I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time, but I kept putting it off.

Kidding.

I actually just thought of this the other day, so my composition of this post is not emblematic of the principle I’ll be discussing.

That said, I have lots of experience with procrastination.

Including procrastination-that’s-not-actually-procrastination-but-something-else-entirely.

Let me start off by saying that there is still a phenomenon that can be defined as procrastination.

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to call this Pure Procrastination.

Pure Procrastination happens when you have a deadline of some sort, and you put off doing the work to meet that deadline. When the time comes to fulfill that deadline, you either have produced nothing, or you’ve produced a half-ass version of what you could have produced, had you not procrastinated.

That’s Pure Procrastination.

There are two other dynamics that are often called procrastination, but aren’t.

They are both procrastination-that’s-not-actually-procrastination-but-something-else-entirely, and they are the subjects of this post.

The first one is something I’m calling Pressured Productivity.

Pressured Productivity is for folks who work best under pressure, and use the deadlines as an incentive to get work done.

I am not one of these people.

I don’t like working under pressure, so when I have a deadline, I get started right away, so I can work in a flowy, spacious vibe.

Melissa, however, is one of those people who loves Pressured Productivity. Well, “loves” might not be the best word, because it still stresses her out sometimes. But it’s definitely her optimal method of work.

And, in fact, since she’s realized that she’s not actually procrastinating but is instead implementing Pressured Productivity, this style of work has gotten more fun for her.

Also, now that Melissa and I have discovered our preferred productivity modes, we’ve figured out ways to work together where I get my flowy spaciousness and she gets her pressured deadlines.

A Flowy Spacious/Pressured Deadline Mix!

In addition to Pressured Productivity, there’s another form of procrastination-that’s-not-actually-procrastination-but-something-else-entirely.

This is something I call Patient Pausing.

While I don’t have a lot of experience or aptitude for Pressured Productivity, Patient Pausing is my friend.

It wasn’t always my friend. Indeed, I used to think I was procrastinating when I was actually Patiently Pausing.

But, as time has gone on and I’ve deepened my relationship to my intuition, I’ve realized that Patient Pausing is a way to let Spirit’s genius manage my life.

Let me give you a recent example.

About six years ago, I heard about a platform called Patreon when a band we love, Walk Off the Earth, started using it to fund their music videos. Patreon is a crowd-funding site used by creatives of all stripes to support their work in the world.

As more and more musicians and other artists we love starting using Patreon, I began to think we should start using it as well.

And here’s where Patient Pausing came into play.

The impetus to start Patreon at that point was a “should.” The idea didn’t have a lot of energy yet, other than as something I was telling myself we should be doing.

Communication with one’s intuition is a personal thing. I have spent many years, and much trial and error, learning to separate the voice of my intuition from the other voices in my head.

Like my “should” voice. Or my “play small” voice. Or any of the other less-than-brilliant voices knocking around in my skull.

I have learned that when it’s not time for me to move ahead yet, even if my “should” voice is very excited about it, the energetic path in front of me feels blocked and/or very small. (As I said, it’s hard to talk about this without sounding vague, because communication with intuition is different with each person.)

So in the case of Patreon, I played the Perfect Pause card.

My “should” voice was telling me to move forward. Not only that, some well-meaning advice givers were telling me to move forward.

But I opted for the Perfect Pause.

A few years went by in the state of Perfect Pause. Every time the question of Patreon came up, I checked in again. My “should” voice remained enthusiastic. My intuition did not.

Before I learned about the Perfect Pause, I might have said that I was procrastinating about starting Patreon.

But since I already knew about procrastination-that’s-not-actually-procrastination-but-something-else-entirely, I knew procrastination was not in play.

Finally, about a year ago, I got the go-ahead from my intuition for Melissa and I to move forward with Patreon. The energetic path in front of us was clear and wide.

Needless to say, it ended up being a perfect time for us to start Patreon.

Had we started earlier, we wouldn’t have built up our online content and mailing list to a place that would have warranted a strong Patreon platform. It was much better to start when we did.

Of course, we didn’t know any of that until after the fact. By using the Perfect Pause, it certainly looked we were being all smart and super Planny McPlannerton about the whole thing.

But we weren’t.

Spirit, on the other hand, gets total credit for the Planny McPlannerton perfection of it all. And we, by invoking the Perfect Pause, get to benefit from Spirit’s brilliance.

So there you have it. The next time you’re giving yourself a hard time for procrastinating, check in.

Are you in Pure Procrastination? Or Pressured Productivity? Or Patient Pausing?

Knowing which mode you’re in can help you know what to do, whether it’s get your butt in gear (Pure Procrastination and Pressured Productivity) or sit on that butt (Patient Pausing).

So here’s to knowing what to do with your butt!

What’s your experience with the 3 modes of “procrastination”? Share your comments below!