Destress December Day 7

One week into December and 18 days til Christmas. Time seems to be flying on a rocket ship instead of its usual jet airplane!

Today, I want to talk about procrastination. It goes hand in hand with yesterday’s topic of hurrying. The most common reason I have to hurry is because I have procrastinated (she says as she starts writing at 11:30 pm.)

I can tell you from experience that procrastination is a major stressor. It is also a great source of guilt. Every time you see that item on your to do list you didn’t do, a bit of guilt gets piled on. Then you start rationalizing about why you are avoiding it. Talk about a downward spiral! Stress, guilt, and lies are things our negative voice or inner critic thrives on.

If you don’t suffer from procrastination, skip to the tangle du jour and please share your strategy for avoiding it in the comments.

Daily De-Stress Exercise

Take a look at your to do list. Is there an item or items that have been on your list for quite a while and you have “just not gotten around to?” Or, is there anything on your list making you feel guilty? If you are using the Habitica app that I told you about earlier, it has a an anoying a lovely feature that tells you how long an item has been on your list. True confession time: once I had an item on my list for over 241 days, and when I finally got around to doing it, it took me less than half an hour. Pretty pathetic, right? That is also what procrastination does very well: makes a mountain out of a mole hill.

So pick one task, set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes and work until it goes off. Sometimes just getting started is all you really need. And telling yourself you will only have to do it for a short amount of time is often enough to get you started. And getting started can relieve a bunch of guilt and stress. Don’t forget to record the actual time you spent on the so you can compare your estimated versus actual time.

Tangle du Jour

Since I mentioned “downward spiral,” all I could think about was a spiral Christmas tree. And the tangle eke is a nice and underused tangle.

So, here is my super quick eke tree complete with silver and gold ornaments. I know you can do better, but since I waited so long to get started, I don’t have very much time. We are going home tomorrow, and we are leaving for the airport in less than nine hours.

For More Information

You can find out about habitica at the website or on your app store.

Psychology today has a nice article on 11 tips to avoid procrastination. If you suffer from procrastination like I do, he might want to check that out.

Questions of the Day

Do you procrastinate? When you finally get around to doing your things, are you also surprised that take much less effort than you thought they would?

Please leave me a comment. (If you are on Facebook and want to share your tangles, please do so on my CZT page.)