How To Stop Procrastinating
If you grew up in an unsafe environment, it is easy to overreact to stressors.
Before I get into coping with unfounded fear, I want to tackle what seems obvious, which is sometimes fear is there for a reason. Sometimes, our emotions are accurate – it tells us that there is something we need to pay attention to and take care of now, and in these cases, it is a good idea to take action.
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” ― Mark Twain
For example, doing taxes always bothers me. I simply hated it. I used to procrastinate doing taxes, where I would do nothing other than complain and stress about having to do it from about January to March, and then finally start doing it at the end of March when the stress build-up is too much for me to ignore.
I’ve done this for years, and I know many people do too. It is utterly irrational because, unless we decide to live outside of the law, we have to get our taxes done, so why not do it sooner rather than later so we can move on with life?
So this year, I set aside recurring blocks of time on my calendar to work on taxes, starting in January. I listed all the paperwork I had to collect and then systematically compiled it during these blocks of time.
I use a device called the Time Timer to give myself an hour to work on taxes. The timer counts back time, so I always know how much time I have left.
To motivate myself to get work done, after each block of work, I would reward myself with something I enjoy, such as cooking, gardening, or playing with my pet. By building in predictable rewards for myself, it gives me that “oomph” I need to get started.
It is only February now, and I am done with taxes! I can’t begin to tell you how relieved it feels to get something I dislike so much out of the way so early!
Lesson
Figure out if your anxiety is telling you something important. Don’t brush the emotions away, but listen to it by asking yourself, “what is this anxiety trying to tell me?”
If you realize that you are procrastinating on something, break the big unpleasant thing into smaller tasks and set aside time on your calendar to do it.
Make the doing part less unpleasant by rewarding yourself with something that makes you happy once you complete each work block.
Homework
Is there something that you are procrastinating that is creating stress in your life? What is it?
Take that big thing and break it into little steps, and set aside blocks of time on your calendar to do it.
What is something you enjoy doing that you can set as a reward for completing a work block?