“I’m not a process person.” The comment always bothers me, as often as I hear it. You are a process person, unless you live in a state of utter chaos or total zen. And there might be a process to the chaos. (Does that sound like, there is a method to the madness? Hm.) Everything is a process. Not necessarily a good process, but it is a process.

The example I use to illustrate that processes don’t need to be good or helpful in order to be a process, is smoking. The smoke break let’s me disconnect from whatever it is I’m stuck on, and gives me the mental space I need to come up with a new direction for or approach. (Sometimes it gives me time to calm down and not use violence against my office mates.) I should find healthier coping mechanisms, a less harmful way to give myself that mental break that I get from smoking, but right now that is my process. The same effect could be achieved by taking a walk outside (just getting up for a bio break doesn’t do it), but right now smoking is my process.

Sometimes the byproduct of the process is what gets us there in the end. Procrastinators may need the pressure of the immediate deadline in order to produce. Rather than putting off all of the work until the last minute, ,breaking up the work into chunks with their own deadlines, and telling myself, ahem, themselves that if this deadline is missed the whole project will fail (which might actually be true) achieves the same levels of anxiety and pressure, and might actually get the job done in time without the sleepless nights.

Whats your process? Does it work for you?