The Full Story of Why We Procrastinate (Part Two) - A Holistic Procrastination Approach

If you're on this page, you've probably read The Full Story of Why We Procrastinate (Part One) and want to get to the practical part of the story.

If you haven't read it, I'll briefly mention what it was about:

• The history of procrastination to dismatle the myth that it's a modern issue

• The prevalence and scope of procrastination

• The cognitive, neurobiologic, and psycholgic reasons for procrastinating

• How procrastination shapes our identity

In Part Two, I want to tell my story of how I overcame chronic procrastination, with the hope that it might help or inspire some people.

This article includes my personal work with my mindset, nervous system, emotional management, purpose, and personalised productivity systems.

Shall we begin?

My case for a holistic procrastination approach

It was November 2022 when I realized I wanted to be a coach. I was fascinated by psychology, brain science, self-healing, and personal development, and coaching was the perfect blend of them all wrapped in attractive gift paper: help people transform their lives and live with purpose. I knew this was it, but it took me 2 years to start my coaching practice.

My first obstacle was all the limiting beliefs about coaching I stumbled across. I heard things like "the coaching industry is oversaturated" and "you need years of experience before anyone will take you seriously."

Then, I learned that having a business is hard and it takes years to become established (true story), so I thought it was too hard for me. Not hard, impossible. This was my first barrier: my own mind and my beliefs about what's possible for me.

I was caught in a mental prison of my own making. Every success story I read felt like proof that other people had something I didn't. Every failure story confirmed my worst fears about my own inadequacy. My mind had become an expert at collecting evidence for why I should stay exactly where I was.

After a few months of working with a coach on reframing my core belief system, I started doing more things that got me outside my comfort zone: enrolled in an expensive coaching course for which I borrowed money to pay, started coaching practice sessions, got into a community of coaches, new and established, and further reframed my beliefs about coaching and my own abilities to be a top coach.

Each small step forward challenged another layer of my self-imposed limitations. The borrowed money made it real, I had skin in the game. The practice sessions showed me I actually could help people, despite what my inner critic insisted.

Getting outside my comfort zone meant danger for my hypervigilant nervous system. This was my second obstacle: my own body. My anxiety went through the roof and I started feeling exhausted. My brain was using most of its energy to convince me this was a bad idea. "Why do you need to get outside your comfort zone? You've been uncomfortable all your bloody life! Let's stay safe and play it small now."

I began having lots of physical symptoms, from IBS to chronic fatigue, because I was pushing my nervous system into an area it wasn't ready to go yet. So, after a few months of kicking my head into the wall full speed and going into burnout, I started to slow down. I worked less and rested more. I did somatic exercises and regulated my nervous system. I warmed my way out of freeze mode.

This meant I could start doing even riskier things after a while. Like putting my face on social media and starting to work on my fear of visibility wound. This was a big one for me, because, as I found out in therapy, the fear of being seen has stuck with me since I was born. It was a very somatic traumatic imprint, that's what it mainly was.

I had the fear of visibility tattooed on my skin, under my skin, and all over my veins. Third obstacle found.

Emotional management was not something I learned in school, or from my parents for that matter. I actually didn't have anyone around me, besides my therapist and my partner, who mirrored this skill to me.

So, I started looking for more people who did it and did it well, read books about the art of managing your emotions. But that wasn't enough. When clicking publish on a video of me talking on Instagram, all the knowledge seemed to disappear from my head. Because it was actually in my body that I would feel the fear. So, I started to learn how to be in my body, not by reading about it, but by practicing it.

At first, 1 minute per day, then 5, then 10. After a while, I started being comfortable with how fear felt in my body, or anxiety, or anger. Because of this, I could start choosing different responses when my body was uncomfortable. Instead of shutting down or running away, I would stay with the emotion and I would choose a better, more useful response.

After doing this for a while, I reached another obstacle. I couldn't decide or find my WHY. I knew coaching was what I wanted to do, but I wasn't clear on my inner compass. What did I truly want to do?

There were so many options and so many opinions around me that I became overwhelmed. That's where introspection, working with a mentor, and many kilometers of walking in the park helped me find my WHY. My north star. I wanted to help people overcome all these obstacles I overcame. To become who they want to be, to take action on their dreams, to believe in themselves.

I would lie if I said that I could sustain this growth process on my own. I had people around me that supported me and still do. I received emotional support, mental support, financial support, and many other valuable things from my community to be able to sustain this growth process. I'm not sure how it would have evolved without this kind of support.

Through a lot of trial and error, I developed my own productivity system that worked for my ADHD brain, for my traumatized nervous system, and for my body.

This is highly personalized and I believe is unique to each person. And yes, here is where time management came in, after more than two years of battling with procrastination. I had to look at many deeper things before I could start building a productivity system (and actually stick to it). Notion, flexible time blocking, focus work, prioritization, planning, and many other elements build my productivity system today. But this system is built on a foundation of general well-being and tons of self-awareness.

Part of what kept me from becoming an action-taker was the limitations I would put on myself through my day-to-day lifestyle. Not having sleep hygiene, a regular exercise routine, or a healthy meal plan was putting a lot of unnecessary stress on my body and mind. This was another aspect I had to look at before I could take action toward my goals consistently.

This journey taught me that procrastination is a symptom of deeper misalignment. You can't hack your way out of procrastination with better apps or stricter schedules if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, your emotions are running the show, or your tasks feel meaningless to your soul.

I believe overcoming the procrastination habit happens when you address the whole system: your mindset, your body, your emotions, your values, your community, and then, only then, your productivity systems. This is my case for a holistic approach to beating procrastination and becoming a person who acts on their goals and dreams.

I created a free quiz if you want to go deeper and find what type of procrastinator you are. Why find out?

Well, you’ll get personalised results in 3 minutes max, which you can use to start unlearning the habit of procrastination starting today.

Free quiz here.