Blogocentric Formulations

Better Late Than Never?

Day 2403 ▼

What do you think about procrastination, in general, and why do you think people procrastinate sometimes? And is there something you have been procrastinating about?

It's totally fitting that the Blog City prompt about procrastination is one that I left in my inbox for almost a week before getting around to writing an entry about it...

I hear a lot of people say that procrastination causes them to not get anything done, and I don't think that's the case. Procrastination, to me, is the end result of some other causation, rather than an actual casual factor on its own. For example, I've procrastinated on going to the gym and losing weight, but procrastination isn't what caused my lack of progress; the procrastination and lack of progress was the result of multiple casual factors including exhaustion, over-scheduling, insufficient motivation, etc.

People procrastinate for all kinds of reasons, but I think the most common ones - at least for me - are laziness, fear of failure, and poor time management and/or lack of preparation.

Poor time management and/or lack of preparation is probably the most common reason why I procrastinate. I've been meaning to clean out the garage for months, but that means I have to buy a bunch of boxes and bins, I have to spend hours sorting things out, make a bunch of trips to the dump and donation sites, etc. The fact that there are multiple steps and I have to do something first in order to prepare to do the thing I actually need to do is a huge cause of procrastination. Same with other home improvement tasks like hanging pictures, repairing a small gouge in the drywall, repainting, getting a new bookcase that needs to be assembled, etc. ... if there are intermediary steps, there's a good chance I'll procrastinate until I can devote time to getting the whole thing done all at once, even though my brain knows that smaller incremental steps are possible.

Of course, sometimes I'm just lazy. It's been a long week and I don't want to do the dishes right now, so I let them pile up in the sink a bit. Or I could be getting the Christmas decorations down but I'm at a really good part in my current book, so I don't want to get them right this second. A lot of procrastination is the result of times when, if I'm really being honest with myself, I just don't feel like being particular productive. And while that can certainly be a problem if the procrastination is getting to the point where it's causing problems or nothing is ever getting done, that's one thing ... but I'm also realizing as I get older that adulthood is just one never-ending to-do list, and I also think it's okay to not pack every single moment of every single day full of productivity goals.

Lastly, the most insidious cause of procrastination for me, if I'm really being honest with myself, is a fear of failure. It's why I haven't written anything substantive (more than a short story, or a poem, or an essay here or there) in years. I'm afraid that the thing I write won't be very good, so I put off actually starting. Heck, I've probably put off exercising and losing eight because a part of be is afraid that I'll put in all that time and effort and I won't be happy with the results. I'm the kind of person who is used to being "pretty good" at most things, so the idea of taking something on where there's a very real possibility of failure because it's outside my comfort zone can be a leading cause of procrastination ... especially when it's paired with the "poor time management and/or lack of preparation" thing I wrote about above. It's easy to convince myself that instead of actually writing, I first need to do more prep: more research, more outlining, more listening to interviews with other writers about their process, etc. It's easy to convince myself that instead of actually going to the gym, I first need some things first: new workout clothes, a better playlist to listen to, more research about what kinds of exercises I should be focusing on.

The two things I really need to stop procrastinating about are my writing and my health. I'm really hoping that I can buckle down and make some progress on both in 2025.