Why You Procrastinate as a Creative Entrepreneur

How the Type of Task, Phase of the Creative Process, and Your Procrastinator Type Influence Procrastination

*This is part of a series on how to stop procrastinating and make getting started easier for yourself (especially if you are a creative entrepreneur).

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

As a creative person with big ideas and limitless possibilities floating around your mind, you may be more prone to fall into the procrastination trap than other people.

As you saw in Part I of this series on how to beat procrastination as a creative entrepreneur, the number of possible reasons why you’re procrastinating could be many.

In this article, we’ll look at a few more reasons why creative people procrastinate:

• Task Type: “Routine/Admin” vs “Creative” Work
• Your Creative Momentum Style: How The Phase of the Creative Process Affects Your Procrastination
• Your Procrastinator Type

“Routine/Admin” vs “Creative” Work

Do you find yourself putting off tasks that are relatively simple, but mundane and boring?

Or do you struggle to dive into the more creative, uncertain tasks that require more effort?

Personally, I tend to procrastinate more on administrative tasks that I perceive as a distraction from my creative goals. These tasks, although often necessary, can feel like a nuisance and a waste of time.

However, this isn’t a universal experience.

Many people find themselves gravitating towards easier, administrative tasks as a way to avoid diving into their more important creative work. The lure of straightforward, tangible tasks such as running errands, cleaning, clearing out their email, or organizing can be hard to resist, particularly when they serve as a convenient excuse to delay the more daunting and uncertain aspects of larger creative projects.

Some of us are more inclined to delay routine tasks in favor of creative ones, while others may gravitate towards the predictability of mundane tasks as a way of avoiding the perceived risk and effort associated with creative work.

Regardless of your personal procrastination pattern, it’s important to cultivate awareness of your tendencies.

Understanding which tasks you’re more likely to put off can help you notice when you’re slipping into procrastination mode. More importantly, this self-awareness can serve as a valuable tool in nudging you back on track, empowering you to resist the urge to procrastinate, and ensuring that both your routine and creative tasks are effectively tackled.

Your Creative Momentum Style: How The Phase of the Creative Process Affects Your Procrastination

Let’s talk about Creative Momentum (™) Style — an assessment I’m developing based on my research into the different phases of the creative process.

Each phase requires different demands that can be somewhat at odds with each other.

Depending on your style, you may feel more energized by certain phases and less inclined towards others.

This can impact the types of activities you’re more likely to procrastinate on.

In general, the creative process can be broken down into three major phases:

1. The Generative phase — where you research, frame problems and opportunities, explore ideas, generate ideas, and combine ideas.
2. The Development phase — where you select ideas, develop and refine them, get feedback, test things out, and ultimately finish the main “product.”
3. The Implementation phase — where you get buy-in, secure funding, market, sell, promote, and launch your project.

Do you find yourself procrastinating more on certain phases than others?

What patterns do you notice about yourself or your creative work?

Many creative people tend to stay in the Generative phase and experience more avoidance in the Development and Implementation phases.

These latter phases tend to unearth more negative self-talk, fears, doubt, and limiting beliefs — making the necessary actions to bring your ideas closer to realization more challenging to actually do.

By recognizing your procrastination tendencies during each phase of the creative process, you can better overcome them and move forward with your creative work.

If you’re interested in further exploring your Creative Momentum (™) Style, send me an email or message.

What’s Your Procrastinator Type?

Do you identify most strongly with one of these types?

The Overdoer — “But I have so much to do!”

• Do you say “yes” to too many things because you are unable to or unwilling to say no?
• Do you find establishing priorities difficult and don’t want to make hard choices for fear of missing out?
• Do you try to do too much all at once?

You are the Overdoer procrastinator. 🙂

Overdoers are very hard workers, but with so much to do and so little time to do it, Overdoers can very easily slip into overwhelm and burnout.

Overdoers become paralyzed by the sheer number of tasks they need to complete. They delay starting anything on their huge list of possibilities, feeling unsure where to begin or how to prioritize.

The Crisis-Maker — “But I only get motivated under pressure and at the last minute!”

• Do you enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes when you only have a small amount of time to hit your deadline?
• Do you wait until the situation becomes an emergency or crisis that activates your panic mode (and thus finally gets you to take action)?
• Do you find it hard to get anything done unless it also comes with a hard external deadline?
• Do you like to live on the edge?

You are the Crisis-Maker procrastinator. 🙂

Consciously or subconsciously, procrastination may be a form of adventure for you. Part of you finds it thrilling and arousing to experience the pressure of needing to make something happen last minute.

You may be skilled at operating this way, but you also know that this is risky — and you know that you may need to change if you ever want to fully bring your own meaningful ideas to life (you know, the ones that no one is requiring you to do and where you have to set your own milestones and deadlines).

The Defier — “I do what I want, when I want.”

• Do you love to defy convention and the status quo — just for the sake of it?
• Are you a rebel who enjoys procrastinating because it goes against authority or the “normal” way to do things?
• Does putting things off make you feel more in control of your own schedule and life?

You are the Defier. 🙂

Defier procrastinators are more prone to see relatively simple tasks like doing the laundry, paying the bills, or maintaining their car as impositions on their time and energy, rather than as things they should take in stride as adults.

The Perfectionist — “I’m (it’s) not ready yet! I need more ____ so it can be perfect!”

• Do you set high standards for yourself and spend excessive amounts of time planning or preparing to meet those standards?
• Do you worry about falling short of the high expectations that you believe other people have of you?
• Do you feel reluctant to start a task because you know deep inside you can never finish it (because you don’t want anything less than perfection)?
• Do you find yourself saying “It’s not ready yet” or “I’m not ready yet?”
• Do you consistently tell yourself “I need to do more research.”

You are a Perfectionist procrastinator. 🙂

Unfortunately, once a Perfectionist has begun a task, they often can’t resist spending far more time and energy on it than is required.

Perfectionist procrastination may not feel like procrastination. It feels like you are doing a lot of work.

But in reality, you may just be delaying the completion of a task by overworking or over-preparing.

The Dreamer — “Those details are so draining”

• Do you love imagining grandiose ideas…but find putting in all the detailed work draining?
• Do you tend to jump around from idea to idea, without ever seeing one through?
• Do you find the practical world boring, and tend to retreat into fantasy?

You are a Dreamer procrastinator. 🙂

When you get to the part of the creative process that feels less fun, exciting, and fresh (and the part that starts to feel like hard work), you tend to bounce to something new.

Unfortunately, the middle and end part of the creative process requires focused, deliberate, and hard work — and often involves overcoming many obstacles along the way. If you cannot overcome your Dreamer-influenced procrastination, you’ll never actually bring your ideas to life.

So, which procrastinator are you?

Amplifying your awareness of WHY you procrastinate is the key foundation for actually overcoming your procrastination.

👉Grab your free copy of The Stop Procrastinating and Just Get Started Checklist to overcome your procrastination as a creator or creative entrepreneur.

Email or message me if you have any questions or want to explore how to apply this in a more personalized way.

And please let me know if you feel I am missing a reason for WHY you are procrastinating (or what to do about it). I love hearing more examples and solutions so I can continually improve this free guide.

More About Coach Jeff

My name is Jeff Fajans (rhymes with “lions”) and I help creative entrepreneurs bring their biggest ideas to life and reach their next level of creative success.

I have a PhD in Positive Organizational Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where I studied under Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the world-renowned author of Flow. My research focused on how to help people learn, develop, and lead more effectively to better achieve creative goals.

I am also an avid music creator and guitar player. 🤘

Through my 1-on-1 coaching, 30-Day Creative Momentum Challenge community, internationally acclaimed digital courses, and speaking engagements, I’ve helped thousands of people from around the world connect with their purpose, clarify their creative vision, amplify their motivation, and create actionable strategies that make achieving their most meaningful goals inevitable.

These are people who are pursuing big goals like starting or leading a business (and scaling it to higher levels of innovation & growth), writing + filming a feature film (and it winning a Sundance award), building an app or product (and getting accepted into Y Combinator or getting VC funding), writing a book (and hitting the Amazon bestseller list) or even exploring a meaningful side hustle or passion project.