So many of us struggle with procrastination. There are many causes of procrastination—fear of failure, fear of success, perfectionism, comparison, exhaustion, and overwhelm, just to name a few. We often need rest, but procrastination isn’t the same–and tends to your inner critic, while eroding your motivation and productivity.
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Transcript: Procrastination is the Illusion of Rest
Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Are you a procrastinator? I think most of us probably are. And there’s a whole lot that goes into procrastination. Hi, I’m Nancy. I’m a creativity coach.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:30]:
And so for this week’s creative pep talk, I want to give you a little bit of insight into procrastination because it can be a whole lot of things if you are not getting your project started. It can be perfectionism. It can be fear, whether that’s fear of failure, fear of success, fear of not knowing what you’re doing. It can be comparison to other people. It can be self sabotage. It can, it can be a lot of things, a lot of things. But I realized a couple of weeks ago and this hit me like a ton of bricks. So I have a feeling that it’s not just me and that it might resonate for you.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:07]:
When I’m procrastinating, I often notice that I’m doing it because I say I’m tired. Tired is also kind of an umbrella for a whole bunch of different things. Right? I think a lot of times we use tired because we don’t really want to look any further, any deeper, or even know that there’s anything deeper to look at. But what I realized is that I think a lot of the time procrastination is the illusion of rest. I think when we are so used to multitasking and spinning in so many directions at once that we just get exhausted and we decide we are not doing something because we’re gonna take a break. And we can’t tell whether that break is really because we really need the rest or if it’s just avoidance. And in some cases, they may be the same thing. I am a big advocate for rest, so I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, but here’s my point.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:10]:
I know when I procrastinate, there’s always little voice niggling in the back of my head saying you should be doing this thing. Why aren’t you doing the thing? When are you going to do the thing? And possibly even calling me names. Cause that’s what inner critics like to do, which is why mine has a name. And I will say, thanks, Martha Anne. I didn’t need that right now. You can go do something else. But the fact is, as long as that little voice is niggling in the back of your head, you’re not really resting. You may be telling yourself that you are, you may wish that you were.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:48]:
But you’re not really resting. You can’t because your attention is split. If you’re trying to watch a TV show or read a book, that little voice is interrupting you all the time. So you’re not getting the rest that you’re looking for. Now, this is not to try to guilt you into doing the thing that you are procrastinating about because that doesn’t work. But I do want to encourage you to think about whether or not you’re getting the rest you think you’re getting when you’re procrastinating, giving yourself a break. Now, if you’re genuinely tired and you’re doing this to yourself, that’s a different story. That’s probably, you know, some perfectionism or some comparison, or even some old school shame from when you were a kid.
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:26]:
That’s what inner critics are really good at. But think about whether or not you’re really getting any rest. Give yourself permission to rest when you need it. And if that voice just won’t leave you alone, you might wanna just go to do the thing to be done with it so that you can rest. Just a suggestion. I would love to hear how it works out for you. If you take this approach or if you modify it or anything along that line, I’m very curious to see how it goes for you, but that is my suspicion. I think that most of our procrastination, wherever it comes from is the illusion of rest.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:07]:
It’s not the real thing. Something to consider. I’ll see you next time. If this episode resonated with you, or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:41]:
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