Authentically Mine – Musings of a Restless Mind

I am a professional putterer. I enjoy moving from one task to another as quickly as they pop into my busy mind. It’s so easy! It doesn’t require focus, provides instant results, and gets me moving. It’s pretty fantastic!

While this active productivity feels great and I get lots of things done, it is typically at the expense of arguably more important and certainly more complex tasks. My puttering is procrastivity at its finest. Sure, puttering is a nice, active brain break, but the tasks are arguably not that important and could be scheduled or delegated. I spend most of my workday fighting my busy mind. It’s admittedly fun and even relaxing to just go with its flow for a change and not fight my natural tendencies.

It’s incredibly rewarding and enjoyable to craft thoughts into words. Despite the importance of my blog, I keep finding other “important” things to do instead. My delay in finishing this particular post has slowed my momentum since the words are no longer flowing as freely from my fingers as when I started. As I search for words, I keep thinking of easier things to do, such as checking if the cool photo that I posted is getting any attention. It’s such a self-defeating cycle!

I avoid a task when something about it is hard or daunting. I can usually get past this by identifying what is hard and breaking down the hard into easier steps. Something else that I recently discovered is visualization. If I can visualize myself doing all of the tiny steps that make up a task, it’s easier for me to get started, but I digress. (Surprise!)

Another problem is when I don’t know (or forgot) what I need to be doing because I haven’t documented it well (or at all) in my task management system. Yes, even keeping up with tasks is a task! If I can’t manage my tasks, I either start scrolling (boo!) or wander around lost until I find something to do that’s not overly complicated.

Tuckman’s model for team development states that teams sequence through these stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Tuckman’s model can be applied to individual projects as well. It seems that I tend to get stuck in the storming stage and struggle to get to norming, where I would settle into a routine. This explains why I dabble in so many hobbies without fully embracing them. I certainly have the want to be successful with each and every one of them, but I struggle with the commitment.

Is my procrastivity because of the slothy nature of being a 9, or is it more related to ADHD? Typically, once I identify a problem, I can problem-solve and successfully move forward. I have worked to put some great tools into place, but the procrastivity persists.

I would love to turn my expert procrastivity skills into efficient productivity. But I’ve got to figure out the secret sauce.