CONTENT CREATION INTERLUDE: The Procrastination Problem

Surprisingly, I did not procrastinate on writing this blog post. It helps a little that I have the first drafts of most of my Content Creation series up on LinkedIn already – so transferring them over and editing them is all I have to do.

A lot of times I still procrastinate on even that, I’ll be honest, but not this time!

CONTENT CREATION 101: Commit To What You Create
CONTENT CREATION 102: Find Your Own “Write Drunk, Edit Sober”
CONTENT CREATION 103: The First Draft Is For You

I guess it’s safe to say that I do have a procrastination problem. In a lot of ways, unless other people are also involved, it is not something that has hindered me much. The only one that gets stressed out at the end of the day is me.

It’s not so bad.

And the longer I look at it, the more I realise that procrastination is more a symptom than anything else. There is always a reason for it. It can be something as simple as not wanting to start something new immediately after finishing up something. It can be outside influences meaning a lack of time and focus. Or it may be something else entirely.

And it’s okay. Sometimes you just need to figure out why and things fall into place after that.

Some of the main reasons I find for my procrastination are:

1. I am not as excited about the new project.

Whatever I plan to work on just does not inspire me. It may have at one point of time, but now that I look at it, all the emotions associated to it are negative. So I put it off. And off. And off. Until I either find something about it that I enjoy, or it is not something I’m planning to work on after all*.

_{*NOTE: this only applies to personal projects. Applying this POV to professional projects may cost you.}

2. I work best under pressure.

When I was in university, I noticed that I did best on essays I wrote in the 24 hours leading up to my deadline. I would have a basic outline for my essays ready, noted down points I want to make, but I could only work on the essay in the last 24 hours. And these essays would get some of my best grades.

Sometimes this still works best for me. All that anxiety and pressure comes spilling out into my content, making it something that I can be proud of. Of course, sometimes this just means the anxiety comes back after I put the content out there in the wild, but then who doesn’t feel anxious about sharing their work?

3. It’s just burnout.

Burnout happens. It does. And ot’s okay that it happens, so long as you recognise it and accept it. Forcing yourself to power through it can be detrimental to your mental health.

Your health and well-being is not worth trying to suffer and work through the mental exhaustion and other signs of burnout. It’s okay to acknowledge that it happens, to admit to it.

Take a breath, step back and re-center yourself. And then when you get back to work, you’ll be able to focus.

Procrastination is not a bad word. It happens. I think most of us are guilty of it.

It takes time to figure out the whys and the hows of working through or around it, but you’ve got it.

• What is a reason you’ve found yourself procrastinating?
• Has there been anything you’ve procrastinated on that still haunts you?
• Are you procrastinating on anything now?

Remember, if there’s one thing not to procrastinate on, it’s taking care of yourself.