The best of us procrastinate—even when our best intentions are to do the hard things first.
We never start our day intending to procrastinate. It just sort of happens.
Mark Twain’s advice to “eat the frog” isn’t that easy to follow. (Twain once wrote: “If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”)
Brian Tracy, author, of Eat that Frog, writes, “Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.”
So, why do we procrastinate? Shouldn’t we just be able to make our list, and get things done, handling the hardest tasks first?
There’s a chance we’ve been looking at procrastination wrong. After all, our procrastination might not be about everything. It might be just about the one thing.
THIS ISN'T ABOUT WILLPOWER - AT LEAST NOT IN THE WAY WE'VE BEEN TAUGHT
Ever lose your ability to prioritize during times of extreme activity? (Me too.)Suddenly, finding the favorite pen you misplaced becomes as important as shooting the video for this week’s sermon.
Why does that happen?
Because our brains will grab on to any distraction to not do the one essential thing we fear doing.
Priority fatigue doesn’t hit because of a lost pen or a deadline on a video. Priority fatigue hits when we need to have a difficult conversation, take action on something strategic, or make a big leap toward our dream—but we refuse to acknowledge it. When we ignore the thing we fear, we get overwhelmed with everything else.
IT'S EASIER TO EAT THE FROG IF YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE EATING IT
The work that really matters to us requires us to put ourselves out there. And when our identity is on the line, we desperately do not want to fail.
Author, Stephen Pressfield is famous for saying, "If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), 'Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?' chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”That sentiment isn't just limited to writers and artists. It is true for producers, entrepreneurs, teachers, podcasters and people in ministry. Something in us is afraid we will fail at what we care about the most. So, our brain directs us away from what we fear by directing our attention to the nearest squirrel.In ministry, this often looks like spending all our time reacting rather than creating. It is less threatening to let others drive our day. Much easier, to lose ourselves in deadlines rather than carving out time to take a macro view and create.
It takes discipline to stop confusing busy-ness with forward motion.
Carving out the space needed to identify the most important work, and then start with the thing we fear is tough. It is counter cultural to invest our time in the most important elements of our mission—the things we are uniquely wired to do—especially when we are afraid we will fail at them.
WHEN EATING FROGS, SPEED IS YOUR FRIEND.
Tracy adds, “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.”
Perfectionism, fear and insecurity chip away at what is essential. If we can execute quickly—before we start to question and second-guess ourselves—we can swallow that frog. The faster we can get from ideation to execution, the more likely it is that we will put something new out there. Doing hard things is easier when we just do them rather than think about them.
Besides, sometimes we can get around a squirrel-focused brain just by using our hands. Making the decision to do something, and then doing it, breaks through inertia.
David Allen writes, “Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU'RE AFRAID OF
If you find that you are procrastinating, and have been looking at it in terms of willpower, there’s a simpler way. Stop chasing all the small tasks and find the one big thing you are scared of.
Doing that thing that is keeping you stuck, frees you to leap forward.
