What do you believe is the root (main cause) of your procrastination?

I love pools, I even though about sitting on one way back.

Never got to it, sometimes I still think about it.

It's my nap time.

Take care, enjoy the day.

If we really are to believe (as I do) that a 12 step program around this will work, we need to just believe that procrastination is an addiction.  Therefore the items in the list above are really just our slippery places and warning signs.  Good to notice and avoid, but changing them will NOT cure our problem.

I think it is a pattern we got into for some reason (childhood avoidance, teenage stress, whatever) and b/c we are for some reason prone to addiction, we now use it like someone else would use alcohol.

The main thing in my humble opinion, and I think this is backed up by the AA Big Book, is not to figure out why, but just trust that the steps and tools have helped millions of people (in the cases of other addictions) and go with them.  In the Big Book they talk about all the people who have tried counselors, yada, yada.  Fact is, it didn't work, where the program did.  Steps, tools, promises, and priciples.  I think a really important thing that any one of us can do is read the Big Book and substitute the words "procrastinating, avoidance, whatever" for the words "drinking, alcohol, etc"  You will be amazed at how powerful it is.

So really, in my humble addict's opinion, the above list should not be called a list of roots or a causes, b/c that implies that we can place blame, or do something to change them.  If we are addicts we need to just admit that we are and move on to the next right thing.  Maybe it's poll of what our worst slippery places are as a group, and them we can use it to form more verbiage of our warning signs for future addicts??

Oh, and also, that DOES mean that it could be a chemical imbalance, b/c as we know that is part of what they look at for addicts.  So once again, admit we are addicts, and do the program the way the alcoholics do.  (If I am not mistaken, ours is called a "process addictions" as opposed to a "substance addiction")

Thanks for reading this!

Julesk

I am believing more and more there may be a chemical imbalnce in the brain - the prefrontal cortex - when it comes to procrastination.

Society says 'poor planning' or 'lazy'. I have dozens of 'how to plan' and time mgmt books, did the seminars, used the methods. Nada.

And I'm not lazy. quite the contrary.

I'm thinking it's a chemical imbalance.

 While I think that I am mainly stuck in the fearful/perfectionistic side of things, I know that facets of me have me acting out in procrastination (and other addictive/avoidance behaviors) for all of the reasons you list. Lately, much of this has been lifted from me, despite the fact that I have not been able to be here recently.

I could also check perfectionism, and easily distractible - but after reading the Hillary Rettig book, I really identify with this statement:

“Stealth Panic”

We’re all familiar with the type of highenergy panic where you feel frantic and out of control. But panic often happens much more quietly than that. What I call “stealth panic” may actually be a more common cause of procrastination.

Stealth panic is what happens when you sit down to do your work at 9:00 a.m. and then get a sudden, irresistible urge to do something else, like get a cup of coffee. You don’t feel panicked it actually feels like a calm, even trivial decision but wham: you’ve been bumped off your path. Sometimes this happens even before 9:00 a.m., so that you don’t even make it to your desk.

Stealth panic often precipitates the trancelike state we discussed earlier that makes it easier for you to keep procrastinating. First you get the cup of coffee, then you read the newspaper, then you make a personal call, and then you do some Internet shopping and then, wham!, suddenly it’s lunchtime. Perhaps you were semiaware that you should have been doing something else, but never quite aware enough, or focused enough, to actually stop what you were doing and get back to work.

The Solution

We now arrive at the true heart of fearbased procrastination. Underneath the distractibility and antiproductive behaviors such as perfectionism, negativity and hypersensitivity, and just above your fear, is the panic that amplifies that fear until you can’t manage it. Minimize or eliminate that panic and you should be able to manage episodes of fear, thereby avoiding the need to resort to antiproductive behaviors and allowing you to return quickly and easily to your work.

"The sooner you get behind, the longer you have to catch up." - Steven Wright