Wait Wait! Before I get started, GUESS WHAT?? UNSTUCK! the Event is under way! Early Bird tickets are NOW ON SALE. Get yours today! Unstuckevent.com is the place to go! Don’t forget—October 25, 26, 27. AND, a little pre-conference day is in the works! Remember, it’s hybrid, so you can attend IN PERSON OR ONLINE! And now on to the hot topic of passive procrastination.
Many of us procrastinate, actively and passively. We put things off because they are unfun or unsexy. Or because they’ll take too long, or we don’t feel like doing them. We put off everything from phone calls to emails to bookkeeping or even sending invoices. These are the things we REALIZE we’re procrastinating on.
Did you know there are two types of procrastination? Active and Passive. Both can hurt us, but Passive hurts us more—and we may not even know it.
What is Active Procrastination?
Active procrastination is when we CONSCIOUSLY decide to put something off by engaging in something else. For instance, I might decide to go watch TV rather than making phone calls. Or perhaps I’ll decide to clean the kitchen instead of writing the article I am supposed to write for the month. Active procrastination happens when we decide to not do the thing we need to do, and instead, we engage in (mostly) time-wasting activities. Often these are smaller tasks that eventually need to be done because they may or may not have a deadline of some sort.
What is Passive Procrastination?
Passive procrastination happens when we are engaged in so many things at one time that we cannot get to things that would truly move us forward. But they are generally bigger tasks that don’t affect the day-to-day running of our businesses but could change everything if we did them. I had a client a few years ago who wanted to launch a writer’s workshop into her book coaching business. She had all the materials gathered and had even taken a course on how to conduct the class. However, she hadn’t put everything together or started marketing it. She was stuck, which is the form of procrastination I’m talking about. The project felt too big, and she didn’t feel like she had time to put all the modules together because she was already so busy. Once she hired me, we created a plan of implementation and integrated my JMD Reverse Chunking system into the project to get it going. Something she had been sitting on for over two years was launched in a matter of a few months!
What are you sitting on that you’ve been meaning to or wanting to get to because it could catapult your business, add clients, or position you further as an expert? I know that some of you have been thinking about launching a podcast or a newsletter for months or even years! Maybe you’ve been wishing you could get that webinar launched or that course up and running. Don’t let those things run amok in your head!
Here’s how to GET TO THE THINGS you’ve been passively procrastinating on.
1. WRITE DOWN the steps it will take to get it completed.
2. CHOOSE a completion date– Even though these things you’re going to implement do not have a hard due date, you must create one to help formulate the structure to get it done.
3. CALENDAR a due date for each step you came up with – in reverse! So, if your completion date is September 1, when does the last step need to be done? And the step before that, and the step before that… What you’re doing is my JMD Reverse Chunking method! It’ll help you get things done.
4. CREATE an event on your calendar to work on each step (whether two times a week, one time a week or whatever).
I have had so many clients use this system who have successfully implemented things they’ve put off for months or even years! I hope this gets you into action and out of that Passive Procrastination mode. It’s time to get going and get growing.
Need a little help planning your next steps? Contact us today here.