Experiments With Hope - Episode 48: Reverse Procrastination

NOTE: This episode was recorded on June 2nd, 2019 and moved from YouTube on January 23rd, 2021.Show more

If you do a Google search for the term “reverse procrastination,” you’ll find silly definitions like…

“Reverse procrastination is when you do something ahead of time instead of putting it off.”

In my opinion, this is a worthless and misleading definition. It sounds more like a description of being proactive. That’s not something that should be associated with a nasty word like “procrastination.” By my definition, reverse procrastination is when your sense of urgency becomes a liability instead of an asset.

In other words, reverse procrastination is when you’re in so much of a hurry to get things done “ahead of time,” you rush through them, burn yourself out, and/or work past the point of diminishing return. All of these behaviors are destructive to your productivity. Sure, they might seem to “work” in the short run. But over time, they wear down what Stephen R Covey calls your “production capability.” Production Capability is your long-term capacity to be consistently productive.

If you wear down your production capability, a time will come when your motivation and ambition will dry up. When this happens, you’ll suddenly have little or no mental and/or physical energy to keep up with yourself. I know this pattern because I’ve seen it in hundreds of my clients, and I’ve lived it. Yes, I’m one of those people who is prone to burning themselves out because of a lack of ability to manage my internal sense of urgency.

This is what I mean by “reverse procrastination.” Thankfully, there’s a way to manage it and to turn your sense of urgency into an asset instead of a liability. I call it “Energy Management.” Energy Management is the conscious effort to align your values and your behaviors with the Natural Law Principles which govern the consequences of your actions. This is the path to long term, sustainable success as an entrepreneur.

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