To Gain Work+Life Mojo, Reduce Procrastination
One of the most significant barriers to happiness and work+life effectiveness is procrastination.
Procrastination is pushing things off, not doing things that are important. Ellen Degeneres describes it better than anyone.
The price of procrastination is high – frustration, anxiety, insomnia, even a weaker immune system, according to researchers who specialize in procrastination at Carlton University in Canada.
So, here are a a handful of research-based techniques to battle procrastination:
Tell the voice in your head that drafted is better than perfect. Because procrastination can be fueled by latent perfectionism, we need to be on the lookout for that little demon voice that says our work won’t be good enough. Aim for drafted or done, so it can be edited and iterated. Author Anne Lamott puts it this way, “What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” Go for the shitty first draft.
Write about what you do want to achieve and why. What will be better from completing this task? What are the costs and risks of not doing it? The clearer you are on what you do want to do, the more compelling that thing becomes.
Try a 5-minute takeoff to do the next action that needs doing and get unstuck. Procrastinators often operate under the illusion that to do something, we need to feel like doing that something. Not true. We do not have to feel inspired or even want to do something to get it done. When we set a timer and see how far we can get in 5 minutes, that kickstart is often just what we need to get us into a productive zone. As Aristotle put it, “Well begun is half done.”
Identify a short-term reward. How could we reward ourselves with something fun or enjoyable? We reinforce good choices all the time for our kids and teams. Let’s do ourselves the same courtesy.
Say it aloud. We are more likely to work toward a public commitment than a private one. Interestingly, hearing the words helps our brains believe us.
Using techniques like these saves us from ruminating about stuff we haven’t done yet and enables a happier, more successful life.
Credits: Thanks to Russell Matthews, PhD, for underscoring the negative impact procrastination has on happiness and work-life effectiveness in a recent LeaderMom webinar, and to Tal Ben Shahar, PhD, for his summary of the research and turning us on to Ellen’s brilliant clip about it.