Saying YES! to your career priorities...

Welcome to the final nudge newsletter of The Inbox Coach in August. This week I’m looking at the final two types of procrastinators The Defier and the Overdoer.

?“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”? Simone De Beauvoir ????

The types of procrastinators I'm sharing?this week are about how people relate to those who need them to do the tasks, either being someone who hates being told what to do or someone who likes to please everyone.

Don’t tell me what to do

The Defier procrastinates because they don’t want to do the task, which is exacerbated if the task they don’t want to do was given to them by someone else. There is a sense of, "why should I have to do that?" The problem with The Defier is that even if they don’t want to do the task, there is an expectation from someone else that they will, so when they don’t the consequences won’t be great. If you are a Defier, rather than asking the question “Why should I have to do this?” instead you might want to ask “What will happen if I don’t do this?” If you are being asked to do tasks that aren’t part of your remit, you will need to challenge the person asking you rather than ignoring them. And if they are part of your job, no amount of complaining about them will help to get them done, you would better off accepting them and getting them out of the way.

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Just say No!

The Overdoer is a type I see a lot of. You would think that an overdoer, a person who says yes to everything would be good at getting stuff done, but their problem is that they become overwhelmed. The Overdoer is probably a bit of a people pleaser who doesn’t want to let others down, so they say yes to everything, only to realise later on that they don’t have the capacity to do it all. In trying to work out where to start on their enormous to do list they become overwhelmed and end up doing very little. The most helpful thing an Overdoer can do is to say No! Being firm with your boundaries and only taking on the work you have capacity for, that also allows you to rest and recuperate, is what will help you to feel less overwhelmed. You can start to use different strategies to prioritise and get started on your tasks, but first you have to tackle the cause of the problem.

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“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – ?Simone De Beauvoir ????

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The worst thing about procrastination is that it wastes your time. Time spent not doing a task but worrying about it and constantly adding it to you to do list, is time you could have spent on something more productive or even just more enjoyable. I’ve had various conversations this week about how fragile life is, and when you think about procrastination in the context of how fleeting life can be, it just doesn’t make sense.

This call from Simone De Beauvoir is so powerful. None of us know what is around the corner, so we have to make the most of what we have right here and now. That means figuring out why we are putting off a difficult task or avoiding making a decision and getting unstuck. I’m not saying that stopping procrastinating is easy, but if we face it head on and are honest with ourselves about what is going on, we stand a good chance of being able to tick those jobs off our to do list.

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared different perspectives on what might be going on for you when you are putting off taking an action in your career. I hope that these points of view have helped you to get unstuck and to make progress towards your goals. I also hope that if you are still feeling stuck you can embrace the idea to JFDI!

As this is the last newsletter of the month, I’m sharing my Kofi link. The Inbox Coach is free to subscribe to, but the generous contributions you make on Kofi allow me to keep writing it and help more people to create a career they love. If you would like to support me this month, you can do so here.

I’ll be back next week with a new career development topic

See you then?

Laura

P.S You can access all previous editions of The Inbox Coach and get exclusive subscriber offers when you sign up?here