Stop Procrastinating - The 2 Best Tips To Stop Procrastination & Start Taking Action
1934. Edgar Kaufmann Sr., a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman and philanthropist had a piece of property in rural Pennsylvania.
Kaufmann commissioned famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a unique and complex home to fit into the stunning landscape of the Allegheny Mountains.
So imagine Wright’s surprise when Kaufmann called Wright early one morning in September 1935, to let him know he was dropping in to see how the design was coming. Wright had visited the site almost a year earlier, had assured Kaufmann the plans were coming along, but had not drawn a single thing.
Nervous apprentices looked on wondering what to do.
What was Wright was going to do?
What was he going to say?
Wright calmly finished breakfast, then sat down drawing out the plans over the next two hours. Wright had procrastinated for nine months on this project. In 1938 the main house was completed. In 1966, Fallingwater was listed as a National Historic Landmark. Smithsonian’s Life List of 28 places “to visit before you die.”
How many of us have waited until the last moment before even starting a project?
How many of us have procrastinated on something that we had more than enough time for?
How many of us have the skill and expertise of Frank Lloyd Wright?
Procrastination might have worked for Wright at this moment.
And we might have waited and started a project at the last minute and felt the rush of finishing.
And that can be an addictive feeling… the rush of finishing at the last minute…
But how many projects and things aren’t getting started and done while we wait until we can feel the rush of finishing?
Today we'll discuss How To Stop Procrastinating And Start Taking Action
Two Best TIPS
Planning Ahead
Avoiding The Easy Trap
The 2 Best Tips To Stop Procrastination & Start Taking Action
Stop Procrastinating Tip #1: Environment Change
If we wanted to lift weights we would go to the gym.
ENVIRONMENT CHANGE
If we wanted to play golf we would go to a golf course.
If you wanted to get something done, where would you go?
Sometimes the easiest way to stop procrastinating is just to change our environment.
It helps if we have a place to go when we really want to get stuff done. Or even a time.
I try to go to a specific place, during a specific time to get my most focused work done. I close browsers, limit alerts and notifications. Maybe even set the phone to Do Not Disturb or Airplane mode.
Where is the place you don’t get distracted?
Is there a time of day or night you can hide from distractions?
How can you eliminate alerts and notifications?
“I’m Still Procrastinating In My Productivity Place.”
When we have identified the place and time where we get our best work done, have gone there and still can’t find it in ourselves to do the work, now it’s time to change our environment.
Go to a different room in the house.
Go to the coffee shop.
Go to the lake.
Go for a walk.
“I can’t change where I am.”
Sometimes we need to be in a place to do the task. If we’re procrastinating on cleaning the kitchen, we can’t clean the kitchen while at Starbucks.
But a change of environment can still help here.
Take a breath.
Take a break.
Take a walk.
You can also change the environment even if you can’t change where you are.
Light a candle.
Turn on music.
Play a podcast.
I talk more in depth about this idea of Environment Change in my Less Stress Guide.
Stop Procrastinating Tip #2: Tiny Task
When we can’t Environment Change and we tried to change our environment, but we still can’t stop procrastinating - is there anything else we can try?
Start a Tiny Task
When I want a clean kitchen, but I’m procrastinating on cleaning, I don’t think about cleaning the kitchen, I think about unloading the dishwasher.
Tiny Task
Or putting the coffee grinder away.
Or putting the toaster back.
Taking out the recycling.
To stop procrastinating I start on one Tiny Task.
This gives me momentum.
When I don’t feel like working out - which is almost every time - I could listen to my excuses for procrastinating on working out or I could start on a Tiny Task.
I don’t think about my entire workout, or how heavy the weights are going to feel. I don’t try to trick myself into thinking I’ll feel great after this, or my body is going to be so ripped and sexy.
I change into my workout clothes first. A tiny task.
Next, I do some lateral arm swings. A tiny task.
Then, I’ll hang from my pull up bar. A tiny task.
By doing these small, simple things, that don’t require any motivation or even thought or focus, I’m 99% closer to working out.
By starting on the Tiny Task, which takes barely any discipline or effort I get the momentum going into the real workout.
A Tiny Task is very similar to the 2 Minute Rule.
The 2 Minute Rule
James Clear shares about the 2 minute Rule in this article,
The Two-Minute Rule states “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:
“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”
“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
Start With Putting the Books Away
When our Fun Room becomes a disaster and Katherine and I can’t even walk in anymore, we let our daughter know it’s time to pick up.
START WITH THE BOOKS
The first handful of times we told her to clean up, she got overwhelmed. She said she didn’t know where to start, “There’s too much. I can’t do it.”
So we gave her a Tiny Task.
“Start with the books.”
There is a specific spot for books. She knows where they go. So with a specific, Tiny Task, she started. In a few minutes, the books were picked up and put away. Less then 15 minutes later the entire room was clean.
Plan Ahead To Get Ahead
The two procrastination tips above are great for in the moment.
The ultimate way to stop procrastinating is by planning ahead. As I’ve mentioned, one of the biggest challenges to getting things done is simply getting started.
When we can create a plan on what needs to be done and by when that makes everything that follows easier.
Prevention is better than a cure.
Take time to create outlines, checklists, progress points.
I know it can feel like this is a waste of time - why not just get after it when we do have the time?
Because we’re not always going to feel like getting after it.
When we don’t have structure, a plan or an outline - it’s easy to get off track, get lost - which leads to even more demotivation than we’re already feeling.
It’s easier to not doing anything when there is nothing specific to get done.
Falling into The Easy Trap
Speaking of things that are easy and not easy to do:
Research shows we often do what’s easy, not what makes us happy. So, if that’s the case, how do we stand a chance between something easy, or hard?
Researcher, Mihály Csikszentmihályi did a study and found watching TV made teenagers truly happy 13 percent of the time.
Hobbies scored 34 percent.
Sports or games got 44 percent
But how did teens spend their time? Doing what made them or happy or doing what was easy?
His research showed teens spent four times as many hours watching television.
Without a plan, we do what’s passive and easy—not what is really fulfilling. - Eric Barker
Thinking “this will be easy” is an alluring trap. Because not doing it is always easier. The best way to avoid the Easy Trap is to start with a Specific Plan, Detailed Outline or Committed Goals before you start.
Once in the moment, if you hear the Siren’s Call or see a comfy couch with Netflix calling your name, use Environment Change or Tiny Task to prevent procrastination.
Get Assistance To Fight Resistance
In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes about the idea of Resistance often.
“Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.”
“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.”
“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt.”
“Resistance obstructs movement only from a lower sphere to a higher. It kicks in when we seek to pursue a calling in the arts, launch an innovative enterprise, or evolve to a high station morally, ethically, or spiritually.”
“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”
I think of Resistance along the lines of Newton's third law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
We want to do something; Resistance appears.
The more we want to do something; the stronger Resistance is.
It’s become my belief and from experience, the best way to fight Resistance is to get assistance. Get help. Don’t fight it alone.
WHAT’s NEXT?
Listen to Daily Show Up podcast episode 049 on How To Stop Procrastinating and Be Productive | 15 Questions To Ask Yourself To Stop Procrastination
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