Procrastination is one of the hardest forces to overcome when you’re trying to act on your career dreams. Even if you’re not showing other overt signs of resistance, it’s easy to get caught in a procrastination loop. It happens to almost everyone at one time or another.
Procrastinating doesn’t mean you’re lazy; it means that you’re having trouble focusing and acting. This is why generic platitudes such as “work harder” and “just get it over with” don’t work. You have to do something to get over the procrastination itself. This list contains three ways you can help slay the procrastination monster.
1) Make it fun
Making something fun is a great way to beat procrastination. Turn the dreaded task into a game. See how fast you can get it down. Do it to music. Sing songs while you work. Find someone to help you and compete to see who can complete their portion of the task. Whoever gets done first wins a prize.
If it’s a repetitive task, set up a scorecard. Add points and bonuses – even if you’re the only one doing it. Promise yourself a reward for getting a task you dislike finished. Make the reward something that will motivate you and follow through. These are just a few examples – there are many more.
2) Get accountability
Find a friend or coworker who will hold you accountable and not allow you to get away with excuses. In getting accountability, you can agree that you’ll either get the task done by a certain date and time, or you’ll do something that you really, really don’t want to do.
It shouldn’t be something horrible. A good example is agreeing to donate a large (but affordable) sum of money to a cause you hate if you don’t follow through. This motivates many people to stop procrastinating.
3) Change Your Self-Talk
Self-talk is the constant monologue inside our heads. It’s how we think about ourselves and talk to ourselves. It can be empowering and uplifting, or depressing and deprecating (and everything in between). When you’re procrastinating and feeling guilty, you often resort to negative self-talk. This means you say things such as “I must…” or “I have to…” and follow it up by talking down to yourself because you haven’t done it yet. Instead, change it to something empowering. A good example would be “I choose to do this because (fill in the blank).” Changing your self-talk will make you feel better about yourself and motivate you.
Which of the three ways will you choose to beat procrastination today?
This was a very insightful article. I have known for some time now that I was procrastinating making some changes in my career. But fear and negative self-talk kept holding me back.
I’m choosing to make a change in my career in 2023 because I want to find meaningful work that fulfills me and allows me to leave an impact in my community.
Thank you, Coach Susan!