You’ve got to get it done, whatever “it” is, but you keep putting it off, feeling entirely unmotivated. Procrastination is a deadly barrier to creativity, so let’s look at three reasons we procrastinate and solutions to overcoming them.

Earlier this year I revamped my photography website and even my genre of photography, going from events and business headshots to family and couples photography. In the process I re-discovered my inner procrastinator, which proceeded to beat me down and drag out the revamp process much longer than it should have.

I learned that it’s super easy to get distracted from doing something that I didn’t really want to do. Not exactly a mindblowing idea, but you need to recognize it in yourself if you want to overcome it. So the purpose of this episode  is to help you identify why you’re tempted to procrastinate and tools you can use to finish what you started.

It’s not enough to say to yourself “Just do it.” That would be like telling a depressed person to “cheer up.” Procrastination is more than just laziness or a bad habit, it often has deeper roots in your brain than you realize, and so you have to deal with that in order to manage your work better. So let’s look at three reasons for procrastination.

What causes procrastination?

Normally you’re a motivated creative person, but there are some tasks or a type or work that you just always put off or wait until the last minute to do. You realize it’s hurting you or your creativity, so what’s the cause?

Perfectionism, or the burden of high expectations

The first reason we’ll look at is high expectations, either from yourself or coming from someone outside of you. If you grew up in a house that expected high achievement in school or sports, then you probably have an ingrained sense that you should be the best at everything you do. So when you come up against something that you think you’re not going to be great at, what do you do?

One response is to just never do it. After all, you can think in the back of your mind that you won’t be good at something, but it’s a lot bigger deal to try something and fail at it where other people could see. This assumes that people will ridicule you or respect you less for failing, when in reality, others will respect you more for trying something and failing rather than not trying at all. Plus, if this is something you’ve never done before, you might actually be pretty okay at it and then keep growing that skill from there.

Another perfectionist response is to wait for the “perfect moment” when you know you won’t fail, but there will never be a perfect moment; you’ll spend the rest of your life doing nothing.

How do I beat perfectionism?

Perfectionists tend to think in polarized terms: you’re either “smart or stupid”, “great or terrible”, “wrong or right”; you have to do it all or do nothing at all.

Instead of all or nothing, change your mindset to “all or something”. Even if you’re new at doing something, and you won’t be perfect the first time, you should at least try to do it and make mistakes and improve from there. That’s still way better than doing nothing at all because you’re making progress. Concentrate on going for “enough” or what’s “necessary” to get your work done instead of the big, 11 points out of 10 vision you have in your head.

You should expect to make mistakes and take advantage of those mistakes by learning from them. You’ll improve your work over time as you discover better ways of doing what you do.

Low self-esteem

Low self-esteem is something I struggle with, and it’s something that keeps me from getting things done at my day job and even producing this podcast. I think to myself that I’m too boring or not creative or smart enough, or that I won’t succeed. 

You might be caught in a cycle of negative self-talk, causing you to delay on projects and put off important tasks, because you fear failing, similar to the perfectionist. Beating up on yourself this way destroys your motivation and leads to procrastination.

How do I overcome low self-esteem?

The key to beating low self-esteem is building confidence in yourself and in your ability to succeed. Write down skills you’re good at, and use that to start keeping a journal of how you’ve succeeded in the past. I often focus on my failures more than my successes, leading me to think less of myself, and flipping the script will help you build confidence.

It also matters who you surround yourself with. If you’re always around negative people, you’ll become a negative person. If you’re always around people who constantly put you down, you’re gonna start doing the same. Fill your friendships with people who build you up, not in a way that just makes you arrogant, but with people who honestly believe in you and want you to do well.

One last suggestion to beating low self-esteem: don’t concentrate so much on what other people think. There’s always going to be people who hate themselves and take that hate out on others. And most people are usually so concentrated on themselves and their own lives that they rarely lift their heads and look around at what other people are doing. Receiving hate or apathy doesn’t mean you suck, it means you need to look to your own standards and your past self to measure success.

You can’t tell me what to do!

The last reason for procrastination we’ll look at is just plain old “you can’t tell me what to do!”. This reaction starts around two years old and keeps going for probably the rest of our lives. Who likes being ordered around, after all?

It doesn’t even have to be a boss or a client telling you what to do, either. Maybe it’s just someone giving advice in a YouTube video, or it’s some task you know you really ought to do. For me, that was redoing my website to attract different clients. There’s a voice inside of us that instantly rebels against being led and instead pushes for going your own way, even if that means you’re doing nothing instead of something productive.

How do I shut down that voice?

The root source of rebelling against tasks you need to do is pride, a sense that you know better and your way is better than anyone else’s. The solution to the pride problem is humility, and that’s super hard.

Earlier this fall I took family photos for my friends Sean and Kate. The photos turned out great, I loved my initial edit, and sent them off to my friends. A day or two later I got an email back from Kate, asking if I could re-edit them in a more natural style. At this point, a lot of photography marketing gurus on the Internet would cry out, “She shouldn’t have hired you if she didn’t know your style!” or “Stick to your artistic vision! You know what’s best for your photos!” 

Yeah, you should obviously edit to what you think is best or what you think is cool, but when you’re working with a client, you’re not working on a personal art project. Creating photos for someone else is a service to them, not your personal creative playground. You can do that when you’re not getting paid. 

It didn’t feel good to read the email from Kate, but you know what, when I re-did the natural edit and compared them to my original edits, she was right. My first round of processing the photos went way overboard and really did look funky in comparison, and not in a way that I discovered I liked. I’m grateful that she pushed me to take a second look and re-evaluate.

So when you get pushback from a client, take a minute to quiet the voice that says “don’t tell me what to do!” Realize that they have a legitimate point of view, even if you disagree with it, and humbly consider their concern. It’s a tough pill to swallow but in the long run it’ll help you improve your work and how much you can get done.

Which of these three affect you the most? Or is there another source of procrastination keeping you from doing your best work? Let me know in the comments below or by emailing livelifecreativepodcast@gmail.com and we can work together to help you beat it.

Thank you to SoulSalt.com for research on procrastination. I’m Dylan Kraayenbrink, thanks for spending time with me on Live Life Creative.