All of us are plagued by something that we don’t want to do, and we’ve been putting it off for some time. It may be starting a business, going back to school, pursuing a new certification, taking a compliance training, starting a workout regimen, re-organizing the garage or our personal space, balancing our checkbook, or maybe estate planning. Whatever it is, there is something that is undesirable about it to us.
We do not associate any pleasure with that activity, or we’re afraid of it for some reason. Perhaps tackling our finances will reveal a weakness or imbalance in our spending. Perhaps going back to school will take us away from our family and friends. It may be that going for that new certification may suck out 6 months of our life for study and exam preparation. Whatever it is, it is unsavory to us, but we also know it is important, and that’s why we’ve been putting it off. We know we need to do it. As a recovering procrastinator myself, these are the techniques I use personally to avoid relapse:
1. Get negative leverage on yourself – Think about all the bad things, detractors, inconveniences, negatives, and painful outcomes that will come from not taking action on that thing
2. Think Nike – Just do it
3. Don’t aim for perfection – Getting started is often the hardest part. Don’t aim for perfection, or analyze it until you are blue in the face, just aim for getting it started, and then aim to get it done. Remember, done is better than perfect.
4. The 5-minute start – Set a countdown timer for 5 minutes, start whatever it is you’ve been putting off, and then when 5 minutes is up, you can either stop and reward yourself, or keep going if you want, and reward yourself.
5. The countdown timer – Set a timer for 20-30-40 or 50 minutes and work on that thing just for that amount of time. When you are finished you can either stop or continue with the task. In either case though, you should reward yourself for the effort.
6. Break it up – Take that overwhelming activity and break it down into bite size chunks that we can handle. Smaller activities with shorter timelines are more motivating. You can’t iron your whole wardrobe, but maybe you can iron one shirt every day over two weeks.
7. Reward greater difficulty – When you’ve done something you really don’t want to do, reward yourself for doing it. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward.
8. Get positive leverage on yourself – Think about all the positive benefits, blessings, and pleasurable outcomes that will come from taking action on that thing
I mentioned rewards a lot. The reward needs to be something motivating, but also good for you, because if you’re going to reward yourself often (as you should) then the reward can’t be a King Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup every time – even though I would love that. The reward needs to be something healthy, satisfying, and that signals self-appreciation to your brain. It could be taking a break, going for a walk, taking 15 minutes to read a little bit of that novel you’ve been loving so much, listening to a song, doing a little yoga, texting a friend, or watching a short funny clip on YouTube. Whatever it is, it has to feel like a reward. Rewarding yourself is important, because if you ignore the reward, then your brain will rebel and become unwilling to follow you in the future. It will be harder to get your brain on board with things you want to do because it will remember that you promised yourself a reward and didn’t give it. So, it will find even more creative ways and rationalizations to put things off. Rewarding yourself regularly convinces your brain that you actually care about yourself, and it will comply if it knows a reward is coming.
Question: What powerful techniques have you seen or used to overcome procrastination? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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