It was a Saturday evening, and as I sat at my desk surrounded by unfinished tasks, I realized it was time to conquer my chronic procrastination.
I hear successful and rich people say “If you don’t have a plan you’re planning to fail”..something along those lines.
They’re right a little planning before a match, interview or date has helped me increase my chances of success.
But when it comes to planning time for work that is not as exciting, difficult, and filled with uncertainties if it will even work out. I always find excuses to procrastinate.
I love planning for the day, but it usually depends on how I feel that day, and most procrastinators do this before they start.
1. Have A Routine
“Life without a design is erratic”
Seneca
Habits are more inflexible than routines.
Having a routine means you’re intentionally doing a specific action whereas habits are automatic, forming a pattern after many repetitions.
Routines help stabilize our hectic emotions.
“Sleep, eat, work” and repeat. Many of us have gone through this routine. Whenever someone asks us “How was our day?”, we say “Same shit, different day” and laugh it off.
We start losing our enthusiasm for our day-to-day lives.
Trying to find other ways to feel the emptiness, we begin to lose our emotional control. Frustration builds up, getting annoyed easily, and seeking approval from others to help feel important.
3-step process to build a routine:
- Focus on improving in one of these areas “Money”, “Relationships”, “Fitness”
- Block out 5-10minutes for 1 thing your ideal self would do in that area
- Note down what you did or what you’ve learned
It can be doing some push-ups, watching a video on how to build wealth, or even doing quick research on your phone on healthy foods to eat on your way to work.
A quick tip as a former expert procrastinator. The most important part is not to beat yourself up for not being able to do it.
2. Manage Expectations
How not to be disappointed? Prepare for them.
“I’d rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed.”
Julia Glass
It’s difficult not to keep yourself from expecting good news from others or even from yourself. You know things don’t always go as you wish them to or planned them to.
So the best thing to do is plan for failure.
- When trying to lose weight, expect yourself to give up after 3 days.
- Studying for a test? Expect to encounter questions you didn’t study for.
- Borrow money to a friend and expect not to get it back.
- Start a business or a side hustle expecting it to fail.
- Trying to improve your life? Expect people to bring you down.
Do you have to be a pessimist then? Nope.
Pessimists look for negativity and are addicted to making excuses. I’m also not saying you shouldn’t be optimistic, know that if you’re only expecting a positive outcome know that it comes from your SELFISHNESS of the situation.
Just because you “think” people should do or go how you want them to doesn’t mean it’s the right way.
Harsh truth: The world doesn’t revolve around you.
Burdensome
The number one question that always pops up in my head whenever I struggle with consistency…“Is this even worth it?”
Whenever I tried learning a new language(Cantonese), I would find myself unable to continue for more than 5days. It wasn’t because it was too difficult…well kind of was but nothing I could not handle.
Just the thought of “Are there other things I could do more worth my time?”.
Inevitably I would overthink things, making me not want to continue. Just look at the present moment.
3. Strip it away
I love stripping.
Especially when you do it slowly and it gives you that tingling feeling. Kinesiology tapes are the best when you want to have an intense workout or when you’re recovering.
Alright, now what I mean by stripping is having fewer distractions.
How many tabs do you have open on your laptop? The number of distracting channels you follow on YouTube? How many goals do you want to accomplish? Don’t even get me started on your time spent mindlessly scrolling on Instagram/TikTok/Facebook.
“If you seek tranquility, do less.”
Marcus Aureilis
Prioritization
What is the one thing that you know is extremely important that will help you achieve your target goal faster? A great way to start thinking like this is the 10x mindset.
It shows us why aiming for 10x growth is simpler than 2x.
This means the comfortable growth of 2x is the enemy of results. 10x is all about raising your standards so quality is above quantity. This forces you out of your comfort zone and makes you only work on activities that are the most important.
So take your time to get clear on your motivation and get specific on what you want to improve or optimize in your life.
Hesitancy
I always struggle with this when I want to go for a run or workout.
You prepare yourself for a run but then you feel lethargic than usual. You planned for a workout at 6 pm but have an upset stomach. From your blind spot, hesitancy appears and whispers to you maybe not today or later.
If you reach this point, sit down and think of how people will think what a weak ass bit*ch you are. Will you still go back to procrastinating the thing you’re supposed to do?
Okay, David Goggin’s style of advice isn’t actionable. But think of the pain of regret and the amount of self-worth you will have if you don’t do it. Do even just 10% of the thing that you said you would do and see how it builds up your self-confidence.
The 5-second rule by Mel Robbins worked wonders for me.
Bonus: Setting an example
The one solution to build momentum that has worked for me is becoming a superhero.
Treat your struggle with procrastination like a hero’s journey. How you crawled out of a shit-hole situation and fought your way out of it to set an example to others of how awesome you are.
When I framed myself as someone capable and even responsible for making a difference, I felt obligated to showcase my brilliance. Slowly my actions start to shift a little to align with that identity. Stacking up small wins shows proof of your capabilities and eventually, it’ll start showing to the world.
Or you can just be a dreamer.
Once you start believing in yourself you start looking for skills that are needed to accomplish that goal.
