Procrastination: Stay put! Don’t move forward!
Bet you thought that staying put and not moving forward was the essence of procrastination? Yes, and no! Delaying a task by turning away and habitually engaging in something else is more like it. You are trying to replace the negative emotion that you are experiencing when confronted with that unpleasant or difficult or challenging task with a more positive emotion. Staying put can be the first important step to quit procrastinating that particular task. If you procrastinate something, chances are you almost always procrastinate that same something. So run through the ingrained scenario in your head. Is there an actual physical space or two in which you usually procrastinate this thing? For example, you want to eat healthier foods. You have been to the grocery store and have stocked up on your favorites. You are in your car coming home and you think, “Tomorrow I will start eating healthy, but tonight I will stop for fast food.” Your place to stay put is in your car, headed towards home. If you make it home, you will probably …