Your goal for the week was to start exploring your thoughts and feelings related to time and tasks. 

Now that you’ve discovered what’s going on in your mind, you can start to train your brain to think differently and take different action steps. Changing your actions consistently over time creates new habits. 

You need to be patient with yourself when you are making changes in these areas. You won’t be successful at tackling everything on time as intended when you are learning new ways of operating.

And heck, even once this is mastered, there will still be days when life happens and everything is thrown off course. Or old patterns creep back up again.

This is not an indication that change is not happening. Expect the old stuff to resurface. Be compassionate towards yourself and tell yourself you’ll get back on track tomorrow. 

9 Strategies to Kick Procrastination to the Curb:

1. Your future self will thank you. 

This is a strategy I often utilize. Since procrastination causes more stress, anxiety, and issues for your future self, not procrastinating is a gift to your future self. Next time you are having the urge to put something off, say, “Emily, just get it done. Your future self will thank you.” Then when you get to the next day, or to the deadline and you are not stressing, make sure to thank your past self for getting the task done. 

2. Arrange your workspace so it is free of distractions.

This is *not* an invitation to organize your files or clean your office as a productive procrastination technique. It is removing your phone (putting it on do not disturb mode) or anything else that could steal your attention. Put on music and get the environment right for getting into the flow state with work. If a little organization is required for the immediate task at hand, do that. 

3. Set a timer and …. Get started. 

The most difficult part about getting started is, you guessed it, just starting. Here we can rely on Newton’s First Law of Motion: a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Put a timer on for 10 minutes and start small with your project. You will find that once you get started, it will be easier to keep going. 

4. Use a technique like the Pomodoro Method.

The Pomodoro Method incorporates taking breaks and giving your brain the rest it needs to recharge its battery to have full focus and attention. It also gives you rewards and dopamine for your brain, which is what procrastination provides.

5. Break big projects into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Focus on completing each of the smaller tasks, one at a time, knowing this will accomplish the bigger project. 

6. Credit yourself for what accomplished today.

Carry over any unfinished work to the next day (or when you can put it in your calendar next). Learn to tolerate the fact that there will always be work and items on your to-do list. If you didn’t have work or items on your to-do list, you wouldn’t have a job! Don’t beat yourself up for what you didn’t get done – focus instead on what you did accomplish. 

However, if you are routinely not getting the majority of what you set out to accomplish done, you can troubleshoot around the following questions: 1.) are my expectations of what I can accomplish in one day too high?, 2.) am I prioritizing correctly?, 3.) are my boundaries strict or are other peoples’ agendas getting in my way?, 4.) do I need to work on how much time I allocate for tasks?

7. If your mind drifts while working, just gently bring it back to attention. It is normal for this to happen. 

8. Focus on doing things “good enough” instead of perfect. 

Will my blogs have typos and grammatical errors? Sure. Probably. Am I going to sweat this or wait until they are “perfect” before I get them out to the world? No. Because if it was that way, they would never get out there.

Can you still win your case if your brief has a typo in it? Yes. I’ve seen it happen with my own two eyes. 

9. Give yourself positive feedback on the days when you successfully execute and do not procrastinate.

We want to quiet our inner critic. Part of that is challenging the criticisms and the other part is feeding our brain the good stuff. “Thank you, Emily, for getting the monthly accounting done. I appreciate you taking care of that today and not waiting. Great job keeping that commitment to yourself.” We like positive feedback! Give it to yourself. 

Unlearning the procrastination habit builds trust and confidence in yourself.

When you habitually procrastinate, you are teaching yourself that you are unreliable. Your intention is to do something at x time, then you don’t do it. You are out of integrity with yourself, and you lose trust. When you start keeping these commitments, you build that trust and integrity back up.

You are also giving your brain a new example for what to expect and how you operate. The brain looks to see how you’ve handled the situation in the past for how it is going to operate in the now. “Oh, last time you said you were going to work out, you didn’t.” Your brain fully knows that when you get up in the morning, you are not likely going to work out, despite saying you want to. 

When you start doing differently, then you have new evidence to show your brain what to expect in the future. “Yesterday, you got up and worked out.” So the new expectation is that you will get up and do it today, too. 

Practice, practice, practice.

Adopt a growth mindset. “I am learning how to manage my time. I am learning how to keep commitments to myself. I am learning how to get sh*t done in advance.”  

You didn’t expect yourself to learn to read in two weeks (or you don’t expect your kids to). Logically, we know it takes time and practice to master a new skill or new way of being. Remember this when you get frustrated. 

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”

Zig Zagler

Ready… set…. Go! Start today. Right now. Not tomorrow 😉

Stuck in a procrastination rut? Book a discovery call, so I can pull you out!