Procrastination: The best way to beat yourself up while stressing out

I used to pride myself on my procrastination skills. I would say, “It helps me focus on the task and gives me the right amount of pressure I need to get it done.” That really worked for me when I was in school, but not so much anymore.

As a busy person who runs a household, manages a business, and has a bustling home life with three little ones, I can no longer subscribe to my old belief system about procrastination. In fact, procrastination only makes me feel like crap! Let’s take the laundry situation as an example (this one is for the ladies…usually). I do the laundry in our house. We have 2 adults and 3 children. Dear lord does the laundry pile up!

Procrastination Scenario # 1

The laundry piles up and I wait until the weekend. I look at the laundry and realize I will be doing about 10 loads of laundry over the weekend. (All the non-laundry people are thinking I am over exaggerating when I say 10, the rest of us know better). I will be washing, drying, folding and putting away both Saturday and Sunday. With the best of intentions, I begin. The washing and putting in the dryer is the easy part. It is when you have to take it out of the dryer that my procrastination kicks in. I say things like, “I deserve some time for myself over the weekend and this can wait,” “I should be spending quality time with my kids,” “I will do it after the kids go to bed.” Sound familiar? You know where this story is going. I ended up on Sunday night with 5-6 baskets of totally clean, rumpled laundry in a basket. It is late and I want to watch a show and then head to bed. I tell myself, “At least the kids will have clothes for the week.” Then Monday comes and I am completely irritated with myself during our morning routine. Finding matching children’s socks is the bane of my existence! At that point, I pass a lot of judgment on myself about how my procrastination allowed this situation to get out of hand. Tuesday comes along and I wake up stressed out about getting the kids out the door because I can’t find anything, and now, I am pretty angry about it. I start to think, “Why doesn’t my husband do the laundry!” While it feels good to play the laundry victim sometimes, the reality is that I PROCRASTINATED and need to accept responsibility for the changes I need to make. All dreams of a magic laundry fairy are out the window!

Procrastination Scenario # 2

Paying the bills! So many people talk about paying their bills late. They get distracted by one thing or another and forget to pay their bills. Maybe they don’t want to look at their finances because it is not a pretty picture. However, being an ostrich and sticking your head in the sand typically doesn’t make problems go away. Maybe you are not organized and you despise dealing with bills, insurance, utility companies and whoever else wants your money. Either way, you put it off. Then the inevitable happens: late fees, past due notices, email reminders that point out you are behind, and now paying bills has become a multiple hour event because it was put off. You feel guilty about your limited funds being wasted on late fees instead of things you really want or need and you beat yourself up about it. This stuff causes so much stress and we are always unhappy with ourselves for getting in this situation in the first place.

Getting Organized and Committed

It is time to take an inventory of what we procrastinate. Here are some ideas: Let’s join together and avoid the stress and quit procrastinating. Let’s do things when they need to be done and stay on top of it. This way it never becomes more of a problem than it should be. Let’s get organized so we can stay on top of things. This might mean setting an alarm on your phone, writing things on a calendar, or talking to your significant other about helping you hold yourself accountable. Either way, we can avoid the guilt over things we are putting off and feel proud of our accomplishments. What have you been putting off? What are you willing to change to avoid the stress?  

Pivotal Counseling Center has therapists with a variety of specialties. We have locations in Woodstock, Illinois, and Lake in the Hills, Illinois. If you are in need of someone to help, please consider giving us a call at (815) 345-3400.