Unlearning Procrastination: How To Reframe Your Mind To Get Things Done
Procrastination is not laziness. Nor is it part of your personality.
Procrastination is simply a behavior that you can unlearn.
You can reframe your mind to get things done.
What is procrastination?
The act of delaying or postponing something.
Difference between procrastination and being lazy
When you're procrastinating, you want the goal. You want to exert that effort, you want to accomplish whatever is on the other side, but you just don't know how. Something's stuck. There, something's causing friction. When you're lazy, you don't want to exert that effort. You don't care about the outcome. You don't care that that thing needs to get done. And you're not willing to exert the energy to get that done.
Often this is due to a tendency to prioritize that short-term mood regulation over long-term achievement. For example….It feels good to lay on the couch and watch TV, it doesn't feel good to do the dishes.
6 different reasons that people procrastinate
1 An abstract Goal
You don't exactly know what you're working on or what that outcome is going to be.
2. Indecisiveness
Struggling to make a decision that will move you forward. Indecisiveness can often mask itself as research. People will say, “oh, I'm just researching the best choices, or I'm just getting more information”, when really what they're doing is stalling.
3. Fear of failure
Fear of failure is often a reason why someone won't get started because they're afraid of judgment from others.
4. Waiting for a deadline
Waiting for a deadline isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some people need that bit of time pressure to focus, to remove distractions, and get really creative and clear on what they need to do. The problem obviously comes when we wait too long for a deadline. And then something else goes wrong.
5. Task Aversion
You just don't like it. You don't like the work that you have to do. There are a lot of things we have to do every day that we don't want to do.
6. Perfectionism
Wanting or waiting for the end result to be perfect.
How to move forward from procrastination
Break down your tasks
Our to-do list should be the smallest possible step we need to take in order to see progress toward our goal. Be very specific when you're breaking down a big project so that you know exactly where to start. This also helps avoid productive procrastination.
Remove distractions
Every time you have to resist doing something, it actually sucks down your willpower. It sucks down your ability to focus and make strong decisions. So just remove them. Don't have the phone near you, or set it to a work mode where it's not going to be buzzing at you. Use a website blocker to block websites you find yourself constantly going to as a distraction.
You'll find yourself being that much more focused when you actually have to get that task done.
The 5-minute rule
I use a five-minute rule to knock off in 20 minutes as many tasks that are going to take me five minutes or less as I possibly can before moving on to the bigger projects.
The other way you can use this rule is to set a timer and just get started for five minutes and promise yourself that after five minutes, you can stop and pick a different task. Oftentimes though, that five minutes of getting started helps us overcome the hump that we're feeling or that resistance, and then it's just smooth sailing from there.
Self-care
Everything is harder when you're hungry, when you're tired when you don't have enough water in you. So as much as we can make sure that we have those essentials and those needs are met, it's going to help us focus.
Make it fun
This is really helpful when you have a task that you don't like to do. Can you pair it with your favorite playlist? Can you give yourself a reward when it's over of your favorite treat or go for a walk or call a friend or whatever gets you motivated to do that thing?
One thing at a time
If you are constantly switching between tasks, you are wasting time straight up. So what I mean by doing one thing at a time is that it could be writing each of the tasks down on a separate sheet of paper and only having that paper out. And then when it's done, you get to crumble it up, and you get to throw it away, and then you're looking at the next piece of paper. Or sometimes I'll fold up my to-do list so that I can only see one thing at a time.
Get your head in the game
I do this by doing a particular work ritual every single time I need to focus. Typically, I make sure my hair is clipped back. I have a great playlist on or sit in silence, depending on what I'm working on.
Some people will light a candle before they get started, or I said, have their favorite beverage, whatever it may be, but start to pair that work ritual with being really focused, and you'll reframe your mind to get things done faster.
I hate talking about the negative consequences of things but there are negative consequences to procrastinating. Every time that you procrastinate, you're missing out on an opportunity to put your best foot forward.
So, while it's not something I like to harp on about, it is important to remember that there are negative consequences to procrastination.
Final Note
And at the end of the day, what I love to say is don't beat yourself up. Sometimes when we're feeling that friction to get started, it's trying to tell us something. It's trying to tell us that we need more rest. It's trying to tell us that we're pushing too hard on a certain area of our business or of our life, and we need to find a new strategy in order to get that done.
Free Resources For You
Grab Chelsey’s free guide on Understanding Procrastination.
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Website: https://chelseynewmyer.com/
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