanced form of procrastination. You can check it out here:

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That's it for this week's issue of Emotional Explorations! I hope it brought you clarity and I look forward to writing to you again soon.

Best,
Eric