I procrastinated several times before starting this blog. I faced up to a tough team of saboteurs and confronted my fears – in particular, fears of making mistakes – as well as wondering “Who am I to write about procrastination?” Actually, I do have a fair amount of expertise to talk about it, since I procrastinate occasionally and I apply, as best I can, a few rules that I’m sharing with you.

Listen first:

Being in procrastination mode sends a signal that there’s something hiding behind the project you’re working on at that moment. If you let your intuition guide you, you’ll understand what that procrastination is telling you. To do so, you have to be aware and in the present moment. Ask yourself why you’re really procrastinating. What’s true or false about what you hear and feel?

Your body and mind communicate with each other. Most of the time, we don’t listen to the conversation. With practice, it becomes easier to recognize the signs and take note. By doing so, you’ll achieve gains in wellness and time management.

Recognize the things that trigger procrastination: being aware of your triggers is already a step in the right direction.

  • Fears: fear of success, fear of failure, fear of conflict, fear of judgment, fear of the unknown, fear of mistakes.
  • Perfectionism: dissatisfied until it’s perfect. It’s never good enough. Or else, setting the bar too high enables you to avoid failure but keeps you from achieving your objectives.
  • Micro-organizing: concentrating on the “how” instead of moving on to action. Yes, planning is important (objectives, deadlines), but when you spend your day planning without taking action, you miss the boat. Give yourself a set time to plan, with threepost it brain clear objectives and a deadline for achieving them. In the heat of action, don’t look back to see whether you should add or change a detail in your plan. This will smother your motivation and, once again, procrastination will rear its head.
  • Overwork: our body has biological mechanisms that are programmed and conditioned with defined limits. When we exhaust our resources through overwork, no matter what we’re doing, we’re unable to find the motivation to pursue our goals and objectives. The key: allow yourself regular breaks throughout the day.
  • Self-sabotage: the more our little inner voices (saboteurs) tell us that we’re not very good, that we can’t do it, the more our inspiration and motivation shut down, leading us to believe that we’re incompetent. In that condition, we simply aren’t able to find the answers that would help us get through the procrastination cycle. It’s up to you to silence your saboteurs and to rely on yourself at your best.
  • Low self-esteem: when guilt and self-criticism show up regularly, they naturally lead to periods of low self-esteem. One of life’s biggest challenges is to avoid living in this state where everything becomes drudgery and a seemingly endless difficult battle.
  • Frustrations: we get frustrated when we’re confronted with tasks and challenges that we believe are beneath or beyond our abilities, but we force ourselves to manage them effectively. We have a tendency towards isolation in such cases.
  • Boredom: we tend to put things off until later when we’re bored. This happens primarily when we undertake repetitive or easy tasks and activities for prolonged periods of time.

The coach’s anti-procrastination recipe:

Some forms of procrastination occur because there’s simply something specific missing: you feel a void. These missing elements might be very simple things that we take for granted: a lack of focus, confidence, resources, raison d’être or values. Evaluate this lack. What added value does your project offer you: happiness, freedom, connections, personal and professional development, security, etc.?

Behind the motivation lie pleasure and pain. Before beginning a project, it is natural to carry out an analysis of the pros and cons or to give yourself the time to reflect on and be aware of what you’re saying yes and no to. This principle will help you take advantage of the leverage effect that will propel you forward and beyond your procrastination habits, since being aware that the choices you make involve pleasure AND pain determines the way you behave in life.

Bonus: do you want to know the best way to finish a task or project? That’s easy: simply start now without even thinking of ending.

“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” Dawson Trotman

I invite you to leave your comments.

Christine Lecavalier