7 Ways To Stop Procrastinating

1. Introduction: Hey there, welcome to seven ways to overcome procrastination that you probably haven't heard before. Before we get started, I wanted to introduce yourself. Introduce myself as your teacher. I'm Jodie a productivity coach, and I'm the person you come to when you want to get more done Through my E courses and printables and templates. I help overwhelmed business owners to get organized, save time, and make quicker progress on their goals. And what I personally love most in the world is doing yoga, reading a woo-woo things especially taro and Norman cars right now I loved those and also traveling around the world and exploring in my own backyard. The core reason that I decided to become a productivity coach is because I believe that in order to experience life to the fullest, you've got to be productive and intentional with your time experiences are unlimited, time is not. So I say make the most of your life by making the most of your time. So here's what you can expect throughout the content in this course and how you can work through it. I like to think of it as a choose your own adventure style in that you don't need to work step-by-step through each of the tips in a linear order. From first to last one. You can just start with whichever tip calls to you or randomly pick one, whichever one you want to start with and then jump between the tips and whatever order you want. You can listen to a one tip and try it out in real life before moving on to any of the others, or listen to them all. And then choose which one to start with. Listen to them all at once and then work through them. It's totally up to you, completely flexible. A couple of notes before we get started. Procrastination can be the result of many, many, many different things. From just not feeling like doing something on a certain day to a deep rooted feeling uncomfortable, feeling like fear or shame or challenging emotions that you may or may not even be aware of in this moment, my intention with this course is to provide you with some anti procrastination hacks that are a little different and unique and will hopefully make that thing, or things you've been procrastinating on more fun and exciting. Hopefully, they will bring more fun and excitement to those things for you. That is my intention. All of these hacks are just ideas to get you started and trying something new. Because the beauty of trying anything new, whether it's a fun game or intense journaling prompts, is that you'll likely discover something about your procrastination habit that you weren't aware of before. Any awareness is a huge step forward in changing that had it for good. To be completely honest, I procrastinated on creating this course for a very long time, which is very ironic. Even though I procrastinated, even though I knew it was something That's so many people wanted help with, I told myself that I didn't have anything valuable to share about procrastination because I felt like procrastination wasn't a big problem for me personally. And obviously that's not true because I procrastinated on creating this course and I'm humans. So I have procrastinated many, many times over. I just don't like to think of myself as a procrastinator. The truth was that I was afraid of how this course would turn out and then it might be awful. I just didn't know what the outcome would be. And of course, we all go to that extreme negative catastrophic results first. And I've since realized that I felt like this because I didn't already have all of the hacks and tips and content for this course front of mind, I didn't know what I would talk about instantly. It wasn't an instance like this is exactly what the course is going to be. So not having all those answers clear right away and not knowing exactly how it would look upfront scared me and so I just didn't take action. But now I finally have obviously, so I'm very excited to share all of my anti procrastination ideas with you and I can't wait to see everything you've accomplished after kicking that procrastination habits. 2. Tip 1: Gamify It: The first tip to overcoming procrastination is to gamify it by gameified, I mean, to make the act of doing and taking action on the thing you've been procrastinating on. More fun by turning it into a game. Make it feel like a game instead of something that you dread doing. So why gamifying works? This works because obviously we're more inclined and motivated to do something that's fun and engaging and has the potential to give us bragging rights for winning. Then something that's not fun or boring or challenging or scary. It's also a sneaky way to clarify your goals and the outcome you want to achieve. Because in order to quote unquote, when you need to know exactly what it is that you need to achieve. So some examples of how to gamify procrastination. You can set up a friendly competition with a friend or colleague, e.g. see which one of you can be first to get their goal or task or project done by a specific time or deadline. Or you could compete with yourself by setting a timer or deadline for yourself to get one specific thing done and see if you can meet that deadline. Then moving forward, you can see if you can meet tighter and tighter deadlines each successive time you do it. Another fun game is choosing your next task or project, or to do blindly out of a bowl. Meaning you do this by writing each of those tasks and projects on a separate piece of paper, folding them up, throwing them all in a bowl, and then doing whichever one you happen to pick out, you just pick out a random one blindly and do that one, makes that a little more fun. And a little bit of that unknown, unknown element. Habit tracking can also be used as a game as well. Jerry Seinfeld has talked extensively about how he used to use habit tracking to motivate himself to write at least one joke a day. Because seeing all of his checkmarks, or maybe it was like he filled in us little square box. Seeing that filled-in square or check mark every single day made it easier for him to write the joke in the next day and the next and so on because he didn't want to break that chain of checkmarks or filled in boxes that was felt very motivating for him and kept him going every single day. There are also a lot of productivity apps out there that incorporate gamification for you. So I will include all of these apps and links to their websites in the text below this video as well. But I'll just summarize them quickly and just a disclaimer. Use any apps at your own discretion. I am not responsible for anything that happens with these apps, especially reminder, which I'll talk about in a minute. It's a pretty intense one. It's your choice to use any of these apps. The first one is Forest app, and this is a very popular one and surprisingly fun. It lets you build a virtual forest and earn trees to build that forest. The more you focus, the more time you spend on a task or project, the more trees you earn. So that can be really motivating and fun. Another one is bounty task or which is a to-do list app that lets you defeat monsters as you check tasks and to-dos off your task board. Reminder, which I mentioned, if you're up for something intense reminders for you, it will actually take your money if you don't reach a goal. So they're pretty intense about it and pretty serious. It's a great accountability. If your thing, if that's your kind of thing, you're just really motivated by high-stakes. I guess. Epic wind is another to-do list app request like steps and progress. And hepatica includes a role-playing elements with rewards and collect, you can collect pets and avatars and things like that. As you achieve real life goals. Life up also allows you to earn coins and lute as you get things done. So these can be just a fun way to get through your to-do list through the day. So have fun with all of those. 3. Tip 2: Less Inviting Task: So tip number two is an even less inviting task. So what I mean by an even less inviting task is to find a task or project that you want to do even less than the thing you're procrastinating on introducing an even more unpleasant tasks to your to-do list is one way to move past the delaying and hesitation on something else. And often, it's enough to just remind yourself of this unpleasant tasks that you want to do even less. You don't even necessarily need to add it to your to-do list just to remind yourself of this other thing you've been meaning to do that's even less inviting. Why does this work? Because it shifts your perspective just a little bit. The thing you've been procrastinating on doesn't seem so bad or scary or difficult when contrasted against this other thing. That's even worse from your point of view. That's the, that's the point. This is from your point of view what seems much worse than the thing you've been procrastinating on. So some examples of even more unpleasant tasks than what you're procrastinating on right now would be different for everyone obviously. But these are pretty common ones. Doing your taxes, cleaning or chores. We all have one or two or more chores that we just absolutely dread and always put off. Also a difficult conversation you've been meaning to have with someone. Tracking your analytics like in your business or something. Although this is something you should definitely be doing as a business owner, it's something most of us dread doing are just really don't want to do and put off. Also doing a workout or exercising. And me for some of us, this is also very dreadful. Could be more, or could be less inviting than whatever the task or project is that you're procrastinating on. So just determine what your personal less inviting task is and try this out. 4. Tip 3: Give Permission: Tip number three is give permission. In other words, there we go. In other words, don't think about or worry about finishing the task, the end, the outcome or the result of that thing you're procrastinating on. Obviously, clarifying outcomes and goals is very important. But if you're in procrastination mode on something right now, the most important thing right now is to just get you started. So give yourself permission to be in perfect, to do it in perfectly, to maybe not even finished the thing, or to fail in a small or a big way. That way you can let go of any and all expectations of finishing this thing in the first place and focus only on the starting with the only requirement on yourself being to give it just a few minutes of time so that you can just get started. The finishing will take care of itself and you can worry about that later. So why does this work? This works because telling yourself you have to finish the thing, that it has to be perfect, that it can't fail is a lot of pressure and very overwhelming. Who wouldn't procrastinate on something that feels like that. Also telling yourself how important a task or project is. Just not helpful. You're likely already know how important this task or project is that you're procrastinating on and banging on about it and how important it is. And that again, just creates so much pressure and overwhelm on yourself. The best way to avoid any of those catastrophic outcomes that it will fail, etc, is to just not do the thing in the first place. So doing the opposite, which is knowing and telling yourself that it's okay to fail to be imperfect, maybe not finished, releases that pressure and the weight off your shoulders, bringing up your energy to get started instead. So examples of this and giving yourself permission. So again, give yourself permission to be in perfect, to not finish the thing, to fail, maybe in a small or big way. And remind yourself that in the grand scheme of things on this planet, that the thing you're procrastinating on is actually pretty unimportant, which might sound harsh or something similar. But when you think about the grand scheme of the planet and everything going on, and it's just really not that important, right? So what if it fails or what if it's not perfect or it doesn't work out? We'll use survive. Will you go on? Will the earth keeps spinning, wheel things keep happening, life goes on, right? So, yes, absolutely. All of those things, you will survive and life will go on. You'll pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep going as always, you are resilient. And a fun thing to do can be to give brutally honest working titles for your projects or tasks, e.g. messy rough draft or call something slightly less terrible second draft or first flawed attempts. Or Genki starting point. I love that word Genki. As a little reminder, this is just gives you a little reminder naming things this way that what you're about to do or create may not be perfect. And that, that's okay. 5. Tip 4: Starting Ritual: As a follow-up to tip number three, which was about giving yourself permission and not worrying about finishing that task or project and just focusing on the starting tip number four is about creating a starting or activation ritual to make it even easier for you to take the first step on that task or project you've been procrastinating on. Because even just taking that first step in getting started in any small way is often the biggest challenge when it comes to procrastination. And I think we can all agree that saying are recommending just get started does not help with so many to-dos and tasks on our plates, it can be really hard to even make the time to get started on something, especially when we feel like it's going to be a bit of a challenge or difficult for us, or just even just a stretch for us to do. To overcome this. It can help a lot to be strategic and intentional about how you'll get started. Hence, the ritual part of this. Why does this work? Because yes, Starting can be the hardest part. But once you start, even in a very small way, it's highly likely that you'll keep moving forward, you'll keep going and keep taking action. This is officially known as the zygomatic effect and is also known as task tension or constructive procrastination. It's the tendency. Think about an uncompleted task more than a completed task. We will remember those uncompleted or interrupted tasks more than the completed or finished tasks. They will float around in the back of our mind until they are complete. So as such, the theory proposes that making a start on something, no matter how big or small, keeps it floating at the back of our head until it gets done. Just taking the first step, we'll keep the incomplete task on your mind until it's complete. And having it on your mind and knowing it's already started, it makes it more likely that you'll come back to it and move forward and keep taking action until it's complete. So you can then get it off your mind and it can stop quote unquote bothering you. Examples of this are real. In real life. Example is cliff hangers in TV shows. I know we can all agree that a cliffhanger, a really good cliffhanger, keeps a TV show on our mind and makes watching the next episode more urgent. And we keep thinking about the TV show until we get to see that next episode and resolve the cliffhanger because our mind wants that unfinished storyline to be resolved. You can apply this to your own work by not ending the day with a completed task or project, leaving unfinished. So you're all ready to jump in and get motivated to start again the next day, or just stop working midway through tasks, take a break, step away, leave it for later so it's unfinished and stays on your mind. And keep the thing you start with, a starting ritual, super-duper small to avoid any hesitation around actually doing it. Use the two-minute rule which states that when you start a new habit, in this case the starting ritual, it should take you 2 min or less to do. So. Some examples of starting ritual that you could create for yourself would be to simply review your to-do list for the day or read your horoscope, do a 15-minute stretch or dance or jog, recite some mantras or affirmation. Some good ones in this case would be, maybe I am becoming motivated and disciplined and capable of completing this task. I have the skills necessary to accomplish this or something like that. Or you can review your mission statement or your vision board. So those are just a few examples of what you could do in 2 min or less as a starting ritual. So tip number five could also be considered a starting ritual itself. And tip number six will help you with that two-minute rule and making things really, really small. 6. Tip 5: Prepare Yourself: Tip number five is to prepare yourself. The definition of prepare is to make something ready for use. So when I say prepare yourself, I mean, just focus on the pre-work and what needs to be done before you even get started on that task or project you've been procrastinating on. Forget about the task or project itself for now. Ask yourself what needs to be done before that. So why does this work? It's almost like you're procrastinating because still procrastinating because you're not actually getting started on the task or project itself. So there's less resistance and hesitation here to get started and to get it done. Often tasks are much easier and we're much more likely to get started if we prepare for them first, it makes the task or project itself feel less overwhelming. And this hat could be considered as a starting ritual as disgust and tip number four because it does help relieve that hurdle and challenge of taking the first very small step on something. The first step, this first step is easy, super easier to getting prepared gatherings and stuff. So again, there's less hesitation and resistance around it. So some examples of this, you could get any necessary research done that needs to be done for this task or project. You could get tools you need ready. You could clear away and plan for any potential distractions. You could organize your files and documents. You could even just get your coffee and maybe a tasty pastry ready. You could gather any physical materials required, e.g. when I need to clean my washroom, I get all the cleaning products though because there are several different ones needed. And I put them on the counter where they can't be ignored and they're really in the way. So I'll think, well, they're out now and they're in my way. I want to get rid them so nice. We'll just do this now. Let's just clean it and get it on my way. So now you decide what you can do to prepare yourself for that task or project. Do you want to get done? 7. Tip 6: Break It Down: Tip number six is break it down. This means breaking the task or project you've been procrastinating on into smaller chunks. It's perfect for those tasks and projects that are big involved and just feel overwhelming no matter what their size or scope is. So why does breaking it down work? So breaking down a project into bite-size, smaller tasks makes it much more clear what you need to do. And it makes completing each task much quicker, which makes taking action much, much, much easier. That creates a sense of achievement and progress, which increases the feelings of motivation and decreases, decreases the desire to procrastinate. Not that, that's a desire by the need to procrastinate decreases. So examples of how to break it down. You can start by bringing to mind the thing that you want to get done. And ask yourself, what is the first thing that needs to get done? Just the first small step or thing that needs to get done. What would be the next thing? And then the next and keep brainstorming and mind-mapping that out. You could ask, what's the smallest step I could possibly take on this? And you don't need to write all the steps and things in order or anything like that. You just start brainstorming and brain dumping it all on a piece of paper. And when you look at each broken down to do and bite-sized item, it should be very clear what you need to do when you look at it. You should know exactly what you need to do and what action you need to take. There's no wondering or guessing. Your brain doesn't have to think through the process or figure anything out. It already knows exactly what it needs to do. So you can take action right away. No hesitation, resistance. And as a rule of thumb, each broken down task should take no more than two dash 30 min, maybe even less than 2 min. 8. Tip 7: Consider Not Doing It: Tip number seven is considered not doing it. This might sound counter-intuitive or quote unquote wrong. But seriously consider, if you truly want to move forward with something or not, there might be a good reason you've been procrastinating on something. It might actually not just be because of a fear or overwhelm or something quote unquote negative. So why consider this? Why considering this works, this exercise can remind you of your why, why you wanted to do this thing in the first place? Why you put it on your to-do list, why it's important and meaningful to you, which can give you a renewed sense of motivation and meaning and purpose. Plus, you just gain a self-awareness that comes with questioning your choices and looking at them from a different angle. With this self-awareness and a different angle, you may realize that at some point you thought this thing was something you quote unquote should do or even wanted to do. But now you just realize it's not necessarily important to you anymore. So some examples of this in action are reasons you might decide not to do something. First of all, sometimes things change, circumstances change, goals, shift perspectives, shift and values. Realign. Something that we had previously planned on doing just isn't relevant to us and our business. Any more. Seconds, sometimes tell ourselves stories about why we all do this, about why we need or want to do something. E.g. we tell ourselves, others will like us if we do it. Or you heard that this thing was the magic bullet to six-figure income. Or maybe it's just based on stories we learned from our families or school. The list is pretty endless. So what we thought at one point was important to us, just actually isn't so much now, last maybe it's something you just don't want to do. That's okay. There's a difference between things you don't want to do because they're a stretch for you or new to you or outside your comfort zone, but are good for you overall and in the end for your life or your business. And that's different from the things you don't want to do just because you don't want to do it. So remember, if you don't want to do something anymore, That's okay. 9. BONUS Tip 8: Pro Con Quads: Tip number eight is about pro con quads. So this isn't your typical boring old pro con list with a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. This pro con list is about asking yourself, not only what are the pros of doing this thing, what are the cons of doing this thing? But also asking yourself, what are the pros of not doing the thing and what are the cons of not doing it? Why does this work? Well, tip number seven, which was about considering not doing the thing, your task or project in terms of is it still important and are relevant to you? A pro con list or quad like this helps to contrast the worst-case scenario that's probably been floating around in your head with the positive aspects of doing this thing. But what's really fascinating about the quadrant exercise is that it asks you to think from the perspective of doing the thing. And I'm not doing the thing because we often overthink, overanalyze and focus so hard from the perspective of doing something. But rarely do we think from the perspective of not doing something, to shift into that space of the thing not getting done. Shift into that space of the thing not getting done. Like think, okay, what if this doesn't get done? Then start to consider and ask yourself, how does that look for you? How does that feel to you? What effect will it have on you? What effect will it have on others, on your business, on your life? Are you coming from a place of fear or genuinely wanting to put it aside? What will the impact be if it doesn't get done? 10. BONUS Tip 9: Walk With Guide: Number nine is walk with your guide. What I mean by walk with your guide is to literally take a walk. But not only that, pose an intentional and specific question related to the thing you want to get done. Then walk away, take a break and go for that walk and allow your inner wisdom and knowing to come through and provide the answers you need. This works because the truth is that we all have all the answers we need within us. It can be hard to believe that sometimes, but it is true. We know intuitively or not what we want, what we need, and what's best, and what choices to make. But things get in the way like others, opinions, fears, or just the busy-ness of everyday life that knowing, inner knowing can be hard to hear. So taking a walk and intentionally imposing a question brings it out and makes it easier to hear. Examples of what you can ask your inner guide. Just ask for help in getting over that procrastination in general, you can ask for guidance on a specific task or project that you want to get done. You can ask what the best way is for you to get started or ask what your next best step would be. Your first step would be even ask for insights as to why you're procrastinating. If you feel like that self-awareness will help you move forward. 11. BONUS Tip 10: Temptation Bundling: We have number ten is called temptation bundling. This hack involves combining a fun and desirable activity that you already enjoy doing with a task or project that you've been procrastinating on are meeting to get done. This is known as Premack principle, which states that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. Meaning you'll become conditioned to do the undesirable thing. If it means you get to do something you really want to along the way. Or this can also be thought of as this than that type of statement, as in you do one thing, then the second thing automatically follows. This is also known as habit stacking. So why does this work? By adding a fun task to be done with that procrastination task, the overall net result is a more enjoyable and hence motivating experience. This will make it much easier for you to take action and get it done. And it could even eventually start to create a more positive association in your mind with that thing you've been procrastinating on one day, you may not even need to pair it with another more enjoyable test. So some examples of bundling, pairing two tasks to get together and doing them at the same time. It means it can really only be done and applied to low focus tasks like e.g. admin stuff, paying bills are filing, organizing chores, cooking, or exercising. Those are low focus tasks. You can do those things automatically without too much thought. So they're perfect for temptation, bundling, or adding another activity at the same time. Some practical examples of this would be eating your favorite snack or working on billing tasks, are paying your bills or having your favorite tea while you're working on admin tasks, listening to music while you do chores, or your favorite podcast or audio book while you're cooking, watching your favorite TV show or Netflix while you're exercising, making a difficult or intimidating phone call while you're walking your dog or going out for a picture as Walk, having a meal at your favorite restaurant while conducting a really boring meeting, getting a pedicure while you're cleaning out your email inbox on your phone, or even listening to a tutorial while you take a bath, or while you're drawing or painting or doing something else, creative and less, drawing or painting requires high focus for you. We're all different. So with the than that statement idea, meaning doing one thing and doing another another immediately following it, pairing them together back-to-back. It can be applied to any task, high focus or low focus, since you're only doing one thing at a time. A couple of examples of this would be a turn on the kettle. Then I put my yoga clothes on or get my workout, you're ready, or I brush my teeth and then I review my finances. So those are very common, just a couple of common examples of habit stacking or pairing two things together. So it just becomes habit to do the second thing after the first thing that you're already doing anyways. So now you can decide what your temptation bundling will be. 12. Conclusion: Congratulations, you have finished the course and have learned so many new ways to stop procrastinating. I am genuinely so proud of you for investing the time in this course and making the conscious choice to take action to overcome procrastination so you can take even more action. Now, here are the next steps you can take now that we've gone through all the content, use the checklist provided in the projects and resources section to work through and track each of the procrastination tips and hacks as you work through them yourself and start to implement them. Also click on Create a project and feel free to share any photos or work you'd like there to show off what you've accomplished after implementing the strategies you've learned in this course. And leave a comment in the discussion area, letting all of us know what your favorite hack was and which one works best for you. Lastly, I love if you'd share your thoughts and feedback about the course itself in the reviews section. And I'd love to connect with you online. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Jody gram coach, all one word. My website is Johnny graham.com. And I have an Etsy shop where I sell Notion Templates called saving time designs. So that is it. Bye for now.