1. Understand why we procrastinate
You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re human. And procrastination is a very human, emotional response to discomfort and difficulty.
The more you beat yourself up about procrastinating, the more likely you are to escape once more into distraction and numbing activities to avoid those unpleasant feelings. For chronic procrastinators, this has become an ingrained habit, making the cycle even harder to break.
Understand it, and you’re one step closer to defeating it. We can control our emotions. We can choose to sit with discomfort. And we can do hard things.
As we stop procrastinating and do the things we need to do, we also get to experience the slower, deeper rewards procrastinators deprive themselves of: satisfaction, fulfilment, a sense of progress. The pleasure of getting something difficult done – and getting better at it.
Read more on why we procrastinate here.
2. Change the triggers
You are most likely to procrastinate on tasks that have these triggers:
- It’s boring
- Frustrating
- Difficult
- Unstructured or ambiguous
- It’s lacking in personal meaning
- Or lacking intrinsic rewards (ie it’s not fun or engaging)
The more of these a task has, the more likely you are to procrastinate on it.
To combat this, change the triggers. Redesign the task. Turn it into a game. Add rewards. Create structure or meaning. Make it more interesting.
To get more hints on this, here’s how I changed the triggers for my accounts, taxes and money admin. It was the task I procrastinated on most!
3. Make pre-decisions
We all have our own variations on the song of the procrastinator: I don’t want to; I’m not in the mood; I’ll do it better later.
Here are some of mine:
- I’m tired/stressed/foggy-headed today. I’ll do this tomorrow.
- Let me just check my socials/email/the news for a minute, and then I’ll start.
- I’ll just get this admin out of the way first, then I’ll do this hard thing once I’ve cleared the decks.
Know your red flags, notice when you’re about to procrastinate. And decide in advance what you’ll think or do. The if.. then structure works well for this.
So if I get the urge to check my socials or other time-wasting sites, then I put my phone in another room, turn the wi-fi off, and tell myself that I can’t check anything until I’ve done a focussed hour on the task at hand.
IIf I think I’ll do it better tomorrow, then I set my timer for 30 minutes and make a start on the task I’m avoiding. (I find the brain-fog often clears once I begin.)
If I’m tempted to do admin first, then I remind myself that admin takes less energy. I get on with the hard thing while I have more focus, and do the admin later on.
4. Do some time travel
Consider why you want to do whatever it is you’re putting off. Why it’s important. (And if you can’t think of a reason, skip to number 20 on this list!)
Then take a few deep breaths, close your eyes and imagine floating into the future. Just far enough for you to have finished the task you’ve been delaying. That might be tomorrow, it might be next week, month or year if it’s a bigger project. All that matters is you’ve finished. It’s complete. Done.
Your tax return is filed. You passed that exam. Your home is uncluttered and clean. You’re holding your published book. People are enjoying what you’ve created.
How does that feel? What difference will it make to you and the people you care about? Really connect with how you are feeling now that it’s done. Are you happy? Relieved? Satisfied? Proud?
Humans are brilliant at assessing risk.
It can be scary, starting new work. Making changes can be uncomfortable. If we try new things, there’s always a chance we could fail. No wonder it feels safer to do nothing at all.
But there’s something we should fear even more than failing. We are brilliant at seeing what could go wrong if we do something. But we rarely consider what will happen if we don’t do something.
What will the consequences be five, ten, 20 years down the line if you don’t start exercising and eating better? If you’re in debt or even in prison because you didn’t handle your finances, keep accurate accounts, file your tax returns?
Two questions every procrastinator should ask:
- What’s the worst that could happen if I do this thing?
- And what’s the worst that could happen if I don’t do it?
If it’s a big thing you’re procrastinating on, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths again, and let your imagination travel way into the future.
You’re old now, and looking back on your life. How you will feel if you never made that art, launched that business, tried that idea, took that risk? What would you regret more: trying and failing, or never trying at all? Do you really want a life only half-lived?
5. Check in: are you delaying for a reason?
Sometimes, we actually need a pause, to help us hear that quiet, calm voice deep within us, warning that something is off. Perhaps your instincts are telling you that the email you’re about to send will cause more problems than it solves. Or you don’t want to publish that blog post because it isn’t quite right, yet.
Sometimes you’re simply procrastinating because you’ve been pushing too hard, and you need to rest and recharge. If you suspect this is the case, take some time out, without guilt. Go for a walk. Tidy up your workspace. Do something different for an hour. Preferably something that you enjoy, that replenishes your energy or clears your mind.
Now go back to the task at hand. You might find that you were right to delay. And that you can now see what you need to do next.
6. Do it badly
Perfectionism not a virtue. It’s the enemy. It’s often just fear, disguising itself as impossibly high standards and giving you an excuse not to start at all.
Sometimes, all we need to get going is permission to do it badly. Make some terrible art. Write a really Shitty First Draft. Set up a stupidly simple website. Be willing to make a mess of it.
You learn more by doing the thing than you ever could by thinking about it. And when it comes to getting your ideas out into the world, done really is better than perfect. You learn, you get feedback. And then you can tweak, polish, edit, improve.
Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, once declared that “The first draft of anything is shit.” If he couldn’t get it right first time, why would you?
7. Write down your excuses
As a coach, I help creatives get over their blocks and make the work they want to make. A while back, I worked with an artist who had endless reasons for not painting.
His wife wasn’t supportive. He didn’t have a studio. His parents hadn’t encouraged him as a child. He was too tired from his day-job. It was too late to launch a career, when so many of his peers from art school were already successful. There were no galleries where he lived. The light was wrong this time of year. He didn’t have any friends who were creative. His paintbrushes were old. He didn’t feel inspired.
He wrote them all down, and read them out to me. Before he was half-way through his list, we were both laughing. Not all of this was totally true. And none of it was insurmountable. We went through the challenges one by one, looking for solutions. Until he realised what was really going on: he was afraid.
If he didn’t do the work, he could act the thwarted, misunderstood genius. But if he did paint, perhaps his work wouldn’t be as good as he hoped it would be. Once he’d realised this, it was easier to begin. To feel the fear, and do it anyway.
What are your go-to excuses? Write them down, then look at them. Can you see solutions to the obstacles in your way? Or can you identify the fears hidden underneath them?
8. Set micro-goals
When you’re stuck, sometimes you need to just start with some kind of motion, even if it’s tiny. And build from there.
If you haven’t exercised for years, you’re not going to run a marathon on day one. And if you overdo it, you’re likely to get injured or give up. But a three-minute walk, every morning? That will get you into the habit of moving, and also into the habit of doing what you’ve committed to do.
Set a tiny goal, one that’s so easy to do it’s a joke. Then schedule it, deciding exactly when you’ll do it so it’s in your calendar, your mind.
Once you’ve done the bare minimum, stop if you want to. And give yourself a reward. Make a cup of tea. Listen to an inspiring podcast. Dance around the room to a track you love.
It doesn’t have to be huge, just something enjoyable to celebrate the fact that you’ve done what you said you’d do. You’re building a new habit, here. And if you keep at it, you’ll find that you sit down to write your 100 words and write 2000. Or you’ll set out for a three-minute walk and carry on for an hour.
9. Take baby steps
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! It’s all about breaking a job down into small, manageable chunks. And always knowing what the next step is. It’s daunting to write a book. To declutter the whole house. Or lose 20 pounds.
Goals like this can seem overwhelming. We don’t know where to begin, so we don’t begin at all. They’re not tied to specific actions we can do right now. You can’t write a book in a day. You won’t get rid of years of accumulated clutter overnight. And you certainly won’t lose 20lb in the next 24 hours.
So start with just one step. Something you can do now. Write a paragraph. Clear a shelf. Replace one unhealthy snack with something better.
Do this every day, and you’ll quickly build momentum. Every day, you’ll be one baby step closer to your goal. And you’ll always know what your next small step should be.
When you’re working on a big project, it helps to enjoy the journey. So once you’ve gained some momentum, set milestones and deadlines for yourself, and celebrate when you reach each one. Acknowledge what you’ve already achieved, rather than constantly feeling overwhelmed by what is left to do.
10. Track it
Recording behaviour is the best way to change it. So track whatever it is you want to do more of. Count your steps. The time you spend meditating, exercising, creating, marketing. Record the number of ideas you pitch, the money you save, your weight.
There is a wide choice of apps now—Streaks, StickK, Habitica, Momentum Habit Tracker to name just a few—that help you track new habits. There’s something gloriously addictive and satisfying about ticking it off and watching your count rise. Or you can simply monitor your behaviour or your metrics in a notebook.
Jerry Seinfeld famously marked a cross on a wall calendar every day he did some writing. After a while, he explained, you simply don’t want to break that satisfying chain of crosses. So you do the work, no matter what.
A journal can help too, in which you regularly review the quality of whatever you are doing, and the results. Tracking it also helps you see your rhythms and cycles, and work better with them. You become more aware of the progress you’re making, what works for you and what doesn’t. For me, just a simple weekly review has been transformational.
It’s all about making constant tiny improvements and course adjustments. But over time, the difference can be huge.
11. Start before you’re ready
We often feel we should wait until all of the conditions are perfect, before we begin a new project. We want to clear the decks before beginning. There are tools or equipment we might need, or knowledge and skills. We wait to have a perfect room or studio in which to work, or long stretches of uninterrupted time.
But life tends to get in the way of the best-laid plans. The conditions are never perfect. And the minute you empty your in-box or clear the decks in other ways, it starts filling up again. So if there’s something you want to do, something you want to make or achieve, don’t wait. Make time. Pay yourself first.
Do it in your lunch break. Get up an 30 minutes earlier. Or do it late at night, or at weekends. See if you can get a few minutes in while your children are napping.
Make a workspace wherever you can find it. Learn as you go. Borrow the tools or equipment, if there’s stuff you need. Improvise. Make mistakes. Make a start. Even if you don’t feel ready. Once you’ve begun, you’ll find a way. And you might find that you didn’t need a lot of the things you thought you needed, after all.
12. Sweat the small stuff
Make a list of all the niggling jobs that are on your mind. Chores. Repairs. Clutter. Bills. Whatever.
Every day, set a timer for 15 minutes, and just get on with crossing them off, one by one. Clean those shoes. Sew that button back on. Put away those clothes. Throw out all the out-of-date nasties lurking at the back of your fridge and cupboards. Repair or replace broken things. Reply to that email. Deal with that pile of paperwork.
You’ll be surprised how many niggling tasks can be finished in just a few minutes a day. And how much bandwidth they were taking up. What you’re doing here is clearing headspace for the work you really want to do. You’re also gaining momentum, getting into the habit of finishing.
When you sweat the small stuff, the bigger stuff doesn’t feel so overwhelming. But a word of warning if you try this: don’t get obsessed with trivia. The small stuff can easily distract you from what you really want to achieve, and become another form of procrastination.
13. Use a timer
A cheap plastic timer is my favourite tool for beating procrastination. I don’t use the one on my phone if I’m already tempted to put off doing something, because I know I’ll still have it in my hand an hour later, mindlessly scrolling.
Struggling to begin? Simply set your timer for 15-30 minutes and jump in. Once it goes off, you can stop. It may be that you find the dreaded job isn’t as bad as you imagined, and you’re able to see it through in one sitting. But even if you choose to stop, you’ve done the hardest bit: you’ve started. Come back later, and do another time-block.
A timer also turns a tedious task into a game. How clean can you get your kitchen before it goes off? How many 15-minute blocks will it take to clear that festering pile of paperwork? How many emails can you deal with in a 10-minute sprint?
14. Get accountability
Go public about your intentions. Make an announcement on social media. Hire a coach to keep you on track and help you work through the blocks. Ask a friend to check in, and keep you on track. Or better still, both work on something you’ve been avoiding and support each other.
Even if we break promises we make to ourselves, we don’t like doing it to others. Sometimes all we need is a little peer pressure—and support. So join a group dedicated to whatever it is you want to do, whether it’s an exercise class, or a writing group.
If you respond more to stick than carrot, build in some kind of jeopardy. Write a cheque to an organisation you loathe, put it in a stamped, addressed envelope and give it to a friend. Ask them to post it if you don’t reach your goal by a certain date. (There are also apps that will do this for you.)
Increasing the cost or the consequences can sometimes give you the impetus you need.
15. Get help!
If you always procrastinate on a specific task, consider other ways of getting the job done. Can you delegate it, or ask for help? Or can you cut it out completely?
If you are regularly procrastinating on a task you hate, there’s probably someone who will do it better than you. They might even enjoy it. Whether it’s your accounts, your marketing or your ironing, look for someone to take it on. Then you can get on with the work you love – or that you alone can do.
If you can’t afford that yet, eat the frog, and do the hardest task first. The rest of your day will go better if you get the thing you’re dreading out of the way.
16. Take the pressure off
Sometimes when the stakes feel too high, we freeze. We’ve all seen animals play dead: it’s an alternative to the flight or fight responses to danger.
It can help to take the pressure off, to lower the stakes. You’re not trying to record the album that will make or break your career. Today, you’re just trying to write one song.
If you’re putting too much pressure on your creative work to pay the bills, consider taking a temporary or part-time job. Once the financial pressure eases, you might find your creativity starts flowing better too.
17. Set rules
The author Neil Gaiman has a rule to help him writing. When he sits down to work, he has two choices. He can stare out of the window, or he can write. No web surfing, or chatting. No reading, playing with his son, or any other displacement activity. After a while, he explains, writing is usually just more interesting than doing nothing, so he’ll start work.
I finally started meditating every morning due to one simple tweak in my routine. I leave my iPad by my meditation cushion at night, and I don’t allow myself to use it for anything else until I’ve used the meditation app.
Set rules to help you do whatever it is you want to be doing. Restrict your choices. Stack the new behaviour you want in with activities that are already ingrained habits, and soon you’ll be doing it on auto-pilot.
18. Change your environment
If you sit down at your computer to write, and 30 minutes later find yourself watching cat videos or TED talks with no idea how you got there, try going to a coffee shop to work (and don’t get the wi-fi password). Write by hand for a while, and see if it flows better. Switch off your phone. Or even turn off your router.
If you want to go out for a run first thing in the morning, lay out your exercise gear the night before, put your water bottle and anything else you need by the door and make it as easy as possible to just get up and go.
If you want to lose weight, prepare healthy snacks in advance, so there’s always something handy when you’re hungry. But also empty the fridge and cupboards of temptation.
Remove distractions. Place what you need in easy reach. Change the cues. Make it as easy as possible to do the thing you want to do.
19. Forgive yourself
If you’ve been procrastinating for a while, you’ll feel bad about it. You’re probably beating yourself up, comparing your output with others, and angry that you’ve wasted so much time.
Draw a line under this, now. Move on. You can’t change the past, but you can make new choices and change your future. So forgive yourself. And then begin.
20. Don’t do it!
If after all of this, you’re still procrastinating, consider not doing the task at all. Perhaps it’s just not right for you.
We don’t all have to be super-fit. We don’t all have to write books, make art, or speak several languages. You are not a failure if you don’t have your own business, a home worthy of interior magazines, or whatever else it is you’re procrastinating about.
Let it go. Learn to love and enjoy what you have, not what the world says you should want. Find what brings you joy, and do more of that. Life is too short for anything else.
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