A Mindful Perspective
Welcome to my podcast! I'm Nick Levesque, and I'm on a mission to help you navigate life's challenges with a mindful perspective. Join me every week as I dive deep into the realms of mindset, spirituality, and personal growth. Drawing from my own experiences, I want to provide you with tools, strategies, insights, and inspiring stories that will help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be.
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A Mindful Perspective
7 Tips to Work Through Procrastination
Struggling to get started on that big project or avoiding tasks that seem overwhelming? You're not alone. Today on A Mindful Perspective, we're tackling procrastination and uncovering the emotional roots that keep us stuck. From the dirty dishes piling up to the untouched tax forms on the desk, procrastination manifests differently for everyone.
Ever wondered why you find yourself scrolling through social media instead of tackling that important task? It's not just laziness; emotions like fear of failure, perfectionism, and lack of motivation play significant roles. We’ll explore how these feelings create avoidance behaviors, leaving us paralyzed in the face of our responsibilities. By identifying these emotional triggers, you’ll learn valuable insights to help break the cycle and boost your productivity.
But here’s the key: self-compassion is your best ally in this journey. Being overly self-critical only adds to the stress and anxiety that fuels procrastination. We'll discuss practical strategies like journaling to reflect on past procrastination without judgment, and cultivating an attitude of kindness towards yourself. Tune in for a thoughtful, empathetic approach to overcoming procrastination and leading a more mindful, productive life.
Hello everyone and welcome to A Mindful Perspective. I'm your host, nick Levesque, certified Spiritual Life Coach, and I'm here to share insights into my journey of mindfulness and self-discovery. Each week, we'll explore mindset, spirituality and personal growth to help you navigate life's challenges, with practical strategies and inspiring stories. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of A Mindful Perspective. In today's episode, I want us to talk about procrastination, because I think it's an important topic and I think it's something that each and every one of us struggled with in their own way, myself included, and I think it's something that I really want to take some time today to shed some more light on. So let's dive right in. So, first and foremost, I want to say that I think most of us, if not everyone, and personally I would say that you know, if I'm being very honest here, I would say that everyone procrastinates in their own way Doesn't mean that it's impacting their lives, but it could be that they're procrastinating in a certain way. Okay, procrastination can look so different for everyone because it's very unique to each individual. Right, it could be piling dirty dishes, you know, and just not wanting to do them as an example. Right, you look at it, you're like, oh, I'll do it later, I'll do something else in the meantime. Right, it could be avoiding tough conversations. You're procrastinating. You're really not having that tough conversation. Right, it could be skipping workouts. It could be not going to your doctor's appointments or not scheduling that appointment that you know you need to do. Right, you know you need to get checked about something, but you're pushing it off, you're not doing it. So I think that procrastination is very different for everyone and it definitely impacts everyone in its own way. Now, for me personally, procrastination can show up in a variety of different ways. Right, personally for me, because, again, like I keep saying, I like to share my own experiences so that you guys can follow along and also, I think it can resonate with more people. Right, but personally for me, you know, as you guys know, if you've been listening for a while, I'm a big gym guy, right, I love the gym. The gym is really my thing. But sometimes, right, I'll procrastinate with my meal prepping, as an example. I could also procrastinate with sometimes doing the research for podcast episodes. The filming is great. I like to film, I like to record, as an example. But sometimes, just putting everything together, I'm like, okay, well, you know, I'll do this in a bit and then I go do something else. It could be taxes, like for me personally, one of my biggest ones is taxes. Like I procrastinate. I'll do my taxes every year. I wait till the last minute. I don't know if anyone else does this and I know it's kind of it may sound odd, but, like for me, I don't know why it's just, I just don't like to go do, right, and I'm just being fully transparent with everyone. So this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Procrastination can be something that's very different to everyone, right? And if I could sum up procrastination in a sentence, it's when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. Now, the thing with procrastination typically is there's kind of like two types of procrastination, right? So the first is passive procrastination, right? Or passive procrastinators, which really kind of match our understanding of procrastination. So sometimes it's being paralyzed by indecision, sometimes we just can't get started, sometimes we just do something else as an example, because we don't want to do that thing. So kind of just how we understand procrastination. Now there's another form of procrastination which is called active procrastination. Okay, so basically this is if you kind of wait to the last minute to do something, because you work better under pressure, then you could be an active procrastinator, okay.
Speaker 1:So for me personally, like if I go back a bit, go back a few years, when I was in high school, I would have considered myself a very active procrastinator because, like, I would wait till the last minute to study, I would wait till the last minute to do my projects and all these different things Right, and for the most part it really worked well for me. I just I'm being completely honest Like I could get away with that Right. But I found that, you know, even though I was doing that, it may not have been the best thing because I was procrastinating, I was putting it off for so long, but at the same time it was always in the back of my mind. It's like, okay, well, I need to study for this test, or I need to do this thing, I need to get ready for this exam. And even though I would kind of force it all at the end of the week or just before the test, I'd study two days before, do my assignment, like a day or two before. It would put me in a position where I had no choice to do it right. So I would be really under pressure and I kind of worked with that.
Speaker 1:But, honestly, what I've noticed after over the years and even into my current life because I still do this to some extent, sometimes with what I'm, you know, depending on what I'm procrastinating with is that I will wait to the last minute to do it and I will get it done. It will absolutely get done. But sometimes I can find that I get a little, you know, stressed or maybe overwhelmed or rushed, because I need to do it right away. Or, you know, I need to get it done. But also, leading up to that, I'm always going to be thinking about it, right, it's like always going to be in the back of my mind, like, oh, I need to do this, like Friday, or okay, we're almost close to Friday, so I should probably start doing this or all these different things. Right, but you know, I can procrastinate and just wait and hold it off. But the more I hold it off, the more it's taking that mental energy, right.
Speaker 1:So again, for some people this works right. So for some people they can really wait until the last minute. Maybe for them it feels like it's maximizing their motivation or the performance. But for a lot of people, if we're being honest, we will say like, oh well, you know, I'll do that last minute, I'll be motivated to do it later. As an example, right, you can see this with workouts, right, especially the gym. It's like, okay, well, I'll go later, I'll do it later, I'll be more motivated later. But the truth is like motivation will only get you so far to do something, right, so sometimes we just really need to push ourselves to do that thing. So this is what I mean with procrastination.
Speaker 1:And the thing is, what I've noticed for me personally, like I was just kind of saying, is that when we procrastinate, a lot is it can lead us to being overwhelmed, and then we really don't want to do the thing because we're so overwhelmed that it's like we can't act. Right, we can't actually do the thing. And also, if we procrastinate constantly in a variety of different aspects of our lives right, whether it's at work on a specific task that we don't wanna do, whether it's, like you know, dishes or whatever, it may be right, Avoiding having the tough conversations like we talked about earlier. If we don't get a hold of our procrastination, it can start slipping into other areas of our lives right, and that's what I noticed for me a few years ago. I was like, okay, you know, I need to kind of, you know, get a hold of this right. And I need to get a better understanding of why is it that I'm procrastinating right in different areas of my life.
Speaker 1:And I think that's the biggest question that I really want to dive into today is why do we procrastinate? Because I think a lot of people have this misconception that procrastination is laziness. Right, and it's actually not so. Laziness is really when we just don't want to do anything. Right, maybe we're just tired, we all have those lazy days, right. But typically laziness is we just don't want to do anything, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some days we need those lazy days. Right, but, like, typically laziness is we just don't want to do anything, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some days we we need those rest days, we need those times to kind of just shut off and do nothing, right.
Speaker 1:But procrastination is, like I said earlier, right it's when you do one thing even though you should do something else. Okay, so that can look like you need to study, right, you know you should be studying, but then you're cleaning the house, as an example, right Now this is another thing that I want to say is like, even though you're doing another thing that's quote unquote productive, that's still procrastinating, right. It's still something that you know could wait because there's something else that you need to do. So now the question becomes why do we procrastinate even though we know it's not good for us right Now? This is a very important question to kind of ponder on and to ask ourselves. More often than not, the reason that we do procrastinate is because there's an underlying feeling, there's an underlying emotion that we typically do not want to deal with. And this is very important to understand. And this is what we're going to be diving into, because here's the thing Oftentimes, procrastination is a result of our bodies trying to protect us by avoiding a task that we see as threatening.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, as an example, when you think about the project that's due next week, or you think about the report that needs to be done, or you think about the business that you're really wanting to launch, oftentimes there's an underlying feeling there. Maybe you're thinking about this big essay, maybe you're writing a thesis for universities which, from my understanding from friends I've spoken to, is like a 30-page document Again, I didn't go to university, I went to college, but from my understanding it seems friends I've spoken to is like a 30-page document, right. Again, I didn't go to university, I went to college, but from my understanding it seems like it's a big thing, right? So, as an example, let's say, when you think about writing that thesis, okay, you get triggered. There's something in you that gets triggered, right. And then you avoid it for another, simpler task, because that essentially gives you that kind of instant gratification, right, it makes you feel better.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes we avoid tasks that could make us feel bad. So, just to continue on with this example of a thesis right, and this could be a book report, it could be an exam, it could be whatever. It is right. This is just a very simple, basic example here. But when you're thinking about writing that thesis or that exam or whatever it is that you have to write, you get triggered, right.
Speaker 1:So your body starts to get stressed, it starts to get anxious, which, to a certain point, can trigger that fight or flight response, right. Again, it's like I've talked about in many other episodes. Now you're seeing this assignment as an example, as a threat, right, your body is signaling like, hey, there's a threat, even though it's not actually a physical threat, like there's no bear in your environment, there's no saber tooth tiger coming at you, but again your body is seeing this imagined threat as something that's actually threatening to your body, right? So what happens is it can tend to trigger that fight or flight response, right? So this, when this happens, is we don't want to deal with it, right? So what ends up happening is we push it to the side and we do something that's much simpler to really get that instant gratification, right?
Speaker 1:So, as an example, when I was in high school, I used to play a lot of video games. Right, I love video games, video games are very cool, but, again, I would use video games as a distraction, right. So, essentially, I had to study for something and for me personally, like I just I didn't enjoy studying that much, and for two reasons. Sometimes procrastination could be because we really don't like the task, right, and we get into the task and it's like, oh my goodness, this is so boring, I don't want to do this, this sucks, right, and it makes us feel so bad, so we want to avoid doing it at all costs. So, for me personally, I would like just not do it and then go play video games right, Video games would give me that instant gratification.
Speaker 1:It could be that you're so worried about, you know, writing your thesis or doing that, that you get overwhelmed. And then you start watching Netflix and said you're like, okay, I'll do this later, I'll watch a few episodes, right? So essentially, what you're doing is you're delaying it, right, you're pushing it aside, you're procrastinating on that thing to give you a quick reward as an example, right? So in this case, it could be Netflix, it could be video games. Also, for some people it could be substances, right, weed be sex, could be all these different types of things right, it could be so many different things that we use as a kind of coping mechanism, right? So this is what I mean by sometimes procrastination can actually be detrimental to both our mental health and our overall being if we don't do anything to address that.
Speaker 1:So now let's dive into some actual more reasons as to why we can procrastinate, just to give you a bit more understanding of what I mean by this. So, first and foremost, one of the biggest reasons we procrastinate, like I talked about right, is because oftentimes there's an underlying thing that we're afraid of. There's an underlying feeling, emotion, that we don't want to deal with, right, it could be stress, it could be anxiety, it could be all these different things, but one of the main reasons a lot of people procrastinate is fear of failure. Okay, so we avoid doing the tasks to avoid the possibility of failing. Now for me personally, this has happened to me quite a few times in my life, but one example specifically that I can think of and I've mentioned this in the podcast before but when I was about to start my practice coaching to become certified as a coach, this is something that I actually really dug deep into myself to kind of understand why I was doing this and this pattern for myself myself, to kind of understand why I was doing this and this pattern for myself. But again, I noticed that, you know, when I was just about to start my practice coaching right, I only had a few modules left to study, and then I had to make a post on social media basically saying, hey, I'm taking practice clients. You know, I'd love to work with you, all these different things I realized that by the end of it, as I was approaching the end, I started studying less, right, like I started kind of putting the studying aside.
Speaker 1:I kind of started just like you know, really not diving into the modules. I started to really just kind of doing other things instead, right, and I started noticing that I was getting very stressed, very anxious, just all these different things. And this lasted for a little while and then I remembered, like talking to myself, and I was like, okay, what is actually going on here? Right. And when I really dove deeper into why I was procrastinating, right. So, as an example, instead of studying when I knew I should have been studying, I would jump into Netflix, right. Or I jump into a video game or, oftentimes, mindless scrolling, right, I would just jump into my phone, mindless scroll. And then when I really sat with myself, I was like, okay, I need to assess what is going on here, right, I need to kind of dive deeper into this.
Speaker 1:And what I realized was that I was afraid, right, I wasn't studying because I knew that I had to make that post soon. I knew that once I was done the module, I was like, okay't be able to help people. I was afraid that people wouldn't want to work with me. I was afraid of all these what if scenarios, right. So this is what I mean.
Speaker 1:Procrastination isn't just laziness. Oftentimes there's something, there's an underlying emotion that we are afraid of facing, and for me that was fear. More specifically, the fear of failure, the fear of failing people, the fear of like you know what if the business doesn't work out All these different things right? And I had just so many what if? Scenarios in my head.
Speaker 1:And what can tend to happen is when we start overthinking and overthinking and overthinking, it gets us anxious, it gets us stressed, and then not only are we in a fight or flight state, but after a certain point in time, when we're so stuck into this mode of thinking, we shut down. Right, we go into what we call the free state, which is another kind of conception or a concept of fight or flight. Right, there's fight, flight, freeze and fawn, but this is kind of like another part where it's really where we shut down and we just can't do anything. Right, we can't actually move or do something, even though we want to, right. And that, for me, was that point. Right, I was like I know I should be doing these things, I know I should be putting myself out there and such, but I was so frozen, I was so shut down that I actually couldn't do anything, right? So this is just a quick example of what I mean. Right?
Speaker 1:There could be so many other things. It could be. As an example, you're at work, you see a very difficult task that you have to do. You don't want to do it, and then what ends up happening is you, you know, you take your phone out and you start mindlessly scrolling right Because you don't want to deal with the task. Because you look at the task, it seems daunting, it seems stressful, and then you feel so stressed, you feel so anxious, you don't want to deal with it, so you just unconsciously take your phone right.
Speaker 1:There are so many different ways that we can do this, but fear of failure is one. As an example, another common one is perfectionism. Right, because a lot of us, we think that we need to be perfect in order to do something we need. We think that we, you know, everything needs to be perfect, you know, to make sure that, you know, if we want to post our piece of content, it needs to be perfect, our YouTube video needs to be perfect, et cetera. But oftentimes, again, perfectionism if we look at the root cause of it, not for everyone, but for a lot of us it's fear of failure. We want it to be perfect because we want people to like it, or we want it to be perfect because we fear that people won't like it, we fear that it won't do as well as we thought, etc. So, again, perfectionism can really kind of go into the same bucket as fear of failure.
Speaker 1:To a certain extent, it could also be lack of motivation, so you really feel uninterested or unengaged with the task that you're doing. Right, it could be something like oh my goodness, I just really don't want to do this. You know it sucks, it's not going to be fun. And you're like you're feeling this dread, right, like kind of this feeling of dread. So what do you do? You don't do it and you do something else. Right, you jump into the video games, you jump into the weed, the Netflix, whatever it may be, right. So you're again, you're distracting yourself. Another form of this could be like task aversion, right, so you're avoiding doing tasks that you dislike. So, again, it could be something like dishes, right, where you see the dishes piling up. You're like I don't really want to do that right now, I'll do it later. So these are all examples of things that we can procrastinate on right, and there's so many other different things. But again, I hope that what I'm trying to say here makes sense.
Speaker 1:A lot of the times we procrastinate not because we're lazy. We procrastinate because there's something we don't want to deal with. There's an underlying emotion that we're afraid to face. There's an underlying thing that we just don't want to deal with, so we push it aside. We do something else that gives us instant gratification Instead, that makes us feel better in the moment, that gives us kind of like that little dopamine hit right, even though we know that's not the best course of action. Right. And again, if we keep procrastinating, like I was mentioning earlier, it can really spill into other areas of our lives. It can lead to lower productivity. Also, it can really cause us stress, anxiety, guilt. It can impact our personal and professional lives and just overall well-being. Because, again, if we're not doing something and we're stressed, we're anxious all the time and sometimes, for a lot of people, is we procrastinate then we feel guilty that we're procrastinating.
Speaker 1:If we're procrastinating because we have a fear of failure, then we might start thinking like, oh, you know why would I even try this right, like, oh, my business is gonna fail. Or oh, why would I even do this content, no one's gonna like it, et cetera. And then what can happen is it can really start dipping into, like limiting beliefs and aspects such as your self-worth, right? Because then you might start thinking like, oh, you know, I'm never going to be good enough to do this, I'm never going to be good enough to be a coach, I'm never going to be good enough to apply for that job. Why would I even apply for that job, you know? Why would they hire me? All these different things, right? So a lot of the times, those limiting beliefs and all these different aspects can come into play, right.
Speaker 1:But oftentimes as well, it can be deeper than that. It could be procrastinating because you're actually depressed, right? Like some people with depression that are actually diagnosed with depression or you know they think they might have depression. Well, you might need to work with someone, right, you might need to work with someone to help you through that, okay? So this is what I mean If we don't take charge of our procrastination, if we don't try to understand the root cause, it can lead to a significant amount of unwanted stress and anxiety and guilt that we really don't need to have in our lives.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now let's dive deeper into this. So how do we work through procrastination? How do we become aware of what we're doing so that we don't let it impact our lives? Now, before I get into these points, I just want to say there are many different ways to deal with procrastination and, again, many different people procrastinate for different reasons. Each person has an individual subjective experience as to why they're procrastinating, right. So the tips that I'm going to give today is what's really helped me on my own journey, but it's not a guide for everyone, right, there could be some people that need to do something else. Maybe some people just need better time management all these different things, right. But I want to try to give the best tips that I can, personally that have helped me and that can hopefully help you as well.
Speaker 1:So the first step, as I would say in many of my episodes, is awareness. We need to start recognizing that we're procrastinating. So what I mean by this is we have to actually have an honest, radical, honest conversation with ourselves from a place of judgment or shame or being self-critical. Okay, we don't want to say like, oh, my goodness, I need to stop procrastinating. What am I doing All these different things? Right, again, it's about curiosity. Here. It's about getting to know yourself better and also getting to know how procrastination is impacting your life, because the truth is, you just want better for yourself. You want to stop doing like, whatever you're procrastinating on, so you can actually do the thing that needs to be done, so that you can start hitting the gym consistently and not just default back to video games or Netflix or whatever it may be, right? So, again, it's really about having that honest conversation with yourself. So it's like I said earlier right, cleaning the house is great, but if you know you should be studying, why are you cleaning the house? Right? So, again, even though it's quote-unquote productive, it's not what you need to be doing at a specific point in time and to me personally, that is still a form of procrastination, right? So, again, really sit down and have that honest conversation with yourself about, okay, like, what areas in my life am I procrastinating?
Speaker 1:Tip number two is to understand your triggers. Okay, you need to understand why you're procrastinating and what is making you procrastinate. So, again, in step one, we were recognizing that we're procrastinating and if you want, as well. You can write down a list of all the places that you are procrastinating, right? All the places that you think that you know procrastination is no longer serving as an example, okay, but now that you had that list, you need to understand the triggers. You need to understand why you are procrastinating, right, and it's like I keep saying each person procrastinates for different reasons, so why do you? Okay, there are many different triggers that we need to be aware of as well that cause our procrastination, right?
Speaker 1:So, as an example a big one in today's society, and I'm going to be completely honest now digital distractions, okay. Social media notifications, all these different things, right. When we're working, as an example, we've got our phones next to us and we can completely be distracted on what we're doing. Checking our phones every minute We've got, maybe you know the, the dinging notifications from our phone. Uh, you know emails coming through. All these different things, right?
Speaker 1:Digital distractions can be a very big trigger for procrastination, right? Maybe you're doing something at work. You see a daunting task, like I was talking about earlier. You don't want to do it. You're like, oh my goodness, just looking at it is causing you stress and anxiety. So, unconsciously, you grab your phone and you start mindlessly scrolling right. So that could be one thing as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, it could be environmental factors. Maybe you've got a cluttered workspace right. A messy environment can actually be very distracting and overwhelming, right, like it definitely can be. So sometimes just decluttering your work desk as an example could be a way that you don't feel as overwhelmed when you're working, right, like a lot of times, like unconsciously, you could be coming into your space and then you're like, oh my goodness, like, look at my desk and then you, immediately you start getting stressed and you start getting anxious, right, just by looking at your desk. That's all kind of, you know cluttered and just there's so many things on your desk and then you procrastinate, you have trouble working, you're stressed, you start the day and you don't really know why. That could actually be a reason, right Like this is actually a thing where people procrastinate on, myself included.
Speaker 1:Right, I've realized that I tried to keep my desk, you know, clean when I'm working, or, as you know, as clean as possible when I'm working, because I've noticed myself, like actually coming into my office looking at my desk and be like what the hell? Right, like, why is my desk all cluttered. And then I get stressed, I get anxious, and then like I'll grab my phone or something else and it's like, okay, wait a minute. Right, I'm procrastinating right now, I just got triggered. I noticed that I'm triggered, right, what is the cause of this? And then if you clean your workspace, you know it gets you that kind of that sense of relief, it gives you a good reward in a good way, because now you've cleaned your work desk and you'll be able to work more efficiently.
Speaker 1:Okay, another trigger could also be cognitive distortions, okay, and what I mean by cognitive distortions essentially is basically, it's your mind convincing you to believe negative things right about yourself, about the world, different things that aren't true. They're not necessarily grounded, in fact, and there are many different types of cognitive distortions. You can Google it, by the way. You can actually see like, okay, you know what types of things do I do right? An example of this could be black and white thinking right Like all or nothing thinking right. As an example, you say something like I never have anything interesting to say, right, you just never have anything interesting to say. There's no middle ground, there's nothing right, it's black or white.
Speaker 1:It could be catastrophizing where you're saying, like you look at a task at work or something and you're like, oh my goodness, I will never get this done, right, like I will never absolutely get this done, I don't have enough time for this. There could be so many other things. A big one as well is shooting ourselves, right? So, basically, I talked about this in many episodes. Right, I have an episode dedicated entirely to shoulds because I think it's so important. But it can be things like I should be losing weight, I shouldn't be eating carbs, you know, placing that guilt and that shame on us, right. But essentially, sometimes, with cognitive distortions, we can stay stuck in this rumination, right? These cycles of unhelpful thinking, right, like negative thought patterns that loop repeatedly in our minds, right? So this is why it's also important to have an understanding and an awareness of this and how it can show up in our lives.
Speaker 1:Another example that just comes to mind right now that I want to share because it's so, so accurate in today's society is comparison right. When we're constantly comparing ourselves to other people, we actually can put ourselves in a state where we procrastinate. We look at people's achievements, we look at what people are doing, and then we're like, oh my goodness, I'm never going to get there. Oh, my goodness, like I'm not good enough for that. Or, you know, why would I put myself out there? I'm never going to make it, you know.
Speaker 1:And then you start, like, looking at other people and you're really comparing yourself to other people and what they're doing and their achievements. That can lead you to a significant form of procrastination, because you're like, why would I bother? Right? So instead of working on your business, or working on the content or that post you're supposed to make, or that youtube video that you're supposed to shoot, you are going back and you're binging netflix, you're playing video games because, again, these limiting beliefs, these ruminating thoughts that are coming in right, are really keeping you trapped there, right? So these are just examples of triggers, but you need to really sit down and figure out what triggers you specifically and you can journal on this, by the way, like you can really sit down. You've got your list of triggers.
Speaker 1:You can ask questions like what feeling is this situation, this task, this procrastination bringing up in me, right? Like, what feeling is this task bringing up If you're not? You know, if you're procrastinating because you don't have a clear goal, or you don't have a clear outcome or you don't have clear steps lined in in front of you. You could say, like am I clear about what specific actions I have to take to get the task done right? A lot of times we procrastinate because we just we look at the big picture but we're not really putting it in different tasks, right, we're smaller tasks, as an example. So these are things that you can really sit down with, and journal tip number three is to break it down into smaller tasks.
Speaker 1:So, like I was kind of just talking about, if you feel like you have too much to do and it's overwhelming you and it's causing you to procrastinate, break it down. Okay, break it down into smaller things. If you have to do a to-do list, as an example, do a to-do list. What I like to do to myself, or what I like to ask myself is like what can I do right now? Right, like sometimes it's, we don't need to have the whole staircase lined up in front of us, right? Just take the first step, go one step at a time. But sometimes breaking it down into smaller tasks can be very beneficial, right, and this is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Maybe for you it's making a to-do list, maybe for you it's, you know, breaking it down into smaller chunks. It depends on the circumstance and it depends on why you're procrastinating, right. Maybe for you you need to make a plan. Right, maybe for you you need an actual plan. You need to sit down and map everything out. Maybe for you is you have trouble with, you know, kind of identifying which tasks to do first. Right, in that circumstance, maybe you can get those tasks that you find least pleasant done right away. Right, like my brother, he shared this with me at one point and he was saying like you know, if you got a lot of things that you need to do right, typically we tend to do the things that we really don't like we push them right. We procrastinate Honestly. We push them right, we procrastinate honestly, we push them to later. But if you get them done right away, then you'll be able to get those out of the way right now. You'll be able to focus on other things, right. So step three you know you can break it down into smaller tasks, you can make a plan. It really depends on the circumstance that you're in. But sometimes just, you know, take a step back, look at it from a different perspective and see like, okay, what can I do right now?
Speaker 1:Tip number four is to get an accountability partner. Okay, accountability is one of the most underrated things you can ever have, right? It is so, so, so important to have someone hold you accountable. If you're trying to do something, maybe you're starting a new habit. Get yourself a support system, someone who can check in on you, and this is a big part of my coaching. Right Is accountability.
Speaker 1:I want to make sure that my clients are aware that you know I check in on them, I make sure that they're okay, I make sure that they're doing the things that we talked about that they will do. As an example, having someone to hold you accountable to do something is one of the most significant and powerful changes I would say that you can make in your life. So if you're someone that's struggling to work out and you're like, ah, I'll go later, I'll go later, and then you jump into video games, you jump into Netflix and you, you want to make that change, but you just cannot get yourself to do it, get a buddy right. Get yourself a support system, someone who can check in on you, someone who can check in on you as much as you want. You guys have to kind of figure out the logistics by yourself. But maybe it's like hey, you check in with that person every day saying, hey, I have done my workout today, hey, I've done my workout today. If you don't reply, he messages you, right, like, hey, I haven't heard from you, did you do your workout today? Right? As an example, one of my clients would send me screenshots of him at the gym, right, like he would really actually send me screenshots of him at the gym doing his workouts. It keeps someone accountable and I would also check in with him as well. But what I'm saying is it keeps someone accountable.
Speaker 1:So tip number four get yourself an accountability partner. Tip number five is progress, not perfection. Okay, we will never be a hundred percent ready to do anything. And even if we feel a hundred percent ready, there will always be that little thing that we can tweak. Always do that little thing right. So you know, something that I read once is like when you feel like you're like about 80% ready, just post it, post it. Do whatever it is right. Post the YouTube video, post the podcast episode, put yourself out there whatever it is, submit the project right, do as best as you can, but the truth is, a hundred percent is not realistic. So get to 80% and then do what you need to do, type of thing, right. But again, oftentimes that perfectionism can be rooted into something much deeper, like that fear of failure. Right, we want to avoid failure, so that's something you can sit with. But again, your accomplishments do not define you, right? So really just do what you can and you will learn from your progress and you will learn from your mistakes. Right, you put something out there. It didn't do as well as you thought. Okay, well, that's fine, right, what can I improve? Type of thing, right. So again, it's about progress, not perfection.
Speaker 1:Tip number six is to reward yourself. Okay, so it's very important to celebrate the small wins. Right, so you did the thing. Right, you are being consistent and not procrastinating. As an example, it's good to reward yourself with these things. Okay, rewards look different for everyone. Maybe for you, it's taking a nice warm bath after you've committed to two hours of studying, as an example, you reward yourself with a nice hot bath. Maybe after you're done you're studying, you go for that workout, you watch a TV episode that you've been dying to watch, you play a little bit of video games, whatever it may be, but honestly, celebrate the small wins. The small wins are so important and I feel like we don't celebrate those enough. So tip number six, again, is really to reward yourself.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, the final tip for today, tip number seven is self-compassion. Okay, it's very important that, when you are diving into this, that you're not upset with yourself because of your procrastination what, what you didn't do it or what you should have done, and all these different things. Being upset with yourself would not help you procrastinate. It actually might make it worse. Right, being upset with yourself and being overly critical and being, you know, self-judgmental on yourself and being like, oh, I should have done that, I, you know I didn't do that again, oh, I procrastinated again, right, you're just putting yourself down here. You're, you know, you're really not helping yourself into overcoming your procrastination, which actually could lead you into overthinking stress, anxiety, leading you to a shutdown, to actually not take any action at all.
Speaker 1:So, again, come at this with a place of you know, from a place of wonder, from a place of curiosity, kindness and compassion. Right, and if you're having trouble with this, like I think it's also about forgiving yourself. Right, it's also about, like you can ask yourself the question have you forgiven yourself for procrastinating? You can really dive deeper into that question. This is a good journaling question, by the way, right, Like if you're someone who's struggling with procrastinating and you're being hard on yourself for procrastinating this does not apply for everyone, but you can really journal and sit with that question, right.
Speaker 1:But again, just really be compassionate with yourself and I know this can be very difficult, right. By the way, right, I know I'm just saying this verbally this is very difficult depending on the subjective experience that you have with your procrastination. But, again, really just come at this with a place of compassion and kindness towards yourself. So, that being said, that's all I've got for you guys on today's episode. If you did like the episode, please feel free to leave a comment or review, share it. It really helps bring awareness to what I'm trying to do, which is really kind of, you know, spread this podcast on a broader scale to really help people just navigate everyday life challenges. So, again, with that being said, I hope you have a good week and I will catch you guys next week. You.
