6 Strategies to Outwit Procrastination

Have you ever wondered about how successful procrastination is at keeping you in your comfort zone and away from tackling what you know will lead to more success or fulfillment?  Isn’t that the irony; procrastination is often so convincing in the moment that we lose sight of the bigger why.  As the year draws to a close with so much to do, it can be hard to focus on what really matters most. Procrastination on the important few, at the expense on the less relevant many, can leave us experiencing frustration and dissatisfaction.

If you have tried to get on top of procrastination you may, like me, have found it to be a rather tricky customer. Another thing you may know is that it is not so easy to get rid of.

The way we talk about procrastination means we often view it as a personal trait or a personal failing or habit that has to be removed.  Some clients will describe themselves as procrastinators and many of the conventional advice is targeted at overcoming bad habits. I am not sure I agree that procrastination is only about overcoming a bad habit. 

I have had a lot more success and fun exploring my relationship with procrastination rather than seeing it as a bad habit or character fault.  This has led to observing and “studying” its persona and how it operates. This richer, more “unique-to-me”, information puts me in the driver’s seat and enables me to reframe my relationship with this pesky character.  So, if you have struggled to get on top of procrastination and found yourself dreaming more than doing, I think you may also find this approach helpful.

Characteristics of procrastination I and my clients have discovered:

• It rears its head when I am feeling uncertain, experiencing ambiguity or about to step out of my comfort zone.

• It is completely absent when I am in my flow, doing things that come naturally to me and that I love to do.

• When faced with the less familiar trickier tasks that require more mental heavy lifting, I notice it comes to the fore and then I engage in what my old friend, Barry Bloch, termed Work Avoidance Behaviour (WABs for short).

• It is also a great friend of perfectionism and has a field day when I am questioning myself and experiencing some self-doubt.

• According to some of my clients, it is rife when they need to tackle something brand new outside their technical expertise, are required to master a competence or are dealing with complexity in decision making or team relationships. For me it’s marketing and selling. I am sure you have some inkling as to what this is for you. 

Simply put, the conditions that suit procrastination’s growth, but not yours, are turbulence, ambiguity, the unknown, the presence of fear and self-doubt.  Dealing with change, uncertainty and embracing the unknown are essential in our volatile world.  One element that may help is recognising when procrastination is getting in the way, and when it might be pointing to something more fundamental - listening to others voices rather than your heart.

In some cases, procrastination can be an alert that there is something more at play. When you are simply not making headway on a particular path, it may mean that you made a commitment because it seemed like “the right thing to do”. For example, I have procrastinated and postponed progressing a PHD until I stopped long enough to discover procrastination was protecting me from following a path that seemed good on the outside, yet I would not be following a path with heart - which I am more committed to than anything. Jack Kornfield’s book A Path with Heart: A Guide through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life is inspiring in its advocacy of living a values-driven-life.

Here are six strategies that my clients and I have found help in outwitting procrastination:  

1.     Forget trying to get rid of it – rather arm yourself with information that puts you in the driver’s seat when it rears it’s head. 

2.     Observe its modus operandi in your life – when is it rife? When is it happy to stay in the shadows? When is it working against you and when is it pointing a message you need to hear?

3.     Reconnect with your larger hopes and dreams (why you want to take this action) - don’t allow your focus to be pulled into the spiral of avoidance. 

4.     Reframe it as a sign that you are edging towards your dreams and have an opportunity to learn and grow.

5.     Ask yourself what will happen if you don’t act.  You may surprise yourself with the answer. 

6.     Set yourself a tangible and realistic small step to move closer to what you are avoiding. For me this is sitting down at my computer, airplane mode on my phone, 30 minute timer activated and writing a stream of consciousness that is a “shxxty first draft” to quote Anne Lamott from her book Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.