Productive procrastination · also called planning as avoidance
why do I organize instead of work
Productive procrastination is doing real, effortful work that is not the work that matters, because it produces the feeling of progress without the risk of failing at the thing you actually need to do. Reorganizing the plan, color-coding the spreadsheet, and researching the "best" way to start are the most common versions — they look like diligence and function as a hiding place.
You spent two hours on the font. The font did not cut your debt.
What to do about it
Before you plan anything else today, do ten unplanned minutes of the actual task first.
Books that work on this
Each is a 90-day programme. Start with the first — later books assume the work in the earlier ones.
Build Before SpendComing soon
The Spending Audit$6.99
No Status Spend$6.99
Earn Before Spend$6.99
The Success BlueprintComing soon
Broke Is DecisionComing soon
The Wealth VoiceComing soon
Discipline With MoneyComing soonPart of the Success series.
How people say it
Nobody looks this up by its clinical name. These are the ways it actually gets said.
- I spend all my time planning and never doing
- why do I organize instead of work
- I feel productive but nothing gets finished
- I have a graveyard of spreadsheets and no results
- researching how to start instead of starting
- I confuse being busy with making progress
- why does preparing to work feel like working
Written by Brian Spiker, who has run Spiker Carpet and Tile Care since 2013 — the receipts. More terms in the encyclopedia.