Procrastinating is the act of putting off doing something which we know we should be doing. This is not a new aspect of the human condition. It happens to millions of people every year when they set New Year’s resolutions. If you give me your attention, I’ll discuss with you how you can stop procrastinating and just grow it!

What’s Behind Procrastinating

The action behind procrastinating in one word is AVOIDANCE! The person who is procrastinating is attempting to avoid doing something because of the perceived unpleasantness of the thing to be done. This scope of the perceived unpleasantness may be real or imagined but the force of it is enough to compel the person to avoid doing the thing.

Learned And Reinforced Behaviour

Procrastinating is a learned behaviour. Suppose growing up, you were told that every decision you make in your life is worthless. And sometimes you made poor decisions which resulted in poor outcomes. Then the same people who told you that you always make poor decisions come to you and say, “see, what did I say? You made another bad decision again.” That comment reinforces the belief in the mind of the individual that the person does indeed make poor decisions.

Sadly, humans do this type of negative reinforcement a lot of times without considering the impact of those actions. Take a couple hours and watch some video clips of comedians talking about growing up in their homes. You’ll hear story after story of the examples of poor parenting. But you might say, “those comedians are famous so obviously the parenting worked.” Correction, it worked for the few that you see who become famous, the tens of thousands of others are struggling and lost.

The Greek word for this procrastinating behaviour is called Akrasia. It means acting against your better judgment. It could also be very loosely translated as a person lacking self-control or self-discipline.

Factor Which Lead To Procrastinating

No Reward: People can find themselves procrastinating because they don’t clearly see a reward for the task or set of tasks which they have to do. Isn’t it human to want to get some benefit if you put in the effort? No one wants to feel used or like a sucker or worst like a failure for taking their time to do something. If the reward is ambiguous or worst, there is no reward offered, then that task gets procrastination.

Unclear/Unknown: Another reason why a person might be procrastinating is that the task itself is not clearly defined or it is something previously unknown to the person who is assigned the task. It reminds me of a youtube video sketch I saw one time of a lady pretending to be her mother asking her young self to order a pizza on the phone for the first time.

It’s laughable and dramatic how the lady portrays her younger self not knowing how to order a pizza and hesitating to dial the phone, then hanging up when the people answer. Finally the young self gives up. The mother comes into the room and asks, so when is the pizza coming? Only to see the younger self curled up in a ball on the floor weeping, “I couldn’t do it!” Sometimes the task itself is unclear in your mind so you procrastinate.

Disgust/Repulsion: Sometimes a person is procrastinating because the idea of doing the task is so repulsive to him/her, that he/she just can’t do it. This can happen with basic tasks such as cleaning the toilet or taking out the kitty litter. Youth and teens may be grossed out and find ways to delay or avoid doing the task.

Strongly Held Beliefs: Sometimes a person is procrastinating because of strong held beliefs. If someone is against war, the person may be very slow to do the tasks which prepare the person to be a good soldier. Being slow during basic training may cause punishment from the commanding officer. This may in tern lead to more disgust or repulsion against taking part in the training.

How This Translates Into Gardening

For millions of people across the globe, gardening or growing their own food offers zero appeal to them. If you have been procrastinating about growing your food, perhaps you might recognize one of the factors below.

No Food Reward for The Work

You might have been thinking that putting in all that effort to grow food just to get a few tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, or a few other greens is not really a reward for you. Actually, as long as you have enough money to live well, you probably most like won’t be thinking about growing food because the reward is simply not there for you when you compare the task with going to the local big box supermarket and getting whatever you need. Thus you will be procrastinating when it comes to growing a garden.

You are looking it at from the wrong perspective. If you simply compare it to the convenience of the big box supermarket, you’ll always find a reason to poo-poo growing your own food. Let the reward be the challenge accomplished that you can grow something with your own hands. The proof would be in the produce. You get bragging rights among neighbours, friends, and for yourself.

For people who are working class or working poor, the increasing cost of living means that it is become a necessity to grow food. The very tangible reward is that food that you can grow saves you money at the grocery. For this group, it is a survival mechanism. For this group, procrastinating is not an option.

Unclear / Unknown Gardening

Maybe you have been putting off gardening because you simply don’t know what to do. You know you want to grow something but lack clarity. That is perfectly natural for new novice gardeners.

Disgust/Repulsion at Gardening

Maybe you have been putting off gardening because you don’t like to get your dirty. You may be disgusted by the annoying pests and the pokey weeds in the garden too. If those things are repelling you from completing the task then you may have to look more to the rewards of gardening.

Strongly Held Beliefs

Many say gardening can be hard work. You’ve probably heard or saw farmers working from sunrise to past sunset. This strong belief may make gardening more repulsive.

How To Overcome the Procrastination of Gardening

Make the tasks in gardening more enjoyable

As you’re working in the garden, you may want to listen to your favourite podcast, or music. This will take your mind off the undesirable part and make the task more enjoyable. If you’re religious, you might want to sing your favourite hymn or sing a song.

Set time increments and rewards

A great way to fight procrastination is to set a time limit on the task and follow it up with a reward. You can give yourself a treat if you spend at least an hour each day out in your garden.

Make the Task of Gardening Less Daunting

You can make the task of gardening less daunting by learning all you need to learn about the task. Maybe as your first foray into gardening, you can put just two things to grow. Maybe you will decide to grow Jerusalem Artichokes and Mint. These are easy and you can learn about from the articles we wrote about them. Knowledge deepens the impression, the old folks say. When you learn about growing those two crops, it will be easier for you to mentally do it. Also by limiting yourself to only two crops, you make the task more manageable.

Engage Your Curiosity

Curiosity is a very powerful motivator. You can use the power of curiosity to help you learn more about your garden and expand your world. Think about something like earthworms. They are tiny and we almost never think about them. Pro-gardeners know they are super important to a garden. Check out this video created by Gardener Caleb to teach you about earthworms. It’s great for children too to learn about the importance of earthworms. The video is titled START Using This to Get Earthworms In Your Garden!

Join A Daily Garden Challenge with Others

One thing that has been made a new activity fun for me is joining a group of folks in a challenge. Let me share s story with you. Back in 2008 I had heard of wordpress. I snubbed my nose at it because I had learned coding in html. WordPress had just seemed too easy and seemed like cheating to me. When I heard others talking about wordpress and how it was so easy, I ignored them.

Then in 2009, I found a blogging challenge that encouraged participants to setup a wordpress site from scratch and start blogging over a 3-month period. I had two clients who needed a new website and I wanted to rebuild my own site. I used that challenge to try this new wordpress. I never looked back since.

Want to stop procrastinating about gardening? At freshfood4life.com, we’re having our own challenge to help you. It’s called the 2022 Just Get Growing Challenge. From May 15, 2022 until August 31, 2022, you can be part of the challenge along with other gardeners from across Canada and the world. Just start growing anything and everyday take a photo of your garden or a selfie of you in your garden. Post that photo online and tag us on instagram or the other ways. We’ll compile all the photos in a nice short post at the end of the week to help inspire others. For all the details on photo resolution and format, look up the article Freshfood4Life 2022 Just Get Growing Challenge.

Conclusion

Procrastinating is a normal part of the human condition especially when doing your gardening. It’s not unbeatable. I dare say with thyme, you could beet it, and grow in to a real gardener.