Playing online games. Sorting your considerable collection of vinyl records. Reading reviews of gadgets you’ve already purchased. What do these activities have in common? They’re all things you’ve probably done recently to avoid whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.
In other words, you’ve been procrastinating.
If you’ve chosen to read this article, perhaps as a way of postponing something else, you’re certainly not alone. Most of us struggle with procrastination to some extent. When we’re trying to make progress, we tend to believe we’re either working or procrastinating. It’s one or the other – never both.
More importantly, we often attach moral value to these labels. If we’re working, we’re productive and disciplined. If we’re procrastinating, we’re lazy, undeserving or lacking willpower.
This mindset makes life much harder than it needs to be.
When it comes to estate planning, procrastination carries an additional burden. Creating your estate plan means thinking about difficult topics – mortality, responsibility, family and financial affairs. It’s understandable that many people delay starting, even when they know it’s important.
Perhaps it’s time we thought differently about procrastination.
Estate Planning Is Often an Emotional Task
Many people approach productivity as though they’re fighting a battle with themselves. Success means defeating the part of yourself that wants to avoid discomfort, postpone difficult decisions or simply rest.
The problem with this approach is that we spend so much time criticising ourselves that we rarely stop to understand why we’re avoiding something in the first place.
That hesitant part of yourself isn’t necessarily lazy or self-sabotaging. More often, it’s cautious. It’s fearful. It doesn’t like feeling uncomfortable.
Estate planning brings together many uncomfortable conversations and decisions. Who will inherit your assets? Who will care for your children? Who will administer your estate? What happens if you’re no longer able to make decisions for yourself?
These aren’t everyday questions, and they’re certainly not easy ones.
Sometimes procrastination isn’t about avoiding responsibility. It’s about circling something important until you’re ready to engage with it.
Not All Procrastination Is Created Equal
We often treat all procrastination as equally harmful, but this simply isn’t true.
There are different forms of procrastination:
Negative Procrastination
This is the procrastination we’re all familiar with:
- Endless social media scrolling.
- Watching another episode of your favourite series.
- Finding increasingly creative ways to avoid getting started.
Negative procrastination moves us further away from our goals.
Neutral Procrastination
Sometimes we avoid one task by completing another productive activity:
- Sorting your emails.
- Tidying your workspace.
- Organising your financial documents.
While these activities aren’t directly related to estate planning, they may still create a sense of accomplishment and prepare us psychologically for more difficult tasks.
Positive Procrastination
Positive procrastination remains within the orbit of the task itself.
Examples include:
- Reading about estate planning before starting.
- Learning more about the role of an executor.
- Thinking carefully about who you wish to benefit from your estate.
- Gathering important financial and personal information.
Positive procrastination can be helpful because it allows us to reflect and prepare. Of course, if it continues indefinitely, it may eventually stall meaningful progress.
The important distinction is recognising that not all delays are failures.
Ask Different Questions
A useful way to escape the guilt that often accompanies procrastination is to stop asking:
“Am I working or procrastinating?”
Instead, ask:
“How relevant is this, and how comfortable am I?”
These two questions can completely change how we approach our goals.
Relevance
An activity is relevant if it moves you closer to achieving your goal.
If your goal is to finalise your estate plan, relevant activities might include:
- Completing your Last Will and Testament.
- Updating beneficiary information.
- Choosing an executor.
- Reviewing your important documents.
- Learning more about estate planning.
Comfort
Comfort simply asks whether an activity helps you feel emotionally capable of continuing.
We all want to make progress, but we also naturally seek to avoid unnecessary discomfort. Progress becomes significantly more difficult when we’re overwhelmed, anxious or mentally exhausted.
The reality is that meaningful progress usually requires both relevance and comfort.
Find the Balance Between Progress and Comfort
Many of us operate with vague objectives such as:
“I should get my estate planning done.”
The problem is that vague goals make it difficult to identify what meaningful progress actually looks like.
Instead, be explicit and specific.
Ask yourself:
- What exactly do I want to complete today?
- What information do I need before I begin?
- What is the smallest meaningful step I can take?
Your goal doesn’t need to be:
“Complete my entire estate plan today.”
Perhaps it becomes:
“Decide who I would like to appoint as my executor.”
Or:
“Read through my Will before making any changes.”
Or simply:
“Create a list of my important assets.”
Small victories matter.
The Magic Wand Question
If you don’t trust your own judgement about which task is most important, consider asking yourself one simple question:
“If I could wave a magic wand and instantly complete one task without any effort, which task would I choose?”
Notice that this isn’t asking what you should do next. Instead, it’s asking what you would most like to have done.
Your answer will often reveal the task that’s both highly relevant and highly uncomfortable.
Perhaps you’ve been postponing signing your Will. Perhaps you’ve delayed discussing your wishes with your family. Perhaps you’ve avoided updating documents you’ve known were outdated for years.
Once you’ve identified the answer, don’t attempt to tackle everything at once. Break it into manageable pieces and focus on completing a single meaningful step.
Estate Planning Doesn’t Need to Happen All at Once
Building your estate plan isn’t a race. It’s a process.
Many people delay estate planning because they imagine it as one large, intimidating task. In reality, it consists of many smaller decisions that can be completed over time.
Progress might simply mean:
- Completing one document.
- Reviewing one decision.
- Asking one question.
- Taking one administrative step forward.
Meaningful progress rarely arrives in giant leaps. More often, it arrives through consistent, bite-sized actions.
Final Thoughts
Perhaps the question isn’t whether you’re procrastinating.
Perhaps the better question is whether you’re moving, however slowly, towards something that matters.
Estate planning asks us to think about our legacy, our loved ones and the values we hope to carry forward. It’s understandable that this can sometimes feel uncomfortable.
Give yourself permission to start slowly.
Find the balance between relevance and comfort. Replace guilt with curiosity. Take the smallest meaningful step available to you and allow that progress to build over time.
That single step may be all that’s required to begin.
Your estate plan doesn’t have to be completed today. It simply needs to be started.
If you haven’t yet created your estate plan, start here:
👉 The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Estate Planning: What an Estate Plan Is and Why You Need One
