Hello, everybody! I’m so glad you could join me today for another episode of Faithful on the Clock, the podcast for Christian professionals where every cup of coffee brews to get your faith and work aligned. If you’ve ever put off a work project to the very last second, or if you tend to start tasks so early others can’t keep up, today’s show is gonna help you out. We’re talking about procrastination and precrastination and how both those behaviors tie back to anxiety. If you’re ready to even out your pace and reclaim a little peace, let’s hit it.

So, most of us are familiar with procrastination, which is putting off doing something. And most of the the time, in business, everybody’s concerned with how to get people to do things sooner. We want to motivate them to be quick and efficient so we can beat competitors to the punch and be as productive as possible. So, if somebody on the team is holding up everybody else, we tend not to like that. But precrastination can be just as much of a problem. That’s where, instead of putting things off, you consistently start them too far in advance. And this is definitely my tendency. I almost always wanna jump into things as soon as I can. But the danger on this side of the spectrum is that, if you precrastinate, you can end up either really bored as you wait for others to catch up, or you can get really impatient and annoyed that people aren’t moving faster. So, either issue can create conflict on teams. And both issues can interfere with pacing, which is a huge part of, you know, quality control, but also staying balanced enough for good mental health and being confident in what you’re doing.

Now, on the surface, procrastination and precrastination can seem like totally unrelated issues because the behaviors are so different. But in reality, psychologists actually recognize that these are just two sides of the same coin, and that coin is anxiety. And essentially, these are both coping mechanisms that a person can use to try to feel safer and more comfortable. They’re both emotional regulation strategies. So, if you procrastinate, usually that’s because you’re afraid of failing or being judged, or because there’s so much uncertainty or overwhelm that it feels safer to just hit pause and wait, rather than facing all of those unknowns or the weight of everything you’re gonna have to do. It’s about coping through avoidance. The mantra is, “If I don’t do it, I don’t have to face it — yet.” But with precrastination, the fear is that leaving the task undone is gonna create some kind of difficulty. There’s a perceived safety risk associated with waiting to do the job, and so the natural response is to reduce or eliminate that risk. It’s about coping through taking control and springing into action. And so the mantra there is, “If I do it now, I don’t have to worry about it hanging over me.”

So, let’s just quickly take a look at some strategies you can use to confront these habits. And the first thing I’m gonna invite you to do is hit pause before you react. And the goal is to just take a minute to set aside that emotion or worry that’s driving you and get recentered on God. Because you might feel like the world’s gonna end if you don’t move right away, or you might feel like, you know, if you confront the task, you’re just like, that — that’s like death. But like I’ve said, feelings aren’t always truth. God is truth. So, when you’re in the middle of a behavior that’s driven by anxiety or any other emotion that’s really hot, you’ve gotta get back to where the truth is. Because a decision that’s made without being grounded in truth isn’t a good decision, OK? It’s the decisions that are grounded in what actually is that are healthy and yield good things. So, ask yourself, “What would obedience look like right now?” Because quite frankly, your feelings, of course they matter. God doesn’t want you to be hurting or anxious or any of that. But ultimately, those feelings matter less than what God needs you to do. Sometimes, faith means you obey and you serve even when you’re scared. Faith isn’t about being fearless, OK? It’s about trusting that, with God behind you, you can do the job despite the fear. So, keep Psalm 46:10 on your heart. That’s the one that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” And Proverbs 16:9 can guide you, too. That says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” You can plan to speed up or slow down, but if God wants to change your timing, He’s gonna do it, because with Him, the timing is never wrong.

So, this next element, it’s more for the precrastination side, where you’re trying to get control and just get the job done to make things feel more certain. But with either problem, you know, you can be self-convicted and say, “If I’m taking control here, where does that leave God? If I really trust Him, then how come I’m trying to sit in the driver’s seat so hard?” And I’ll just be honest — that’s so hard. I mean, as a Christian, I don’t wanna admit I’m doubting. I don’t wanna admit that I can’t just hand everything over and have some faith in everything He can do. I wanna be one of those people who are, like, “Don’t you dare doubt my God. You better watch out.” But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really come to understand why that doubt creeps in. And at least for me, it creeps in because so many people have just, I’ll just say it, they’ve really been untrustworthy. They’ve let me down. And when that happens enough, you know, you forget that God’s different. And you just start transferring all that experience onto Him, and you hear the world telling you that you gotta look out for number one, and then all of a sudden you’ve fallen into this trap where you look to yourself before you look to God. So, you gotta say, I’m not gonna control it by jumping in. I’m not gonna control it by waiting. I’m gonna lean on God’s understanding instead of my own like Proverbs 3:5 tells me to. And just like Philippians 4:6 says, I’m gonna go to God in everything and pray for some guidance and help. Because peace doesn’t come from doing it all or avoiding it all. Peace comes from God as a gift when you surrender, and surrender doesn’t require perfect trust. Jesus said you can move mountains if all you’ve got is a mustard seed of faith, and He doesn’t judge you based on the faith you have. He judges you based on the amount of faith you want to have. If you’re trying, if you’re seeking, that’s enough. He’ll meet you where you are because His forgiveness extends even to the doubt we have when we’ve seen and should understand. So, ask Him to give you the focal point. Seek clarity about what the purpose is and when to move forward and when to hold back. And just always ask if you’re acting out of the anxiety or out of service. Because the difference is huge.

Now, we just focused more on the precrastination side a little bit, but remember, like I said, one of the biggest reasons people procrastinate is that they get overwhelmed and don’t know how else to cope with that. So, how do you beat overwhelm? Well, first of all, you’ve gotta understand that God’s pretty logical in that He looks for progress over time rather than perfection. He doesn’t expect perfect maturity and response right out of the gate. Luke 16:10 says, “Whoever is faithful on very little is also faithful on much.” And the whole idea there is that God is going to incrementally add to your duties and responsibilities as you mature and become ready. And if you take even your small jobs seriously for Him, He’s gonna note your faith and character and let you move up. And really, isn’t that what all good leaders do? We look to see if the new hire can handle the basic stuff and then over time, the leaders are like, “OK, let’s take it up a notch.” So, there’s room to learn, and all God’s really looking for is whether you’re committed where you are. Proverbs 16:3 reminds us of that and says that if you commit your steps to God, He’ll establish your plans for you. So, if you can accept that you’re aiming for progress instead of perfection, that’s a lot less overwhelming because the expectation is so much more realistic. That’s the philosophy side of this. But the other element that helps you tackle overwhelm is pragmatically breaking the work down into steps you can manage. You know, as a writer, it’d be easy for me to get lost in the fact that making a book can take years, right? But opening Google Docs? I can do that. And some of you out there might laugh and think, opening your software, that’s nothing. Come on. What is that? But all of those tiny little steps, they add up. And if you tackle each of them, just one at a time, you’re not focusing on what comes next, you’re just laser focused on the small, immediate job, you’ll look back and all of a sudden you do see progress. You do see that things are moving. So, just break it down and don’t underestimate how all the small little movements add up to a big amount of the journey.

This next point, I’ll admit, I almost didn’t want to talk about it because it hits so deep. But procrastination and precrastination both can connect to a lot of shame. Because you can be doing these behaviors and all of a sudden you think, you know, “Why can’t I just get this right?” or, like I said before, “Why can’t I trust God more than I am?” But again, God’s not looking for you to be perfect. He’s just looking to see where your intent is. You know, where’s your heart? And so the first encouragement I want to offer you on this is Romans 8:1, and that says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And that goes along with 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, when you’re tempted to put things off or dive in too quickly and you start to feel that shame well up, you gotta remind yourself that everybody falls short. And even as you fall short, God’s not holding it against you. That’s the whole reason Christ went to the cross, so that you wouldn’t have to carry shame like that anymore. You know, don’t let it spiral. Just repent and get back up and keep trying.

So, if you look back at the points we’ve covered so far, the question that inevitably emerges is, you know, “Why am I doing the work at all? Whatever the job is, what does it accomplish? And just as importantly, who am I accomplishing it for?” Because the thing is, when you are self-oriented, when you’re thinking more about what you want and how you feel, then it’s easy to let procrastination or precrastination get out of hand. Because then you see those behaviors as a solution. By taking control through avoidance or quick action, you trick yourself into thinking you’re fixing the problem of anxiety. But if you are trying to accomplish and build a legacy to glorify God, if you’re Christ-oriented, then procrastination and procrastination, those behaviors aren’t solutions — they’re stumbling blocks, because they take authority away from God and make you lean on yourself. They stop you from going to Him and handing Him the anxiety you’ve got. And so, then not only are you robbing Him of glory, you’re robbing Him of relationship. Because you’re not really letting Him help you. You’re not confiding in Him or having any real intimacy. You’re just hanging out on your own suffering when you don’t have to and He doesn’t want you to. So, the harsh truth in all of this is that when your work becomes your worship, anxiety loses its grip. The more you aim to honor God rather than to fix your own discomfort, the more peace you’re gonna feel.

The last element I want to touch on here is that, like I explained at the start of the show, procrastination and precrastination, they’re just different manifestations of the same problem. And I’ll just tell you a personal story to show you how that can create some real conflict, OK? So, my son, he’s got his own insecurities and all that, for a lot of different reasons. And he tends to really put things off, especially around school, because he’s just so afraid that doing the assignments is gonna feel bad. He’s got a lot of negative associations from his early time in the classroom. But then he’s got me. He’s got his momma over here, and because of how I grew up, my instinct is to try and head off whatever risks I see. I’m all about starting early to put out the fires that could crop up. I’m always wanting to protect myself that way. But you can imagine what it’s like when he and I butt heads with each other. Because I’m over here wanting him to get a jump on his school assignments because I’m so hypervigilent and scared he’ll fail and get behind or I’ll get truancy officers knocking on my door, and he’s pushing back saying, “No way am I gonna do this math or biology or whatever it is. That’s gonna probably hurt so I’m gonna do everything I can to avoid that pain, and Mom, why can’t you just leave me alone? Why are you pushing me to do what might hurt me?” And so he and I, you know, it’s been a real struggle. But as the adult, you know, that’s where I as a parent have to step back and say, “You know, he’s not fighting me. He’s fighting that anxiety he has. And if I’m really honest, I’m fighting the anxiety I have, too. We both have the exact same problem.” And so the point there is, you have to be able to correctly identify the problem and point the finger at the right enemy. My son, he’s not intentionally trying to be difficult, and neither am I. We’re just both feeling a lot of worry, and we’re just coping with it in opposite ways. And when you can step back like that and say, “That person is not fighting me. They’re trying to protect themselves,” then things change. It opens the door to empathy and love and being compassionate, and you can start asking, “OK, what can I do to give them courage? What can I do to show them truth so that the anxiety they feel goes away and they can feel the joy of God?” And I just want to encourage you to take that step back. You can just start just by recognizing that the other person is driven by their anxiety, and then you can work at figuring out why that anxiety is there and delivering what’s gonna help.

With that goal of finding peace with each other in mind, let’s go ahead and pray.

Lord, as I just shared, you know how I can let my anxiety drive me to do too much too fast. And I know a lot of people out there are under that whip, too. But everybody who’s stuck, everybody who’s just so overwhelmed, Father, you know we’re all struggling against the same beast. And I know you don’t want us to be burned out or held back. So, Lord, I pray that you help us have more empathy for one another. Remind us that we can hand things over to you even when we’re scared. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

That’s where I’ll end the show for today, everybody. Once again, I’ll just remind you, we’ve got a ton of additional content for you to explore at the podcast’s sister site, faithfulontheclock.com. Check that out as soon as you can. For the next show, we’re gonna be taking a look at Galatians to fight that old trap of comparison. How can you focus on the job and timing God has for you without getting lost in envy or insecurity? We’ll help you get more confident in your unique calling. I’ll see you in two weeks, people. Be blessed.