Beating Procrastination, Way Beyond Tips And Tools
Are you're reading this because it showed up in your timeline? Or... maybe you actually had to do something else, and you decided, as a tiny detour, to read a blog post or two, diving into the rabbit hole of reading about productivity instead of actually…oh well, you know. First and foremost: IT’S UNDERSTANDABLE! So forgive yourself. You might however find a handy nugget or two in this article, so why not make the most of this very moment, grab a coffee, and read on. Today we're talking about beating procrastination... far beyond the tips and the tools. Let’s dive in.
(Watch this video or keep reading)
Four years ago, in 2016, I researched the worst obstacles in creative performance and productivity. I did this to see if there was enthusiasm for my creative innovation program The Creative Achiever Method. I made a few assumptions in the study and presented them to hundreds of people. Within 48 hours, I got much of the results back. There turned out to be 83 different obstructions during creative projects. 83! I peated the results, and a top 5 of the most common issues quickly emerged. Just say tissues, because some quite painful examples also emerged of projects that did not get off the ground, or ended up at the bottom of the list of priorities shortly after start, or were simply abandoned. Never to see the light again. It almost hurt my eyes.
With overwhelming amounts of response, the number one party pooper in creative performance was...procrastination.
We all know it. It happens consciously or when you aren't aware of it. It seems to sort of sneak up on you. You procrastinate when you somehow can't get started, even if you know for sure that you'd enjoy the work a lot, once you got started. Sometimes it happens when you look up to something, or just don't feel like doing that particular task. Or perhaps because you find something quite difficult. Or perhaps you actually just prefer to follow national breaking news and trending topics, watch new vids of your favorite YouTube creators, or do something else that seems much more appealing at that time.
You may have already read some books and blog articles on how to beat procrastination, or even taken a course on it. Or bought a course, and didn't get around to watch the actual lessons. and you may already worked on adopting healthier productivity habits. Which is as good thing: good habits help you get through your day in a good way. For example, the well-known Pomodoro method (which is very handy by the way), works by setting a kitchen timer every 25 minutes, to create protected time spans for focusing in your day, so you can get things done. You train yourself to do 1 thing, as it were, and not let yourself be tempted by other things. Or perhaps you have a habit tracker, where you keep track of your own habits on paper, as some nugget of gamification, and this way you get your daily six glasses of water intake, or your ten thousands steps a day, or limiting your daily screen time. Aiming for a goal is often stimulating, especially if you can tick some boxes off of your to do list.
There are many articles that give certain reasons for procrastination. For example the fear of failure, or not knowing how to start with your task. Or a lack of motivation, or energy or focus. Solutions for such challenges are then, for example accepting that you are actually procrastinating, setting more realistic deadlines, visualizing your preferred results, and cutting tasks into tiny chunks.
No judgment here!
In addition to the useful tools and tips in blog posts and in books and courses, there are also resources that discuss the psychology behind procrastination. For example, a recent article states that the causes of procrastination actually have to do with, among other things:
1. time management, and that you would actually have trouble honoring chaotic brain.
2. or having trouble setting priorities: what to do first?
3. or that you should treat yourself when you've accomplished that difficult big task first, as a reward for your hard work.
4. Or drink cups of tea in between, to give yourself some psychological break between the things that have to be done.
5. Or managing your distractions in a more effective way.
But you know, all of these strategies will no doubt have some truth to them. And many of these also usually work in NORMAL times.
BUT WE DON’T LIVE IN NORMAL TIMES. 😬
Because what if these insights, tactics, tools, and tips don't help you, and you're still running around in that self-sabotage hamster wheel, and just give up on your tasks every now and then, because you just can't get get yourself in the zone anymore?
And that it keeps happening, and your projects just don't turn out as well as you initially imagined? And with a surge of anxiety, you're right back where you were a week before...in Procrastiville.
You discover that you have some sort of love hate relationship with your to do list. The list has grown so long that you hardly dare looking at it anymore. Or perhaps you manage to digitize it first to get a better overview, or the other way around, from paper scraps to a productivity app, to make them feel more 'real'. Yet still...no tasks done. Trust me, you are not the first, and most certainly not the last.
If you're stuck on staring at to do lists and feeling overwhelmingly anxious, something else is needed than just practical tips and tools.
After my research, I studied the results more in-depth. And there are solutions to challenges like these. Simple, elegant solutions. But also, rather annoyingly uncomfortable in the beginning. Which of course sounds strange, because WHY, for the love of everything that's holy, would you want to solve an uncomfortable problem with an uncomfortable solution? Sounds crazy right? Hold on. There is hope.
I'm talking about a treasure hunt. To discover what in your near future is the treasure that provides you with the freedom to create more freely, more effective as well. And this hunt is worth the process. It does require you to be willing to dig deeper into your own emotions that lie beneath your procrastination.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into 4 emotions that could be the key for you to achieving a bit more than you are today. One or more of these emotions are often at the root of what you think is causing you procrastination. Because you might think "I'm just a perfectionist, always have been, always will be", Or "I don't particularly like finishing up tasks, I just want the best result". Or "I'm too busy right now, but if I'm going to focus on it in the future, then I'll go for it."
1.) I'll swiftly release the bogeyman: fear.
You may feel fear about not being able to meet your own high standards. Did you already envisioned the result before you started... but your own fear has blocked the way to progress? Thoughts like 'What if I fail?' might haunt you. What if your own result is disappointing to you yourself? After all, the vision of the outcome already was perfect in your mind. How could you live up to that? Or maybe you are afraid of what someone else says about your performance. Are you afraid of being bullied by trolls on the timeline? Or worse, friends or family? Or your parents. A lot of people feel this. It's surprisingly normal. But that doesn't help you, doesn't it. This kind of paralyzing fear can turn any brilliant idea into a mission impossible. And then there you are, with your brilliant idea. And your pomodoro timer and your habit tracker. They do not measure fear. But you can feel it.
Fear is a basic emotion. It may be unpleasant, but it’s normal. Examining this emotion in yourself, and taking responsibility for it (which also 'a thing') takes courage. For example: you have an idea for a fantastic book. You have often thought about it, and you already have several notebooks and Google Docs full of scribbles and ideas, and who knows, even a plot. Perhaps you had already published something beautiful before, and you are a little afraid that this new book will not be as good as the first one was. Elizabeth Gilbert was troubled by this after her debut novel 'Eat, Pray, Love'. It's quite annoying of course, because you are not only writing a new book, but also beating those pesky devils of self sabotage off of your shoulders. And those nasty thoughts of 'I really can't do this', or 'who is waiting for this anyway', or 'maybe I just think I am good a this, but perhaps the first time was beginner's luck'.
Thoughts like that do not come from yourself. No toddler in world thinks "I have no idea if I can build that sandcastle." Or "I'll try to do my first roll over, but first I have to finish this coloring page". Something or someone, but probably someone, has ruined your creative mojo and your productivity momentum.
Maybe you had an over critical school teacher who used to say you were bad at writing essays. Maybe your brother was always first in line to bash your school report. Or did you have a parent who gave you the feeling that you're efforts are just never quite good enough. And that you're not good enough. Or perhaps you weren't allowed to pursue your own designed creative projects or ten cents lemonade stand shop, because you had to sit up nicely, neatly and silently, and let the adults take the rather boring center stage.
Phantoms from the near or far past can make your job quite difficult, especially if you are involved in creativity, innovation or making the world a better place, using your own gifts. You may barely remember the phantoms. But their effects can still get in your way.
2.) An insufferable sense of duty.
Or maybe you don't feel as much fear, but rather you're being drilled by your sense of duty. Do you feel the duty to do everything neatly, but sometimes you cannot get it done because you are actually tired of always being the best boy or girl in your business. And perhaps, you're suffering in silence because of it.
3.) Guilt.
The well-known thought "I should have done this or that, but I didn't. And now I feel guilty and I don't feel I 'deserve' to create 'nice' things." You feel burdened. Feeling that you have to 'earn' something in order to innovate or to make something beautiful, can be paralyzing. Also this emotion doesn't come from within. Maybe you had a teacher or parent who made you feel guilty for doing or not doing something. And perhaps this has become a pattern that you haven't been able to shake off just yet. Procrastination creeps in, because your guilt is blocking your path.
4.) Frustration.
It could be that you REALLY wanted to do something, were intensely excited about it, and totally believed in the idea, whether be it a book, a company, a movie or a product update. But while you were busy putting it off because something else demanded your immediate attention, other people came up with a similar idea. And beat you to the punch and made momentum with their project. RAAH! You feel defeated, and moreover, frustrated. And incredibly angry with yourself that you didn't make progress faster. So you throw your idea in the bin, do 40 mindfulness exercises, meditate until you almost sink in the pitfalls of mid-Earth, and you tore up your mindfulness coloring book, with angry frustration. Which is all very human.
So here we are. A jolly quartet of emotions: Fear, Obligation, Guilt and Frustration.
What if you encounter one or more of these emotions while you're treasure hunting? I told you it's could be a teensy weensy uncomfortable process. Bear with me.
But what should you do? Grit it out? Keep hustling? Push the emotions away because you don't have time for them? Or download more practical handy Pomodoro alarm clocks, habit trackers or EVEN NEWER apps that you will really-really-really use this time? Or switch to another app that has been touted by a prominent productivity guru and proven to work great for other people? Hold on. You are not other people. You are you. And there is only one you. There is also only one who currently has your thoughts, combined with your emotions. And with the projects that YOU would like to put into the world. All in all, quite unique. You.
Grab a piece of paper, preferably a nice notebook, and your favorite pen. No laptop this time. For the next few days, at least a week, but ideally you'd want to take a month for this, write down 12 things every morning before you start working. These are no tasks or projects. But you write down 12 things every day. You can do it in 1 sentence per line, but if you want to jot down a little more, that's fine. If you keep doing this, every day, you will notice that something changes. I promise you, this will only take you a few minutes. Your mind becomes quieter, you get more focus, and you get more in the moment, instead of unconsciously engaging in automated irritating beliefs that some self love deprived idiot has instilled in you in the past.
You may want to write down this list, to practice with it TODAY:
On the first line you write: 'Today I am grateful for:'
On the 2nd line you write 'my emotions right now are exactly:'
Below: 'I really love this talent of mine:'
And below: 'I enjoy:'
And then: 'I'm sad about:'
And below that: 'My resentments today are:'
Below that: 'My favorite type of escapism' (for example watching YouTube or Netflix something)
The ninth line reads: 'Release me from…'
And then: 'Teach me:'
I forgive myself for:
This is why I get up in the morning in the first place (purpose):
And last in the list you write '1 meaningful action that makes my purpose real and that I will do today:'
And in the evening before you go to sleep, you read what you wrote down in the morning. Without judgment. You just read it. It is not a checklist. It's a kind of mini-check-in with yourself, a journal. Sleep well, and do it again the next day. Just give it a try. A week, or rather a month.
It seems so simple. And it is. It also seems a bit indirect, because how is JOURNALING going to get your software update done, right? But this list has proven itself to be a deal maker for me. Providing the answers every day puts you in touch with the things you love to do every day, and that have purpose, meaning. And holding on to these things makes fear, a larger than life sense of duty, haunting guilt and spirit crushing frustration less relevant. Because you are busy doing other things. Your purpose. Which is nobody's business but your own. Least of all, of the critics and nay-sayers.
There's one more thing I'd like to add to this: practice radical empathy on yourself. We live in unprecedented times, and there are a lot of things we can't control right now, and this may cause a lot of us a lot of anxiety. There have been intense moments in the last couple of months, weeks, and even days. Covid everything, economy, mental health, presidential elections, to name a few.
If you're experiencing an emotional or physical Covid-related aftermath right now, just know that this is normal from time to time. You might feel exhausted, not entirely stable. Stressful times with here and there a sigh of relief do this to people. We have been living in tense times for a while now, and your brain and body are trying to regulate. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, always choose self-care. Not in the 'go to a spa' sense of the word, but in truly taking good care of your mind and body. Being under a lot of stress over a prolonged period of time takes its toll on pretty much anybody. If you experience something very stressful at one moment, you can have a post-traumatic stress reaction. But if you are under a lot of stress of any kind for a longer time stretch, without knowing when this will end, you're be in fight, flight or freeze mode indefinitely. This is wrecking your nervous system. Your body asks for respite. Learn to regulate yourself, and forgive yourself when you mess something up. Nobody's perfect, and you don't have to be. Consider functioning at medium to okay level as being pretty much fantastically awesome at this point. Cut yourself some slack.
It takes time to build resilience in your life. And you need resilience in order to beat procrastination, if it's caused by prolonged stress or old phantoms. Consider this a journey, not a goal.
If you try this out, and want to reach out to let me know how this worked for you, I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment, or reach out on Twitter.