I asked my client last week if he uses credit cards. He said he does, and he pays them off regularly and on time.

We’d been talking about three important tasks he’s been putting off for months. His supervisor has been on his case about it and has been getting more aggressive.

My client had been switching through a number of settings: self-shaming for not having done the tasks yet, blaming the supervisor for being mad at him, and declaring loudly that this time he will really get it done for sure no matter what.

He then told me that he’d meant to finish the tasks over the weekend, but he chose to have fun with friends instead.

I expressed appreciation for recognizing that it was a choice he made. Then I asked him if he used credit cards.

Procrastination isn’t just about deadlines

Everyone understands that time is a limited resource.

When it comes to procrastination, however, we tend to frame it in tasks and deadlines rather than how we make use of time.

There may be consequences for not getting the task done by the deadline, or maybe the task never gets done at all if you put it off long enough. 

In my client’s case, he was already in a self-shame cycle, and his reputation at work was already suffering. But these were not sufficient consequences to motivate him.

Ultimately, not doing the tasks would mean he would lose his job. That hypothetical future did not seem to be enough motivation, either.

He simply didn’t want to do the tasks (he thought they were pointless), and the future consequences of not getting them done would be a problem for his future self.

Procrastination is borrowing time from your future self

My client got it right away. Using his financial credit card early in the month was a way of acquiring something now while putting his future self on the hook for paying later.

He had done the same thing with these three tasks. All told, they would take about four days to complete. When he agreed to do those tasks, he did the equivalent of swiping his credit card to pay for them. Instead of money, though, the currency was time.

In order to “acquire” the completion of those tasks, he committed his future self to paying four days of work.

It’s a weird mind twist, but procrastination requires that you believe the tasks will get done by your future self. You’ve already acquired the completion of the tasks in your mind, just like when you pay for something with your credit card you have already acquired the thing… even though you haven’t yet paid for it.

He got the tasks done

With that metaphor, my client shifted his whole mindset. It was actually a much more dramatic change than even I expected when I tossed it out there half baked.

But he got it right away, and he realized that the procrastination also had the burden of interest—his reputation with his supervisor and peers had already suffered, and he was feeling a lot of shame and lowered self-respect.

When we finished the call, he was committed to getting all three tasks done by our call the following week. And he did.

The whole situation switched from “my supervisor is wasting my time with these useless tasks” to “I committed to doing this and it’s time to pay the bill.”

When we talked the following week, he had a completely different mindset. He was upbeat, proud of the work he’d done, and eager to keep moving forward on the next steps. He’d even already seen a subtle shift in his supervisor’s attitude with the completion of the work.

Procrastination doesn’t have to be a lifestyle

I am presenting this as if it was an epiphany that changed everything in one fell swoop, but the reality is I’ve been working with this client for more than four months. It’s been a long road of slowly shifting his perspective to the point where he could have this epiphany.

And with that foundation, I feel very confident this wasn’t a one-time fix in a never-ending pattern of procrastination. I believe he’ll continue to grow and improve with this new perception of time.

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