How to stop procrastinating and overcome it every time
We’ve all been there: starting at a daunting task, knowing we need to start, but somehow always finding a reason to put it off until later. Procrastination is more than just a time-waster; it’s a barrier to our goals and dreams. But what if you could beat procrastination with a few simple steps?
In this blog post, we’ll explore four effective steps to conquering the procrastination monster and getting things done easily and happily.
Want to know what the best part is? You might even be able to do most of the procrastinating beating techniques in your head!
How do you stop procrastinating?
1. Get super specific
2. List out all the benefits
3. Visualize the outcome
4. Start with something easy
Without further procrastination… let’s get into it, shall we?
Step 1: Get super Specific
One of the main reasons you procrastinate is because tasks seem vague and overwhelming. More specifically, you’re not really sure what outcome you’re aiming for. Having more clarity about your outcome will allow you to start feeling motivated to achieve it.
Now this is as simple as writing down a short statement describing precisely the outcome you’re looking for. This step is vital, don’t cheat yourself with vague, “un-measurable” outcomes. Sometimes this takes a bit of refining, but here’s how that process might look:
Option A: “I need to write a blog post.” (This doesn’t really get me going at all – when I read that I still feel like procrastination will beat me because I have no idea where to start?!)
Option B: “I intend to write a blog post about motivation and procrastination (Now we’re getting a bit more specific – the scope of what I need to do is less overwhelming)
Option C: “I intend to write a short, easy-to-read blog post about beating procrastination that’s immediately actionable even for master procrastinators.” (Now I can more clearly see what I need to do and how I will know when I get there.)
Option C is clearly the most specific. That’s the kind of specificity you are aiming for. You’ll find that even by just coming to a super specific outcome you will already feel a sense of accomplishment and immediately be more motivated and energised to push your desire to procrastinate to the side and get going!
P.S. Your mind thrives on specifics because it gives you a clearer sense of direction and focus. Your mind is always looking to serve you and give you more of what you want, as long as you are very clear in your instructions and the outcomes you are choosing to focus on.
Have you heard of desire power?
Step 2: List out all the benefits
Have you stopped to think about how achieving your outcome or completing the task at hand would benefit you?
There’s something to be gained in everything you do and more often than not, the benefits of overcoming procrastination and achieving an outcome lies in the impact it will have in your life and on the things that are important to you.
Let’s look at exercise as an example. Currently, you might be at this stage:
“if I exercise more, then I will be healthier.”
That’s technically true, it doesn’t really get to the real reason WHY you would like to exercise more so it doesn’t really have any effect in helping you overcome procrastination at all.
Dig a little deeper. Perhaps you want to exercise more so that
– You feel attractive
– You feel stronger & more confident.
– You may love yourself more,
– You feel like you could do anything
– You wake up every day with more energy than you can used to
– You can finally have the stamina to play your kids’ favourite game for more than 5 minutes and be their favourite parent 😉
Whatever the reason, thinking about (and listing out) all the benefits of achieving your goal and will most certainly empower you beat procrastination! I mean, I don’t want to earn “x” amount of money every month so that I can look at it in my bank account. NO! I would like to earn it so that I can go on holiday with my wife, eat out at nice restaurants, invest in my future, save up to buy things that I love using, be generous and charitable towards worthy causes, etc.
That’s the kind of stuff that motivates me to beat procrastination and get going!
P.S. For everything we do there’s a sense of motivation to get “Away” from something that you resist or dislike and also to move “Towards” something that you desire or love. Moving away only gets you started, but moving towards a desirable outcome truly inspires and motivates you to stop procrastinating and achieve your outcomes – that’s why this step works so powerfully!
Step 3: Visualize the outcome
Visualization is a powerful tool that helps you see the end result and experience the satisfaction of success.
Remember, success is not external. Success is a feeling. The more that you can connect, visualize, see and feel the moment of success, the easier you will be able to overcome procrastination and stay motivated. A successful feeling energizes and inspires!
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Your mind doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s imagined. So teach it what it looks like to achieve success and it will help you get there!
Here's what a visualization process that beats procrastination might look like:
1. Close your eyes and relax for a second with deep breaths.
2. Repeat the outcome in your head a few times (the super specific one you got earlier).
3. With your eyes still closed, imagine the moment that you successfully achieve the outcome. Do it in as much detail as you can. Hearing what you would hear, seeing what you would see and feeling how you would feel. Forgot about focusing on how you did it, just imagine you did!
4. Affirm to yourself all the empowering, descriptive details as if you have already achieved your outcome and beaten procrastination.
5. Do your best to add a positive feeling or emotion to the process all while visualizing the outcome. If you could feel gratitude or appreciation that would be great! If you could feel joy, happiness or excitement, that would really be amazing! If you could feel love and peace – that’s the ultimate!
6. Finally, as the feeling winds down, slowly take a few good deep breaths in and out. As you exhale, let go of your expectations of “How” you will achieve the outcome as well as your attachment to the outcome (I.e. let go of “if I do not achieve this or finish this, I am a failure…”)
You can do a whole lot more with visualization, too!
Step 4: Start with something easy
Getting started is often the hardest part. Why make it even harder by choosing to start with the most challenging or difficult part of achieving your outcome or goal. Conventional teaching says that you should get the most difficult part out of the way first. I have found it is best to start with the easiest part, do it successfully, then build confidence and momentum to continue moving forward and whacking the procrastination mole.
If you were motivated enough to take on the most difficult part of achieving your goal you probably wouldn’t be reading about overcoming procrastination right now, would you? I certainly wouldn’t.
So how do you find the best place to start so that you can overcome procrastination easily?
1. Make a list of every single part of the task or action that you COULD TAKE in order to achieve your goal or outcome. it doesn’t matter whether it is big or small, easy or difficult, realistic or unrealistic, or whether you think it would have a huge impact. Just write it down.
2. Now look at your list and make a star next to each of the items that you think would be easy to do.
P.S. At this point you could start right away if you feel a burst of energy. If you don’t, read further.
3. Go through your list again and put a circle next to each action that would have a really big or significant impact in helping you complete the task/achieve the outcome/goal.
4. Finally, look at your list and identify those activities that are both easy to do (the stars) and impactful (the circles). Start with those – they are your golden behaviours.
Congratulations!
If you followed all the steps properly and did them to the best of your ability, you should be in a space now where you feel ready to beat procrastination so that it is no longer a barrier to your success!
Do yourself a favour and learn to celebrate yourself for each step that you accomplish and every positive action that you take. It conditions your mind to associate positive emotions with taking action which will allow you to prevent yourself from procrastinating and achieve all your goals a lot faster than what you did in the past.
Still can't beat procrastination? Do this.
If you still lack motivation or an underlying tone of negative emotionality, it is likely that your pattern of procrastination is rooted a lot deeper. Most often, the underlying root causes could be:
– A feeling/belief of not being good enough to achieve your goal or something associated to it.
– A pattern of guilt or shame that you may have subconsciously conditioned with achieving goals or getting things done.
– A deeper sense of low self-worth where you do not feel like you are worthy or deserving of achieving a certain level of success.
– An inner conflict where it is almost like 2 different parts of you are competing against each other. One is trying to hold you back and sabotage you while the other is pushing you forward.
If you feel like these underlying causes ring true for you or you would like to explore other reasons why you procrastinate AND you would like to overcome procrastination for good, consider seeing a coach. Ask yourself, what is this problem worth to you? What would it cost you in a few years if you couldn’t solve this problem on your own?
