Do you ever find yourself saying that "Someday, I'm gonna get rid of this procrastination problem once and for all" be more productive, totally smash my goals and live my full potential?
Well, unlucky for you, there are 7 days in a week and "someday" is not one of them.
You're not alone though, procrastination is something we all struggle with, myself included. I remember when I was at university I would always leave my papers to the last minute, cursing myself and overdosed on caffeine I'd vow to never procrastinate again.
Only to end up repeating the same cycle of frustration for the next paper.
It's only until I started seeking out solutions did I make any change.
So how can you start being more productive and achieving more of what you set your mind to?
1. Simplify
Before we dive deeper into the solutions to beat your procrastination problem, it's important to take a look at the underlying reasons. Why are you procrastinating in the first place?
Procrastination can usually occur if our brain perceives the task to be too overwhelming (1). If a task seems more complicated, difficult, or unclear than it actually is, this perception can lead us to avoid tasks that may in reality not be as difficult or overwhelming as we thought.
Yet we will still feel resistance towards them. This is where simplification can help.
If you're finding a task overwhelming then break it down into smaller chunks and work on it brick by brick.
For example, if you've always wanted to write a book but are constantly procrastinating then instead of thinking of the whole book why not break it down into chapters, better still why not just write 500 words.
Make the task so small that it would be crazy NOT to do it. These small actions when repeated over time can lead to compounding results.
You can do this with pretty much any habit, project or goal.
2. Reduce Busy Work
Generally when we think of procrastination, behaviours such as browsing the internet, binge watching Netflix or scrolling on social media mindlessly come to mind. Yes, these tasks CAN be classified as procrastination if you have other stuff to do, but they're only the most obvious kind.
The more insidious type of procrastination and often much harder to recognise is when you are doing tasks that are not important to your end result, this is what I can "busy work".
Often these are tasks that can make you look busy and feel productive but actually aren't.
A great example is research, or consuming content! There's only so much research and consumption you can do before you realise that you really need to start creating some content and use that research to create something meaningful.
The 3rd strategy to become more productive is to...
3. Schedule Your Time Blocks
This is a strategy I find very helpful.
Often we go to great lengths to block out time for a task that we need to do, but forget to actually outline exactly WHAT we need to do within that slot.
For example if you have scheduled yourself to write a blog post between 6-9pm, instead of writing "6pm-9pm write a blog post" on your calendar, you should break that down even further and create a schedule within that slot.
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To create the timeline you first have to simplify the task down to its basic components, so for a blog post that might be research, writing content, editing and publishing. What you can then do is create a timeline using these micro-tasks to fill the time slot. When each bigger task is broken down into micro-tasks it's easier for you to know exactly what you will be doing and when, making the time slot more efficient.
This way you when you sit down to do the task you'll have a clear direction for how to utilise that slot as opposed to staring at a blank slate and therefore getting distracted because you have no idea where to begin.
So the 4th strategy to be more productive is...
4. Just Start
Sorry for the "Nike" moment there but honestly sometimes all you have to do is take 1 little step and then allow momentum to kick in.
Show up enough times and each rep makes it more and more easier to do. With this method the key is to break what you're trying to be more productive on down into the tiniest of task and then do that tiny task first.
This is something James Clear talks about in his book Atomic Habits where he explains the 2 minute rule, although he relates it to habits we can easily use the same concept towards the task you are procrastinating on.
The 2 minute rule states that "when you start a new habit (task) it should take less than two minutes to do". The idea is to make your habit (task) as easy as possible to start...anyone can meditate for 1 minute, read 1 page, or put 1 item of clothing away.... this is a powerful strategy because once you've started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it- James Clear
With this method you essentially trick your brain into doing the smallest of task, so it doesn't get into resistance and overwhelm.
I'm currently using this exact strategy to create a habit of going to the gym at least 3 times a week. I have broken down the behaviour to allow me to do it even on the busiest of days while I build up the habit and repetition. I've told myself that I can only stay for 5 minutes and then I MUST leave. I'm mastering the art of showing up, that's my only focus. Once I have that mastered I can scale up and optimise.
Too many people want to start big and take quantum leaps way too early only to end up burned out.
So start small and then go from there, Always remember the 2 minute rule. The consistency is more important than the intensity, the more you show up (no matter how small) the easier the task will become.