Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination as a Humanitarian and International Development Leader

Are you constantly putting off donor reports, team reviews, or budget tasks — and then beating yourself up for it?

If you're a modern NGO leader, you understand procrastination may not be about laziness at all. In this episode, we uncover how your thought patterns, not your workload, are likely behind your delay — and how this hidden mental loop might be costing you energy, confidence, and productivity.

In this episode you'll discover:

• 3 main emotional triggers that cause procrastination in high-performing humanitarian leaders
• Learn how to identify and overcome the thoughts leading to procrastination
• Get actionable strategies to start tasks now — without waiting to do them last minute

Tune into this episode to reclaim your focus, ditch the guilt, and become the intentional, impact-driven leader your team needs.

"Becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader" course - registration for May 2025 now open!  

What Is Your Leadership Style?  Free Quiz:

Want to know how to lead better?  It starts by understanding your leadership style.   To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.  Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

This podcast empowers international development and humanitarian NGO UN leaders to achieve high performance teams, fostering diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, overcoming burnout and overwhelm, while maximizing impact and productivity.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Discover the primary causes of procrastination and how to overcome them on today's episode!

Welcome to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast. The podcast helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress. Burnout and overwhelm. I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey peace. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hello, my modern NGO leaders. I hope you're having a wonderful week. And [00:01:00] in today's episode we're gonna talk about something that I think all of us experience at one time or another, and that is procrastination.

In this episode, you're going to discover what is the commonly misunderstood reason we procrastinate. How to diagnose the source of your procrastination as a modern NGO leader and how to overcome procrastination so you also avoid shame and guilt.

First of all, I think it's helpful to look at what is the definition of procrastination. I think most of us are familiar with it, what it means. But just to tell you that when I looked on the Googles, the definition was the action of delaying or postponing something. I look at procrastination being a symptom of [00:02:00] a bigger issue, which I also teach in my course Becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development L eader.

And that is what I call high performance syndrome, which is where leaders take action with good intentions, but end up being more busy than productive. So for example being available all the time because they have the good intentions of wanting to be a good leader or being a team player, but they actually end up creating the opposite result because when you're always available, you're really never available.

So procrastination is one of the symptoms of this bigger issue of high performance syndrome. But I do think it's worth looking at procrastination on its own because it's so common and there are several reasons behind why we tend to procrastinate. So before [00:03:00] we get into this, I think also it's interesting to think about why is it worth overcoming procrastination?

I mean, we could just accept that sometimes we procrastinate and sometimes I have accepted when I procrastinate that I'm delaying something and I recognize that I'm delaying it make peace with it and it's fine. But most of the time when we are procrastinating, we are actually being less productive because we're not getting as much done. We have a tendency to wait to do something until the last minute, and when we do that, we might not be able to spend the time we would like to or to really do the the quality job that we would like to do. And even though I know some of you probably tell yourselves that you work better under pressure with tighter deadlines, really it's more just that you are [00:04:00] used to operating in a way where the urgency creates this focused discipline for you. So the question is, how can you create that focused discipline without having to procrastinate or do everything at the last minute? So another thing to note is that a lot of times when we procrastinate, not only are we avoiding a feeling, which is really the cause of procrastination. That we are avoiding doing something because we don't want to feel a certain way. And this is something I also teach in becoming the modern humanitarian and development leader, that in cognitive behavior theory our feelings are basically symptoms of a thought that we are having.

So a perspective that we're taking about something. [00:05:00] For example, I don't want to do that. If we tell ourselves I don't want to do that, we're gonna feel demotivated or discouraged. And so understanding that when we procrastinate, we are really just avoiding a feeling and that feelings are caused by thoughts.

It can become helpful in understanding the reasons, the deeper reasons behind why we procrastinate, which I'm gonna share with you in a minute. But just to say that when we're procrastinating, we likely have feelings like anxiety or fear or overwhelm. And so we don't wanna feel that, we wanna push it aside and so we end up doing other things like other focusing on other tasks, and we tell ourselves that that will make us feel better.

But in actuality, you still have that fear, anxiety, overwhelm. It might not be front and center, but it's still there in the background while you're doing these other things and while you're procrastinating. [00:06:00] And not only that, but on top of that feeling, you're going to have guilt or shame. Because a lot of times we also give ourselves a hard time when we procrastinate.

So I think it's good to know that sometimes when we procrastinate we are tricking ourselves into thinking that we're gonna feel better because we're procrastinating when in actuality we're act, we're really compounding our suffering because we're not only feeling the fear, overwhelm, whatever, but we're also feeling the the feelings of guilt and shame and so on for not doing the thing.

So the question is what is, what are the thoughts and feelings that are behind the reasons that we procrastinate? So I'm going to go over some of the more common ones and then what you can do about how to overcome these [00:07:00] feelings and thoughts. So step one in overcoming procrastination is just really understanding what is the feeling that you are avoiding, right? What is the feeling that is causing you to procrastinate? There should be one primary, like the strongest feeling that you have. You might have several negative feelings, like anxiety or fear or overwhelm, but which one is strongest for you?

And that will help you determine where to start. So for example, a common feeling that causes procrastination is the feeling of overwhelm, which remember, like I said before, in cognitive behavior theory, we learn that our feelings are oftentimes created by our thoughts. So the types of thoughts that are often accompanied by [00:08:00] or creating the overwhelm when we are procrastinating are thoughts, like, I don't know where to start, or This is too much, or this is going to take forever, or This is too hard. So for example, I remember having to do proposals where some, you know, my supervisor basically sent me an email with the guidelines for the proposal and they could be over a hundred pages.

And just looking at that huge document and all the details and all the things that needed to be done could be very, um, it just, the thought, this is so big, I don't know where to start, would create the feeling of overwhelm for me.

So if we follow or we, we give into this feeling of overwhelm and we want to avoid it, a lot of times we [00:09:00] will do so by avoiding taking action until the last minute, until we have to. So that's the first one is overwhelm.

The second common feeling, which drives procrastinating that we want to often try to avoid is the feeling of anxiety and or fear. So a lot of times fear is being driven or is is coming from a place of not wanting to fail.

So this is also another high performance syndrome thought or a way of working, which is this needs to be perfect. In other words, perfectionism. So if it is not perfect, if you don't make the thing perfect, then it means you're not good enough at your job or you're not worthy of your position.

And of course, when we think that [00:10:00] we're going to feel like, we're going to feel anxiety or fear of failure, and so we're also going to avoid doing the thing. So here are some other thoughts that might accompany this and also lead to this anxiety and or fear. So like, I have to get this right, which is also in line with the perfectionism, or I need more information before I start.

A lot of times we trick ourselves into thinking that we need more information or we need to ask more people for information for or for their help or knowledge because we tell ourselves we our way isn't good enough or we don't know enough. But this is also another form of procrastination. Of course, it is helpful to gather information, but only up until an extent, right ?After a certain point, there's only so much information we can [00:11:00] gather and then it becomes a form of procrastinating. And another one actually is I don't know what I'm doing when we tell ourselves I don't know what I'm doing.

That also probably creates a, or that also creates a fear of failure and also a creates this, um, this wanting to avoid whatever the thing is. So an example of this might be where someone has asked you to put together a research paper and you feel fearful because you want it to be perfect. And so you tell yourself you don't know what you're doing.

You tell yourself you need more information. You tell yourself that it needs to be perfect. And those, those types of thoughts create feelings like anxiety, fear, and then if we want to avoid that, we will do so in part by [00:12:00] avoid taking action once again, or taking too much action by reviewing things too much or spending too much time on gathering information.

So that is also just another form of procrastinating and getting something done. Okay.

And then finally, the third common feeling that is associated with procrastination, which I've seen with a lot of leaders, is dislike or opposite of enjoyable. So the feeling of dislike or the opposite of enjoyable.

It's created by thoughts such as this is going to be horrible or I'm not good at this. I used to experience this as well. I would procrastinate around reviewing budgets because I told myself I wasn't very good at it. I told myself I didn't enjoy it. A lot of times those things go hand in hand.

When you don't enjoy something, it's [00:13:00] because we also think we're not good at it. And so I would just avoid it. But what I found over time is that by doing, by thinking these things, it actually created me avoiding doing it, me putting it off, and, and so having to do it at the last minute, which also often leads to more errors and mistakes and so on.

That's the first step of this process of overcoming procrastination is just understand which of these three main feelings or types of feelings are you feeling, because that will help you to understand the thought process behind them like I just shared. And then we're gonna go into how to overcome that thought process or what to do about it.

Just to also remind you that the feelings, like guilt and shame are the result of procrastination and not the cause of [00:14:00] it. So in other words, we don't procrastinate because of guilt and shame. We feel guilt and shame because we are procrastinating. And I think there's important distinction there because these other feelings, anxiety and fear, overwhelm and dislike or the opposite of enjoyable are causing our procrastination. And then when we procrastinate, the result is we also feel on top of these things, we feel guilt and shame.

Okay, so now on to step two. Step two is based on which feeling you are experiencing. So that's why in step one you need to identify which of those three bucket feelings, your feeling, and then we can take action accordingly to overcome the thing or overcome procrastination.

So the first one, like we said, was overwhelm caused by thoughts such as this is too much. So when we [00:15:00] have a feeling of overwhelm, it basically means that we're looking at something as this huge thing that we have to do.

And so in order to be able to take action on it, we just need to break it down. We just need to choose a place to start to look at things in smaller pieces. So for example, with the proposal, like asking yourself, what is the first step I can take in this? Like maybe even just choosing a place to, to start and start breaking down the steps that you'll need to take in order to complete the proposal.

Maybe step one is just reading it. And maybe if you feel too overwhelmed by reading a hundred pages, maybe it's just just reading the overview or something like that. Also, a helpful question to ask yourself is, how can I make this simple? So the opposite of overwhelm, which usually is some kind of complicated or feeling of something being hard, is making [00:16:00] something simple.

So how can we make this simple?

If you feel primarily anxiety and or fear, once again coming primarily from a thought such as, this needs to be perfect or I don't know how to do this, or I need more information, then a great way to overcome this is to give yourself a limit to how much time you need to prepare before working on the actual thing and how much time you have need to review it before you submit it?

So limiting the time you, you need to complete the task and even, the number of times you review it before submitting it and maybe even asking someone to hold you accountable. Maybe you move the deadline forward so it's closer so you don't have as much time to get the thing done. Or you're, you're creating like a [00:17:00] false sense of urgency if that's what really works for you in terms of getting you focused. But once again, ideally we'd be able to create that ability to be focused without the urgency behind it. Also, I think it's good to understand that, when we're trying to be perfect, first of all, you know, perfect is subjective. So every person's definition of perfect will be different. But also a lot of times we create the opposite of perfect, especially when we procrastinate because we have less time to do something.

It's, done in a rush or with not the quality that we would like to. And so sometimes perfectionism, when it creates procrastination especially, can actually lead to the opposite. And then finally, if you have the primary feeling of dislike, which is [00:18:00] fueled by thoughts such as, I don't like doing this.

If you can switch from, I have to do this to, or I hate doing this, to I get to do this, it can be a very powerful motivator and it's just a simple switch of words. But how can you actually be grateful for getting to review budgets rather than resenting having to do it? So for example, when I was reviewing budgets before and I noticed that I had a lot of procrastination around it, I worked on telling myself that actually, by working on these budgets, it was allowing me to develop skills that I can use in the future . And from this I will be able to be a more rounded project manager because part of being a project manager is being able to really understand or review budget.

So it's an important [00:19:00] skill set to have. So rather than thinking, oh, I have to do this, I was thinking, oh, I get to do this so I can become stronger and better at what I do. So remember that you disliking something also is just an opinion that you have. It's not a fact. So you telling yourself, I hate budgets.

It's just an opinion you have about budgets. For me, for example, like when I started my business, my thought was a lot of times, I hate selling or I hate marketing. But that has evolved over time. I've worked on that thought to change my opinion, and now I am a lot more open to selling and marketing, partly also because I've changed my perspective around it.

So once again, a really good thing to remember with procrastination, whether you take action or not, you are [00:20:00] going to be feeling uncomfortable probably either way. So if you're assigned something like this big donor report to write or whatever, and you suddenly have a feeling of overwhelm, if we procrastinate, we're also going to have that feeling of overwhelm.

We're just trying to push it off to the side, but it will still be there somewhere in the background. And on top of that, like I said before, because we're procrastinating you're also going to be creating feelings of guilt and shame very likely, so you will actually feel worse. And so actually, even though a lot of times we procrastinate because we're trying to feel better by avoiding a feeling, we actually end up feeling even worse. And so by taking action on the thing and just starting, and these tips I gave you today will really help you to do that, then you can avoid the guilt and shame. You will probably feel a lot more [00:21:00] motivated once you do start taking action.

In the beginning you might feel the overwhelm, but you'll be able to overcome that through taking action. And on the other side of that, be more proud of yourself for having done so. So I think it's just good to remember that as well.

Okay. So just as a quick review and wrap up for today's episode, remember to when you are overcoming or wanting to overcome procrastination, first, identify the primary feeling and the thought that is likely causing that feeling.

So, for example, overwhelm may be caused by the thought this is going to take forever, or I don't know where to start. If you identify the feeling first, like, oh, I'm feeling overwhelmed. Okay, what is the thought causing that? It's, it's because I'm thinking this is too much or it's going to take forever.

Okay? Then [00:22:00] the second step is once you have that feeling, you can determine the best way to overcoming procrastinating. By taking some form of action, but based on addressing that thought and that feeling as per the examples I gave previously. And then finally remember that you're going to be uncomfortable procrastinating because you'll not only be avoiding a feeling that will still be there, like, overwhelm or anxiety or fear or dislike, but you're also likely going to feel guilt and shame for doing the procrastination. So you can either do that, and compound your feelings of being uncomfortable, or you can just decide to take action based on the steps I gave you previously and be uncomfortable for a little while, but also [00:23:00] without the guilt and shame.

It's your choice. Okay.

And if you want to learn more about what I've talked about with high performance syndrome and thoughts and how to overcome them, such as the belief, this needs to be perfect, please look into signing up for the May course, becoming the modern humanitarian and development leader.

I will put a link in the show notes. And we are going to be really breaking down how to look at some of these thoughts that are creating these feelings that are making us less productive, even though they come from good intentions. Alright, until next week, keep broadening your impact. Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do or to let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is a [00:24:00] first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz. What is your leadership style? You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz. Fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now. Your team will Thank you for it.