Turning procrastination into productivity

You’ll never catch a procrastinator saying, “I really need to get around to feeling anxious.” No! Why? Because we are almost always there. Either that or we are trying to avoid being there which is putting us there anyway.

One of the greatest sources of anxiety for us procrastinators comes from beating ourselves up about all the stuff we feel we are procrastinating on. The problem is that we can only do one thing at a time. Consequently, when we are paying the bills, for instance, we are *not* [Read more →]

Here is your procrastinators success tool of the day: If you are having trouble getting yourself to do a specific task, such as writing or exercising, tell a friend that you *will* be doing it. Better yet, invite them to join you! While you may be tempted to break an agreement with yourself, you are much less likely to “bogue” if you have made the agreement in the presence of another.

Just yesterday at my Chamber of Commerce meeting, I wanted to make a quirky but bold announcement about a discount promotion for Chamber members. While I feel comfortable about telling them about my 3rd Thursday Free Seminars, I felt very uncomfortable speaking up about my special offer. I could tell that I might decide not to say anything about it ”on the fly” as it where.

So you know what I did? I told a woman about my announcement while in the lunch line. Now I was truly committed. And, yes. My palms got sweaty as my blood ran cold. I was fully terrified! I have learned to love that feeling. I have learned that it means I am really moving forward.

And this is how you thumb screw yourself. (Well that came out wrong, but you know what I mean.)

LPD=Low Productivity Days

You know the day. You are sitting on the couch wondering what you should do with yourself. You can’t think of any one thing that holds enough sparkle to get you off the couch. So you sit and beat yourself up.

Procrastinators are masterful self-flagellators.

Here is a tip to save the LPD: When you are not feeling sloggy, come up with a default activity that feels like forward movement for those days when you can’t figure out what to do with yourself. This has two results. One, you will unstick yourself. The other, is that you won’t have the opportunity to go more deeply into depression from all that self-defacement.

My default activity is to read a book about how to promote my coaching business. I get to make an espresso, sit in my chair (my secret fortress of sanity), and do important research about my goal. I have worked with myself and not against myself. Call it ADHD. Call it depression. Some days I just can’t make myself stand up and deliver. But those days don’t have to be wasted anymore. I feel good about bettering myself with information.

What will your default activity be?

We who procrastinate *love* a good excuse. Consequently, when disappointments happen, as they are want to do, we secretly say, “Goody! I can feel bad about this instead of having to do what needs to be done.”

My procrastinators tips for you today, then, is to *know* that you will be disappointed frequently and that there may be incredible delays in achieving your goals. Many of them will be through no “fault” of your own.

It’s all part of having goals. It is natural and normal to come to obstacles. Do you know what it means when you hit and obstacle?

No. It doesn’t mean it’s time to stop “going for it”.

It means, and listen carefully here, that you hit an obstacle on the way to your goal. That’s all! Take a closer look. <Extreme zoom to microscopic scale.> You are on the way to your goal! You must have been moving to hit that obstacle, yes? Good!

So when you find obstacles in your way take comfort in knowing, A. they are normal, B. they don’t necessarily mean to stop (you do want to find the information in them), and C. they mean you were moving toward your goals! You just caught yourself *not* procrastinating! Congratulations!

What next? Sulk for a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps set a timer for 20 minutes (the average amount of time it takes for an upset to leave the system). Or better yet, feel bad and *still* do what needs to be done. Then you get the gold star!

Today, I get a gold star!

Yeah! This is one of my biggest pet-peeves of human interaction in our culture.

What happens is this: friend A, let’s call her Abby, comes to friends B, let’s call her Bertha, feeling sad. Abby tells Bertha that she is feeling really overwhelmed with all she has to do. She feel hopeless sometimes, like she can never be enough. Bertha loves Abby and cannot stand to see her upset. So, Bertha decides to show Abby how her feelings are wrong.

Bertha says, “But Abby, you have such a beautiful family and you are doing such a great job with everything. You should feel grateful for all you have.” How does Abby feel about this response? [Read more →]

Have you ever had one of those days where you were just plain spent? Do you ever become mistrustful of yourself when you feel this way or tell yourself you are just being lazy? For me, today was the second of two days where my “get up and go” got up and went. I haven’t had one of these days in a very long time so I took the opportunity to really go through it with curiosity (instead of judgement and guilt). I asked myself a couple questions. I wondered how this experience would be different if I allowed my tiredness to just *be* without judgement. Would it last as long? I also was mindful of the ways this lassitude differed from plain old lazy spells and “procrastination events”, shall we call them.

I’ll start with the discernment piece. How do I know that this overwhelming need to slow down and “veg” is a need and not a procrastination reaction? [Read more →]

If you are a procrastinator, then you may be familiar with LPD, or Low Productivity Days. Some LPDs are very frantic and full of “doing” but lacking in getting anything done. Other LPDs are characterized by a total lack of energy. Perhaps your mind can think of things you could be doing, but your body will have none of it. This latter LPD is where I find myself now.

Historically, I would use this LPD lethargy day as a reason to beat myself up. Or I would let myself fall into a panicked depression. But not today! Why not? [Read more →]

All you have is your word. It is important that it mean what it says.

When we are our word, we build trust. This doesn’t mean that we make more agreements. More likely, to be our word, we will make fewer agreements and clearer ones. In fact, when we say “yes” to everything, the chances that we later betray our word are great. This leads others to conclude that we are not trustworthy. Worse, we stop trusting ourselves.

In my life, I have learned to stop myself for a second any time I make an agreement. I think for a second and ask myself, “Do I really *want* to do this?” If not, I am unlikely to follow through. If so, there is a greater likelihood. Then I check myself, “How likely am I to do this with no further reminders?” I have learned that the excitement of [Read more →]

What? Huh? Happiness unappealing? What can I possibly mean? Everyone wants to be happy, right?

I am not so sure. And I will tell you why.Today I was having a feeling I did not  recognize. It felt very expanded, hopeful, and alive. It about made me hurl! That is to say, it was very foreign and uncomfortable to me. I did not know what to do with myself or how to think about it. My head felt like it was exploding out the top like a cheep 4th of July firework. I would have preferred the more comfortable perky malaise to which I had become accustomed. Or that oh so tasty fear that I have learned to use to my advantage. But this… this… bliss was unpalatable.

Some time has past since this feeling of yucky bliss earlier today. I tried not to fight it but allow it to be, just like I try to allow my critical self to [Read more →]