Introduction
Do you want to beat procrastination? Are you frustrated by a backlog of tasks and projects that never get done? Or the fact that you’re scrambling every time a deadline looms?
If so, read on. My own struggle with procrastination, plus my observations when teaching and working with students, highlights the importance of understanding what’s driving the avoidance behaviour.
In order to help conceptualize it, I wrote a series of blog posts that uses staircase optical illusions as metaphors to describe the four main reasons we procrastinate. This post is a summary of those characteristics and the strategies to help beat procrastination. You can follow each of the staircases to the original articles by clicking on the link attached to each one.
George Lakoff says the metaphors we use in life drives our response.
Read the following:
“Challenge is so hard” versus “Challenge is an opportunity”.
How does reading each of those phrases affect you physically? Mentally?
Here’s another:
I’m snowed under OR It’s dragging me down.
The above phrases evoke a crisis response and that’s not helpful. A crisis response hijacks the thinking part of the brain and activates the fight, flight, or freeze center in the brain stem.
And procrastination ensues for many of us because we’re trapped by the narrative we keep repeating to ourselves. Essentially, we’re stuck on the staircase. Going no-where.
Lack of Confidence
Up/Down Stairway
This type of procrastination tends to be driven by fear. Whether it’s fear of failure, fear of success, or imposter syndrome.
Characteristics
- Indecision
- Doubt
- Perceived lack of control
- Lack of direction
- immobolized
Language we’re using
- I can’t
- I don’t know how
- What if I mess up
- Who am I to take this on?
- Should I keep going? Or should I give up?
So what can we do to beat procrastination?
- Change your narrative.
- Tell yourself, “I can do this. I’ve got this”.
- Put one foot in front of the other and keep moving up the staircase. This means breaking the project into smaller tasks. Make the first few easy in order to gain confidence and create momentum.
- Fake it till you make it
Quotes to Motivate
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take a first step. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right” ~ Henry Ford
Boring and Repetitive Tasks
Infinity Stairway
This is procrastination that comes when faced with repetitive, low complexity tasks, or tasks we know how to do but don’t like to do. ie. Cooking, baking.
Some people have a higher tolerance for boring tasks. In studies, scientists found that the brain lights up more in people who are less averse to boring tasks.
The question of course is have they trained their brain to find satisfaction in task completion and therefore their brain lights up in anticipation or are they better at completing boring tasks because their brains are wired that way?
I don’t know but life is filled with boring, repetitive tasks that have to be completed. Finding ways to complete these tasks is essential.
Characteristics
- Lassitude
- Avoidance tactics such as social media or on-line games
Language we’re using
- I don’t feel like doing it right now
- This is boring
- I don’t want to do it again
- I just did this yesterday
- This is boring
- It’s going to take forever
- I’ll do it later
- This is boring
- Let’s order in
So what can we do to beat procrastination?
- 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. Yes this works for boring tasks as well. Don’t give your brain a chance to formulate excuses. Count down from 5 and begin.
- Habit Stacking coined by B.J. Fogg is a great tool. Pair it with an existing habit. For instance empty the dishwasher while making yourself tea.
- Have a set schedule for checking social media so it doesn’t become an avoidance strategy
- Set a timer and give yourself permission to quit the task when the timer goes. Often you’ll choose to complete the task anyway.
- Listen to podcasts or music to increase enjoyment and compliance with the task.
Teach your kids/grandkids/students that boring is okay. And teach them strategies to complete boring tasks.
Quotes to motivate
Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.” Arthur Helps
“Sometimes the biggest gain in productive energy will come from cleaning the cobwebs, dealing with old business, and clearing the desks – cutting away loose debris that’s impeding forward motion.” David Allen
Perfectionism
Stairway to Heaven
This is a mindset based on ideals rather than reality.
If your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” ~ David Foster Wallace
When impossible results are set, the staircase ascends to the heavens with no end in sight.
We often have the misconception that the perfectionist has everything perfect. But that isn’t always the case. Unchallenged, the perfectionist mindset is debilitating . And procrastination is one way in which the brain seeks to cope with perfectionism.
Characteristics
- The perception that everything has to be perfect, leads quickly to overwhelm and overwhelm leads to shut-down. Procrastination.
- Decision paralysis
- Catastrophize wrong decisions, errors, mistakes
- Rehashing little mistakes, failures, and/or weaknesses
- Spending too much time correcting small errors or on tasks/activities that are marginally productive because they are low risk
- All or nothing thinking. If I can’t get it all done or do it perfectly, it’s not worth doing.
- Fear of letting self or others down
- Avoiding challenge means you avoid failure
- Endless search for the golden key
Language we’re using
- It’s not good enough
- I’ll never get it right.
- Everyone will think I’m a fraud
- What if I fail? Failure is bad.
- This is stupid. It’s not worth the risk.
- What if I make the wrong decision
- I’ll feel better if I don’t take a chance. I don’t want to be vulnerable to criticism.
- What if I do it wrong?
- People will think I don’t know what I’m talking about
- No-one will understand
So what can we do to beat procrastination?
- Analyze your successes rather than failures which you already perseverate on
- Build on what worked
- Develop rules of thumb for efficient decision making
- Chunk and batch tasks according to high value/low value
- Set goals to improve by 1% to disrupt all or nothing thinking
- Disrupt perseverations
- Mel Robbins 5-4-3-2-1- STOP
- Mark Devine’s power statement to replace negative self-talk *Everyday in every way, I’m getting stronger and stronger
- Learn to ‘just be’
Quote to motivate
Everyday that I procrastinate, everyday that I sit stagnant in fear, everyday that I fail to better myself, someone else out there with the same goals and dreams as me is doing the exact opposite.” Noel DeJesus
Complex and/or Difficult tasks
Escherian Stairway
This is a metaphor for complex tasks. This requires thinking, planning, and organizing. You need focus and coordination of skills in order to produce a final product.
Characteristics
- Stuck in the research phase
- Frustrated
- Losing track of where you’re going
- Feeling like there is no progress
- Always back at the beginning
- You thought you knew the direction but the destination isn’t materializing.
Language we’re using
- This is hard
- My brain hurts
- Where am I going with this?
- How does this all fit together?
- I have way too much material. I don’t know what to do with it.
- It’s overwhelming
- I can’t find the path through all this
- How do I make sense of it all
- There’s no clarity or coherency
- I’m going in circles
So what can we do to beat procrastination?
- Clarify your “why”. What’s the BIG idea you’re working towards?
- Conduct a brain dump
- Don’t edit this process, write down whatever comes to mind
- Look for similar threads and group them
- Remove whatever isn’t relevant to your “why” and store it for possible future use
- Map your journey/outline the project
- Begin with the end in mind and work backwards
- What knowledge does your audience/client have at the beginning, what do you want them to know at the end?
- Using the groupings from your brain dump, write down logical ‘breadcrumbs’ that lead your reader from beginning to the end. You can change the titles during the editing process. This is for organizational purposes.
- Fill in the outline with what you found in your brain dump
- Identify the gaps and research as needed
- Finish filling in your outline to create your draft
- Edit and refine
This is the process I used for everything from curriculum planning, lesson planning, to writing, whether it’s research papers, articles, or posts. It brings focus and order.
Quotes to Motivate
“If you have time to whine then you have time to find a solution.” Dee Dee Artner
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” Picasso
Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” Paul J. Meyer
Unchecked, procrastination takes its toll. Aside from the results of unfinished tasks and projects, procrastination affects ones perception of self and mastery. Everyone, or almost everyone, is subject to procrastination at times. But it is the chronic habit of giving into procrastination that undermines your confidence and belief in your ability to achieve your goals.
With time and effort, you can beat procrastination.
~ Priscilla
P.S. Here’s Some Additional Tips
Train your brain to focus
Listen to music – I find something with a binaural beat works well for me.
- I use the Ananda app by Manuel Loigeret because I can set it for a predetermined time and then fight distractions until the time is up. This way I’ve been able to train my brain to focus for longer and longer periods of time.
- Some find listening to classical music helpful. YouTube has playlists for study that are useful if that is your preference. Whatever you find that helps you focus, set it for a predetermined amount of time and commit to that time.
- Or break your task up into time slots using an app like “Focus Time”
- Establish set times to check your messages or social media or even to conduct research, then stick to it. Once your brain realizes that you aren’t going to let it avoid the task, it starts to cooperate. It will get easier. And it’s pretty affirming when you realize that you’ve increased your focus and discipline.
P.S.S. If you save the post as a pdf, I’ve added a page that lists the strategies and tips under each of the 4 categories!
P.S.S.S. For more help on procrastination, check out this guide by James Clear.
Yes! I want to receive your newsletter!
Simply …