Overcoming Procrastination: A Step-by-Step Guide To Taking Action

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. Today, I'm going to be talking about how to overcome procrastination. I'm going to give you a step-by-step guide to taking action. And there's six different steps that we're going to go through today. But when you look at procrastination, I always think about procrastination. I'm like, why does procrastination exist? Because procrastination is basically the thief of your time. One of the main things that holds people back is that they decide, yes, decide is a correct word.

0:42They decide to procrastinate. It might be an unconscious decision that happens really quick in the moment, but they have decided to do it. A lot of people are like, they talk about, I hear people talk about procrastination. Someone's like, oh my God, procrastination. I'm such a victim of it. No, dude, you're deciding to. And if you're going to get the life that you want, you've got to decide not to, and you've got to figure out how to get past it. You know, if you want to build the business that you want, instead of spending too much time on Instagram and procrastinating, you're going to have to put time into building it.

1:11If you want to lose weight, instead of watching Netflix and farting around on the couch, you're going to have to actually put in some work in the kitchen. You're going to have to put some work in the gym instead of procrastinating. And just so you know, I don't want you to feel special. Everyone procrastinates to some degree. And so if you're sitting there and you're like guilting and shaming yourself for procrastinating and thinking that, you know, oh, it's so bad that I do it. I don't think other people have to deal with it. They do. Everybody procrastinates to some degree. Delaying tasks is easy to do.

1:43It is easier to not do something than to do something. And humans will naturally take the easy route. Humans are like water. We will always find the path of least resistance naturally. That's what we're going to do if we're unconscious and not paying attention. We have to actually become more conscious, become more intentional to actually take the hard route. And so we'll delay tasks because it's easier not to do something than do something. Or it's easier to do something easy, like scroll on Instagram rather than pick up that exact same phone and make a hundred cold calls to build your company, right?

2:14It's a lot easier to do nothing or to do something easy. What if though we could flip the script? What if instead of being a constant victim or acting like a constant victim of procrastination, you could actually master the art of overcoming it and actually take action. Does that intrigue you? If it does, listen up. I'm going to take you on a journey toward understanding procrastination. And then actually, if you can understand it, you can beat it. And I'm going to give you really practical strategies to help you boost your productivity and then actually reclaim control of your time. So when you look at like the, let's say the anatomy of procrastination, right?

2:49One of the things that I came to realize probably about six months ago is procrastination is, and this might blow up a lot of people's minds. Procrastination is never actually the problem. Procrastination is not your problem. Procrastination is the downstream effect or result of something that is upstream. And so like we might procrastinate on creating a presentation for work, right? And we think like the procrastination is a problem. No, no, the problem isn't the procrastination. That's the the symptom, right? But it's not the cause of it. The cause is that maybe you're afraid of screwing it all up in front of your boss and you're really afraid of public speaking.

3:32That's the problem. That's the cause. But the symptom itself is the procrastination. And so that's a really important thing is if you're procrastinating, ask yourself, what is the root of this procrastination? Why am I procrastinating? I'm procrastinating on the presentation. That's not the problem. The problem is that you're afraid of public speaking. That's what the problem is. And so you've got to kind of go upstream and try to figure out what that is. So when you look at procrastination, let's understand at the roots, right? Procrastination is really often unconscious. We don't really notice it until later.

4:06It might be 20 minutes later. It might be 20 seconds later. But really what it looks like is, you know, a unwelcome task appears. It could be writing a report. It could be doing laundry. It could be making an important phone call. But the mind will want to avoid the discomfort that comes from that. Even the discomfort of just getting up and doing the laundry, right? And that makes us delay. So the mind wants to chill. It doesn't want to do anything. The body also wants to chill. It doesn't want to do anything. So what does it do? It decides, it kind of whispers in your ear, hey, not now. No, you can do that later.

4:48You can do it later, no big deal. Because you don't want to do anything. All people are inherently lazy. Then what happens? Procrastination sets in. Procrastination is not just 100 % laziness or poor time management. It's really a complex interaction of different psychological factors. It involves the struggle between our present self, which prefers immediate gratification, and our future self, which values long-term rewards. You know, you could want to build the business of your dreams and become a multimillionaire, and your future self would know that putting in the work and having, you know, not getting immediate gratification would be better.

5:31But your present self is like, I want to play a video game. I want to take a nap. I want to scroll on Instagram. I want to do something else instead. So there's really a teeter-totter effect where there's your present self that wants immediate gratification and there's your future self, which values long-term rewards. Is it possible to hack your present self and give an immediate gratification to actually taking action? Maybe. You're just going to have to continue to listen to this episode and see if it comes up. But I have a little bit of a tip that's going to be coming up that'll help you hack your present self.

6:05If you're not intentional though, you'll almost always go the easy route and you'll talk yourself out of why you don't need to do it now. Even if you need to do it now, you can also talk yourself out of why you don't need to do it now. And researchers have actually found this term that they've created around that is what they call temporal discounting, which is where the present self tends to undermine the future yourself's goals. So it's like, you know, you want to build a business, become a multimillionaire, but then somehow you will talk yourself out of it and you will undermine what it is that you need to do in order to get there.

6:37And so it's called temporal discounting. So that's really what procrastination is. That's where it comes from. All of that. Let's go into the six steps to actually overcome procrastination and take action. The first thing is to recognize and acknowledge. The first step to overcoming any problem is acknowledging its existence, recognizing that procrastination is something that you do. And it's really tricky because procrastination often masks itself as taking a break or waiting for the right mood or waiting to be motivated, or I'm hungry. And so it can mask itself in many different ways. But when you start to actually pay attention to yourself, you can actually start to uncover different places where your procrastination comes up.

7:22If you're consistently finding yourself delaying tasks, especially those that are really important but don't have immediate rewards, pretty damn good chance you're procrastinating. Say it with me now. My name is Rob and I'm a procrastinator. Hi, Rob. So it's like whatever your name is, my name is blank. I'm a procrastinator. You are. We all are. We all do it. It's about recognizing it. It's about acknowledging it. And then it's about going through the rest of these steps and actually getting past them. So that's step number one, recognize it. Step two is understand your triggers. Once you've acknowledged your procrastination, the next step is to understand what triggers your procrastination.

8:02For some, it might be the fear of failure. Once again, it's the upstream. We're trying to go upstream and actually see what the actual cause of the procrastination is itself. For some, it might be the fear of failure. You want to start the business. You want to do that thing. And then you realize that you don't do it in the procrastinating, you know, I'm procrastinating a little bit, but it's not procrastination is a problem. It's the problem is that you're afraid of failing or you're afraid of being judged. And so the task might be too daunting, you know? And so for others, it might be, it might be that for some, for other people, it might be the lack of immediate gratification.

8:41Like you just want immediate gratification. You have trained your brain too much to immediately get what you want. Oh, I'm hungry. I get food. Oh, I'm thirsty. I get water. Oh, I've got to poop. you go poop. Oh, I've got a, I want to get on Instagram. You immediately go on Instagram. And it might be just a, you're just trained yourself. Same way you train a dog. You've trained yourself to immediate gratification. Hey, are you a coach, consultant, or expert in your field, but you struggle with how to market and sell your services effectively? Well, you may not know this, but along with this podcast, I also own a company called the School for Online Coaches.

9:13And since 2019, myself and my team have trained and supported over 1 ,400 coaches in starting and growing their coaching businesses online. This is where I teach everything that you need to know to start and grow your own coaching business to$10 ,000 a month in as little as 30 to 60 days. So if you're dying to see what it's like to be your own boss, work remotely, and create a business that helps people change their lives and feels fulfilling to you, head over to schoolforonlinecoaches.com right now. That's where you can learn more information about how to grow your business. Once again, it is schoolforonlinecoaches.com.

9:49Whatever it might be, you have to identify these triggers because it can help you prepare and strategize against procrastination. And so when you identify what normally triggers you, you can start to make a plan for what you're going to do the next time you're triggered. Oh, I'm noticing I'm procrastinating. Why am I procrastinating? Am I afraid of something? I am afraid of something. What am I afraid of? I'm afraid of failure. Oh shit. I remember I thought about this last week. This happened to me. Okay. What was the plan that I said that I was going to do as soon as I get afraid, I was going to make myself do 100 pushups and I was going to immediately take the action I'm supposed to take.

10:19Whatever it is, figure it out. It's not really that hard. A trigger could be thinking about all that you have to do today to move your business forward. And too much to think about all at once can cause paralysis by analysis. So you instead decide to play a video game because it's just immediate gratification. You get some dopamine, you feel good, and your present self wins. Your present self wins because it wants immediate gratification, your future self loses, which is delayed gratification. Your future self, the one that could have the business that could have the life that could be able to travel the world, all of those things loses because what happened?

10:56Yep. You decided to go ahead and play video games instead of building your business. So it really comes down to figuring out what your triggers are and how to actually create a plan around it. So that's the second thing. The third thing is break down your tasks. A really crucial strategy to overcome your procrastination is to take your tasks and break them into small manageable parts. Oftentimes your procrastination comes because you're thinking about everything. Procrastination a lot of times is your brain thinking about everything everywhere all at once, right? So you're like, I got to build a business.

11:33And you think about the next 10 years of every single thing that you need to do over the next 10 years when literally all you have in front of you is the next hour. But you're thinking about the next 10 years and you're like, oh my God, too much. I'm going to play video games instead. And you don't do it. Right? So break your tasks down. And so it's not paralysis by analysis. And this helps you make your tasks less daunting, allows you to have a sense of achievement when you accomplish these little teeny tiny tasks, these subtasks to the big task. So let's say that, you know, let's, let's give you an example.

12:03Let's say that you have to prepare for a business proposal, right? And you're excited about the big business proposal, but it's a lot, right? So instead of saying on your to-do list, I need to accomplish the business proposal, which can cause paralysis by analysis because there's a lot of stuff that's in there, you can divide it into smaller parts. So you could say, research the business proposal. Research what other people's business proposals look like. That could be it. So research could be one. Drafting could be another task. Editing could be another task, and so on and so forth. Right? So it's still creating the business proposal.

12:36What you're doing is you're actually taking subtasks and putting those on your to-do list. Because what happens is when you accomplish a subtask, you get a little bit excited about yourself. You get like, damn it, I did it. This was awesome. Good job. And you're more likely to continue to keep going because at that point in time, when you get excited, your brain releases dopamine. You're a dopamine addict. We all are. And you just want more dopamine. So you're more likely to go and take the next task and keep going. And make sure tasks that aren't quite big sometimes, less intimidating, and you can also track your progress of making sure that you get everything that you need to.

13:10So that's step number three. Step number four, I've coached thousands of people, and this is one thing that I've realized like 95 % of people are absolute, absolutely terrible at, time management. Step number four is get better at time management. A lot of people are like, oh my God, I don't have enough time. And I'm like, if I followed you around every minute of your day for the next week, I would be able to find hours in your day most likely, right? So use different time management techniques. And, you know, I've created entire podcast episodes on these, so I'm not going to cover these in depth.

13:39But one of them is a Pomodoro technique, 25 minutes on, five minutes off. Another one is time blocking. From this time to this time, I'm only doing this thing. So like for me, like creating this podcast episode took about two hours to create this podcast episode, plan it all out, do my research, everything. so I actually time block from 11 a.m. to 1 I'm planning this podcast episode around procrastination so that's considered time blocking and number three is a really good one which is batching tasks so like another thing that is batching is this is the second podcast that we've recorded today I'm going to record three today and so we batch all of them and we do one right after another after another so I just got one done I'm in the middle of one right now I've got one more to do today right instead of doing like one on Monday and one on Wednesday and one on Friday just batch them.

14:24And so a few time management techniques that'll help you, you know, besides planning out your schedule is use the Pomodoro technique, use time blocking, use batching, just try to get better at time management. A lot of times these methods that you can use, they encourage you to be more focused. They prevent you from burning out and they actually promote effective use of your time as well. And so number four, get better at time management. Number five, set specific and achievable goals. And so when you set vague, unrealistic goals, it 100 % almost every time breeds procrastination. So the key to motivating yourself is to set very specific achievable goals and to know the outcome that you want of those goals.

15:04So instead of saying something like work on report, right? If your to-do list, if you look at it, it says work on report. Try something like write the introduction to the report by 10 a.m. That's much easier to do, right? You have a shorter part of the report, which makes it easier to accomplish it, and you've also got a specific time it needs to be done by. So instead of work on report, it's something like write introduction to the report by 10 a.m. That would be a really good example of setting a specific but also achievable goal. That's step number five. Step number six is to reward yourself.

15:38Rewards provide immediate gratification to the present self. Remember I said I'm gonna give you a little hack? If your present self wants immediate gratification, how can you try to give it immediate gratification as soon as you get something done? And so if you go back and you do write that introduction and you get it done by 10 a.m., how can you reward yourself for it? It could be, once again, a cup of coffee and it could be a piece of chocolate. It could be just being excited about doing it and actually just celebrating yourself. It could be putting on your favorite song and dancing around like an idiot inside of your house when you get it done.

16:11and that way you get immediate gratification. Your brain releases dopamine and that crackhead that's in all of our heads that just wants dopamine, dopamine, dopamine, it wants immediate gratification right now, right now, right now gets what it wants. And so you actually reward yourself when you accomplish these smaller subtasks. And so you reward yourself. It could be a short break, a cup of coffee, anything that feels like a treat, whatever it might be. And so you break it down into smaller tasks and then you reward yourself as well. So there's just six different steps to accomplishing and overcoming your procrastination.

16:46Procrastination, it happens with every single person. It's not insurmountable. You're not the first person to deal with it. But when you understand the roots of it, you understand there's something upstream and you start to figure out what that thing is. You figure out what the triggers are and you actually use strategic steps to counter it. It makes it not really that hard to do, not really that daunting. It's not really the hardest thing to overcome procrastination. It just takes time. It takes attention. It takes intention. You know, Mark Twain said it wisely. He said, the secrets to getting ahead in life is just getting started.

17:16So get started one step at a time. With that, I'm going to leave it the same way. I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.