Tuesday, March 02, 2021

HSPs, Overwhelm and Procrastination

I tend to be a horrible procrastinator!

Now, I'm not for a moment trying to claim that procrastination is part of the HSP trait... but the more I think about it, the more I recognize that sometimes there is a link there.


For example, I will put off doing things I "have to" do, when I also know that those things are likely to leave me feeling overstimulated and strung out. 

That one's pretty obvious! I believe that happens to many who are Highly Sensitive.

However, more often I end up procrastinating because I will sit down in the morning and look at all the things that need to be done on that day, and then I will realize that the workload at hand is huge, and then I will start feeling overwhelmed because of the realization that there is no way I'll get it all done.

And when I start feeling overwhelmed, I can also sense that the procrastination starts to set in... as a result of feeling frustration and futility. Feeling overwhelmed knocks my actual productivity for a loop, and I end up sitting there, sorting my pencils or something else... a bit like a deer caught in the proverbial headlights.

"What's the point of even STARTING, when it's perfectly obvious I won't be able to FINISH?"

This is a part of my life that has become more pronounced as I have aged and have realized that there so often is "more LIFE than there is ME to deal with it."

When I was younger, I would just forge ahead regardless, exhaust myself and end up feeling depressed and dejected at my "inability" to handle life's workload.

There days, I'm far less willing to end up like that.

With that, comes the realization of just how important it is for HSPs to strive for "simplicity" in their lives. The fewer "plates" we have to try to keep spinning, the more likely we are to be able to manage that creeping sensation that we're about to become overwhelmed by the task(s) at hand. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify...




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