Procrastination and other hidden talents

The only thing I'm better at than procrastinating is being petty. So when the topic for our July blog somehow landed on my procrastination habits, I decided the best way to prove everyone wrong was to write it immediately. Take that.

The truth is, I don't procrastinate on everything. I procrastinate on the things that make me uncomfortable. Things I'm not naturally good at. Things that leave me feeling a little vulnerable, like writing something and putting it out into the world for everyone to critique. Give me a tractor problem, a sales meeting, or a product launch, and I'll jump right in. Ask me to write about my feelings? Suddenly I need to reorganize the cables behind my desk.

I also think I procrastinate because everything seems to come with an extension these days. If it isn't wrapped in chaos and an impossible deadline, I'll put it on the back burner and find literally anything else to do. I'll scrub floors, answer emails that didn't need answering, or doom scroll my way through half the afternoon. Anything that gets me just a little closer to the point where I start feeling the pressure. Because that's when the switch flips.

Somewhere in my brain, an alarm goes off that says, "Okay bro, you're officially running out of time." The wandering stops, the distractions disappear, and suddenly I'm locked in. One mission. Get it done, come hell or high water. 

The action is the juice.

I don't know why I'm wired this way, but I go from completely unbothered to completely obsessed in about thirty seconds. I'm always chasing that switch. I suspect it comes from growing up in the fresh vegetable business. Farming doesn't care how organized your calendar is. When you're day trading perishable products that took months to grow and millions of dollars in land, equipment, and labor to produce, you either sell it or smell it. Every mistake costs real money, but one good decision can make the whole season. You learn to function when the pressure is on because that's usually when the best work gets done.

I like having a fire lit underneath me. Truth be told, sometimes I light it myself. Without that urgency, I can struggle to finish the simplest task. With it, I can move mountains.

So if you're a procrastinator too, don't beet yourself up. Just figure out what creates the juice for you, light the fire, and get after it.