I remember vividly the day I’d finally had enough. The dishes were piling up in the sink, my dirty clothes were all over the floor, my email inbox was overflowing, and I’d forgot to pay my gas bill.. yet again
While I knew that I should “just do it,” something stopped me every time. The overwhelm was go great it was painful and I felt defeated. I sat down on the one chair that didn’t have a stack of unsorted mail on it… and I sobbed. I couldn’t understand it. If avoiding the things I needed to do was making me so miserable, why couldn’t I stop?
Years later, when I became an ADHD Coach I understood chronic procrastination a lot more than I used to. I’m still amazed by how much we talk about procrastination itself, yet talk so little about why it happens.
So why are you stuck? Let’s explore.
Feeling overwhelmed- Women with ADHD sometimes procrastinate because you feel overwhelmed with regard to the tasks that they need to do. A feeling of overwhelm can occur due to a variety of reasons, such as having a single task that feels huge in terms of scope or having a large number of small tasks that add up. When this happens, you might simply decide to avoid the tasks in question, or they might attempt to handle them, but then end up feeling paralyzed before those tasks are completed.
Perfectionism– Women with ADHD procrastinate as a result of their perfectionism. Perfectionism can lead to procrastination in a number of ways, such as by making you so afraid of making a mistake that they end up not taking any action at all, or by making someone so worried of publishing something with any flaws that they end up reworking their project indefinitely instead of releasing it when it’s ready.
Fear of failure- Women with ADHD procrastinate because they are afraid of failing at the task they want to complete. This fear of failure can increase your procrastination in many different ways such as avoid finishing a task, or by causing them to avoid getting started on a task in the first place.
Self-sabotage- Another reason why women sometimes procrastinate is due to your tendency to engage in self-defeating behaviors which means that they actively try to sabotage their own progress.
Lack of perseverance – Perseverance is the ability to maintain goal-driven behavior in the face of obstacles. A lack of perseverance makes women more likely to procrastinate, especially when it comes to finishing tasks that they are already working on.
Impulsivity– This is one of the core symptoms of ADHD and it is tendency to act on a whim, without planning ahead or considering the consequences of your actions. It is strongly associated with the tendency to procrastinate, since the decision to procrastinate is often an impulsive one, such as when women ignore the long-term consequences of their actions, or when they fail to plan their work ahead of time.
Distractibility– Another core symptom of ADHD is distractibility which is the inability to focus your attention on one thing at a time. High levels of distractibility can make a women more likely to procrastinate, such as when they lead you to constantly switch from one locus of attention to another.
Lack of Desire or Motivation – If you put things off due to not having desire or modification, this is just an excuse. It comes from the idea that everything you do needs to be something you’re jazzed about doing. This is where “writer’s block” comes from. For this problem, just start doing the thing for at least five minutes, and you’re likely to overcome it.
If you are noticing that you are procrastinating by missing deadlines, pulling a lot of overnighters, it is important to figure out the why.. In the next post I will be discussing different strategies on how to address and overcome procrastination.
Till next time…
Coach Jenna
P.S. Click reply and tell me about your procrastination experience and let me know how I can assist you