I’ll Blog About Procrastination Tomorrow…

I’m the Queen of Procrastination. Or I would be if I could motivate myself to go and pick up my crown…  Maybe I’ll get it tomorrow instead.

Seriously, I’ve begun to recognise procrastination as being a very serious case of self-sabotage.  I wish I were a psycho-analyst, so I could get some kind of grip on WHY I put off the very things that I know will make me most successful and save me money.  It’s mad!

It’s taken me quite a while to figure out that self-sabotage is very real and that a surprising number of people do it.  Perhaps the scenario is familiar: you’ve seen an advert for a great job.  It’s perfect for you, your skillset matches exactly and it’s a pay increase!  So what do you do?  You circle the job advert.  Perhaps you even send for the form.  But that’s it.  You never actually follow through on the job application, and consequently you stay in the same boring old job that is sending you crazy.  There’s no logic to it whatsoever.  You want a new job, the universe has conspired to put a new job in your path and yet… something goes wrong in the mental process along the way.

It’s important to realise that we are all programmed for success or failure from an early age.  We perceive ourselves in certain ways and our behaviours make sure that we stay within that comfort zone.  I have young children (11 and 4) and I see it in the playground.  A child is labelled as “artistic” or “sporty” and that label affects how they act in almost every sphere of their lives.  I was labelled as “not-sporty” at school and consequently never got picked for teams.  I didn’t bother trying very hard, because, after all, I wasn’t sporty, was I?  It wasn’t until I’d left school and gone through college that I discovered martial arts and having left behind all the labels, found that I was, in fact, pretty darned good!  What’s more – I enjoyed doing physical activities.  Now, with a bit of mental effort on my part, I’ve managed to reprogram my behaviours to take in the fact that I do enjoy some physical work.  I love to walk, I love to garden, I love martial arts and I love to dance.  The point is: it took me a LOT of reprogramming to get myself to the point where I could admit I enjoyed doing anything physical.

The same holds true for self-sabotage.  All it takes is a long run of bad luck and we start to see ourselves as failures, and as people who don’t deserve success.  At this point, our automatic behaviours take over, and we act in apparently illogical ways, just to keep ourselves to the path that we think is correct.   We see ourselves as “bad with money” and lo and behold – we get in debt again.  We become what we believe.

Procrastination is an *incredibly* powerful tool for self-sabotage.  We don’t even have to admit that this is what we’re doing – we’ll just think about it tomorrow.  The trouble is that the space which procrastination leaves in our timetable is so easy to fill.  Making cups of tea.  Reading a magazine.  Having a quick nap.  Going shopping.  Getting a snack.  It’s all displacement activity.  My husband is never quite so busy as when he’s avoiding doing his taxes…

The key to defeating procrastination?  Well, I’ll tell you when I find it myself, but unfortunately I’m still working on it fairly intensively.  I’ve found a few tools that do *help*, but no one thing that will banish it completely.

1. Our old favourite – make a list.  Somehow, writing it down on a list makes it seem more concrete.  And crossing it off that list is a wonderful feeling.
2. Get someone to nag you.  If you live alone, or can’t face your partner nagging you, go to an online community.  Find someone there to nag you!  Heck – *I’ll* nag you if you like!
3. Make it easy for yourself – get the phone number and write it on a bit of paper.  Get the supporting documents.  Whatever little ancillary tasks are associated with it – do them first and it’ll seem less like an insurmountable mountain if the little things are already done.
4. Reward yourself when you’ve done it.  Allow yourself to think about the reward you’ll get after the event – a half-hour break, a chapter of a book, a nap – whatever – but make sure that you reward yourself.
5. Tell yourself that you are an achiever.  You accomplish things.  You are a different person to the one that everyone would like to label you.  You are in control of your own labels.  In fact give yourself a label now.  A good one.  I’ll go first – I’m EFFICIENT.  Yup, that’s me today.  I am Annie “Efficient” Walker.  Give me a task and I’ll get it done.  How about you?

Whatever you do, don’t click off this post without thinking about the things that you are procrastinating about.  Have you got a piece of paper there?  Well, make a list Right Now.

I mean it.

Go on.  Write it down.

You’re going to get that done in the next 24 hours, aren’t you?