This is a topic I've thought about a lot, and have even written about, because it's something I struggle with too. "Don't want to." and "I don't have the energy for that." seem to be good enough 'reasons' to procrastinate. And yes, it really does seem to boil down to fear.
I am the sort of person who takes a "You can't make me." attitude to my own advice! A book that helped me with that was "How to get Control of Your Time and Your Life" by Alan Lakein. 1973, so probably not in print. He doesn't push you to do anything so it's hard to generate the resistance I'd feel otherwise.
One exercise he suggests to help with the times you create busywork instead of doing the important things is to put a chair in the middle of the room and sit in it. And just sit there in the awareness that you might as well be sitting and doing nothing - at all - rather than wasting your time pretending you're too busy to do the thing.
I did that once and it was enough that all I have to do now is think about it and suddenly doing the thing seems a better choice.
But the best idea and the one I've used the most, goes along with your "I might not finish, I can start..." idea. He suggests saying to yourself, "I don't want to do that and I'm not going to! I am going to hire someone to do it for me!" But then, you know, if you're going to pay someone, maybe you could arrange things to make it easier for them so it won't cost so much. Maybe make them some notes, pull out some files, make a call or two, just to help this fictional assistant. I really like this one because I can be defiant and still do the thing!
Great article!
Thanks! That chair exercise sounds reeeallly hard! Might have to put myself through that. I think some people call that "meditating" (hehe).
It sounds like you may be the Rebel - based on the framework of The Four Tendencies, the Rebel doesn't want to listen to anyone, even herself, so it helps to trick or coax yourself as you describe. I am the Questioner. I listen to myself but question everything else, unless I can assign my own "why" to the problem. I guess that makes me extra succeptible to my own BS when my mind starts making excuses.
I'd not heard of that theory but it sounds spot-on. Yes, Rebel here with maybe a tinge of the Obliger. Very interesting! And no wonder Lakein's book helped me (aha!) because it's full of tricks like that - coaxing not pushing.
Meditating would be a good use of the sit in the chair exercise. Don't think we could call that wasting time either, right? ;-}