Do you feel so overwhelmed by the sheer number of things on your to do list that some don’t get a look in? The 127 unanswered emails, book the dental check-up, call the accountant, finish the assignment or strategy and book the tickets.
Have you mastered the art of excuses? Feeling a bit off color (a coupe of sneezes) so I’ll do it later, it’s not that important, just one more cat video on Facebook, maybe it’s not good enough or better leave it as I’m bound to get a better offer. Anyone relate to this?
Procrastinate now, don’t put it off. – Ellen DeGeneres
Procrastination is something that most of us have done and will continue to do and I had a cracking good go at it earlier this week. Yes, the decisive and goal and action orientated “time waits for no one (man)” kinda girl was struck down by indecision and it soon morphed into procrastination.
Naturally, with a blog, I often have several articles on the go however, the article of the week takes precedence and I get to it with laser focus – although not this week. Switching from one article to another, not being able to decide the best one to post on the blog, I stopped writing. “Best” is where an issue with procrastination can often start and with a desire to be perfect, approved of, useful or some other form of self-esteem boosting action your best-laid plans can be hijacked by inaction.
After walking around in circles for a while and weighing up the merit of each article I had a BFO (Blinding flash of the obvious), an answer from intuitive guidance beyond the realm of my analytical mind – “Write about procrastination.” Awesome, a third option and an obvious one now it would seem – back to the keyboard.
“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”– Theodore Roosevelt
Procrastination at its worse and in particular with serial procrastination, can invoke feelings of guilt, failure and diminished self-esteem.
As psychologists, scientists and time-management pundits demonstrate in their plethora of research there are as many theories and remedies for procrastination as there are excuses to avoid to doing a task.
We live in an age of instant gratification; need, want and have to have it and make-it-happen now. Speed to market and the increased competition with the growth in online business, any pause or hesitation with making a decision can bring the fear of the death knell to your entrepreneurial career or life, as you know it.
So is procrastination always “the thief of time” or can procrastination be a good thing?
5 tips to turn procrastination into action
Behaviour has an intention- could your procrastination be self-protection
What if that hesitation or seeming avoidance is your intuition stepping in asking you to wait? Perhaps the intention behind the wait is a form of self –protection or preservation, or wait as the timing is off or wait to see if there is an unforeseen and better opportunity.
- When you have a niggling feeling about moving forward rather than immediately write it off as procrastination, go quietly and sit with it. Wait a little while and see if there is valuable information for you to access in a quiet and mindful state. Then take the appropriate course of action.
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. – Napoleon Bonaparte
Reframe and reward
Pre circa mid 1990’s I loathed doing my tax and would always leave it to the very last minute causing sleepless nights and stress. That was until I decided to do a reframe doing my tax and give myself a reward for completing it on time.
How to reframe a task and make it an enjoyable and rewarding experience
- I set aside an entire afternoon to complete the task and I decided upon a reward to give myself once completed.The reward could be anything from a day of rest to a day trip adventure.
- Whilst doing my tax in real time I played music, had cups of my favorite tea downed with a delicious treat.
- I acknowledged that I liked and did well with arithmetic at school so I focussed on that as an enjoyable component of the task
- I facilitated a process for myself that we NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioners refer to as future pacing (I take you through it on the The Mindset Genius ™ Guided, Dynamic Power Meditation for Goal Achievement (MP3). In simplified terms, I took an imaginary walk into the future to a time where I had finished the task and imagined myself feeling happy and enjoying a reward for having finished the task. I “anchored” the happy feeling to doing my tax
For the past 20 years I no longer procrastinate about doing my tax – I almost look forward to it as it’s now an enjoyable task and as for the need to reward myself, those days are long gone.
It is not really work if you are having fun.” – Pierre Omidyar
Get up and go
Engaging in a physical activity or simply taking time out to make a cuppa can serve as a pattern interrupt. The change of movement in your body can help to initiate a move towards action.
- Go for a short walk around the block or your work abode
- Do some stretches, skipping or jumping up and down
- Make a cuppa
Remember “Emotion=energy in motion”
Laser focus
When you have too much on the to-do-list, inaction can become the default position, you can go into overwhelm and at worse become immobilized.
- Create a dedicated time frame; it could be broken into hourly or a daily frame for a specific task and include break times. Stick to the allocated times for completing each task
- “Keep your attention on your intention” and go for laser-like focus; you are at one with the task giving it your undivided attention. Switch off social media programs unless you are posting, tweeting etc.
- Unless you need your email program or other programs on, switch them off while doing a specific task online i.e. writing an article or a strategy
- Be mindful that when unrelated thoughts rise to allow them to pass by like clouds without attachment to them. The practice of mindfulness can enhance your focus
Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. – Peter Drucker
You find what you go looking for
You don’t need to go looking for trouble as a distraction, it will find you. When you look for obstacles they will generally oblige and turn up for you.
External influences out of our control, illness, technology issues, setbacks – you name it we all experience these things. How and when you deal with the issue is what drives you towards productivity or procrastination.
Ask yourself the following questions in regard to procrastinating about the task and/or about each interruption
- What will happen if I don’t do it now?
- What will happen if I do it now?
- What are the positive gains from doing it now?
Looking to turn procrastination into action? Implement these tips and get going.
Leave a Reply