What Procrastination Really Is and How to Overcome It | Eating Your Frog
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Getting the most burdensome things out of the way first thing in the morning will make you feel accomplished and give you the motivation to be more productive the rest of the day.
Is it truly that simple? This is an excellent place to start, but recognize that mindfulness is the key. You must take into consideration when your peak functionality is and ask yourself why you’re dragging your feet. To overcome procrastination and become more productive, you need to get clear on your goals and what means the most to you.
Fear kills accomplishment and success.
If you spend all day dreading something you know you need to do, you’ll waste a lot of mental energy worrying rather than doing. It comes down to conjuring the discipline from within to create self motivation. By doing things that you don’t like or that make you uncomfortable, you develop discipline. You’ll see the benefits and build motivation as that discipline grows. The easiest way to do this is to eat your live frog first thing.
What does eating frogs have to do with procrastination?
How to start getting things done.
Step 1 - Prioritize.
Brian Tracy wrote an entire book on the concept of eating the frog. The book expands on the concept of tackling grueling tasks by how you prioritize. You must first determine what you need to get done. If the urgency surrounding something isn’t there, then perhaps it’s better to schedule another time to deal with it. Take going to the dentist, for instance. You’re due for a cleaning in two weeks and you know it’s important to keep up with that schedule. However, you don’t need to get to it right this second. If you need a root canal… that could be a different story. Get your booty in that dentist’s chair, ASAP.
Step 2 - Determine why you’re putting certain things off (the actual reason).
Ask yourself the following questions -
Even though it’s complicated does it serve a core purpose to my life?
Is it something I kind of dread but as soon as it’s accomplished I feel amazing?
Does the very thought of working on it do nothing but drain me?
Does it make me anxious, take up a lot of my time, and reap little reward?
Does it put me in a constant state of negativity?
Step 3 - Get honest with yourself.
“No one enjoys being lied to. So why would you deliberately lie to yourself? ”
There will always be an equal and endless number of reasons not to do something as there are to do something. It all comes down to small choices in the moment, so choose to be honest with yourself. The minute you admit that you need to do better, you give yourself a chance. Put “You” first and end the excuses. It’s difficult to motivate ourselves to do things we don’t want to do, so eating your frog as early as possible is an excellent strategy here.
Step 4 - Become an active procrastinator.
Active procrastinators are still highly productive people, but they’ve taken into consideration when they are at personal peak functionality. For example, they know they’re not morning people and they’re not Monday motivated. They’ve disciplined themselves to get through hard tasks before Wednesday afternoons. They don’t allow procrastination to rule their lives or prevent them from getting work done. Instead, they use procrastination as a tool to help them get things done when they’re at their best.
For your regular weekly schedule, think about tackling the hardest tasks earlier in the week rather than first thing Monday morning. Try scheduling a dedicated time to eat your frog. As long as a tough project has its place and you set priority parameters, you will be productive. That’s delightful news, isn’t it? Commit to making the time and stick to it by keeping your tasks small.
Step 5 - Go small.
If you know that you lack discipline, I’d recommend going small and start by analyzing your daily tasks. The smaller the commitment, the more likely you are to stay motivated and succeed. Choose something simple that you aren’t fond of but needs to get accomplished. Try breaking objectives down into increments of 15-20 minutes and set a timer to keep you on track.
Exercise is a common example. If you don’t have time, make time. Get up 20 minutes early, splash some cool water on your face and do 50 squats and 10 pushups. It doesn’t need to be fancy or complex at first. It’s more about developing the discipline that will motivate you to create better habits for yourself. Fifty squats now is a small frog to eat compared to a potentially huge, health complication-related frog later.
Are you procrastinating because of perfectionism?
Years ago, I worked as a barista at a local coffee shop. An older gentleman came in and placed his order with me. As I was wrapping up and confirming his order I offhandedly said “Ok, perfect!” The man smiled and said, “just make it good and leave perfection to God.” That phrase has always stuck with me.
It’s important to remember that human error is impossible to avoid. Life is all about learning and it’s more important to fail forward than stay stuck in a fearful place. How you recover and move forward from your mistakes is vital to building your skills, your reputation and your ability to problem solve.
Develop a healthy relationship with failure
Failure is necessary for success because understanding what doesn’t work is equally important as what works. You need to have the full picture to make any genuine progress. Don’t be afraid of failure and just give up. Take what you learn, pick yourself up, and do it again, but better.
Let’s say you’re a customer service rep. At work you find yourself easily annoyed with customers, getting snappy with people, and showing up late. Perhaps you get anxious every Sunday night about starting the weekly grind and don’t sleep well. Going on in this way means you aren’t helping yourself or the customers of the business. Failure is imminent.
Think about prioritizing differently and fail on your terms.
Continuing the example above, maybe making money is your number one priority. Mentally set the money aside and ask yourself what you want, and what your time on this earth is worth. You’ll likely determine that you need a new job. Customer service might not be a suitable fit for you, and that’s ok.
Fixing your circumstances is more important than money. Money will come in a new job too, but your emotional well being suffers if you continue to put material things first. The hardest and most necessary task in this scenario is to put your mental health and happiness first and find a job that’s more tolerable. Ideally, you would then spend some time discovering what you love and take steps to make that your career.
Find a better bottom line.
In accounting terms, the bottom line should be profit. Try replacing the word “profit” with “priorities.” Determine what means the most to you in life and set specific goals to get you there. When you live life more intentionally, you aren’t inclined to put things off. It’s hard to get motivated to do meaningless things so position yourself in situations that interest you. From there, assess your schedule, start small, fail forward, and come in hungry because you will need to eat that frog, eventually.
Did you find this article helpful? Check out my productivity coaching sessions - The Path to Intentional Living. Readers of this post get an exclusive discount here. Check out more free videos on my YouTube Channel about intentional living for more inspiration.
