Why do I procrastinate?
In the Time Peace Sessions, I'm answering some of the most frequently asked questions I get from lawyers.
You'll gain insight into why you do what you do, and what you can begin doing to make change now.
Join me for Time Peace for Lawyers™:
👉 Get the details and enroll now
LOVING BE A BETTER LAWYER?
SHARE THE LOVE!
- Share it with friends, that lawyer you just met at a networking event, or on social media. (Be sure to tag me on social, so I can say thanks!)
- Subscribe to Be a Better Lawyer free on Spotify and Amazon Music or subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.
- Leave a review.
Thanks for listening and supporting Be a Better Lawyer Podcast.
Your support means the world to me and allows the work I'm doing here to reach more lawyers.
I truly believe the more lawyers we can positively impact with coaching, the brighter our future as a planet will be.
Talk to you next week.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT
Why Do I Procrastinate? #2
Here's a transcription of this episode:
Welcome to the second bonus episode of the time piece session. So in this episode, we're going to be answering the question. Why do I procrastinate? This is probably a question that I get most often, and it's a question I had for a really long time. So let's just jump in. Let me ask you this. Have you ever.
Been in the middle of a project, then suddenly have an urge to check your email or go down an email rabbit hole. Have you ever told yourself that you would definitely get a motion filed by the end of the day, then did every possible task including that discovery that isn't due for weeks, but that motion?
Have you ever known that you had a project due at the end of the week and that you should do just a little bit at a time each day, but then you wait until Friday and feel dread and fear, then white knuckle the entire [00:01:00] project Friday, barely getting the work done under the wire. If you have, you are in good company.
If you're procrastinating, it's never Not because you're lazy. It's not because you're a bad lawyer. And it's definitely not because quote, that's just who you are, which I hear so often procrastination is a habit and habits are meant to be broken and you've done it before you are able to do it again.
But procrastination is a problem, right? Not only does it feel horrible when we're waiting until the last minute to do projects, but it. Really breaks trust with ourself. What I mean by that is, is when we beat ourselves up for not doing those projects sooner, we create a poor relationship with ourselves.
Imagine being yelled at for not doing work sooner by a client. That wouldn't make you want to do work for them, right? You'd probably say, sayonara, I'm out. But if we are hard on ourselves, It creates [00:02:00] a similar relationship. We're unable to break the procrastination habit because we are resisting engaging with that voice in our head.
Of course, you don't want to work for a mean boss. You will go do something that feels in quotes, reductive. And that is a place where your brain isn't yelling at you, right? Have you ever had a project do then decided, Oh, you know what? I'm going to go do this other project that needs to get done, even though it's not due until next week.
Then I'm being reductive. That's procrastination, but it doesn't feel so bad, right? It's a little bit easier because your brain isn't yelling at you so loudly. It's like giving yourself a pass because you're doing something, even though it's not as important. It wasn't what you had planned. And it just is a way to buffer those emotions of being [00:03:00] yelled at, right?
To numb out those emotions of being yelled at for the other job. So then you end up in the same cycle of staying up late nights and weekends, finishing projects, maybe missing out on things like outings with your family, other life events, doing things that you really enjoy. I know a lot of people have crafts and they totally stop doing those things, Because they simply don't have time for them and your quality of work.
Well, it's likely not as good as if you'd planned it out. Am I right in the short term? Maybe it's not a problem, but as your workload increases, it becomes more of a problem and clients begin to notice and that's bad for business. So let's talk about why the brain creates this procrastination habit. And remember, habits are meant to be broken.
There's two parts to our brains. There's two voices in our heads. One part, one voice, is the [00:04:00] primal brain. The primal brain only wants three things. To experience pleasure, to avoid pain, and to conserve energy. The second part is the higher mind or the prefrontal cortex. That part is the voice that tells you all the things that make sense, like plan your week or work on that important project first, or checking email isn't really all that important right now.
For most people, voice number one, The primal brain is substantially louder. The people who are the most successful at managing their time have learned to notice voice number one, but not let it lead them. And right now, if you're procrastinating, voice number one is leading you. So we want to unlearn this habit.
We want to learn how to make. Voice number two, louder, and that requires creating awareness around what triggers procrastination for [00:05:00] you, how you're talking to yourself or other surrounding environmental factors and applying mind management and emotional management to strengthen that voice. for listening.
Bye. This is the work I will be doing inside of time piece for lawyers, which is now open for enrollment. I'm limiting our class to 15 lawyers. So you can get lots of attention from me in our sessions and officially enrollment closes on August. August 31st, but I am going to close enrollment as soon as we reach that 15 number.
So you'll want to save your spot right now.
You can do that at DinaCataldo.com/timepeace
That's P E A C E inside this program. We are going to meet for 12 weeks, and this is the absolute. Perfect time to enroll because these classes are going to end before the holiday season begins. I have designed Timepiece for Lawyers to fit inside of your life, fit within your [00:06:00] life.
We are going to have one call weekly for 12 weeks. Plus you're going to have three bonus calls. If you'd like extra help, or you miss one of our regularly scheduled calls. I get it. Life happens. There are bonuses galore inside the. The, um, portal, when you go to the enrollment page and you're going to see things like access to the focus hour, the focus hour is so much fun.
It's incredibly effective for my clients who are coming to the focus hour and they're working on projects that maybe they've put off or they haven't really thought about setting time aside to do things like working on their business. It's a monthly coworking space I open up just for my clients. You can get all of the information, including information on all of the amazing bonuses in there at Dina Cataldo.
com forward slash time piece. That's P E a C E now procrastination. It's not a defect. [00:07:00] It was something I struggled with until I got the tools I needed to reconnect to my higher self, to really start listening to that second voice more and more and more. And I learned how to follow it more than the primal brain.
You can do it too. Habits were meant to be broken.