Procrastination is a sign of…??

It's a sign of anxiety! Some thoughts on procrastination and seasonal planning.

Jenn Chen

19 Jun 2024 — 7 min read

Photo by Karim MANJRA / Unsplash | The Unsplash choices for "procrastination" were wild. This was the only one that didn't feel like it was guilt-tripping me.

Procrastination is a sign of…??

A past therapist blew my mind when I said I was procrastinating, and she responded, “Yes, that’s an anxiety symptom. You’re putting it off because it’s overwhelming to think about.” It was the start of a mind shift for me: procrastination was a sign of my anxiety flaring up and not because I was lazy or incompetent. It could also be a depressive symptom if my reasoning were “I don’t have the energy.”

When you’ve been working at a constant “Go, go, go” pace and an “Okay, this project is done; what’s next?” mentality, slowing down is extremely difficult. A slower pace feels like a failure, and a constant drumming refrain of I could be doing more, faster.

I’ve been procrastinating on deciding what my second season of tanjennts will be about. I lost May to Covid (and other things) and spent last week on a staycation, so I haven’t been able to decide or plan what’s next. It feels like I’m failing readers. Even when I remind myself that I had a shitty May, I can’t escape the thought that I should be more ahead than I am.

I work quite well under deadlines, but it’s not a healthy way of operating. And sometimes, you really do have to force the creativity. The “decide on a season 2 topic” task has been on my to-do list for several weeks, every time being postponed further. I’ve walked on it, sketched it, searched through all my brainstormed ideas, talked to my dog about it, and even mind-mapped it. Despite being a visual person, I don’t do much mind-mapping, but that’s what clicked (after I drew connections via pen & paper). I now have 3-4 themes with varying numbers of story ideas, and I can announce season 2!

Season 2 will be centered around “new directions.” I’m not 100% sold on the theme name but the general idea is to examine career changes before and after coffee, letting go of a business, when to rebrand, and hopefully, some interesting interviews! I thought I could kick it off today, but that was too much pressure, and I do want to do justice to the reported topics.

Next week, paid subscribers will get to see the mind map I made and a preview of future seasons. My paid subscriber content is not always tied to the theme. I’ve been writing letters, sharing photo essays, and giving some behind-the-scenes of my writing and photography work.