6 SMALL STEPS TO END

PROCRASTINATION

Dr.RachnaJain

As a psychologist and business coach, I’m always intrigued

about the place where a person’s psychology impacts their

business.

In a way, this is happening all the time - our individual psychology

(HOW WE THINK, FEEL, INTERPRET, PERCEIVE)

is constantly impacting our business.

It defines whether we feel HOPEFUL OR PESSIMISTIC, CONFIDENT OR FEARFUL,

whether we extend ourselves to clients (or not) and how we think

about ourselves and the contribution we make.

One main reason people procrastinate is…

BECAUSE THEY DON’T FEEL THE REWARDS OF COMPLETING THE TASK

ARE WORTH IT.The effort required feels to be so much more than

what will be gained.

Psychological studies have suggested that procrastination

is the PRODUCT OF POOR SELF

REGULATION,a gap between intention and

action.

There is also a misperception that procrastination is not harmful, or “hurts no-one.”

Procrastinators, in general, tend to experience more stress and

lowered well being.

Chronic procrastinators can also miss out on opportunities…

AND THIS IS VERYEVIDENT IN BUSINESS.

Let’s say, for example, that you have been invited to take part in email list building giveaway. This all sounds great, and they’ve asked you to provide your free gift and opt-in page by Thursday. You know you want to create something new and special.

YOU THINK ABOUT IT.MAKE A LIST.

DEFINE THE STEPS.…and yet nothing gets done.

You’re aware that the days are slipping by, one after the other, and you perceive the stress you’re feeling as positive –

“This will really motivate me to get this done. I work better under deadlines.”

And then, Wednesday night comes and you find yourself

FEVERISHLY WORKING LATE,

trying to get the gift and opt-in page done on time.

Or, instead, you do what I call “moving the finish line” - where you negotiate for a deadline change, not for any reason except

YOU DIDN’T GET IT DONE.

In my experience,

OPPORTUNITIES COME TO THOSE WHO ARE READY FOR THEM

…not those who say yes and then delay and defer.

Eventually, the opportunities will stop coming. This isn’t to scare you or make you feel badly; just

to explain that procrastination does have some real costs associated with it.

YOU LOSE OUT WHEN YOU

CHRONICALLY PROCRASTINATE.

The challenge with chronic procrastination is that you don’t

tend to learn from experience. You end up repeating the same cycle

over and over again.

So how do you begin to shift your psychology and your behavior

towards greater completion and timeliness with your tasks?

Here are some steps that will help:

BREAK THE TASKS INTO

CHUNKS.

What this means is that you define the desired outcome and then work

backwards, filling in the steps from end to beginning.

You will likely see “CLUSTERS” or “CHUNKS”

of tasks that can be done together.

This process can be especially helpful when you think about doing a task and

feel immediately overwhelmed.

That overwhelm is a sign that some logic and structure is needed.

SET UP YOUR ENVIRONMENT FOR SUCCESS.

I used this tip a lot when I first began working out with my personal trainer. Prior to that, I was never a person who exercised consistently.

I would always have lots of excuses for why I didn’t have time to go to the gym. I felt overloaded with having to get up and out early in order to be on time.

So I started pulling out my workout clothes the night before, and changing into them as soon as I woke up.

Once I was changed into my gym gear, it reduced the friction and hesitation about going.

Of course, paying for training and knowing my trainer was waiting for me also helped too - I’ll talk more about both of those next.

INVEST IN YOUR

CHOSEN OUTCOME.

$$

I was much more motivated to go to the gym when I knew I was paying to be

there.

The same goes for your clients - they are likely to be more motivated and to

PROCRASTINATE LESS when they have made a big investment

to work with you.

Most of us want to rise to whatever bar we’ve set for ourselves - and so,

sometimes, putting money into outcome is a way to

OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION.

GETACCOUNTABILITY

The other element of something like personal training or business coaching is the element of ACCOUNTABILITY.

• Most of us are more likely to do something we’ve promised someone else before we do that same thing for ourselves.

• Committing to another person is a way of overcoming procrastination.

• A skilled mentor can hold you accountable to keep moving forward, until you are able to do this for yourself.

SET UP CONTINGENCIES/MAKE IT A GAME

Setting up contingencies or gamifying the tasks can help.

Setting up contingencies is when you make a reward contingent upon completing something - like “I’ll go for a walk as soon as I finish writing

this blog post.”

Gamifying might be turning the same task into points – “I get 10

points for writing this blog post, and 10 points for replying to emails, etc,

once I hit 45 points, I’ll take the afternoon off.”

(It’s similar to a contingency, except sometimes gamified goals feel lighter and more fun to some

people.)

At times,

PEOPLE PROCRASTINATE

BECAUSE THEIR TO-DO LIST IS TOO LONG.

They know, underneath, that they will never get it done-and so they don’t want to try. It’s difficult, I think, to live constantly in a state of incompletion - to end each day

without any SATISFACTIONthat you got the most important things done.

If you are a person who has a to-do list that keeps getting longer and longer - and you feel like you’re

running to keep up with it; I suggest stepping back and reviewing that list for what’s most ESSENTIAL.

In a process I learned from Mike Michalowicz in his book, Profit First,I MARK MY TO-DO ITEMS WITH ONE OF FOUR SYMBOLS:

$ ∞J /A dollar sign ($) is for items that

will generate income for me within the next

60 days.

A happy face (J)is for items that

will make my clients happy (or

happier.)

An infinity symbol (∞) is for items which are about systems or processes in

my business.

And a forward slash (/) is for items which

don’t fit any of those

categories.

Since my core areas of focus are improving PROFITABILITY and increasing customer happiness, I focus on those items first.

This is a great process for paring down your to-do list into what’s most important.

I know we’re all under a lot of pressure to get more done, and to keep up with everything all at the same

time.

UNFORTUNATELY, THAT ONLY WORKS IN OUR MINDS –

NOT IN OUR BODIES.We can’t do everything at once.

And, in some cases, we list things that we shouldn’t ever be doing - or won’t ever do anyway.

Which leads me to my BONUS tip for ending procrastination:

GET MORE HELP.If your business can support it, outsourcing some of your work, especially the parts that you don’t like, aren’t good at, or which make you feel draggy and unhappy can

be a very good strategy.

There is something very freeing about turning over a task to someone else, and having them work on it.

WE DON’T TEND TO PROCRASTINATE ON TASKS WE ENJOY.

PROCRASTINATION ISN’T NEW.“Do not put your

work off ‘til tomorrow and the

day after.”- Greek poet Hesoid (in 800 B.C.!)

– but it seems to be more and more of a problem as we have more

options and more opportunities.

The steps I’ve shared here are the exact ones I use to stop

procrastination in its tracks.

LET ME KNOW HOW THEY WORK FOR YOU!

Because You Deserve to Be Liked. And Rich.

Read the Blog at ProfitablePopularity.com