Pushing Past Procrastination

Ah, the dreaded “P” word...something that all entrepreneurs struggle with from time to time. I thought I’d tackle the issue, but in a different way than most. We will look at it from three different perspectives. Ready? Here we go... rnThe Habit of Procrastination: Do you “plan your work and work your plan” or do you wait till the inspiration hits before you crank out your work product? Ever hear of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? It’s a wonderful tool to understand your personality type. I wonder if some procrastination is just related to personality differences. If you know the “MBTI,” you will know that personality and certain characteristics are innate/inborn. Those who are “J’s” in this system are the ones who schedule their time, block out projects, love structure, and again....plan their work. The other style, or those of us who are “P’s” in MBTI lingo- seem to have a bit of a harder time. We are the multi-taskers, read five books at a time, and don’t necessarily like to close off our options long enough to buckle down and do one project at a time. I suspect that we may be a bit more challenged with problems procrastinating. (My example is this newsletter – I ‘should’ write it every two weeks on a schedule, but it’s more my style to wait till the inspiration hits for the articles to come. I am going to be moving to a more structured way of doing it – with a bit of friendly nagging from my team ;-) - but it’s not my natural way of working.) Why do I reference the Myers-Briggs? Because some of the challenges you have with procrastination may be in trying to be what you are not, or by hearing that “this is the way to manage your time” but finding that it makes you feel like there’s a noose around the neck of your creativity. The goal is to create a system that works for you. Here’s an example....some people can work on a task and so they block off hours and work straight till it gets done. Others would have to work in 15 minute chunks and allow for getting up periodically or letting in a few distractions to keep them energized. The goal is to find what works for YOU! Play with timers, accountability, telling people ahead of time, rewards, and even little punishments if you blow it. It all depends on what motivates you, so try different things until you find the environment that pulls you forward and minimizes your tendency to put things off. The Revelation of Procrastination: If you are putting something off, maybe there is something underneath that you aren’t aware of. Sometimes procrastination is really a signal that you may be on a mindset land mine! I’ll give you an example – imagine you have a big project to do that would generate a nice chunk of $$. Suddenly in spite of all the pushing and encouragement from those around you, inertia sets in. No matter what you do, this puppy isn’t getting pushed out! If you use the process below, you can discover what’s underneath. rn1. Acknowledge you are stuck. rn2. Find the ‘part’ of you that is stuck or blocked. rn3. Ask what it’s afraid of? rn4. Ask what’ it’s trying to protect you from? rn5. Listen for the answer...even if it seems a bit crazy to you. What you may discover is that there is a part of you who feels undeserving of that success and the $$ that was coming in. The procrastination is just the part’s way of keeping you safe. (This is a big coaching trick I use when my clients are stuck! If you discover you can’t move past this, you may want to have a Mindset Breakthrough Session and we’ll knock it out!) The Perfection of Procrastination: While we might have discovered where you are stuck or blocked, and so unconsciously sabotage yourself by not moving on your tasks, this piece of procrastination may show you that there is a very good reason for not getting it done. Imagine you are connecting with a person to do a project together. You both divide up the work, but for some reason you can’t get yours done. You try and try, and can’t figure out why you keep procrastinating. rnUsing some of the process above – meaning to tune into the energy of procrastination – is the way to discover the reason. Very often it can be that this project isn’t the right one to work on at this time, and the procrastination is an attempt to say no or get out of something that may not work out so well. Maybe this person has different values than you, or perhaps the work load isn’t equal, or a multitude of other factors that really point to the fact that you need to back out and say no. In this case, the procrastination is doing something for you that you haven’t been able to do yourself. The point here is to reframe procrastination to something that may be trying to serve you versus viewing it as a character flaw. There ya go....I’d love your thoughts and what has work for you with procrastinating and getting through it.