The 7 Word Secret That Will Crush Your Procrastination Habit

If you struggle to get started, this is for you

Karen Nimmo
Published in
4 min readAug 26, 2024

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Photo by Ana Nichita on Unsplash

Procrastination is the dream-crusher.

Ok, that’s a bit dramatic. We all indulge in a little procrastinating. It’s human to avoid doing what feels hard or boring or just ordinary old unappealing.

And, to be fair, procrastinating can be a fine thing. It can give us time to stew ideas and problems in our minds, giving solutions a chance to reveal themselves.

But hard core procrastination? The chronic delay tactics that put your dreams on ice, that feed your guilt and shame because you’re not doing the thing you should, or want, to be doing?

Yeah, nah. No good. No good at all.

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

When You Need to Light the Spark

In therapy, lots of people confess to procrastination.

Often they’ll frame it up more softly, more positively. Can you help me with my motivation? I’ve lost my way, I need a way to light the spark again.

One writer I worked with had been on a hiatus. He’d had some early success with…

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Karen Nimmo

Clinical psychologist, author of 4 books. Editor of On the Couch: Practical psychology for health and happiness. karen@onthecouch.co.nz