How to Beat Procrastination

We all do it. It could look "workish" like checking email, reading Slack, catching up with a colleague, or attending that meeting you know you're not needed for.

Or it could look decidedly un-workish. The pouting-faced "I don't want to do this" of scrolling on the phone, calling in sick, bingeing the latest series.

However it looks, procrastination keeps you and your team from the having the impact you most desire at work. Today I'm sharing how to leapfrog it and do the hard things that actually move the needle for you.

In its simplest form, beating procrastination—with a nice judo throw—involves two things:

• Scheduling time to actually do the thing
• Managing your mind when the time comes

To illustrate this for you, I'll share how I wrote this article.

Before we get into any of the details, we must start with Vision. Everything great springs from the WHY behind it. If you or your people have no purpose for the tasks to be done, the siren call of procrastination will be overpowering and you won't make lasting progress.

So for this article, writing it ties to my overarching vision of helping leaders create high performing teams. It matters to my personal and professional purpose. Therefore, I set aside time to do it.

Step One: Planning

The time goes on my calendar at the beginning of the week or month and I don't even have to think about it until the appointed hour rolls around.

The fact is, leaving the thing you want to achieve in a to-do list is stacking the deck against yourself. If you don't schedule it, you're allowing whatever state of mind you happen to be in at the moment to dictate your output. That's like dropping the reins on your carriage and letting the horse decide where you go and when (I live in Mennonite Country, so the comparison is all around me).

The calendar is your driver, and it can be gentle but it is clear. And to give you extra confidence in it, remember that your schedule was set by you, with your best interests in mind. Unless you are literally in bondage, your schedule is a choice.

So commit to taking tasks off your to-do list and putting them in dedicated slots in your calendar. If you don't have the slots, make them. There's always a way.

Step Two: Doing

The moment arrives: time to get to work.

Chances are, you won't feel like it. After all, it's hard. It's the important stuff and it will likely be a mental lift. So you'll be tempted to reschedule, find something else to do, and keep kicking it down the line. You know, procrastinating.

But the solution is closer than you think. You don't need to feel differently. You just need to acknowledge what you feel.

Seriously. Something magical happens when you put a name to a feeling and bring it to light. What before was a heavy blanket of disinterest or even dread becomes just another object in your awareness.

Sometimes the feeling starts to evaporate even as you acknowledge it.

For me this looked like opening up my self-coaching Google doc and writing the following thought model:

Circumstance: Calendar invite to write a newsletter article

My thought: "I don’t know what to say"

Makes me feel: Intimidated

So I do: Check email, browse social, don’t open notebook, look at Slack

Resulting in: I don’t find my voice

Acknowledging it gave me space to consider if that thought, "I don't know what to say" is true. I decided it wasn't (I've also gotten a lot of coaching on it) and chose a different one:

Circumstance: Calendar invite to write a LinkedIn post

My thought: "Anything I share will be helpful"

Makes me feel: Open

So I do: Open my notebook, constrain my thoughts to the topic, say why it’s important, choose an image, publish it out

Resulting in: I help myself create momentum

It was a 2-minute exercise of self-awareness that shifted my energy from avoidance to enthusiasm.

Use those prompts of Circumstance, Thought, Feeling, Action, Result when your calendar invite shows up and you want to leapfrog the impulse to procrastinate. That exercise will uncover the feeling and what I call the "poisonous thought" that is blocking you from doing the thing you want to do.

The more you do this the more you will be aware of your procrastination-inducing thoughts and feelings, which will help you dissolve the inner resistance you may have to doing the most important work of your role.

What say you? How do you beat procrastination and get the work done?