The #1 Reason NGO Leaders Procrastinate (It’s Not What You Think)
Are you really procrastinating...or are your thoughts keeping you stuck?
Many leaders assume procrastination is a discipline or time management problem, but the real issue often lies deeper in the way we think. In this episode, Torrey explores how perfectionism, fear of failure, and over-responsibility create hesitation that delays action, impacts teams, and keeps even high performers stuck in overthinking.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- Why procrastination is often driven by perfectionism and leadership thinking patterns rather than laziness
- How to use AI as a self-coaching tool to uncover what’s really causing avoidance
- Practical prompts and simple next steps to move from overthinking into action faster.
Press play to learn how to break the cycle of procrastination, rethink the thoughts holding you back, and lead with more clarity and action starting today.
Prompts to Use:
“I am procrastinating on this: [task]. Ask me one question at a time to help me take action.”
“Help me identify what I’m thinking that’s causing me to avoid this.”
“Challenge my thinking if I’m being overly negative or unrealistic.”
“Help me find the smallest next step I can take right now.”
Watch on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/24A41ptNH84
WHAT IS YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? QUIZ
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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Have you ever found yourself putting something off? Not because you don't care about it, but because you care so much. Maybe it's an email you have to send, or a decision that you've been avoiding or a conversation that you know you need to have. And instead of doing it, you delay, you overthink, and you tell yourself you'll come back to it later.
Hi, my name is Torrey and welcome to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader Podcast. And what I wanna offer for you today is this: procrastination is not a time management problem. Procrastination is actually not a discipline problem either. It's a thinking problem.
Because how we think drives how we feel, which drives how we do, or in this case, don't do. So when you're [00:01:00] thinking, what if I say the wrong thing or this might not work, or I need to get this right, or I don't know where to start, you're going to feel hesitant, uncertain, and maybe even a bit anxious. And from that place, you don't take action.
You procrastinate. Now here where is where this gets even more interesting because the leaders that I work with, the ones who care deeply about their work and who wanna make a impact, they are often high performers. And what I see again and again is this procrastination is often just a form of high performance thinking.
It is perfectionism. It's over responsibility and it's trying to control the outcome before you take action. So it might sound like, I just need to think this through a bit [00:02:00] more, or I want to make sure this is right before I send it, or, this is important so I need to get it right. But what that creates is delay.
It happens to me too. I sit down to write an email and suddenly I find myself paralyzed because I realize, I'm actually thinking I can't let this be wrong. It has to be right. So this delay doesn't just affect you, it impacts your team as well, because when you delay a decision, your team wait. When you avoid a conversation, confusion grows, and when you overthink, you hold onto ownership That could be shared.
So procrastination isn't just a personal habit, it's a leadership pattern, and this is where I've started experimenting with something new, which has really helped me be able to write those emails. I've been using [00:03:00] AI as a coaching tool, not to do it all for me. But to coach me through the procrastination so I can take action.
Because that's what coaching does. It doesn't give you the answer. It helps you instead with understanding what's getting in your way so that you can move forward. So here's what I've been doing. When I notice I'm procrastinating, instead of just pushing myself to just do it, I open up AI and I write.
I am procrastinating on this, and then I insert the task. Can you ask me one question at a time to help me take action on it and overcome my procrastination, and then I let it coach me. One question at a time. Now why this works is because it mirrors a coaching process. It helps you [00:04:00] clarify what you want, explore possible ways forward, and identify what's really getting in the way, and then commit to a specific next step.
Okay, let me give you a simple example. Let's say I'm procrastinating on sending a networking email, like I just mentioned I do many times, and the thought I have is I might not, I might not get the response that I want when I send this, or I might say the wrong thing. Okay, so I feel hesitant. So what do I do?
I avoid writing the email. Now. Instead, I use AI to coach me through my procrastination, and it might ask me something like, what are you making it mean? If you don't get the response you want, and suddenly I can see it. Maybe I'm making it mean that I failed, that they're not interested, that I've done something wrong.
And once I see that [00:05:00] thought, I can question it. Is that actually true or is that just one interpretation? And not only that, but if I do fail, if I don't get the response that I want, it's better to know sooner than later, so then I can take action again asking someone else. Then the AI might ask me what's the worst thing that could realistically happen?
And usually the worst case is not nearly as bad as my brain is making it out to be. And then what is the smallest next step that you can take right now? Not the perfect email, not the final version, just the next step. Maybe it's just opening a blank document. Maybe it's writing the first sentence and suddenly I'm moving.
And this is the shift from overthinking, which causes procrastination to under thinking or realizing and analyzing and [00:06:00] looking at our thinking, which allows us to take action. Now I want to offer you something important here. Taking action will often feel uncomfortable, especially if you're used to wanting to get things right. Especially if you care deeply about your work.
But discomfort doesn't mean that something has gone wrong. It often means you're doing something new. Or you are going to grow by doing what it is. And this is what modern leadership looks like. It's not about waiting until you feel fully confident. That day may never come or fully certain. It's about noticing your thinking and choosing to act anyway.
That's what a modern leader does. So if you wanna try this. Here are a few prompts you can use, and I'll put these in the show notes as well. One, "I'm procrastinating on this [00:07:00] task. Ask me one question at a time to help me take action. Help me identify what I'm thinking that's causing me to avoid this and challenge my thinking if I'm being overly negative or unrealistic.
Help me find the smallest next step I can take right now." Because again, AI is not doing the work for you. It's helping you think differently. And when you think differently, you feel differently and you act differently. So here's what I wanna leave you with. Your procrastination is not a flaw. It's information.
It's showing you what you're thinking and what might get in your way. And now you have a tool to help you work through that. AI can support you, but it cannot take an action for you. That part is still leadership. If this resonates, I encourage you to try [00:08:00] it today. Take one thing you've been putting off.
And run this process and see what shifts. And if you want to go deeper into this kind of work and learn how to coach yourself and others without using ai, this is exactly what we focus on inside the becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader course, where we look at not just what you're doing as a leader, but what you're thinking.
Because that's what changes everything. Alright, see you next week. Bye for now.