Any time I see an article about how to beat procrastination, I read it. I hope for the ultimate insight that will help me get rid of this awful obstacle that makes me feel paralysed and bad, bad, just horribly bad. Ugh.
"I would like to do xyz, but...! I can't get going, I can't make myself do it, it's too hard, there is xyz difficulty that's stopping me, I just can't." - It's this awful feeling of being stuck in hardening mud. Very close to dried in concrete consistency.
Horrible!
So this last post I read talked about a mental exercise that is meant to connect you with the person you will be once you've done it, or achieved a long-term goal (something like it, I'm not actually quite clear on that point). I'm not too keen on this because it asks you to put yourself rather deeply into the paralysed state of how you feel when you're stuck. To my mind that's not helpful because it makes me feel even more paralysed. I'd rather come from the other side: from a positive, constructive angle.
This other piece has a different piece of advice that might be pretty helpful: trading in the whole shebang of how dreadful you feel about being stuck right now with what it takes to spend only five minutes and make yourself do the dreaded task, - literally just for the five minutes. You can stop at that point.
I find this pretty helpful actually, particularly when it talks about being in the flow that puts you in a mental state when you no longer care that you used to be stuck once upon a time (when on earth was that? Oh pooh! I've forgotten already!). That all sounds pretty familiar.
Embed from Getty Images
I just don't know that I can commit to these "just five minutes" all the time and with all the procrastination issues that I run into. Sometimes I am unable to motivate myself into even just five minutes, and that ends up making me feel ever worse... Bleurgh. You can imagine.
I found a way of sort of slipping or sliding past the procrastination obstacle, it works relatively well for me. I suppose it is a version of the five minute rule. But hey! Whatever works, right?
So: here's what I found what works for me. There are a few different elements to it so it hope that some of it I might work for you too.
Procrastination is all about feeling very stressed or fearful of doing something. There's a heck of a lot of anxiety because I either want or desperately need to do something but it is getting worse and worse because I am just not doing it. I put it off, and put if off, and put it off...
While I do that I manage to get all sorts of other things done! I'll voluntarily wash up, change the bed sheets, shine shoes... or those displacement tasks. The mere thought of the task makes me shudder and quickly turn to something else, because it is just all too much.
Anxiety Central.
But let's go with the constructive angle, let me pick an example. I made this beautiful embroidery of orange trees and and a gorgeous border of fruit and berries. The embroidery was all done (halleluya!) but I wanted to turn it into a cushion cover and give the whole thing to my mum as a present. I knew she'd love it and was really looking forward to being able to hand it over.
Did I? Nope. It must have taken me about 10 years, give or take. And the most horrible, "I could kick myself in the butt" part of it all was that it took me an hour to put the cushion cover together. Once I started.
It was that starting that was the problem and something else.
Before I successfully stopped smoking I had the same issue and it got me onto the solution:
How am I going to do this?
What are the practical, actual steps that I'll do? How am I getting this done? What does it take? That was it!
Before I was able to envisage stopping smoking I had to start thinking about how I was going to do it. Was I going to use nicotin replacement products like gum or patches, would I want to go with sugarfree lollies to give my mouth something to do? How did I want to approach it?
It still took months but this was the essential first step I needed to put in place, it didn't work without that. In the case of the cushion I needed to ask myself what sort of cover I wanted to make and what the first step was.
A big frill around it has to be sewn to something, and not just the embroidery itself. I didn't realise that: it was just this big mystery about how a mysterious process that would turn a flat embroidered piece into a slip cover. Funnily enough I did a cushion cover with the same technique a few months before I finally spent the hour getting over my ten year long hump. So I learned just in time, but I hadn't thought it through.
So that's what I want to think about in future: anything I procrastinate about: I want to think of the practical steps I either need to take, and that I want to do. It doesn't have to be the way other people would get this done, I can find my own way!
If you want to do the same but feel totally clueless about where to start: the Internet is your friend. It is your very clever friend. It seems to obvious but type in your question: how do I...? More often than not (and several hours of fun researching this later. Beware the rabbit hole, but hey! That's fun too) you will find an answer of something to try. If it doesn't work for you then keep looking. Figuring stuff out is part of the feeling of achievement, you don't need someone to take you by the hand and talk you through this: you've got this!
Just one little bit
My other very practical advice for those tasks that I find difficult to get started on is to get to your feet and go get one very small bit done. Something as small as winding a sewing machine bobbin with the right colour sewing thread, or washing an ashtray out. Or pulling out one of the bits of paper you need for your tax return, something small. Anything at all.
With the understanding that you don't have to do anything else. I don't like to commit to five minutes, it feels like too much pressure. All that expectation that I'll get even five minutes done! It is paralysing. I might be able to do a single little bit - and I like to go do that as soon as I think of what it might be. Just slip it in there! Just a nice, quick one. Nothing more. Oh no Sir! Utterly, completely, definitely no, not at all, nuthing more...
...oh go on then, just a little bit more. Or not, no pressure. But if the next little bit seems easily do-able, why not? Every little helps!
Sometimes you get into the flow (that's what you're aiming for) but not always. Be proud of that single thing you managed to do! It is more than you had gotten done before that. Sit back down, celebrate the feeling of achievement! You've done good.
And whenever the urge or the thought comes up of what the next step might be, go and do that too - however long after the first one. At some point you'll start doing this thing that you've put off for so long. You've "tricked" yourself into it by taking the pressure of expecation out of the equation. That's sometimes all it takes.
And here's the last element that helps me.
A change is as good as a rest
When I sew a project that feels endless and I find it difficult to keep going - this often happens when I haven't found "the flow" or dropped out of it. I know I could do more but I am feeling something close to revulsion about having to carry on with the blasted task.
Then a bit of a change is good. You can do something like changing the order of things that you need to do to complete your tasks, or you can go do another small (unrelated) task that also helps you feel achievement. It's probably a good idea to do something that won't take long. It does happen that I'll happily distract myself from the dreaded task by deep-diving into something else that I get the flow thing with. You might get yourself back into it with another stab at a small thing only.
The benefit
And the last thing I'd like to add is that it helps a lot to have a visual image in mind: something that will or could happen once you're successful. I kept imagining the look of sheer surprise on my father's face when he'd realise that I no longer smoked. It really kept me going, it was such a nice thing to aim for because it made me feel exceedingly good.
So that's my ideas. I'd love to hear of other things that help you get around procrastination. Please comment!
PS: These posts are also pretty good: why procrastinators procrastine (part 1) and how to beat procrastination (part 2). Actually thinking about it, these posts probably did influence my ideas (as above) quite a bit. So give them a read, see if if kicks something off in your brain.
