←

The Focus Course

Your Results...

You are in Zone 3 of the Productivity Flywheel: “Doing vs Procrastination”

4-Focus Method, Zone 3: Doing vs Procrastination

What does this mean for you?

You need to create and optimize your system of execution so that you can follow through on your plans and commitments more often, and finally overcome procrastination.

Here is a short video to explain more about the your assessment results zone and what it means for you.

Does any of the following sound familiar?

  • You have a hard time following through on your commitments. You’ve said “yes” to a lot of things, and they’re starting to add up. You want to follow through, but you can’t seem to make yourself until the looming deadline forces you to act.

  • No matter what you try, you constantly feel behind. Procrastination can be an excellent forcing function for focus. If you wait until the last minute to complete a project, you’ll likely tune everything else out to get it done. But any benefits come with a far greater cost.

Chances are you’re not doing your best work because you’re feeling stressed and rushed. Plus, think about the period of procrastination and all the time that was degraded. When you’re putting a project off, your brain won’t let go. You’re operating at a sub-optimal capacity because you’ve got this weight of the undone project on your mind.

Nobody truly likes the baggage that comes with procrastination. So why is it so hard to stop?

The 9 causes of procrastination

It’s easy to brush procrastination aside as laziness. But that’s rarely the root cause. It’s also why simply telling yourself to “work harder” doesn’t help.

Procrastination occurs when…

  • We lack motivation.
  • There are other things we’d rather be doing.
  • We don’t know what the first step to get started is.
  • We’re afraid.
  • We’re easily distracted.
  • We think we lack the resources to start / complete the task.
  • The project feels overwhelming.
  • We’re stubborn.
  • We have a history of procrastinating and not seeing our tasks through to the end.

Being honest about the why behind your procrastination is the first step toward solving it.

But if you look at the above list and still aren’t sure, the answer likely lies with motivation. Of all the causes, a lack of motivation is by far the most common. After all, if we were motivated (or, instead of “motivated”, use the word “excited”) to accomplish a task, then we’d be doing it.

Oftentimes it takes that looming deadline or some other external force to motivate us to finally take care of the task. Or, if it’s a task with no deadline, we may find ourselves putting it off for months, if not years. “I’ll get to it someday,” we tell ourselves.

Meanwhile, there are other things we have no trouble staying motivated to do. Such as making time to eat, sleep, be with our family, read a book, watch a movie, go to the mall, go to our job, play video games, etc. And oftentimes it is these other tasks and hobbies that we turn to when we are procrastinating. For example, instead of cleaning out the garage like we’ve been meaning to, we watch a movie.

How then do we beat procrastination?

Is the answer to only ever work on projects we’re excited about? If you were making a living from your passion, would you never deal with procrastination again?

Nope.

The adrenaline we get from fresh motivation only lasts so long. It’s awesome while it lasts, but it comes and goes. Don’t blame your tendency to procrastinate and your lack of motivation on external circumstances.

5 strategies to beat procrastination

With all that said, here are some ways to help overcome procrastination.

  • Set an appointment: Do you know when you’re next going to work on your project? You don’t find time, you make it. Set a daily or weekly appointment with yourself. Tell your spouse about it. Now, that is the time slot when you’ll work on that project. Honor that appointment just as much as you would if it were with someone else.

  • Plan first, act later: If you lack inspiration when it’s time to work because you first have to think of what the next action step is, you’ll just get discouraged. Consider having a separate time for planning the work you need to do on a project. Come up with the ideas and action steps first. When you sit down to do the work, you’ll have already identified what you need to do.

  • Get accountable: Having accountability goes a long way in helping us keep our commitments. (This is why we finally stop procrastinating at the last minute, because we’re accountable to the deadline.) Consider putting yourself into a position of leadership and responsibility where others are counting on you to get the job done. Or get an accountability partner who will ask you about the progress you’re making. You can also make a public commitment on social media, your blog, etc. State what you’re doing and what the timeframe is.

  • Set the initial bar of quality low: Give yourself permission to produce a crappy first draft or to have a bunch of horrible ideas right off the bat. This is one of my most important “tricks” — I allow my first draft to be the child’s draft. The point is to show up and write. And then I know I can edit and iterate on my article later. If I wait to write until I can say it just perfectly, I’ll never get it done.

  • Delegate or delete: If there is a task or project you’ve been continually putting off, try to delegate it. Or, if it’s something you don’t have to do, consider just dropping it altogether. If it’s important, it will resurface. And it’s better to be honest with yourself (and others) that you’re not going to get to the project than it is to keep putting it off.