Five Ways to Beat Procrastination
Procrastination. We’ve all been there, right? And in its simplest form, it’s telling us something about how our minds are feeling about that thing we are putting off:
It’s boring and unenjoyable
It’s not a good use of my time
I don’t know how to do it
Now just isn’t the right time
It feels too risky
I don’t want to do it!
There are more important things to do
There isn’t enough time
I don’t understand what I need to do
There’s plenty of time before the deadline - it can be pushed to another day
If any of those reasons ring true for you, don’t beat yourself up. It’s natural to hesitate and procrastinate. Best of all - it’s an opportunity for self-reflection and growth.
When we put something off, we may think we’re doing the right thing (and, sometimes, we are!) - but often, there's never a good enough time because we can’t always be impartial.
And let me tell you this from experience: whatever has been weighing on your mind today will still be there tomorrow... unless there’s some kind of action today.
But that action doesn’t mean ticking everything off your action list from top to bottom. Instead, let’s explore ways you can beat procrastination and start moving forward in the smallest of ways.
Five ways to beat procrastination and move forward
When “working from home” quickly became “living at work” during the pandemic, boundaries often became blurry. We’re not robots - and what goes on at home will always affect our work and vice versa. So if you have a big personal OR professional project coming up - these steps will work great for you.
ONE: Get everything out of your head
Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed with our tasks, the enormity of it all can be paralysing (personally, I work well with a degree of pressure, but when I experience true overwhelm, I grind to a halt). So the smallest step you can take to move forward is to get everything out of your head: on paper, in an excel spreadsheet, in your reMarkable tablet - I don't mind. Just get it out of your head.
Then, if there are any big projects that feel out of reach because there are so many itty bitty elements to them, break it all down into smaller chunks.
For instance - the big project might be:
Launch website
And five smaller chunks might end up looking like this:
Decide on pages and write copy for each
Book a photoshoot for new images
Research website designers and book discovery calls
Find website layouts that I love/hate so I can share examples
Decide on a budget and ideal timeframe
TWO: Rank tasks in order of importance
What do you do when you have too many tasks to complete and not enough time to do them all? If you're like most people, you probably try to prioritise your tasks and figure out which ones are the most important (or maybe even the ones that are the most fun!). But what if there's no clear way to determine which task is the most important? Gah!
That's where the Eisenhower matrix comes in. Named after Dwight D. Eisenhower who used it during his presidency, the matrix can help you figure out which tasks need to be done first, done later, delegated (keep reading for more on this), or ditched entirely.
So let's go back to the website project for a moment. We had “Decide on pages and write copy for each” as the first action item. Sure, it's important, but it's not urgent in the sense that the rest of the project cannot start until it's ticked off.
THREE: Delegate wherever possible
Looking at where you are in life right now, professionally and personally, versus where you want to be is part of the big-picture strategic dreaming and planning. You can’t delegate any of that deep work.
Tasks that have a process
There are other things that end up on our to-do lists though - like scheduling social media posts or uploading blog articles - that still need to get done, just not necessarily by us because there's already a repeatable process involved (you miiiight just need to get it out your head first).
Unbillable fun-sponge tasks* and anything outside your zone of genius
If you find that you’re procrastinating over a task because you’re simply not good at it, don’t know how to do it, or know your time is better spent elsewhere - hire an expert who can support you.
Flicking back to our website project, if writing copy isn't a key strength then it can be delegated. Otherwise, that element of our website revamp is going to keep getting shoved to the bottom of the to-do list which will only delay the entire project.
In my experience of working with expert freelancers over the last 5+ years in business, I’m not ashamed to say that for every task I keep putting off (due to my clear conscious incompetence!), there are experts who are quicker and better than me at those very same things.
*Unbillable fun-sponge tasks: unpaid yet necessary work that sucks the fun out of your business. Please tell me that I can copyright this!
FOUR: Set realistic goals and deadlines
Parkinson’s Law demonstrates that if we tell ourselves we have four weeks to complete a project, then it’ll take four weeks. If we say it’ll take one, guess what? It’ll only take one.
So sometimes, moving forward on a task can be as easy as figuring out a realistic goal and setting a self-imposed deadline… just make sure it’s in the not-too-distant future. ;)
Looking at our website example and using the Matrix, our list starts to look like this:
DELEGATE Decide on pages and write copy for each
IMPORTANT Book a photoshoot for new images
IMPORTANT/URGENT Research website designers and book discovery calls
IMPORTANT Find website layouts that I love/hate so I can share examples
IMPORTANT/URGENT Decide on a budget and ideal timeframe
This also means the order needs to be shuffled so that the project gains momentum by focussing time /energy on the important and urgent elements first.
FIVE: Eliminate distractions to stop procrastinating and start doing
Now that you’ve prioritised what you need to do first, it’s time to commit to eliminating distractions and simply start doing.
Deep-work focus sessions
In 2021, I started attending remote co-working sessions. I found that booking a session and committing to deep work for a fixed period of time skyrocketed my productivity. Last year, I co-worked for 4,225 minutes, with 43 partners, across 16 countries.
By breaking work down into 50 or 25-minute chunks, and committing to action by co-working with partners, we all feel more productive… and connected. I like working from home and on my own, but even I’ve felt a bit lonely. It’s nice to have a bit of interaction with someone - even if it is just a 30-second spoken commitment about what I’m working on in a sesh!
Conclusion
If you find yourself procrastinating, it’s time to take a step back and look at your business process.
Identify the areas where you can get everything out of your head and onto paper (or into a document on your computer).
Rank tasks in order of importance so that you know what needs to be done first.
Delegate where possible, setting realistic goals for yourself and others involved in the project.
Finally, eliminate distractions so that you can focus on the task at hand.
What tips do you have for someone who is struggling with procrastination? I’d love to hear what works for you.
Ready to explore coaching?
If you’re curious about what coaching could help you achieve, why not book a discovery chat with me to see if it’s right for you? No pressure, commitment or obligation. Just a conversation about where you are versus where you want to be and how we can bridge that gap.