How to Send Procrastination Down the River – For Good

One of my clients recently admitted having a “huge problem” getting ready for trips. She wrote,

“I like trips, I’m fine when I leave the house, but getting ready leaves me tense, nauseous and, well, weepy. I always have lists going and I am always on track to leave the house calmly at 8:00 on Friday, but still I feel this way.

“Now I have had two tasks I’ve been avoiding like the plague for weeks. I remembered our discussion about putting things off and so I put those two tasks at the top of the list for this morning. I couldn’t leave the house until they were done. And then—simply put—as soon as I acted, the universe reacted in positive, affirming ways.

“WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER THIS???”

She had remembered a discussion we had about how you can gain great power simply by making a decision—and by aligning your actions with the decision you’ve made.

At the time I had also noted that not making a decision when you know you have a choice to make, or failing to act in accordance with the decision once you’ve made it, drains your energy—and by that I don’t mean it drives up your electric bill. We’re talking about your precious life energy here, so it’s really important that you understand what’s behind procrastination before you can send it down the river for good.

Why is it that we create these demons for ourselves when our lives would be so much easier and happier if we would take the advice—of a sneaker company, of all things—and “just do it”?

I’ve written about it before, and my take on procrastination is that it’s largely related to the fear of failure. I dealt with that fear pretty thoroughly—and provided some crucial strategies to counter it—in my post No Success Like Failure. Recently though, I was happy to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, has written a new book–The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination—in which he names quite a few more of the fears that drive procrastination.

Among the fears he lists, there are a few that relate directly to the big goals we’d like to accomplish—after, of course, we heed Facebook’s siren call:

• Fear of overwhelm. You have so much to do, you don’t know where to start. You think you have to have it all figured out before you even start and you’re afraid of tackling so much.
• Fear of too much work. When you know that a task is going to be very difficult, it’s understandable that you would feel resistance, and you’ll often put it off forever.
• Fear it will take too much time. You anticipate that the time you’ll need to focus or be productive will be great—and you dread it or worry that you can’t spare that much time.

As you all probably know by now, I’m a huge fan of Eckhart Tolle, the author of A New Earth. I think one of his most powerful lessons is that the greatest freedom is to live in the realization that all problems are created in the mind and that there are no problems when you are fully centered in the present moment.

Again, I think a great tool for “anchoring” in the present moment is EFT and you might find this meditation particularly helpful while doing it:

Even though I’m busy and stressed, and I don’t see any way out of it, I choose to be present in this moment. Even though I’m so busy with _______ (work deadlines/business/family/traveling/social commitments etc.), I deeply and completely accept myself in this moment.

After you achieve some calm, try these steps, and you’ll find that your fear-driven procrastination won’t stop you as often.

1. Set Your Timer for a 15-Minute Sprint.
   This is how I accomplish almost everything. I define the task, set the timer and Go. For 15 minutes. You know what’s great about setting the timer for 15 minutes? Your brain finds it a totally doable amount of time to fully commit to a task without distractions. Any longer and you’ll find yourself thinking about whether you’ve got an email, or that you have to start the dishwasher.
2. Get Accountability.
   Tell a friend or announce on Facebook (oh, the irony!) that you’re about to tackle your closets or prep for your big meeting next month. It’s a fascinating fact about human nature: we’re more likely to keep the promises we make to others rather than just to ourselves.
3. Ban Distractions.
   Whether you’re setting a timer for 15 minutes or an hour or an entire afternoon (keeping in mind that what you think you can manage and what your attention span can actually manage may be two different things), remember you’re in a race against time and avoid distractions. In fact, half an hour spent eliminating distractions (answering e-mails, starting the dishwasher, etc.) plus half an hour of intensive work is probably worth more to you than a full hour spent working while fighting the urge to address all the other things you have to do.
4. Celebrate!
   There are actually two distinct personality types: those who are motivated by the avoidance of pain and those who are motivated by the pursuit of pleasure. You should be honest about what truly motivates you and work with it, but I think everyone should give themselves a small treat for a job well done. Iris Murdoch said it best, “One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats.”

Procrastination interferes with problem solving and creates a lot of sadness and anxiety. We can learn to identify and challenge our inaccurate beliefs about a task or project by examining them, and we can consider alternative ways of understanding the situation. If we are willing to learn techniques for coping with the stress and learn different strategies for tackling a project, we will have sent procrastination down the river for good.

What are your techniques for dealing with procrastination? What works for you?

 

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Tagged as: "eliminating resistance", "finding peace", "make it happen"