I have a confession to make--I struggle with procrastination. A LOT. And I know I'm not alone. Join me for today's episode where I'm breaking down the reasons why we procrastinate (spoiler alert: it's not because you're lazy!) and what we can do about it. I'm talking mindset shifts, tactical strategies, and everything in between. This episode will increase your self awareness and give you the tools you need to start making progress on evaluation reports, session notes, or anything else you've been putting off.
Are you sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the things? I can help. Schedule a free consult today.
Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!
Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp
Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.
I have a confession to make--I struggle with procrastination. A LOT. And I know I'm not alone. Join me for today's episode where I'm breaking down the reasons why we procrastinate (spoiler alert: it's not because you're lazy!) and what we can do about it. I'm talking mindset shifts, tactical strategies, and everything in between. This episode will increase your self awareness and give you the tools you need to start making progress on evaluation reports, session notes, or anything else you've been putting off.
Are you sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the things? I can help. Schedule a free consult today.
Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!
Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp
Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.
This is your speech path mindful time management for the busy SLP. My name's Teresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnout and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in. Hello SLPs, you are listening to episode 45 of the podcast. Thank you so much for being here Today.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about a topic that every single one of you can relate to, some maybe more than others, but I think this is one of the equalizers when it comes to I was going to say SLPs, but really humans, and that is procrastination, but really humans and that is procrastination. So this is something I've talked about on the podcast indirectly before, and I did a couple of episodes solely devoted to this topic back when the podcast existed under the old brand name. But it's been a while, so I really wanted to. It's been a while, so I really wanted to dive into this, because it comes up so often in my coaching sessions, and it's something that I personally struggle with tremendously and in fact it's very much top of mind right now, because I was recently working on a project that had a deadline of April it was the end of April, towards the end of April, and I knew about it for quite a while and I just kept putting it off. I would do just about anything to avoid doing that task, and I know that so many of you can. You've had similar experiences or you can relate. The details might be a little bit different, but overall I'm sure that you can relate to the feeling and I know that there's a lot of shame that's attached to procrastination, because when we procrastinate we tell ourselves things like see, you're unprofessional, you don't know what you're doing, you should have had this done already and we make it mean something about ourselves and that's not helping anybody. Number one and number two I really think it gets it wrong the thoughts that go through our head, the shame that we feel because of those thoughts. They're not even accurate, they're not truthful, they don't see or represent the bigger picture. They don't see or represent the bigger picture. So, whether you're somebody who considers themselves neurodivergent, if you have a diagnosis of ADD, adhd or not, you will definitely be able to relate to this.
Speaker 1:Procrastination is something that those who have a diagnosis or a suspected diagnosis of ADD, adhd this is something that we certainly struggle with more, more, but we're not the only ones. So I want to be really, really clear that procrastination does not mean and I'm going to talk to you about what it does mean or why it happens, and we're going to talk about strategies and all of that but I want to be really clear on what it is not. And procrastination does not mean that you are lazy. It does not mean that you are unproductive and that you don't provide value or contribute. It doesn't mean that you're unprofessional. It doesn't mean that you don't provide value or contribute. It doesn't mean that you're unprofessional. It doesn't mean that you're immature. It's just something that you struggle with because you have a human brain and everybody else struggles with because they have a human brain. Okay, but let's talk about why we procrastinate and maybe that will help. I hope that that will help dismantle some of the shame around this.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I I would say there's a number of reasons why people will procrastinate, but I would say the biggest overall reason is because you are trying to avoid feeling a certain way. In fact, those who have ADD, ADHD often struggle with emotional regulation, managing emotions when they are really big, really strong, and when we procrastinate, we are essentially trying to avoid those highs and lows of well, really, the lows of the emotions we are avoiding doing something because we are avoiding feeling a certain way or certain ways when we do that task, when we sit down to actually do it. And it's ironic because most of the time I think you'll agree with me when you're procrastinating and you're avoiding doing that thing because you don't want to have those difficult, uncomfortable emotions, you're not really feeling all that comfortable in your procrastination. You're not really feeling all that good about yourself, right? It's not like you are, you know, in this place of, yeah, I'm procrastinating, I'm just avoiding doing the thing. This feels so much better, right? No, you're feeling guilty, you're feeling paralyzed, you're feeling ashamed, and so that alone is a level of awareness that can be incredibly beneficial to help you sort of dismantle some of the I would say, the meaning that we attach to it and help you think about this from a more objective, third-party type of perspective. Okay, so if you are avoiding a task because you don't want to feel a certain way. It's really important to identify how you think doing the task will make you feel Okay, and we're going to talk a little bit more about that as this episode continues.
Speaker 1:But I recently had a call with a potential client and one of the things that they mentioned in this call was when we were talking about the topic of procrastination. They were talking about how, you know, family members and people around them would say just do the thing, like just do it Right, just do the task. And it's funny because I hear that a lot and I think that's an example of and I could be wrong, but I suspect that that's an example of someone who is neurotypical thinking about procrastination and giving advice to somebody who is not neurotypical, because for somebody who is neurodivergent, giving that advice just do it is not helpful at all. If it was that easy, we would just do it right. It's just. It's not as simple as just doing the task. Now, if you're saying that from a place of you know, support and trying to simplify things and encourage someone, like come on, you can do it, just do it, you got this. That's a little bit different than you know, saying something like, well, just do it, why don't you just do it? Right? There's a different connotation there and I don't know what the connotation was in this example that I shared. I'm just sort of, you know, like riffing on this and thinking out loud, but it's interesting because I started, I was doing some research before this episode and one of the things that I discovered in an article was a quote from a psychology professor.
Speaker 1:His name is Dr Joseph Ferrari and he I'm paraphrasing now. These are not his exact words, but he talked about that general advice of just do it and likened it to telling somebody who has a, you know, seasonal depression or some sort of clinical mood disorder, clinical depression to just cheer up. Right, it's sort of like telling somebody to just get over it, just cheer up and you're fine, and it's obviously not that easy, right. It's. That's really, quite frankly, doing a disservice to that particular individual. So I just I thought that was interesting and wanted to pass that along. But it is not as simple as just do it. Here's why that is Think about it when you have a task, so think about something that you typically procrastinate doing.
Speaker 1:It could be something as relatively simple and straightforward as like a household chore, like doing the dishes, maybe it's laundry, something like that. It could be something a little bit more taxing mentally. Right, doing the dishes, doing laundry, is probably not all that, you know, it's not like deep work where you're really having to think through something, but it could be something that's more mentally taxing. So, working on in my case, the example that I gave earlier was working on a proposal, and so if you think about what it is that you are avoiding, you have to first identify in order to do the task, you have to first identify what actually needs to get done. You have to first identify what actually needs to get done, and this may sound super obvious, simple, but it is not always that simple, especially for people with executive functioning challenges.
Speaker 1:Right, because your executive functioning skills rely on your ability to number one, see the end result like, see the big picture, visualize it, envision it, imagine it, so that you know what it's supposed to look like when it's completed. And when I say look like, I don't mean that literally, although sometimes, depending on the task, that might be the case. But you have to know what you're trying to get done and then you have to be able to break it down into smaller pieces. So if you have, you know, if we're going to compare it to a puzzle, it's like putting a big puzzle together without being able to see what the picture is and you just have all the pieces right.
Speaker 1:That is one sort of analogy or one example, one way in which someone who is neurodivergent might struggle when it comes to accomplishing a task. They might have difficulty seeing what the big picture is and they might just see all these little pieces and they're like I don't even know where to go, what to do with this, I don't know. You know where to start. Sometimes you might know what the big picture is. You might be able to see that completed puzzle in your mind, so to speak. Or you're looking at the box and you see the picture, but you've got all these sort of pieces that you have to figure out which direction, which order, they're going to go. So I feel like I'm going to lose this analogy pretty quickly. So I might need to let go of it now before it just gets a little bit rough, but I'll just write it out for as long as I can.
Speaker 1:So in this case, right, so you have to plan out those subtasks, as I call them, or the smaller pieces. So this, I guess, would be like looking at all of these pieces, these individual pieces, and figuring out what they are. What is each piece, what is each of these things? That has to happen. And then you have to figure out the order of operations. And there's decision making involved, there's prioritization happening. You have to figure out what is the most important piece that has to get done first. And where do I start? Right?
Speaker 1:So if you start doing the puzzle and you're just pulling out random pieces and trying to find a match or two pieces that go together, then you know it's, you're going to have a very different experience than, say, somebody who's separating out all of the pieces into the border, you know, from the border, between the border, and then the pieces that go inside of the border. So you need to have that executive functioning skill to be able to prioritize. Now, those are the executive functioning, those are all executive functioning pieces of this, but we haven't even talked about the drive or the motivation to actually do the thing. So you also have to either find or create, generate the motivation to do the tasks, and not just the big task but the individual subtasks as well, right, so this involves all of this. All of these things involves, like I said, making decisions.
Speaker 1:You might have to seek information, right, seek out additional information or resources in order to figure this out. You might need to fail a few times before you get the completed puzzle, in this case, right, so there's a lot of pieces at play that you are combating with, and all of these could be happening very, very quickly, right? In which case that's great. Then it's likely that perhaps, and then you might be getting the task done, although not necessarily always. That might not always be the case, or this could get dragged out for forever, I mean, depending upon the circumstances.
Speaker 1:For me, in the example that I shared at the beginning, with the proposal I had to write, it was up until the deadline. I needed that deadline in order to get it done, and that's something that so many people with ADHD will say is that they need that deadline, that pressure, in order to spark the motivation for them to do it, for them to do the task. So what I want to do is share a few what I'll call frequent flyers for tasks that SLPs procrastinate, because I really want you to think about how this might apply to you in your personal and professional life. And if you happen to be someone who listens to this podcast and you're not an SLP, then just broaden the horizons a little bit. Think about how this really applies to you.
Speaker 1:But I know for so many speech pathologists, procrastination so often happens around documentation. So often happens around documentation, specifically session notes or soap notes, progress updates and evaluation reports. They are the things that so many SLPs myself included when I was practicing we would put off, and I want to talk about why that is Because I think that there are some people who are listening that are probably thinking, well, yeah, because I don't have documentation time in my schedule, so how am I going to get it done? Or you might be thinking, well, because I've got my caseload is too big, I've got too much on my calendar, and not only do I not have documentation time, but I'm not taking my work home with me, although I know a lot of you are. Some of you are saying I'm not taking my work home with me and I'm not suggesting that you do, and some of you might be saying I don't have the bandwidth for this, like I'm just wrecked and I'm barely hanging on. I'm just wrecked and I'm barely hanging on, I'm burnout, okay, and I'm not arguing.
Speaker 1:I don't want to argue that any of that, you know, is true, not true, but I want you to think about this from a place of curiosity, in how might that not be the reason why, or not be the only reason why, I procrastinate? Because there is a difference, in my opinion, between putting something off, actually procrastinating it, and just not taking the time to do it, or making the time to do it, and that that's probably a fine line, a subtle distinction, because well, yeah, we could go down a whole rabbit hole with that one and I won't, I won't, but I. I guess my point is be honest with yourself and really ask yourself and answer honestly why is this true that I really didn't have, don't have the time or the energy to do this? Challenge that from a place of curiosity, okay. So here are some of the reasons why I think and what I've heard clients tell me, why you procrastinate, why you procrastinate, why you procrastinate, why I procrastinate, why we all procrastinate.
Speaker 1:Okay, number one is because there is no in your mind, there's no quote, unquote, hard deadline, right when I gave the example earlier of this proposal that I had to finish. I had a hard deadline. But for some clients of mine coaching clients they will say that well, those session notes. There is no hard deadline. There's no. You know, someone will tell me that they want the report by such and such date, but you know what's going to happen if I don't hand it in by that date. It's not a hard deadline. There's not some sort of immediate negative consequence when you don't do it and if you're having trouble. You know envisioning this or believing this. Think about grad school. When you're in grad school, if you turn something in late, your grade would suffer, your grade would be penalized, and if you do that enough times, then you're out of the program. You're no longer on your way to becoming an SLP. Those are that's a hard deadline, those are consequences. Now, once you're certified, once you're licensed, once you're practicing, you don't have that same level of high stakes, so it's easier to put things off because of that.
Speaker 1:Another reason why I think so many SLPs procrastinate, myself included, is because of perfectionist tendencies. This report, this note, has to be perfect. This report, this note, has to be perfect. Everyone will be reading it and everyone will judge me and everyone will determine or decide how quote-unquote good or bad of an SLP. I am based on this report.
Speaker 1:Now, those might not be the exact thoughts that you're thinking, but I bet there's some version of that for those of you that have this tendency to think like a perfectionist, to want things to be perfect, because you're likely telling yourself, your brain is telling you, that it needs to be a certain way. It's a representation of you and your skill and your competency, and so, of course, you can't just squeeze it in between sessions or, you know, try and crank it out in under 40 minutes and just submit what you have, because that might not be good enough, that might not meet these standards, which is you're human, we're all there, right? This happens to me all the time. So I say this from a place of love and understanding that it's such a thought error that's just so inaccurate. It's not true that somebody is going to decide how competent you are based on one report. And if they do, why does their opinion matter more than you? Why are you letting some imaginary person's imaginary opinion have such power over you?
Speaker 1:You Seriously think about that. So think about all of the ways that you are, what? All the ways that you are, in your mind, a strong clinician or a strong professional, strong therapist, and ask yourself is it really purely about the writing, if that is what you procrastinate, or whatever the thing is that you're procrastinating, if it's not documentation? A third reason why we procrastinate is because we get so overwhelmed by the details, right, thinking back to that puzzle analogy or the puzzle metaphor, it's like there's so many pieces of information that you could include in your documentation. It's really hard to determine what matters most.
Speaker 1:It can feel impossible to decide how to prioritize that. You have to organize it right. You have to sort of connect the dots. If we're talking about documentation, you have to connect the dots. If we're talking about documentation, you have to connect the dots and that can feel incredibly overwhelming, time consuming and taxing, especially when you're already in a position where you're feeling pretty overwhelmed. So of course you're not going to want to do something like write a report, because it's a lot of thought work there. There's a lot of decisions that would have to be made, there's a lot of weeding of, you know, information that you have to sort of parse through and decide keep or not keep, and then how to organize. How does this all fit together. It's a lot. It can feel like a lot, so that may cause you to avoid doing a task. And again, if you don't procrastinate when it comes to documentation, think about what you do often procrastinate and how these things might apply. I've got two more things for you, two more reasons why, and then we're going to talk about some of the ways to overcome.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the I guess this is the fourth reason why you're procrastinating is and this is sort of similar to this last one it's a nice segue, though is limited bandwidth. It's limited energy. It's you are exhausted. You're burning the candle at both ends. You're not prioritizing self-care. You're running on empty and there's little room left for the energy that you need in order to get the deep work done or in order to get the work that is. That feels really overwhelming and challenging. Right, this is a demanding field. I will say that it is a demanding field. It can be a demanding field. You have a lot of pressure. Some of that is self-induced, but we are working with humans all day so many of us, most of us and there's a lot of engagement, interaction. That happens. There's a lot of knowledge. It is taxing, and so if you're not prioritizing self-care, if you're not prioritizing taking breaks and really putting your needs first, prioritizing what you need in order to to operate and run at your best, then of course this will be difficult for you.
Speaker 1:And I'm not going to sit here and say that. You know, I'm not. I'm not placing blame or trying to judge or shame you. If this is like hitting a nerve because you aren't taking care of yourself. Please know that I say this just with like a little bit of you know, tough love and honesty, and I'm also saying I'm also talking to myself, I'm also saying what I need to hear. So think about how that fits in for you, how it might apply.
Speaker 1:And then the last one I'm laughing because this just came up with somebody earlier today is boredom. You're probably avoiding or procrastinating a task because it feels boring or, to put it another way, it's more fun to do other things. So I know for a lot of SLPs, especially those with a real strong creative tendency, creative sort of interests, you might want to do things like create materials, therapy materials, or plan out sessions. Like create materials, therapy materials or plan out sessions. You know thinking about how you could use different objects, items, toys to hit different goals. You might want to be, you might prefer to be doing stuff like you know branding and marketing and creating marketing materials or social media posts. You might want to be learning, furthering your knowledge, taking a course or catching up with colleagues.
Speaker 1:So, especially for those who have ADHD, this is a big challenge. There's so many, you know, heavy, deep work tasks that have to get done that it's not all that exciting and fun and creative all the time, and so sometimes we'll just prioritize. We can be easily bored. The brain gets easily bored. So if it's not stimulating or challenging or enticing or fun or motivating, we just might not do it. So it could be boredom. Thinking about doing that particular task writing an evaluation report just quite frankly feels boring. So if that lands, take it. If not, just leave it, it's totally fine. Okay, let's talk about some things that you can actually do to help yourself with this. To help yourself with this Okay, the biggest piece of advice that I have this to me is what has made the biggest difference for me personally and I often share this with clients is identifying the micro thought that's holding you back.
Speaker 1:So when you think about doing the task, the task that you're procrastinating. What is the thought or what are the thoughts that pop into your head? And I want you to really go deeper and deeper with this. So once you think of, or once you identify that initial thought or a couple of like the surface level thoughts, imagine that you're peeling back those thoughts like they're layers of an onion until you get to the one that stings the most, the one that resonates the most, and sometimes that might surprise you. So at first it might be something really generic. The thoughts that pop in your brain might be like I don't feel like it or I'm too tired or I'll do it tomorrow. But if you keep going, if you really like, think about actually and for me I think about actually doing the task like actually visualize myself doing it, think about walking myself through it. Then I'll sort of notice where resistance comes up and that micro thought. Once I've identified it, it is so much easier to overcome it. So I'll give you an example One time I was putting off a phone call to our health insurance, our insurance company, and I just kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off.
Speaker 1:And you know, there's probably a number of reasons why at first glance it might seem like I was putting it off, like I didn't have time to be on the phone or it was, you know, having an opportunity where you're like alone and it's a quiet environment. That's not all that often. As a mom, you know lots of reasons. You know lots of reasons, but when I really thought about it, what I discovered was I didn't have the password that I needed in order to access the account, and the thought of trying to find that password felt overwhelming. And you know, I could go on and on about it. It also there was also feelings of shame, because I'm like how do I not know what this password is? I should have this saved somewhere. I should, I should, I should right. So just kind of absurd.
Speaker 1:But that micro thought that piece about trying to find the password. That's what the obstacle was, and so, once I acknowledged it, I could work through. Okay, well, this doesn't mean anything about you. Here's where you typically, you know, keep the passwords. Here's where you can ask your husband and find this out. So really just starting to problem solve and work through it.
Speaker 1:Another thing you can do is now this one might help you, this one might not, but I'll throw it out there is to think about the energy and the time that you are spending avoiding doing the thing. Think about the time and energy that you're spending procrastinating right. And so for me, I know, with this proposal that I had due at the end of, towards the end of April, I was like thinking about it, it would pop in my head, you know, all throughout, like I don't know, february, march, the first, you know few weeks of April, and when I thought about doing it I would obviously then procrastinate. But it's like if I could sort of add up all of those times and the feelings of stress that I felt when I thought about it, it's just wasted brain space, it's wasted energy, it's just a waste. And when you add it all up it, I would venture to say, is more costly than just doing the thing. And at the risk of sounding like the people who I mentioned at the beginning of this episode when they say just do it, it's not necessarily what I'm thinking or suggesting, but sometimes thinking about the freed up space, the relief and the release of that is. It propels me, it gives me that motivation in order to begin Accountability, partners and body dabbling or co-working sessions those are also great ways to overcome procrastination.
Speaker 1:Those are more sort of practical, tactical type things, less than mindset, but they're very effective. They're great strategies to help any individual particularly those who are neurodivergent, but really any individual who's struggling with procrastination to get something done. So keep that in mind and, in fact, if you're not in the SLP support group, then pop into the SLP support group on Facebook, because we do monthly co-working sessions, we do monthly body doubling sessions and they're just, they're free, they're part of the group and you want to make sure that you're in the group, though you have to be a member in order to participate, okay, another thing this is more mindset related, but another thing that might help is identifying your why. Right, what is the? What is your why for doing the thing? Not what's your why for procrastinating? We already talked about that. What's your why for getting it done? Why do you want to do this thing? What is it going to do for you? Sometimes, the thing that it will do for you is simply relieving you of that pressure. Right, it just might be as simple as that. I don't have to think about it anymore, and that, as simple as that might seem, can actually be very effective. Simple as that might seem, can actually be very effective.
Speaker 1:Another strategy or another suggestion that I have is to celebrate, build in celebrations when you either hit a milestone of that task, like part of that task, or you might do it, you know, once you complete the entire task and it might depend on the thing, might depend on the task but we do not celebrate our successes enough. It's like as soon as we get something done, we don't even acknowledge all of the time and effort and energy that went into that. You know, you like for this, for me, for this proposal, I spent so long thinking about it. Right once it was finally done, my tendency is to just be like, oh yeah, okay, that's done, and then moving on to the next thing, the next thing, to procrastinate. What's that gonna be? And it silly. We might as well celebrate, might as well acknowledge your efforts and your energy and your time, and if you're not doing it, no one else is going to do it for you, because you're an adult and it's not like you're in elementary school anymore where you get those acknowledgements from external sources. You really need to create those acknowledgements, those celebrations, internally, and why not? We all need to have a little bit more fun, and this could be something as simple as you know getting a cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop, or, you know, taking a walk outside, or going to get a manicure, I don't know, whatever it is that feels fun and exciting for you.
Speaker 1:For me, sometimes, if there's you know little tasks that I've been procrastinating, I'll give myself a little reward, and that might be like you know, a break where I will watch a show, or I might just, you know, read some of a new book or something like that. So it's simple and relatively small, but it's powerful. And the last thing I want to offer is avoiding all or nothing thinking. This is huge, because so many of us are like I either did it or I didn't do it, and there's no in between. And if it's not done, then I failed, and or I'm failing and this is horrible, or if I can't get it done in this instance, then I'm not going to bother trying. It's just this all or nothing thinking trap, and I want you to become aware of it. If that's something that your brain does, mind does, and I know people who have ADHD also struggle with this, more so than those who are more neurotypical.
Speaker 1:But a couple of suggestions I have for you to sort of help you get out of this. Just two simple suggestions would be consider working on a few sections of the task, right, like a few subtasks, a few pieces of it, or something that I think not enough of us consider is deciding to work on it just for a specific amount of time, not necessarily to get it done to completion or not necessarily even to accomplish. You know, one smaller task, one subtask, it might just be okay, I'm going to work for it on, I'm going to work for 10 minutes on it, and that's it. So if that's helpful for you, then that might be something that you can try to see. If that sort of helps propel the motivation, be something that you can try to see. If that sort of helps propel the motivation, gives you a little bit of that drive in order to at least begin the task and then you can see what you've accomplished and build off of that momentum.
Speaker 1:All right, there's so much more that I could say about this topic. There's so many pieces of this that we could go into, especially more so for those with executive functioning challenges. You know a lot of the stuff that I glossed over at the beginning of this episode is stuff that people who are neurodivergent struggle with, and so we'll have to do another episode, or several episodes, in the future talking about those pieces. It's just too much to have in one episode. But hopefully you gain something from listening to this, and I want you, as you're walking away, to really ask yourself what is the task that I've been putting off, or what is the task that I'm putting off right now, and think about what, if anything that we talked about today applies to you, and what is the action that you're going to take in order to start changing the narrative and start making progress on what you're procrastinating. All right, hope to see you in the SLP support group, and I will talk with you all next week.