How are procrastination and exhaustion related? Read on…
A Reader writes:
I heard you talk about procrastination and exhaustion both being problems. I feel that I procrastinate because of exhaustion, which adds to the exhaustion even though I’m not getting things done.
Would you say more about the link between procrastination and feeling exhausted?
Dear Reader:
A big reason for procrastination is that there’s a feeling that you don’t want to feel. So if you’re feeling exhausted — and you don’t want to feel your exhaustion — then procrastination steps in to help!
The key is to pause and let yourself feel your exhaustion. Feel it in your body… and get curious about exactly what it feels like, for you, right now. (It’s not the same for everyone, and it’s not even the same for you from time to time.)
Tightness in your eyes? Heaviness in your shoulders? Just sense how it is.
Be gentle with yourself as you sense into your exhaustion.
Parts of you might sneak in that are ready to criticize you for feeling exhausted. “What’s wrong with you? Can’t you take it? How could you let it go so far?”
In fact it might even be those messages that the part that procrastinates doesn’t want you to have to feel! Critic messages like that can be exhausting… even though the critical part of you is only trying to help.
Choose to feel your exhaustion, relax into feeling it, feel it with compassion and gentleness for yourself. And the next steps will emerge naturally. Perhaps new insights… Perhaps changes in your life… And perhaps a nap!
