Beware of procrastivity

Procrastination can look productive, but don't be fooled

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to beware of activity that is posing is productivity,
but is actually procrastination. So we've probably all had a

(00:28):
task we needed to complete, or an important project we
needed to start, but that we kept delaying because it
was hard or intimidating. As productive people, we don't like
sitting around twiddling our thumbs, So if we are looking
to avoid something, we often do something else that looks productive.

(00:49):
That might mean preparing extensively for a meeting this afternoon
that isn't really all that important, instead of returning a
call from a prickly colleague. It could be getting to
inbox zero instead of editing a book chapter. I have
seen this referred to as procrastivity, a mashup of productivity

(01:12):
and procrastination, and I'm guessing we have all been guilty
of this at one point or another. I also think
it is helpful to give this behavior a name. When
a behavior has a name, it is easier to recognize
it and redirect ourselves. So if you realize you are
doing something that is not especially important in order to

(01:35):
avoid something else. Ask yourself, is this procrastivity? If you
have to say yes, it is time to make some choices.
One option is to just decide to do your high
priority task, or at least the next step for it,
before you do anything else. Just get it done. If

(01:58):
that seems like more than you can do, decide on
a specific amount of time you will work on the
priority task before you do anything else. Maybe you will
spend ninety minutes planning an important presentation you've been putting off.
After ninety minutes, you can decide whether to keep going.
If you opt to shift gears to do something else,

(02:20):
you make a plan for when you'll return to the original,
more difficult task. Or maybe you decide that you are
not going to do the high priority task now and
you will do it at some specific time in the future.
In that case, stop doing the procrastivity and do something
enjoyable or truly productive instead. Un Tell it is the

(02:44):
appointed time for the priority task. When you can recognize
and name procrastivity, you can avoid it. There is no
point doing fake work. Either do what you are supposed
to do or choose what you want you'd actually like
to do in the moment. My guess is that it

(03:05):
isn't organizing your spice draw. What's something you have done
is procrestivity while avoiding something else. I'd love to hear
about it. You can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.

(03:36):
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,
or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

(03:58):
Apple Podcasts, or where however you listen to your favorite shows.