Everyone has a procrastinator in them.
In fact, my procrastinator has made several attempts to deter me from writing this blog. Well, not today procrastinator…NOT TODAY.
Ironically, “not today” is my procrastinator’s favourite tagline when I’m trying to work on something, because I can always “do it tomorrow“, “wait until I feel more motivated” or “start that big presentation once I’ve Marie-Kondoed my entire wardrobe.”
How Procrastination Can Be Stressful
Procrastination is the habit of delaying important tasks by doing something that’s easier or more pleasurable like checking your phone, scrolling through social media, making snacks or binge-watching a Netflix show.
Many of my clients have asked me what causes the nervous system to dysfunction resulting in physical, mental and emotional symptoms. One of the causes that may come as a surprise is the stress and frustration that can arise from putting important things off.
The ONE Mechanism Behind Procrastination
It doesn’t make sense, does it? We postpone doing meaningful things for meaningless distractions! So why do we do it? If you read an article I wrote recently on How To Reduce Stress In 2 Minutes, the ultimate reason behind this common problem is the EMOTIONAL incongruence from our three minds.
You see, our subconscious mind has at least 80% control over how we behave because as humans, our actions are primarily driven by our emotions and the subconscious is responsible for how we feel. For survival purposes, the subconscious mind only seeks to experience what feels good and avoids what feels bad.
The Easy Way Isn’t Always The Right Way
There’s generally some resistance when we want to complete certain tasks such as; studying for exams, going to the gym, asking that guy out or doing the taxes. That’s because we perceive these things to elicit negative feelings in some way – failing, physical pain, rejection, boredom, discomfort, frustration etc. so we get the urge to run away or pursue another activity as a distraction.
On the other hand, we have no problems approaching things that we associate as being pleasurable – playing video games, eating chocolate, watching tv or getting a massage.
Nonetheless, procrastination is likely to stress many of us because holding off on a task can sometimes cause more problems, waste more time/money or worse, cause us to regret missing out on what makes us happy.
3 Tips on How To Be More Productive (and avoid giving into distracting urges):
1. Prioritise
Problem: Having too many things to do tends to leave us feeling overwhelmed and attending to more trivial matters first. This fuels the vicious procrastination cycle because we become unmotivated whenever we neglect our values.
Solution: Be clear about which tasks matter most and why. Then proceed to work on them in the order of importance.
2. Cut the Never-Ending To-Do List:
Problem: Continuing to add more and more to the to-do list can cause us to feel as if we’re falling behind or even give us a sense of failure.
Solution: Everything on the to-do list should be broken down to only 3-5 achievable tasks per day. This gives us clarity on the completion of activities and allows us to enjoy ‘me-time’ without the guilt of not having ‘done anything’.
3. JUST DO IT!
Problem: The subconscious mind will make all kinds of excuses behind why we can’t or shouldn’t do something. That’s when those urges will come in – i.e. “I’ll go to the gym tomorrow, I’ve had a hard day and it’s cold outside.”
Solution: Action cures fear. The only way to override the urges is to acknowledge them and do it anyway. If we make a start we’ll find that we’ve already overcome the hardest part!
I hope this information has been helpful in some way, but if you’re still struggling with procrastination, it’s something that I’ve already helped hundreds of other people in just 7 steps. If you’re ready to get started on being more productive click here now.
