If you always find yourself PROCRASTINATING, read this

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7 min read

• ⌚ How to Win the Battle Against Procrastination in 7 Simple Steps

Listen, even if you’re armed and ready with one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, otherwise known as discipline…

Your brain is sneaky and has ways of getting you off track without even realizing it.

Discipline doesn’t do us any good if we aren’t even aware of when we need to use it.

The most common struggle I personally have (and I think it’s one many of you can relate with), is the battle against Procrastination.

Here’s my simple 7-step process for overcoming Procrastination:

7 STEP PROCESS

1. Become Aware That You’re Delaying

Step one is obvious, you can’t solve a problem if you aren’t aware you have a problem.

Often we’ll get sucked down the rabbit-hole of social media or some other glitzy distraction and not even realize it.

The key is to build “pattern interrupts” into your day. Here’s one example that’s served me incredibly well over the years.

You can set a alarm/reminder that randomly goes off to remind you of what you should be doing.

2. Reclaim Your Intention

Once you become aware that you’re distracted or procrastinating, you need to reclaim your intention.

Or, put another way, you have to, in that moment, reconnect with WHY you should do the thing you’re putting off.

3. Define the Objective

We can’t win the game if we don’t know the rules. So, the next step is to get clear about what you need to do in that next moment to start moving towards your goal.

What does it look like to win the game?

Very few people actually do this, but I think you’ll be surprised to discover just how powerful it is once you get clear on the objective.

4. Set a Tiny Goal

Massive action often leads to massive failure because we get overwhelmed and give up.

Instead, your only goal is to get a little bit of traction and translate that into forward momentum.

Remember this Law of Motion?

To do this, we start by setting a tiny goal.

What is the smallest bit of meaningful action you could take to get the ball rolling.

Set the goal, and then… see where it takes you.

5. Start a Timer

The Parkinson’s Law says that the scope of work will expand to fill the time allotted. Operating without clear deadlines is a great way to ensure a task never gets completed.

To really boost your productivity, stop giving yourself so much time to complete tasks.

Shortening the time window is a great way of increasing the output.

So instead of saying, “I will complete this by the end of the week.”

Say, “I will complete this by the end of the DAY.” Or even better… “By the end of the HOUR!”.

6. Just. Get. Started.

Momentum is the cure to Procrastination.

Doesn’t even have to be a lot of momentum.

Any little bit of forward motion is enough to put inertia (and Sir Isaac Newton) on your side.

Start small. Get traction. Don’t stop.

It’s that simple.

7. Identify your why

I consider myself to be a pretty disciplined person these days… and yet, even I cannot muster discipline for an activity if I do not clearly understand WHY it’s important for me to do so.

Now, I admit, I’m a slow learner. I knew the consequences of not reviewing my notes would be that someday I could fail the course that would be problematic.

But I still had to learn that lesson the hard way.

Some of us just have to stick our hand in the fire to see what happens. So it goes.

These days, I’ve stuck my hand in enough fires to clearly understand “why” I shouldn’t do that anymore.

Avoiding this pain is actually pretty simple, all things considered, if you just take the time on the frontend to cultivate a deep emotional attachment to WHY you should do the hard thing.

For me, the deep why these days is linked to the fear I have of getting to the end of this life filled with regrets because I didn’t live up to my potential.

Your why is likely different, but no less important. So take the time to get crystal clear on WHY being disciplined is so important to you.

With this in mind, all there’s left to do…

Is to implement these practices and get started.

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