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In this blog post, we’ll cover 3 simple procrastination tips on how to overcome procrastination. If you find yourself procrastinating at work, procrastinating assignments or you often procrastinate cleaning this post is for you!

I was so bad at getting stuff done when I was younger. Targeting procrastination and removing it became a big goal for me in my adulthood. As a result of my experience, two components drive and determine what we accomplish.

Let’s chat about how to overcome procrastination!

Step #1: Target the Pain That’s Present & Remove It

We often face different types of situations when it comes to why we are procrastinating. Pain is the first setback, there are two parts of pain that need work.

  1. The Emotional Aspect Of The Task
  2. Reforming The Logic Of What’s Painful In That Task.

For example, A situation where we don’t feel the spark and drive to complete something; this can take place when given an assignment you don’t believe in its purpose or potentially the outcome the instructor expects. Simple things like cleaning the house or organizing your desktop. Calling a friend to reconnect after a big disagreement.

Most of the time in situations such as these. You’ll find you have a hard time getting started. Here’s what to begin assessing, the task you keep procrastinating on.

Part #1: Check-In With Your Tasks Importance

To clarify if something is important, you’ll have to assess if it’s in alignment with your purpose (The direction you feel most fulfillment). Is it in alignment with what you really want? You’ll have to do some alignment work.

Questions To Ask:how to overcome procrastination
  • “Is the task at hand taking me towards my dream?”
  • “Can I get fulfillment from completing this task”
  • “Is it in alignment with my values?”
  • Maybe start with clarifying your values “What are my core values?”

The perpetual conversation we hold with ourselves guides us.

Shifting your conversation with yourself, this a huge beginning to how to overcome procrastination.

Tip:

This is where you want to work with yourself on the emotional level and connect with what feels right, and aligns with your biggest dreams and goals. As well as gives you fulfillment.

Action Step:

Decide if the task is right for you.

  1. Yes, I’m finishing it!
  2. No, it doesn’t align with me.

Your not a bad person if you drop things that don’t matter to you. You just want to get smarter about each situation as it comes. Learn from your mistakes and perhaps – For example; don’t commit to a task next time until you assess it first. Let people know about your success and not your fall back – this is a big confidence gainer.

Trot quietly, let your success speak for itself.

If it the task isn’t for you but you have to do it because your work requires it then perhaps it’s important to weight out the pros and cons of your job instead of just focusing on a small task that’s weighing you down. This can be applied to relationships as well! (If you’ve weighed out the pros and cons and you’d like to push through your procrastination for that one item, check out the pain resolution step!)

Part #2: Where is your PAIN at?

Where we place the pain matters. This step often includes logic work. It’s either pain that present or pleasure.

  1. Someone who is experiencing pleasure in a task – does it with joy. It’s not a question if they’ll do it or not because they feel good doing it. Who wouldn’t take something on that feels good or is exciting.
  2. Someone who is experiencing pain in a task – does it painfully. Everything is an uphill grind. Thinking about doing it is painful and the thought that they haven’t come it feels defeating and stressful. It also decreases confidence and belief-in-self.

What separates these two people?

In procrastination there are two perspectives; one is feeling PAIN and the other is feeling PLEASURE in completing the task at hand.

So how do you begin to put the PAIN in your procrastination?

Questions To Ask:
  • “Where is my pain in this task?”
  • “Why am I having such a difficult time completing it?”
  • “What is this cycle doing to my spirit, am I getting through this? Or Am I just stuck and not moving forward?”
  • A follow-up question; “What do I need to do, to remove my pain and get this task done?”
Tip:

If you find yourself not moving forward. Find more knowledge. One of the biggest reasons people don’t take more action confidently is because they feel discouraged with their knowledge base on the subject at hand.

ACTION STEP:
  1. Gain more knowledge.
  2. Make a plan.
  3. Break down each task in your plan.

So do some research using the world wide web and get google searching on what you need to know about your task.

You’ll find an instant boost in belief once you do this!

*Most importantly avoid comparing yourself to overs.

Step #2: Clean and Clear Out Your Environment:

The environment we are in can sometimes be stronger than our will, and if it’s disorganized you can bet it’s setting you back in your productivity. Having a clean environment is incredibly important for overcoming procrastination.

Productivity, goal, and task achievement have more to do with confidence than you’d think.

The things you say you’ll do and don’t end up doing are actively decreasing your confidence.

You can start to build up confidence and self-trust by setting little goals that lead up to the BIG goal and completing them one by one.

For example, if the assignment you need to finish for work is something you’ll be doing on your work computer but your desk is a mess, your desktop has so many items on it you don’t know where things are anymore and your email is disorganized. It’s pretty clear why completing your project is such a big deal and it’s painful.

When sitting on so much clutter it’s an uphill grind to doing anything big or small.

Action Steps:

1. Clean up your environment:

Clean up where you have to complete your task and anything else that’s sitting heavy on your brain.

2. Write a list of outstanding tasks:

Clean files, clean desk, clean email, do research on the item you’ve been procrastinating on. Plan before you take action. That is when you can set out your next steps.

3. Complete the small tasks first:

The reason you want to start small is to build more checkmarks on your list which will improve your confidence in the matter!

4. Complete the bigger tasks next:

These are the other tasks that stack up on the pain to the final item you’ve been procrastinating on.

Step #3: Prioritize and Commit to Only What’s Important

We are revisiting this part because I’d like to ensure you understand the importance of prioritizing only what’s important to you. There are a million things we can do every day on our list but only about 3 of them are likely extremely important.

Prioritizing What’s Important:

1. Barf all of your “to-do” items on paper – write every “To Do item that comes to mind.  Don’t stop just keep getting every task or thought of something you need to do that comes to mind on paper.

This is like the mental task removal process.

Let me explain why it’s important. We can drive ourselves crazy constantly thinking about what needs to be done. This is why writing stuff down is a powerful act for the mind. It signals to your brain that you’ve started taking some action. In this case, the action you are taking is writing it down on a list and then assessing its importance. To the mind, you’ve still taken action over just thinking about stressing about things. Whether it gets done or not the mind doesn’t care.

2. Review the list and set marketers for… (a.) What you feel needs to get done and (b.) What feels in most alignments to complete?

Tip:

For example; I’ll put a ♥ heart beside what feels aligned and I’ll be excited about doing and a star beside what I feel is pressing to accomplish. You can pick what works best for you!

3. Pick your top 3 bigger items you’ll focus on that day – you’ll probably complete a lot of smaller tasks as well on your list. make sure what you write down to complete that day is in alignment with your top 3 bigger items.

Are you lacking self-confidence and need support in this area?

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How we think and see the world determines all of our results. Those of us that do the work and audit our thoughts breeze through life’s challenges. These are all confidence building perspectives that you can obtain. If you want to breeze through your life’s challenges and be less reactive.  I can help!

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Julia Maria Nica

Life & Dream Coach

Julia grew up in Vancouver, B.C. She immigrated from Romania to Canada in the ’90s with her family. Julia decided to find her passion. Just like many women, she experienced her own self-image challenges. She came up with the idea of The YOU Series as a part of unraveling the pain of her life. Today she focuses on building The You Series, coaching her clients, and creating new content.

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