Helping Creative People Create

Procrastination + Email = Deadly Combination

procrastination and email is a deadly combination 

Psychology Today has an article giving some insights into the mind of your average procrastinator.  Aside from some very interesting facts on the condition (did you know that procrastination is bad for your health? Or that procrastinators drink more?), it also points to a problem that many people have, procrastinators or not.

Email. 

Not surprisingly, an achilles heels for many procrastinators is email.

Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don’t take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose. They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.

Throw Facebook, Myspace and Twitter into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a bonafide procrastinator’s dream.  I’m not gonna say that email is bad altogether, but it certainly doesn’t give me more time in my day.

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  • http://domestikgoddess.com Jen / domestika

    Guilty as charged.

    But the sad fact is that knowing this fatal flaw, and acknowledging it, doesn’t really seem to make it easier for me to shut down the email and buckle down to a job I dread!

    Thanks for the much-needed poke with a stick!

  • Mikey

    Guilty but I would also add reading blogs to the list.

  • glen

    Jen: I know! I still check email more than I should. Hopefully hearing this over and over will help change the pattern.

    Mikey: Ditto.

  • http://domestikgoddess.com Jen / domestika

    Ah, yes, glen, but then Life comes and breathes the foul vapours of Irony all over your well-intentioned face… or mine, anyway! Ironicaly, ever since posting this comment, I’ve been in email purgatory with a server that’s suddenly bouncing my emails… bad news for a freelancer!

    So, maybe all the obsessive email-checking we do is more in the order of reassurance, like hugging a teddy bear or checking that the life savings are still tucked down safely under the mattress? And perhaps it’s not really procrastination at all?

    Hey, call me Queen of De Nial: I can justify anything! ;-)

  • http://domestikgoddess.com Jen / domestika

    Ah, yes, glen, but then Life comes and breathes the foul vapours of Irony all over your well-intentioned face… or mine, anyway…

    Ironically, ever since posting this comment, I’ve been in email purgatory with a server that’s suddenly bouncing my emails. Bad news for a freelancer!

    So, maybe all the obsessive email-checking we do is more in the order of reassurance, like hugging a teddy bear or checking that the life savings are still tucked down safely under the mattress?

    And perhaps it’s not really procrastination at all?

    Hey, call me Queen of De Nial: I can justify anything! ;-)

  • http://www.wiredathomeblog.com David Ward

    I’ve become addicted to social media networks and I am a procrastinator so needless to say, my blog has suffered as does my daily productivity. Thanks for helping me admit I’m a procrastinator!

  • http://www.dieselfueled.com Mike

    Thanks for raining on my procrastination parade with this post! ;)
    I’m totally guilty of this. I regularly blow off more important things that aren’t very fun to do (i.e. WORK) in favor of reading RSS feeds, checking email, social networks, and Twitter.
    I can admit I’m a procrastinator, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing to procrastinate.

  • http://www.dieselfueled.com Mike

    LOL! I had to come back to leave a quick follow-up comment. After clicking the link to read the article, I printed it out so I could “read it later”. I literally started laughing at myself after I realized that I just procrastinated on reading the article on procrastination!!

  • DamionKutaeff

    Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I’m glad to join your conmunity,
    and wish to assit as far as possible.

  • Jnssy

    Oh Lord, your boobies are amazing ! So firm and full of volume ! I’m not (yet) a (full-fledged) pervert, but at times like these, I wish I would be !