Outsmart Procrastination

Outsmart Procrastination

The Technique

This technique is a simple, quick and practical step to help outsmart procrastination. It works like this:

Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, stop what you are doing and write down the following:

  • When you were procrastinating.
  • How you were procrastinating.
  • Why you were procrastinating.
  • What you can do to address the cause of your procrastination now or in the future.

If the solution you devised in the last step is quick and can be done straight away, then do it. Otherwise go straight back to your task.

Example Note

  • When: 11.25 am.
  • How: Daydreaming.
  • Why: Tired. I haven’t had a break for over an hour.
  • What: Give my brain a rest by leaving the room and going for a five-minute walk.

You can write the notes down on paper or in your computer or phone but make sure you write them down. Writing helps to examine and clarify thoughts. It also lets you return later on to review what worked and what didn’t.

This technique is incredibly effective for several reasons:

  1. Every time you catch yourself procrastinating and then stop and make a note of it, you are training your brain to get better at catching yourself procrastinating. Before long, your brain will learn to automatically stop you as you begin to procrastinate. That means no more finding yourself lost in social media when you were supposed to be working.
  2. The technique trains you to be mindful of your feelings and their effect on your actions. Procrastination occurs when short-term feelings overcome longer-term aims. Regularly stopping and asking yourself why you are procrastinating trains you to be mindful of the feelings that cause you to procrastinate. This, in turn, helps you identify and respond to those feelings before you slip into procrastination.
  3. The technique helps you quickly develop a detailed understanding of what causes you to procrastinate.
  4. The technique helps you to build and test an arsenal of strategies for solving the specific causes of your procrastination.
 

To overcome procrastination in the long term, we need to identify what is causing the specific unpleasant feelings that trigger the urge to procrastinate and then adopt strategies designed to respond to those causes. You can find a list of common causes for procrastination here and solutions to those causes here.

Outsmart Procrastination