This blog post is a part of the Overcoming Procrastination to get more done series:
Overcoming Procrastination to get more done | Part 1
Overcoming Procrastination to get more done | Part 2
7 Hacks To Motivate Yourself To Make Progress
Overcoming procrastination can be a journey in itself, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. I am the Queen of procrastinating. I have big goals and ambitions, and yet I seem to find every excuse under the sun NOT to come up with a plan and execute it.
Do you find yourself put things off and no matter how often you beat yourself up over waiting to the last minute to pack for a holiday, write an essay, or file your pesky taxes and struggle to get it all done in time, but you keep doing it again and again?
If you’re ready to put your procrastinating ways behind you and smash those goals out of the park, then keep reading.
I want you to be a goal smasher, a Queen among Queens, a get sh#t done kind of girl, so, I am sharing my best tips and strategies for overcoming procrastination over 2 blog posts.
In this blog post, I will explain the importance of forgiving yourself for past procrastination, tips on how to overcome distractions that pull you into procrastination, and how to master your inner critic voice.
- Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past
- Don’t let things or people distract you into procrastination
- Listen to your inner voice and change that dialogue
We start with forgiveness. I know it seems like a strange place to start, but it’s an essential first step. Here is why forgiving yourself for procrastination should always be the first step.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past
Here’s the thing. There’s nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. Beating yourself up about not following the plan you made for reaching a goal does you absolutely no good. Quite the opposite actually.
If you stress yourself out and engage in negative self-talk, you make it worse. Those feelings of anxiety will enforce your habit to procrastinate in the future.
Next time tell yourself it’s okay
The next time you find yourself procrastinating, tell yourself that it’s okay. It’s not the end of the world. Say it out loud and then promise yourself to try to do better. Trying is the important keyword here. You’re working on mastering a new skill and changing a habit. That takes practice, time, and of course, failing again and again. It’s all part of the learning process.
Use your frustration as motivation
You may feel frustrated at times about your lack of progress. It’s normal. If you can, tap into that frustration and use it to motivate you. Vow to try again and do better. Look at your mistakes. What caused you to procrastinate this time? Learn from it, and you will start to do better.
Maybe there’s a big task, and you started strong, chipping away at it a little at a time. Then you missed a day and another. That’s okay. Not great, but okay. You did well for a while. It’s good practice, and maybe this particular experience taught you that you can’t allow yourself to skip more than one day on an ongoing project.
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey
There’s always something new to learn whenever we fail at something or slip back into a bad habit. At the very least, we figure out that something isn’t working for us. Maybe you do better with three or fewer to-dos per day. Perhaps you need twenty-five, so there’s always something to check off. You won’t know until you try.
Forgive yourself for procrastinating so you can move on and practice some more.
Don’t let things or people distract you into procrastinating
You wake up in the morning motivated and ready to tackle whatever it is you’ve been procrastinating on. Maybe you’re excited about a new project. You drink your coffee, get dressed, and get ready to get to work.
Then something happens.
You open your email for a sneak peek, or worse Facebook and get sucked into spending the next few hours on mindlessly scrolling. Maybe a good friend calls and asks you to go shopping. Or you get an alert that your favourite TV show dropped on Netflix. It doesn’t matter what it is, the point is that there are people and things that will try to distract you into procrastination.
If you let them.
Work on your priority first thing in the morning
There’s a simple strategy you can use to keep this from happening. It’s to make the important project you’ve been procrastinating on a priority and working on it first thing every morning.
The night before
The whole process starts the night before. Before you call it a day, sit down and make a simple plan for what you want to get done the next day.
Identify your top 3
Identify the three most important tasks. This will be things that start to move the needle. Maybe they are all focused on one main project, perhaps it’s several things you know you should be getting done.
Write these three things down. They don’t have to be anything big. In fact, I find it helpful if they are all items I can take care of in an hour or less. When you get up in the morning or get to your office, look at your list and work on these three most important tasks before you do anything else. Don’t check your emails. Don’t start playing on your phone. If possible, don’t even answer the phone or attend meetings before these three tasks are taken care of. Make them your number one priority.
This alone will make a massive difference in how your day goes, how productive you are, and it, of course, keeps you from procrastinating on those projects.
Putting them off until the end of the day when you’re too tired to do anything is no longer an option. <– I used to do this, then I learned that I was NOT productive after a long day of work and stopped working AGAINST myself and instead, started working with myself. I now wake up at 5am and smash out a few tasks and a workout BEFORE work.
Know your distractions
Aside from that, simply being more aware of what things, devices, and people tempt you to procrastinate. When you find yourself putting something off, look back and see if you can pinpoint what caused it. Then take action towards preventing it from happening in the future. Essentially learning from your mistakes.
Listen to your inner voice and change that dialogue
Something we haven’t talked about yet is that little voice in our head that either encourages us to go do something more fun – thus procrastinating or the other one… your inner critic… the voice that tells you how much you suck because you didn’t get the things done that you set out to do.
Why is it important to listen to those voices? Because they have an impact on your life both on a conscious and a subconscious level. Let’s start with your inner critic voice because I think in the long run, it’s the most destructive of the two.
“The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.” – Walt Disney
I mentioned above about the importance of forgiving yourself. To quickly recap, it does you no good to beat yourself up over past procrastination and that you should expect to “fail” by procrastinating here and there.
Nobody is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. The important part is to show up and try your best.
Your inner critic does the opposite
Your inner critic doesn’t help you do that. Become aware of her and when you hear her, defuse her. You can do this by responding to her out loud or in writing via a journal. Or get up and do something else.
Do whatever it takes to silence your inner critic. Prove her wrong by doing something productive. Over time your inner critic will speak less and less unless you indulge her by paying attention to her and letting her ruin your day.
Procrasticleaning and procrasticrafting?
Next, it’s time to tackle the voice in your head that tells you it’s much more fun to do just about anything else other than what you should be doing. We all have that voice!
It’s why we come up with terms like procrasticleaning and procrasticrafting. We can get pretty innovative when it comes to doing anything but the thing we don’t want to work on, and that little voice is feeding us suggestions and cheering us on.
Use “yes, and” statements
The best way to diffuse this particular voice into something more productive is with “yes, and” statements. “Yes, playing video games sounds like a lot of fun and I’m going to play for an hour or so after I get this task done.” Use the suggestions this voice gives you as bribes if they sound like something fun. Ignore them otherwise or put them off until tomorrow.
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