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One would think that the ounces of caffeine you intake in a 24 hour period the number of inspirational signs you have spread throughout your home office would directly correlate with your ability to stay motivated.
And I’m sure by now, between your second cup of coffee and that cute mini-inspo sign that’s been sitting next to your keyboard all year, you have realized that there is no hope in that correlation.
With the best of intentions, you wake up each and every day battling the deep desire to procrastinate and long for discovering inner motivation that doesn’t take every ounce of your energy.
Your life deserves better than afternoon lattes in cheap paper cups.
And I think you can do it this time around; you can finally overcome procrastination!
Whether you have a big, scary dream you are starting to chase or you just want to stop procrastinating on the little things so you can finally feel like you aren’t rushing through each day like a crazy person, you are going to get there with these 7 tips to overcoming procrastination!
Overcoming Procrastination in 7 Easy Steps
1.Stop Wasting Time
In the past month, have you felt like you haven’t had enough time in your day?
I’m only kidding- let’s get real here.
In the past 24 hours have you felt like you don’t have enough time?
That’s such a horrible feeling, isn’t it?
As you lay down, tired from the busy day your mind starts reminding you of all the things you didn’t get done.
The trip to the dry cleaners, the research for little jane’s birthday party and the yoga you swore you would start doing tonight, managed to not get done.
How in the world is it humanly possible that you can be this freaking tired and busy and you didn’t get stuff done Well, unfortunately it is most likely because you aren’t aware of where you are letting small pockets of time slip away from you.
You need to start becoming more aware of where your time is going as the first step. Look over these 37 daily habits that you need to stop wasting time on and see how many you are guilty for!
2. The REAL Reason You Procrastinate
Honestly, I’m assuming you are a human on the other end, reading these word. So, I feel confident in saying that you have used the fact that you are tight on time as a reason to justify your procrastination.
Am I right?
For instance, you “really want to start working out again” but you “have to do the chores, dinner, the kids, etc, etc, etc” before you can get to gym.
Which in return softens the blow of disappointment when you find yourself out of energy at the end of a very busy day and you tell yourself ‘it’s ok-tomorrow will be the day”.
But, why do you suppose you’ve convinced yourself you must do ‘all the things’ before you can spend time on the thing (s) you keep procrastinating?
I want you to take 30 seconds and pause here to really ask yourself that question.
What did you come up with?
When I actually asked myself this question and pushed all the excuses aside (which was as uncomfortable as it sounds) I realized I was procrastinating on the things that made me scared, anxious or stressed.
Alas, the real reason was uncovered when it came to why I had fully convinced myself I would be a selfish working mom if I took time to hit a workout class or invest time growing our second business.
I was scared that I would put time into these things and not get the results I wanted.
They would be hard and new, and I’d be so far outside of my comfort zone learning new things that it was much easier to allow myself to take a step away from my goals and to procrastinate until I literally had no time in my day left to do them.
And then, because I had already justified “why” I had to push it off again until tomorrow, my brain was totally accepting of it and I didn’t even register it as procrastination.
If you are master procrastinator or just someone who feels like they can’t get themselves motivated to do stuff, you need to spend a few minutes being honest with yourself.
I promise you it will be some of the best time you spend.
And since you are finally being honest about things, you are going to identify your trigger for procrastination. After that, overcoming procrastination is going to be 100x easier.
Now, I will literally catch myself procrastinating and talk myself out of it because I call myself to the table… “Erica, you are just scared because you know you might get told no… you are afraid of being sore tomorrow… etc”.
And now when my head hits the pillow at night, I feel accomplished.
3. Sunday Routine
Sunday (or whatever day of the week is your version of Sunday, the day before the work/school week starts) is the answer to a lot of your troubles.
After implementing a quick 7 step Sunday routine to help me look ahead in my week and get a clear vision of priorities i have defintily been more motivated to get sh*t done!
There are a reason why time management tools like this exist… they’re effective!
4. The 5-4-3-2-1 Method
54321 is quite possibly one of the simplest (but effective) things out there.
And there is no better way to get yourself motivated than to get yourself MOVING!
Learn more about the 5 second rule here. But the gist is, once you have an instict to act on a goal or a task, you have 5 seconds to get into action before your brain convinces you not to do it.
Count 5-4-3-2-1 and it helps your brain interrupt the pattern of wanting to shy away from pursuing the action towards that goal… aka overcoming procrastination is one step closer on the other end of this method.
Something about her science backed approach and no BS presentation style always puts me back in check, and back accountable for the decisions in my life… including procrastination.
Watch the video. Implement this method. Stop procrastinating.
5. Start Waking Up Early
It’s a lot easier to not procrastinate if you wake up and take advantage of the hour before your family is awake.
And I’m not even kidding when I say this, learning how to wake up early has transformed my life over the last 18 months.
I wake up, spend time quietly sipping my coffee, do my prayer journal and have time to tackle the important things I want to for that day!
Because of this change, my mind is calm and feels in control instead of the typical: snooze the alarm, rush to get everyone out the door on time and then make it to work just to realize you forgot your lunch at home.
I’ve noticed that overcoming procrastination on those things that scared me has become easier because I don’t feel overwhelmed at the start of the activity when I do it in the morning.
If I wait until the evening, I start stressed and pushed for time and let every single small thing that went wrong during the day add to my list of excuses.
What does your morning routine look like?
6. Pomodoro Technique
Now that I’ve shown you the value of starting a new morning routine, you’ve got the 54321 method to help you move through the things you are afraid of, I am going to teach you about the Pomodoro Technique so you can maximize the time you do have!
The Pomodoro Technique is pretty simple and will definitely get you another step closer to overcoming procastination. I love to use it for the tasks that feel daunting.
Basically, all you do is set a timer for 25 minutes and then give yourself a 5 minutes break afterwards.
Absolutely DO NOT multitask during this time.
Multitasking is such a lie to our brain when it comes to staying motivated and getting things done! Instead of getting 1 thing done right, your brain mistakes busyness for productivity when you are multitasking.
Don’t do that, use the Pomodoro Technique to help you maintain focus!
In my humble opinion, success breeds success and this technique will also help you get the successes you need when you are sitting there, already defeated, starting at the daunting task before you even get started.
Set smaller incremental goals, spend the 25 minutes on it and then give yourself 5 minutes of free time!
Rinse and repeat.
7. Develop a Growth Mindset
I’m sure with people like Rachel Hollis popping up in your Instagram you aren’t totally clueless to what growth mindset vs. fixed mindset is and while I’d love to dive into great detail about it here, it would take several hours so I’m going to give you a few golden nuggets on this topic.
If you want to overcome procrastination and get yourself motivated, then you need to develop a growth mindset.
A growth mindset is just that, it means you understand you can grow and you are stuck in your present day’s reality (if you choose not to be!).
This is really important because:
We are so held back by doubt and fear and overthinking (especially as women) that developing a growth mindset allows us to step away from those negative feelings and instead embrace change and hiccups along our journey.
It helps us be more comfortable to face the uncomfortableness of overcoming procrastination and finally learn how to stay motivated.
A Growth Mindset:
-Ability to embrace changes
-Learn from criticism
-Persist in the face of setbacks
-Find lessons and inspiration in other’s success
A Fixed Mindset
-Avoid challenges
-Give up easily
-Ignore feedback
-Feel threatened by other’s success
How to Develop a Growth Mindset
Use intentional language
The words coming our of your mouth matter.
The words you say to yourself in your mind matter even more.
Use intentional uplifting and encouraging language. Some might say this is like the saying ‘fake it until you make it’ and I can assure you, after faking it in the beginning it very much works as you take steps towards overcoming procrastination.
One day you will wake up embracing changes and you’ll have let go of that working mom guilt and the overanalyzing and self doubt won’t keep you away from achieving new goals.
Start paying attention to the thoughts you have and the type of words you are using. Are they words that lend themselves towards blame and excuses?
This is part of the ‘I don’t have time’ mentality. Start saying a daily affirmation to help you with this first step to developing a growth mindset!
The affirmation I used: “I am so happy and grateful now that I have enough time each day to do the things I want to”.
All day, every day I told myself that after my maternity leave was over with my second child and I felt consumed by the daily commitments and responsibilities.
Saying that affirmation really helped rewire my brain to start seeing where I had time in my day and where I had been wasting time!
Own Your Attitude
Growth mindset has a lot of self responsibility built into it but don’t let that scare you, let that fuel you!
Self-responsibility is a good thing because it just goes to show you that YOU are actually in control of all of this and YOU very much are capable to make the changes you want in your life…
Like overcoming procrastination and learning how to keep yourself motivated 😊.
As you set out to achieve your growth mindset, you are essentially remolding your mind. Our brain is elastic, why can’t our mind be to?!
That means you can consciously choose right now to stop being the victim to procrastination.
You can decide that your attitude towards the things you need to do can become a place of gratitude and now overwhelm.
I’ve used the power of gratitude to help me own my attitude and it has become something my entire family does every day.
How To Stop Procrastinating Conclusion
Are you ready to dive right back into your day and start implementing these techniques so you can overcome procrastination?
Odds are, and I say this out of love because I strongly believe that you do want to overcome procrastination. You want to stop feeling so busy and so unproductive all at the same time.
I believe you are here because you want to learn the techniques to help you finally achieve those goals.
But odds are, you’ll click out of this post, pin in it your favorite Pinterest board and move on to the next article.
But here I am, a stranger on the other side of this article begging you not to do that yourself.. again.
At some point, you have to stop searching for an answer that is going to give you the results you need without making you change anything.
That answer doesn’t exist and anyone that tells you it does, probably believes that unicorns exists and sugar-free dessert tastes the same as regular… they are straight up liars.
You are going to have to put some work in to your habits, daily routine and mindset to get where you want to go.
So if this isn’t your moment to finally stop scrolling and start putting things into action, when will it be?
If you want to move beyond just overcoming procrastination and really make this time be the time that changes stick, then come and join me for my free 3 day challenge that is going to help you discover how you can get 30 minutes back in your day to put towards the things you want to.
Because that’s what I believe you deserve, a life where you aren’t the victim of to do lists and the feeling of no time.
