Avoiding What?
The most mundane can be made interesting.
If it means avoiding something or ... someone
Grocery shopping isn't my favourite pastime. However, if the in-laws drop round, then a trip to the mall suddenly becomes very attractive indeed.
Isn't it wonderful how flexible one's mind can be?
Offsetting Guilt
The brain has numerous of mechanisms to cope with stress. Because My World follows different rules to the Actual World, all sorts of things are possible and most logical. In the above case, I have atoned for my inaction by performing undesirable but unrelated tasks. The only connection between them and the main task is in my mind. Meanwhile the rest of the world looks on bemused.
Here's what's happening. An unconscious rationalisation and discounting process reduces my guilt by giving me an acceptable excuse as to why I cannot start my dissertation. This rationalisation is a distortion of the actual situation as working on my dissertation is far more important than cleaning the yard or filing. But by discounting the priority of the main task and choosing previously undesirable tasks, I am able to offset my guilt sufficiently to give me peace of mind while I perform them. My unconscious is smart or what?
Check out my post on unstructured procrastination to see how you can use this to your advantage.
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