Just over a week ago, after a huge power cut, my computer crashed. Properly crashed – the kind where the screen goes black and doesn’t come back. I hadn’t backed it up. Not for years, despite knowing full well I should. Years of photos, notes, half-written projects, client work – gone, just like that.
I’d meant to back it up. I’d thought about it more times than I can count. It was always on the list, always “next week.” And then one day there was no next week left to do it in. That crash taught me something that had nothing to do with computers: procrastination isn’t really about laziness. It’s about avoidance.
What Procrastination Actually Is – Procrastination gets a bad reputation as a character flaw – as if the people who put things off are simply undisciplined. But most of the research (and most of my own experience) points somewhere else entirely. Procrastination is an emotional response, not a time-management failure. We delay the tasks that make us feel something uncomfortable: fear of failure, fear of it not being good enough, boredom, overwhelm, or simply not knowing where to start.
The task itself is rarely the problem. The feeling attached to it is.
That’s why findally quitting alcohol, backing up a computer, sending a hard email, booking a doctor’s appointment, or signing up for something that could genuinely change your life often get pushed to the bottom of the list. They’re not difficult in the practical sense. They’re difficult in the emotional sense – because doing them makes something real.
I definitely procrastinated for years when I was drinking too, I had MANY nudges, and 3 a wakeups trying to entice me to quit alcohol, but i kept putting it off. Since finally quitting in 2018 my only regret is not doing it sooner.
Eat the Frog
There’s a quote – often attributed to Mark Twain, though it’s not entirely clear he ever said it – along the lines of: if you have to eat a frog first thing in the morning, do it early, because nothing worse is going to happen to you for the rest of the day. And if you have two frogs to eat, eat the bigger one first.
Brian Tracy took that idea and built an entire productivity philosophy around it in his book Eat That Frog!. His point is simple: identify the one task you’re most likely to avoid – your “frog” – and do it first, before anything else has the chance to distract you or talk you out of it. Everything else gets easier once the frog is eaten.
It’s a good reminder that the things we put off are usually exactly the things worth doing first.
What Are You Putting Off?
I think about this a lot now, both for myself and for the people I work with. What are we actually avoiding?
Sometimes it’s small and practical, back up the computer, renew the licence, follow up that email you’ve had sitting in your drafts for three weeks.
Sometimes it’s bigger. A career change. A decision about drinking. A conversation you’ve been rehearsing in your head for months but haven’t had out loud.
I had someone come to me recently who had been unfulfilled in her work for a long time. She kept seeing my Sober Coach training programme, kept getting the nudge that small, persistent feeling that this might be the thing. She’d think about it, close the tab, and go back to what she knew. This happened more than once. Eventually, she signed up. It ended up costing her more than it would have if she’d said yes the first time she felt the pull, because the price had gone up in the meantime. But she still says it was the best decision she’s made in years.
That’s the thing about the nudge. It rarely goes away. It just gets more expensive, in time, in money, or in the years spent wondering “what if.”
Seize the Day!
So here’s the invitation, for you and for me both: if you’re getting the nudge, do the thing.
Back up the computer before it crashes. Renew the licence before it lapses. Send the follow-up email you’ve been sitting on. If you know its time for you to quit alcohol – you’re right! Reach out for 1-1 support, and / or join us in The Sober Club for connection and community.
And if you’re already sober, a bit unfulfilled in your work, and curious about training to become a Sober Club Holistic Sober Coach – if that thought keeps returning even when you try to push it aside, that’s worth paying attention to as well. I’d love to have a conversation with you about whether it’s the right fit. You can book a call with me and we’ll figure it out together.
Procrastination isn’t a flaw. It’s information. It’s telling you exactly where the important, slightly uncomfortable, potentially life-changing things are hiding.
Go eat the frog.