I was listening to a conversation between Adam Grant and Fredrik Backman, the author of A Man Called Ove, and found myself wanting to pause the podcast to write things down.
Not because it gave me another productivity hack. Thank goodness. I do not need another person telling me to time-block my way out of being human.
It was because Backman was talking about effort, procrastination, achievement and what it means to have done your best. That felt deeply relevant to business owners, especially the ones who turn one slow day into a full personality assessment.
The idea that stuck with me was this: Value effort daily and outcomes over the long term. Sounds simple enough. It’s not.
Not when you are measuring yourself against yesterday’s output, last month’s income, or the person online who appears to have written a book, launched a course and renovated their kitchen before lunch.
And especially when you’re not where you expected to be at this point in your life.
One day you delay writing the blog, and suddenly you are not “letting the idea settle”. You are lazy, inconsistent, undisciplined, behind, failing, and probably not cut out for this whole business thing. Sound familiar?
Fear loves that leap. It takes one behaviour and turns it into a verdict. So, let’s look at procrastination differently. Not as proof that you are broken. Not as an automatic failure. Not as something to shame yourself out of. Let’s treat it as data.
Procrastination looks like laziness, but often feels heavier
When business owners talk about procrastination, they usually rattle off a list things they didn’t do. (And use it to beat themselves up with)
- They didn’t write the blog.
- They didn’t send the proposal.
- They didn’t post online.
- They didn’t publish the offer.
- They didn’t make the call.
On the surface, that looks like a productivity problem. But underneath, it often feels much heavier than “I didn’t get around to it”.
- You do not just delay sending the proposal. You decide you are not up to standard.
- You do not just avoid posting on social media. You decide you are hopeless at visibility.
- You do not just put off the pricing review. You decide you are not a “real” business owner because surely real business owners love to budget, strategise and raising their prices because they are worth it.
Sure, Judgy McJudgerson.
This is why procrastination feels so loaded in business. It is rarely just about the task. It is about what the task represents.
- Writing the blog may mean letting people see what you really think.
- Sending the proposal may mean naming the value of your work and waiting to see if someone agrees.
- Publishing the offer may mean people can ignore it.
- Raising your prices may mean someone says no.
- Making the decision may mean you can no longer sit in the safety of “I’m still thinking about it”.
That is not just a productivity problem.
It might be a self-trust problem, a visibility problem, a fear problem, or a “what if I get this wrong and everyone finds out I was winging it” problem.
No wonder your brain has suddenly decided the pantry needs reorganising.
Procrastination can be incubation, fear or capacity
Is procrastination always bad? No.
- Sometimes procrastination is creative incubation.
- Sometimes it is fear wearing a very convincing productivity cardigan.
- Sometimes it is a capacity issue because your brain and body are tired, and you are expecting a personal best effort from a Tuesday that is already borrowing spoons from Wednesday and possibly Thursday.
Here is where the distinction matters.
Helpful procrastination gives the work room to mature. Fear-based procrastination gives you a way to avoid being judged, seen, priced, chosen, rejected or held accountable.
One creates space. The other provides escape.
When procrastination helps creativity
There are times when delay helps.
You start thinking about a blog topic, but the first angle feels too obvious. You leave it alone for a day and notice a sharper point while walking, driving, showering, or doing something deeply inconvenient for note-taking.
You draft an offer, but something feels off. Instead of forcing it, you give yourself time to notice that the problem is not the wording. It is that the offer no longer fits the way you want to work.
That kind of delay can be useful. It is not avoidance. It is incubation.
But creative delay usually has some contact with the task.
You have opened the document. You have named the problem. You have started the thought. You have given your brain something to work with.
You are not pretending the task does not exist. You are letting it breathe.
That is different from avoiding the task completely while telling yourself you work better under pressure. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you are just recreating urgency because panic feels more familiar than steady action.
When procrastination is fear in disguise
Fear-based procrastination has a different flavour. It often sounds like:
- “I just need to do more research.”
- “I’ll post when I feel clearer.”
- “I need to fix the website first.”
- “I’ll launch it when the timing is better.”
- “I’m just being strategic.”
And sometimes you are. But sometimes your brain is using strategy language to avoid emotional risk.
This is where capable, thoughtful, high-achieving business owners can get stuck. You are smart enough to make avoidance sound very reasonable.
- You are not hiding. You are refining.
- You are not delaying. You are gathering data.
- You are not scared. You are being responsible.
Lovely in theory. Useless if fear has the steering wheel. (Ouch)
The question is not whether the explanation sounds sensible. Because fear can sound extremely sensible and logical.
The question is whether the delay is moving you closer to the work or further away from the part that feels exposing.
A creative delay usually improves the work. A fear-based delay usually protects you from discomfort.
That does not make you lazy. It makes you human. But it also means another planner, template or content calendar is unlikely to solve the real issue. Because the technical skill was never the root cause.
Procrastination is not one simple behaviour
Research suggests moderate procrastination can support creativity when it gives an idea time to incubate. Shin and Grant (2021) found a relationship between procrastination and creativity, where a moderate amount of delay may help creative thinking, while too little or too much delay can be less helpful.
In plain English, starting immediately can sometimes shut down the weird, interesting, original pathways your brain may have wandered into with a little more space.
However, procrastination can also be linked with stress, shame and lower self-compassion. Sirois (2014) found that procrastination was associated with lower self-compassion and higher stress.
That makes sense when you think about it.
If every delay becomes an opportunity to tell yourself you are failing, the task does not get easier to approach. It gets more emotionally loaded.
You now have the task, the shame about the task, and the story that the delay means something terrible about you.
This is why “stop being so lazy” is useless advice.
If the delay is caused by fear, shame will not make you braver. It will make the task feel more dangerous.
If the delay is caused by low capacity, shame will not create sustainable energy. It will drain more of what you already do not have.
If the delay is caused by uncertainty, shame will not create clarity. It will make you more desperate to find the perfect answer before you move.
Self-compassion is not the same as avoidance. Self-compassion is the ability to respond to difficulty without turning on yourself. It gives you enough psychological safety to look at what is actually happening.
That’s where useful action starts.
Value effort today and outcomes over time
The line I kept coming back to after listening to the podcast was this: Value effort daily and outcomes over the long term.
Playing the long game matters because we often judge each day by outcomes we can’t fully control.
- Did I get the client?
- Did the post perform?
- Did the email convert?
- Did the person reply?
“Did I try hard?” can become another stick to hit yourself with if you ignore capacity. You can’t give a personal best effort every day. Athletes know this. Bodies know this. Brains know this.
Business owners, however, have a habit of expecting peak performance regardless of our wildly variable capacity.
- Some days your best is deep work.
- Some days your best is sending the email you have been avoiding.
- Some days your best is doing the minimum viable version.
- Some days your best is stopping before tired work becomes resented work.
That does not mean standards do not matter. It means they need to live in reality.
The better question we need to ask is: Did I do the best I could with the capacity I had today?
- Not the capacity I wish I had.
- Not the capacity I had five years ago.
- Not the capacity of the person on LinkedIn who seems suspiciously energised by 5 am routines.
Your actual capacity. Today. And that’s a very different question.
The business fix
From a business perspective, the fix is to stop treating every procrastinated task as a time-management problem.
Ask what the task is asking of you.
- Is it asking you to be visible?
- Is it asking you to name your price?
- Is it asking you to make a decision someone may disagree with?
- Is it asking you to stop being endlessly available?
- Is it asking you to publish something imperfect?
When you know the risk, you can respond to the real problem instead of polishing the surface one.
- If it is incubation, set a time to return point.
- If it is fear, name the fear and choose one next best step.
- If it is capacity, adjust the task to what is possible.
The owner fix
From an owner perspective, the fix is self-compassion with accountability.
The kind of compassion that says:
- “This feels hard for a reason.”
- “This delay is giving me information.”
- “I can respond without attacking myself.”
- “I can take the next honest step from the capacity I have.”
Here is the bit I kept thinking about after the podcast.
Sometimes it is hard to do self-work because you do not value yourself enough, yet.
That might be confronting, but I think it is true for a lot of people. Especially those of us who are used to being capable, responsible and useful to everyone else.
If you are used to valuing your worth through output, care, service, achievement, or not being a problem, then “be kind to yourself because you deserve it” may not land.
So here is another way:
Be more compassionate to yourself because it changes who other people get to deal with. Why? Because:
- When you are less brutal with yourself, you’re often less defensive.
- When you stop demanding peak output every day, you’re often less resentful.
- When you stop treating every delay as proof of failure, you’re often easier to work with, live with, lead and be around.
- When you stop shaming yourself, you have more capacity to respond instead of react.
That matters.
Self-compassion is not just an internal nicety. It changes behaviour. It changes decisions. It changes how you show up in your business and your relationships.
If you can’t start with “I deserve compassion”, start with “My self-attack isn’t only affecting me”.
Then, over time, you can come back to the deeper truth. You’re allowed to treat yourself like you treat others, too.
Is it creative delay or fear-based avoidance?
The next time you notice yourself procrastinating, do not start with “What is wrong with me?” Start here:
Have I made contact with the task?
If you have not opened the document, looked at the numbers, named the decision or written the first messy notes, your brain may not have enough material to incubate anything.
Creative delay needs contact. Avoidance keeps the task vague because vague tasks are easier to avoid.
Is the delay improving the work or protecting me from discomfort?
If the delay is giving the idea time to mature, you’ll usually feel some movement. You may notice new angles, clearer structure or a better understanding of what the work needs.
If the delay is protecting you from discomfort, you will usually feel circling.
Same thoughts. Same dread. Same “I’ll do it later” loop.
That loop is data.
What does this task ask me to risk?
- Does it ask you to be visible?
- Does it ask you to name your price?
- Does it ask you to make a decision someone may disagree with?
- Does it ask you to stop being endlessly available?
- Does it ask you to publish something imperfect?
When you know the risk, you can stop treating the delay like a random discipline failure.
What is my actual capacity today?
Not your ideal capacity. Not the capacity you used to have before life, health, caregiving, burnout, grief, hormones, stress, or whatever else decided to join the meeting.
Your actual capacity. Today.
Now ask: what is the next best step?
What would effort look like today?
Effort may not mean finishing the whole thing.
- It may mean setting a timer for 20 minutes.
- It may mean drafting using AI.
- It may mean making the decision.
- It may mean asking for help.
- It may mean stopping before you start resenting.
Effort is not always dramatic. Sometimes effort is simply not denying yourself mid-task.
Creative delay has a return point. Fear-based avoidance has an escape hatch.
That is the distinction I would come back to.
Creative delay says, “I have started this, and I am giving the idea space before I come back to it on Thursday.” Creative delay keeps you in touch with the work.
Fear-based avoidance says, “I will deal with this when I feel ready,” while quietly making sure ready never arrives. Fear-based avoidance tries to keep you safe from what you fear the work might ask of you.
Once you see that difference, procrastination becomes less mysterious. It becomes information. And information is useful.
Final thought: you are allowed to measure effort differently
There will be days when you do not achieve what you hoped. I know this well.
There will be days when the thing you planned does not happen. Hello life!
There will be days when you procrastinate, circle, avoid, overthink, delay, or suddenly develop a deep interest in cleaning the fridge.
The goal is not to turn every one of those moments into a moral crisis. The goal is to get curious enough to tell the difference between incubation, fear and capacity.
- When procrastination is incubation, you can give the idea room and set a return point.
- If procrastination is fear, you can name what feels unsafe and take one honest step.
- If procrastination is capacity, you can stop demanding a personal best from a depleted system.
That is not letting yourself off the hook. That is learning how to work with yourself instead of against yourself. And honestly, that might be one of the most useful business skills there is.
FAQs
Is procrastination always bad?
No. Procrastination is not always bad. Moderate procrastination can support creativity by giving ideas time to incubate, but chronic procrastination can become a problem when it is driven by avoidance, fear or low capacity.
How do I know if procrastination is fear-based?
Look at what the task represents. If it involves being seen, judged, priced, chosen, rejected or held accountable, fear may be part of the delay. Fear-based procrastination often sounds sensible, but it keeps you circling rather than moving closer to the work.
Can self-compassion help procrastination?
Yes. Self-compassion can reduce the shame and stress that often make procrastination harder to shift. It does not mean avoiding responsibility. It means responding to the delay honestly instead of attacking yourself and making the task feel even more loaded.
Is procrastination the same as laziness?
Usually, no. Procrastination often has more to do with emotion, fear, uncertainty, task aversion or capacity than laziness. Calling yourself lazy may feel familiar, but it rarely helps you understand what is driving the behaviour.
References
Grant, A. and Backman, F. (2026) ‘Creative anxiety, self-doubt, and procrastination with Fredrik Backman’, ReThinking with Adam Grant, podcast episode.
Shin, J. and Grant, A.M. (2021) ‘When putting work off pays off: The curvilinear relationship between procrastination and creativity’, Academy of Management Journal, 64(3), pp. 772–798. doi: 10.5465/amj.2018.1471.
Sirois, F.M. (2014) ‘Procrastination and stress: Exploring the role of self-compassion’, Self and Identity, 13(2), pp. 128–145. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2013.763404.