This fact was brought home to me this past weekend when I was vending at a genealogy book fair. Several current Clooz customers came up to me and said they had my software but hadn t installed it yet, or had installed it but hadn t used it yet. When I asked them why, they replied that the whole process of organizing was too overwhelming to even begin. This is an overt sign of procrastination, but a less obvious sign of perfectionism. Perfectionism in this context is a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.
Perfectionism can actually lead to procrastination.
In the example of the Clooz customers above, these people are looking at the entire problem and finding the solution unattainable. When that happens, it becomes easier to avoid the problem entirely than to tackle it in bits and chunks. If you re looking at an organizing nightmare and your stress level is mounting, isolate one corner or one stack of paper or one closet that can be tackled. If you can learn to tackle small portions of tasks at a time, you will be able to make progress. If you continue to see the whole picture and get overwhelmed with the task, you ll continue to procrastinate.