“I will stop procrastinating tomorrow.”
One day, I saw this quote on a T-shirt, and it resonated with me. If you are like me, you must have found yourself trying to find hacks for crushing procrastination. I have lost count of the self-help books and magazine articles I have read in an attempt to finally solve my long-standing struggle with delaying or putting things off.
In my case, I am a living irony as I am one to never be late for an appointment (unless there is an unforeseen circumstance that is beyond my control) but also one to wait until the last minute when working on a creative project. I do not remember missing deadlines in school or at work but I cannot begin to describe the amount of stress I subjected myself to meet some of them. It was recently when I got into graduate school that I forced myself to finally beat procrastination or I might find myself in a downward spiral.
In the course of my yearning for a solution, an insight stood out – procrastination is an emotion-management issue. There is so much to unpack and I would like to share the things I learned along the way, in my years of trial and error. I did not procrastinate on working on this piece so I can say that the following tips I am about to summarize work. Here they are:
Stop labeling yourself as a procrastinator. Words are so powerful and the messages we repeatedly tell ourselves slowly form part of our reality. I was reminded of this when I listened to an episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast. Robbins is a host, motivational speaker, and book author. She said, “You are not a procrastinator. You have the habit of procrastinating.” She also said that once we realize that procrastination is a broken pattern of behavior, we know that we can still reverse it. We should not make procrastination a part of our identities.
Stop beating yourself up. In the process, I realized that the guilt of putting things off and finding myself in a stressful situation is worsened by my internal blame game. As Robbins shared, we must remind ourselves that we are not lazy and we do not lack willpower or discipline. We are struggling with emotions here. What is important is we recognize our reality for us to get to the bottom of things.
Manage your stress. Procrastination, based on research, is triggered by stress. It has nothing to do with what we have to do but more with avoiding the stress and negative emotions we have to deal with the moment we do the things we need to do. Dr. Timothy Pychyl, a psychology expert who studied procrastination for two decades, confirmed that procrastination is rooted in emotions. He defined the concept as the subconscious desire to feel good at the moment. Being aware of that, it is no surprise we choose to scroll through Instagram and TikTok than dive into our work emails or school homework.
Forgive yourself. We are human and prone to make mistakes or fall off track when trying to form a habit. Procrastination is not a permanent part of our being, it is a coping mechanism. Based on Pychyl’s research, students who forgave themselves after procrastinating for an exam were less likely to procrastinate on studying for the next exam. When we take a moment to forgive ourselves, we set ourselves up for success in our next attempt.
Acknowledge the cycle. The moment we accept the cycle we constantly find ourselves trapped in, that is when we can take action. Tools and techniques are available online and one powerful trick is the five-second rule by Robbins which says you have to move within five seconds when you want to do something or take action, right before your brain talks you out of it and comes up with excuses that cause delay.
As a work in progress, what helped me a lot is productivity coach and positive psychology practitioner Sharon Danzger’s tip to break down tasks into small chunks. Robbins also supported this by saying that when we do the smallest and easiest task to jumpstart an activity we wish to be doing, we are more likely to create momentum and finish it. This reminds me of what theologian Desmond Tutu once said, “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”
There is no better time to put that saying to the test than now.
If you wish to learn more about beating procrastination and activating productivity, check out The Mel Robbins podcast on Spotify or enroll in Sharon Danzger’s course on udemy.com (Super-Productive: Exceptional Focus and Productivity).
For your random thoughts, e-mail the author at randomrepublika@gmail.com.