Procrastination Tips and Tricks
Two powerful stories from writers that will help cure my procrastination
When I look back at all the times I’ve procrastinated, it was always related to getting overwhelmed….The goal is not only to get started — it’s to keep going.
This quote by Darius Foroux totally reframed what procrastination meant for me and helped me understand why my new year’s resolutions were failures. All my new year’s resolutions failed because of some form of procrastination.
2 powerful stories from writers that will help cure my procrastination
From Darius Foroux
I had to do some research because it’s only 4 days into the new year and I keep fucking up. Even though I planned for success, I’ve always had a problem with starting things. However, Darius Foroux says that “the action itself is not easy…the first two minutes should be easy.”
My mistake was that I put too much emphasis on starting something. What I need to do more of is start small and be consistent. Once I put my goals into the calendar, I’ve been successful if I do what I said I would even if it’s only 2 minutes.
This strategy makes procrastination impossible!
“Life is a competition with yourself — not others. And if you want to win, you must make it easy for yourself.” — Darius Foroux
From Coach Tony
Here is a meditation exercise that eased my anxiety. This helps get some answers to the missing pieces that block me subconsciously, from getting things done:
What I learned from the above story is that We don’t know what we don’t know. Only we have the key to the answers we seek. It’s a bitch when I really want those 6 pack abs and I refuse to swap out those french fries for broccoli or get up early for exercise.
When I want to get up early for exercise, I am aware that I heard my 6 am alarm ringing for 16 minutes before I took off the alarm but I still didn’t get up. I wonder why is that?
When I got up at 6:37 I felt anxious, because I had a sense that I wasn't going to exercise and feel bad about it later. I really didn’t want to get up, I only had 2 hours of sleep and needed more sleep. I have tons of good excuses. I’m tired, it’s my day off work, I have tons of urgent shit to do blah blah blah blah
It’s 11am and I still didn’t exercise, perhaps writing this is a clever form of my procrastination.
This quote from Coach Tony helped me to understand why I make excuses:
….the procrastination takes hold simply because we never truly examine what the anxiety is.
As a cure, meditation helps us notice that we’re procrastinating, become aware of the anxiety, name the anxiety, and then deal with that anxiety.
The anxiety that’s created from procrastination is a clear sign that a positive change needs to happen. I just need to unlock the last piece to the puzzle of why I keep making these excuses that block my own progress.
The “JUST DO IT” Nike slogan doesn't work for someone like me. Will power to do something I don’t want to do makes me anxious. Will power doesn’t work for me because if I’m not aware of why I am resisting doing something I say I want to do, I know I will fail.
I want to succeed at passing the uncomfortable threshold of achieving goals. Like, getting up, when I don’t want to exercise and doing it anyway for 2022.
Let's see how it goes.