End your struggle with procrastination
This is pathos. Though couched in humour, so much of Calvin’s experience cuts to the heart. We can all relate to this message. Procrastination is one of our besetting problems. The search for ‘Procrastination Jokes’ returns 527,000 results in 0.31 seconds in Google. This is a big deal in our culture.
Procrastination can be crippling. But here is some heartening information. Procrastination is not an issue of laziness. It is an issue of FEAR. We can afford to be more gentle with ourselves. Not soft, but gentle. We CAN overcome procrastination. AND. We CAN develop our willpower.
Heartening message #1: We can develop the physiology of willpower.
Dr. Kelly Mcgonigal shows how sleep deprivation, (anything less than six hours!!!) causes the frontal region of your brain to be under-activated. This is where the balance is weighed between core-values and long-term goals, and the demand for immediate gratification. When deprived of sleep we are unable to recruit the systems of our brain we need to be a better version of our-self. She also shows how meditation, physical exercise and a low GI, plant-based diet stimulate this area of the brain. See this message on YouTube.
Heartening message #2: Accepting we will fail means we fail less
Most of us find this hard to believe. But the research is quite clear. Three approaches bring healing when we have willpower failures:
- When we are mindful of our thoughts and feelings during and after the failure.
- When we accept that failure is part of being human when willpower is required. You are not a failure! You have failed. It’s normal.
- When we change our self-talk from messages of judgement and criticism to a comforting message of encouragement in failure.
People who did this failed less and negotiated the healing process quicker and more effectively. Of course to do this we must decide to put aside our tendencies to perfectionism.
Heartening message #3: It helps to engage with your future self
People who create a rich view of who they we will be in the future, real, feeling pain, dealing with real-world issues, these people more successfully persisted in a program of change.
Heartening (but surprising) message #4: Predict your failure
We are motivated by positive pictures of the future. But we are equally inspired rich pictures of possible negative outcomes. The real possibility of living on dog-food if we fail to build our business is highly motivating. Also, ticking off deliverables does may lull us into a satisfied comfort rather than spur us on to greater effort.
Heartening message #5: Surf the urge
We can overcome willpower obstacles by giving ourselves exercises in restraint. By stretching the target for giving-in by small amounts we can learn to overcome a craving or a habitual slippage in willpower. Neil Fiore has a similar idea in mind as he contracts with his clients to agree to sit down at their task for at least 30 minutes at a stretch. The first time I tried this I got up after 20 minutes, looked at my watch and forced myself to sit down again. The next time I looked, 2 hours of fruitful labour had passed.
Heartening message # 6: Change the language you use for yourself.
Speaking to ourselves in a demanding authoritarian voice is self-alienating. In “The Now Habit” author Dr Neil Fiore shows how this leads to inner conflict and procrastination.
- “I have to…” is the language of victimhood. We communicate ““I should do it, but I don’t want to. I have to because they’re making me do it”. This communicates victimhood, resistance, stress, and confusion which all add up to procrastination
- “I should…” is the language of depression. We mean “I am angry with the way things are, but because I am so inadequate I will chug along, seething with envy and longing for a blissful future.
A far more effective pattern of language is to say, “I choose to do this..” or “I am committing myself to doing that…”
Heartening message #7: we can set up an environment for our brain to succeed
Our brain functions best under optimum conditions. Dr Henry Cloud, author of the book “Boundaries for Leaders” Identifies three conditions you can set up for yourself and your teams that allow the executive functions of the brain to work best. These are:
- Deciding quite clearly what we will be “attending” to next. Just one issue. Multi-tasking is a myth.
- Inhibiting distractions, or toxic influences in the work environment.
- Keeping relevant important information alive and constantly remembered in the flow of progress.
Dealing with procrastination is a battle. But it is a battle we can win. We can start, focus and deliver. As Henry Cloud says, “like champion golfers, total pros, we can deliver results when the stakes are highest”.
Hi Steve, as always a compelling and thought provoking read, have shared with Vanessa as well and told her to subscribe. Tim
Hello Tim
Thanks man – this material has had a large impact on my capacity to deliver and it is great to share the news.
In my experience it is of critical importance to have the right understanding of your Vision, Interdependence, Strategy and Action relative strengths (based on the VISA profile of Prof Christo Nel) – and then explore ways to compensate for relative weaknesses. You need to make sure what you are working towards, connect with the right resources to achieve this, get the right strategy in place and be a bit forceful about taking action.
And the above should be aligned with your values. After much introspection I still do not know what my top values are.
e.g. what do I value more: the Truth, or Trustworthiness? Environment or wealth? Reason for these types of questions is that I assume that If I have a clear understanding of my values, I will be able to make decisions much quicker rather than to ponder about them and fall into a procrastination trap.
Lastly what is working well for myself is before bedtime to write in a journal a short reflection of the day; write down a goal to procrastinate less and track this for a couple of days. “You get what you measure”
Hi Chris
Yes I fully agree with everything you have written here. Thanks for your input. I like Prof Nel’s VISA model. It works particularly well to build understanding in teams. And understanding our own tendencies is very very useful.
Values is another area where I have found reflections over a long period of time have paid off as I realise what is important to me. Your evening process sounds very powerful. One of the activities I learned from Neil Fiore is to decide each evening on the two or three key activities to which I commit myself the next day. But reflecting on the day that’s been sounds good.
Aligning our activities with our personal and team resources, our processes and our vision and stepping off from well understood values is very powerful. Actually I have a scribbled infographic for how I see these all fitting together which would make a good topic for a posting soon.
I appreciate your input here. All the best with your journey.
Stephen
A fantastic read and exactly what I needed after the initial excitement of 2015 had died down. I find that I go through low troughs of productivity where I become complacent and feel that I’m making progress because I’m ticking tasks off my to-do list on daily basis.
Unfortunately, during these times I also see some tasks (those I am not motivated to complete, however important) sitting at the bottom of my daily to-do list but using these tools, I am confident that I will be able to pull myself out of this slump because I am now choosing to action these tasks and to move forward.
Thanks Stephen!
Hey Wayne
It is generally accepted in this arena that there will be good days and bad days. Part of the healing process is to accept the bad days as normal and move on.
At the same time, having a vision and a strategy steers me to those ‘bottom of the list’ tasks that are important but not so enticing. The vision helps and the compelling picture of a dreary future of failure.
In addition to all of this it may be worth reflecting on how well you are integrating those energisers into your week – what Neil Fiore calls ‘guilt-free playtime’.
Let’s have a ‘board-meeting’ on this topic one day behind the break at ‘The Pipe’.
All the best
Stephen