How to CRUSH Procrastination Forever
Anyone can do it
The reason why most procrastination methods don’t work long term is because they treat it as a time management issue. It is in fact an emotional management issue.
We procrastinate to avoid the feeling of discomfort. So to beat procrastination is to control our emotions and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
When faced with something uncomfortable the lizard brain kicks into fight, flight or freeze mode. Procrastinators flee and freeze.
In a fight between your mind making logical decisions and your brain’s emotional survival instincts, your brain will win almost every time.
That’s why better planning, to-do lists and task scheduling don’t combat procrastination alone.
It’s the fear of failure, anxiety of starting, the hopelessness of not knowing and the avoidance of discomfort that lead us to procrastinate.
Through trial and error, these are the steps I have taken to take control of my emotions and squash my procrastination:
Calm Your Mind
If procrastination is the manifestation of poorly managed emotions then you need to find a way to calm your mind.
Nick Keomahavong, a Buddhist Monk, says, 'When the mind becomes stable, clear, bright, neutral and healthy then automatically productivity, motivation and inspiration comes.’
Take a slow walk outside and leave your phone and headphones at home.
Sit still in silence for 1 minute.
Brain dump. Write everything that is in your mind now on to a piece of paper.
Learn to listen to your thoughts. Recognise how you feel in the moment and accept them for what they are.
I’ve started a practice of walking 4000 steps before 8am. By the end I feel more calm, rational and my mind is still.
I’m in control of my emotions, I think more clearly and I can approach a task with rational logic rather than irrational emotion.
Watch What You Say
I used to say “I’m not a morning person” and I always found it difficult to wake up early.
I used to say “I’m just a procrastinator and that’s just who I am” and I always put things off.
The inner voice is extremely powerful. Self-talk has a huge impact on how we view ourselves and how we act. We often act in line with what our inner voice says.
Our mind is a sponge. So it’s time to do a bit of sorcery and trick our mind. The information we feed it changes how we think, feel and act.
Negative people usually have negative self-talk. The opposite is also true.
Somebody that says ‘I’m just an unlucky person’ attracts more bad luck. Except they don’t. We are all equally as unlucky and lucky as the next person. It’s just that when something doesn’t go their way they see this as confirmation that they are unlucky since it confirms their inner voice.
Affirmations get a bad rap because people think standing in front of a mirror saying ‘I will be rich’ and then doing nothing will actually make them rich somehow. But affirmations are simply a positive inner voice.
Watch how you speak to yourself.
Swap ‘have to’ to ‘get to’. Swap ‘can’t for can’.
Be Intentional
Procrastination is a choice.
You’ll always be a procrastinator as long as you choose to be.
Living intentionally means acting in a way that is aligned with your internal values.
It’s making your own conscious choices rather than letting life just happen to you.
It’s being in control of your daily actions rather than letting emotions overwhelm you.
Start by making 1 tiny choice today. Make that choice an uncomfortable one too if you can.
Write 1 line of your assignment. Just 1. Recognize that you made a choice and for that 1 line you were in control and beat procrastination .
Do 1 pushup. Just 1. Recognize that you made a choice to do something difficult and beat procrastination.
The small and conscious decisions you make every day add up to better emotional regulation.
1 line turns into a paragraph. 1 pushup turns into a set of 5. Once you start it becomes easier to carry on.
On Your Deathbed
Regret minimization, a framework for making decisions, is a fantastic way to propel yourself into action.
I put off working out for a long time until I thought about being 45 years old and unable to run around with my kids because I was overweight. The disappointment on the face of my imaginary child was enough.
I was in the gym 20 minutes later.
Now I regularly try to think about what my life will look like if I don’t do this thing that I probably should do.
If the picture of the future looks terrifying, I feel a sudden impulse to act.
The beautiful thing about this is that we can use our imagination to overcome procrastination. The more extreme the better.
Putting off that assignment? “If I miss this deadline they will kick me out of school, my parents will disown me, I’ll be $100,000 in debt, working 8-7 in a grey cubicle barely able to afford to live.”
You're damn right I’m starting that assignment now.
Picture what your life might look like when you’re in your final days. It’s more powerful than you think.
Practice Being Uncomfortable
We procrastinate to avoid the feeling of discomfort. We can control those feelings by getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Cold showers also get a bad rap because people think that it's the gateway to some kind of success.
But the point is that the feeling of forcing yourself into doing something uncomfortable and realising it’s not that bad is training your mind.
After a freezing cold shower you actually feel on top of the world. Like you could conquer anything and nobody can stop you. In reality, you just stood under some cold water for less than a minute.
The real reason you feel good afterward is that you succeeded in doing something uncomfortable. You faced a challenge and you succeeded.
It doesn’t need to be cold showers. But achieving 1 small feat of discomfort is a great way to deal with the emotions of procrastination.
This is NOT an Overnight Fix (nothing ever is).
But you can choose to combat procrastination by making small conscious decisions every day to get control of your emotions.
You don’t need a fancy to-do-list app. You need better emotional regulation.
Through trial and error, these are the steps I have taken to squash my procrastination. Which one will you start with?