Why you should read this now, not later; Tips for the procrastinator
You should have been reading this last week!
I have been guilty of procrastinating in the past – who hasn’t? Still, on occasions I find myself doing anything I can to put off that important task that I know will bring my business or my personal goals nearer. Putting off exercise is a particular talent of mine! I have a few tips that have helped me and some of my clients.
We all have lots of different reasons why we are procrastinators, fear of failure, fear of success, and just laziness. I’m not going to go into that now, I thought to offer some practical tips to use whilst you are eliminating the root cause.
Tips for the serial procrastinator fall into three main areas:
DEADLINES
I came across this TED talk by Tim Urban from https://waitbutwhy.com/ found here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU) a while ago, it made me laugh, but also made me think.
I have always seen myself as deadline-driven, I told myself that I needed the disciple of the deadline to force me to do anything. In the Accountancy practice, my day job was riddled with deadlines and I had the charts and the calendars on the wall to prove it. Having a process of visualisation allowed me to see the deadlines approaching and know the amount of work required to meet the date. Tim refers to this as using the panic monster to control your to-do-list.
This is great and it worked for the client work in the practice. The problem with it is that there are so many important areas of our lives that do not have deadlines imposed from the outside.
The Eisenhower matrix has four boxes of tasks: there are two axes of Important and Urgent:
· Low Importance, Low Urgency
· Low Importance, High Urgency
· High Importance, Low Urgency
· High Importance, High Urgency
So much of the tasks around growing your business and getting the life that you want are High in Importance, but low in Urgency, by which I mean that they do not have a deadline attached.
To wake the panic monster do we set deadlines on all our tasks? I am not sure without outside verification those deadlines will fool our brains. If you want to start running, entering a race may provide all the motivation you need as you know that there will be people watching on the big day, entering a race, and telling everyone about it and perhaps pledging a certain amount to charity will provide additional impetus. You do not want to have to tell all those people that you could not be bothered to train! A deadline alone would not help the procrastinator, you need a deadline with accountability. It is easier to let ourselves down than a virtual stranger!
Another word for deadlines is goals, and we are very keen on goal setting at ActionCOACH Oakham & Kettering. Again, we need to be very public in our goal setting and ask for accountability, taking ownership of the outcome.
Think about the timeline of your goals. If your deadlines are set too far apart, they will not motivate the seasoned procrastinator until you are up against them and pulling your all-nighters. Your goals will need to be set realistically close together in small chunks that force the panic monster to stay awake and alert. If not the constant state of panic, relief, panic and relief will cause stress and illness.
Goal setting for the Procrastinator
Set the goal or the deadline in very small chunks
Go Public – tell everyone and anyone that will hold you accountable and make you embarrassed if you have to let them down.
Set goals with your life or business coach, they will also hold you accountable!
HABITS
The procrastinator is probably not task orientated, they don’t look at a to-do-list and plough on through until it is finished. Instead, they will look at the list and work out what is the absolute necessity to do today, and what can be left until tomorrow.
So, let’s change the list! Instead of focusing on the end result of the goals, you look instead at changing your habits. Read James Clear’s Atomic Habits for more about this approach.
You focus on the activity required instead of the end result. In order to do this, you need to know what sort of person has or does the end result and what activities are involved. If I want to run a race, I have to first become a runner. The first thing a runner does is put on his running shoes (forgive me, runners – there is probably a lot more to this!) So, the first task is to become the sort of person who puts on his running shoes. Make this easy! Put your running gear on the floor of your bedroom so it is the first thing you see when you get up, put your trainers by the door.
The focus on becoming a runner really helped me in the first lockdown to keep going when I found the run tough because I was not focusing on the goal, but the process which is entirely in my day-to-day control and not subject to the procrastinator instinct to hide.
Break the steps down into little pieces and put that little piece onto your to-do-list for the day. There is a deadline, but that little piece of it doesn’t seem too difficult.
Habit-forming for the procrastinator
Work out the small actions needed and a way of joining these
Start becoming the person you want to be.
Vision
This is the most powerful tool of all! If you know why you want to do something, and that why is powerful enough, you will find any how to achieve it.
As Jim Rohn says there are typically there are five main motivators:
· Recognition – For others to acknowledge what you have achieved.
· Feeling – You want to experience a certain feeling or emotion when you achieve your goal. Perhaps you experienced it before and want to again.
· Family – Reaching a goal for your loved ones can be a huge influence. Maybe you want to treat them, provide something they otherwise couldn’t experience, whatever it is, having family as a motivator can be highly incentive.
· Benevolence – The desire to give something back. To complete a goal in order to benefit another.
· Nitty-gritty reasons – These cover a range of reasons and maybe for things you’re not particularly proud of. Think anger, humiliation, or proving someone wrong.
Work out why you want something and keep returning to that why when things get tough. Have a vision board. If you were running to raise money to remember a loved one, a picture of that person on your trainers, if left by the door, would really motivate you.
Overall
Remember that the habit of procrastination will take time to unpick.
· Make it simple
· Make it easy
· Make it small
· Know your why!
I can’t help with the running, except to cheer you on from the sidelines, but I can help you if you are procrastinating around your business. When you are ready to start achieving your important goals, reach out to me, but don’t leave it too long!
Angela Turton
Business Coach
