Living With Procrastination and Still Getting Stuff Done

Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art calls procrastination and all of its many forms of “resistance”. He also says that resistance is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction.

I’ve been meaning to talk about this topic for a while and every time I pull out my laptop to start… I would inevitably resort to pulling up old spreadsheets and reformulating all of my formulas within those because “that’s important too”.

In fact, I would so intently study these other things that I would exhaust myself and then say, “You know, I can’t batch record videos and create good content when I’m this exhausted; I need to take a 20-minute nap.” And for those of you who aren’t familiar with my language, 20 minutes is what I like to call an hour and a half to two hours. 🙂

Then, I started watching videos about procrastination, you know, “research”. (This is another common form of procrastination). However, in my research (this time), I came across a pretty good Ted-Talk from Princeton University about the concept of procrastination that reminded me that procrastination isn’t just some demon for us to battle. It’s not just resistance. It’s actually a safety mechanism. Procrastination is one of those forms that is meant to protect us and our self-worth.

"You can’t completely remove procrastination; it’s there for a reason – but you can learn to live with it and make those conscious decisions and still get stuff done."

The Success-Failure Paradox

The speaker of this TED Talk is Nic Voge and he talks about how procrastination is really more of a success-failure paradox. He says that it’s not a case of self-sabotaging, but rather a case of preserving self-worth. The higher the stakes, the stronger the procrastination. And he explained how this often stems from internalized standards from previous achievements.

If you struggle frequently with that particular kind of procrastination, then he recommends focusing on your awareness. Doing so, helps you tip the scales away from avoidance and toward approach. He suggests reconnecting to why you want to accomplish. For example, in his own life, he shared that he would try to think of things as an experiment instead of as an “end-all-be-all” result. Or make things small – breaking them down into smaller pieces to make them not feel so big and overwhelming.

Decluttering Procrastination

But what does all that have to do with the procrastination that we experience when doing things around our house? One of the big questions I run into with my students is “How do I just get motivated to get started?“

If we’re going by Voge’s example of procrastination, is it that we are afraid of our results not meeting our expectations? I don’t think so. I think that it’s a lot more likely that there’s more than one cause for procrastination. My goal is to help you create holistic and clutter-free happy spaces. However, creating is really just one phase of the process. The vastly larger phase is maintaining.

When it comes to this particular type of procrastination, I’ve got six ways that you can learn to co-exist with this natural tendency and still get stuff done.

#1. Practicing Awareness

First, you need to work on practicing your procrastination awareness. You may already feel like you’re pretty aware when you’re procrastinating but part of the sneakiness of procrastination is how easily and quickly it can mask itself.

Here’s an interesting thought, the act of procrastination and the act of rationalizing or covering up the procrastination are both coming from the same place- your brain. Your left brain is known for its rationalization and analytical skills while your right brain is in charge of emotional and artistic pursuits.

So while the right brain is thinking, “I don’t want to do this, I would rather be doing something fun“, the left brain quickly cooks up a rationalization to support this emotion. That’s exactly why practicing awareness and using awareness techniques can be so helpful when trying to overcome procrastination. Plus it doesn’t take much effort!

The cool thing about this trick is that it gives you data you can use to develop better habits and to more effectively work with and past procrastination in the future. You may notice a trend (like certain times of the day, the week, or the month when you feel less productive. You might also notice that certain tasks bring on stronger urges to procrastinate. Seeing that data in front of you may naturally encourage you to set limits, allows you to plan accordingly.

#2. Getting Ahead Of The Procrastination

Now that you have all that data, you can use it for my second tip which is to get ahead of the procrastination. This is something that I do everywhere and in any way possible and I mentioned it in my video, systems for creating simplicity in my life. It all comes down to batching.

Batching everything has been such a huge game-changer for me in overcoming procrastination. Especially when I know there will be weeks when I have zero motivation and feel mentally drained. So I plan ahead for that. When I get ahead of the game, I’m able to work and create from a place of freedom.

#3. Lower The Resistance

Procrastination equals resistance. That’s why a great method for getting stuff done is to chunk down big projects. It’s a good rule of thumb to make projects not feel so big; to make them feel more manageable. Take big projects like clearing out the garage and break it down into manageable tasks, like going through three boxes, or lowering the stairs to the attic. Divide the big task into small tasks and then see where it goes from there.

#4. Turn Negative Into Positive

You can sit there and think about how much you don’t want to do something but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to be doing it. So why not focus that mental energy on how you can turn this from a negative into a positive experience? What podcasts can you listen to while you’re in the car running errands? Try to reframe and see if there’s any possible way you can flip the experience from a frustrating one into a positive one.

#5. Add Urgency To Everything

Another method is to add urgency to everything. This is something that I mentioned before in my video/article, how to declutter faster. Urgency is why we’re able to publish college essays and complete projects the night before the due date when we couldn’t manage to do it in the 2 weeks prior. If you can somehow add urgency without waiting until the last minute, you’ll find your procrastination diminishes.

Here are two classically effective ways to easily add urgency to tasks.

One of them is to add in some accountability.

We’re more likely to follow through with something that we worry might inconvenience another person or risk us being judged. You know, nobody wants to come across as a flake. This is one reason why personal trainers are so successful. In most cases, the personal trainer is the accountability coach with a vested interest. This could also mean a group of people (maybe a Facebook group), friends, family, who are trying to keep you on track.

The second method of easily adding urgency is timelines.

They are necessary for any kind of urgency. If I didn’t have a schedule of what to accomplish daily, weekly, et cetera, I wouldn’t be consistent in accomplishing anything. Trust me. I’ve tried. It’s like I said before, if it isn’t scheduled, it isn’t real. You can set timers, create schedules with reminders, or use outside forces to support your timelines and overpower procrastination. 

#6. Enlist Help

Lastly, enlist help. Even if you don’t really need it, doing something with someone else is just downright more entertaining. It doesn’t just have to be for accountability. It’s almost like splitting the pain between two people. We rarely go grocery shopping alone because that feels like a huge chore. However, when we go together, It’s still a chore, but also it’s a social event.

So when it comes to procrastinating in your home, then I recommend starting with those six methods. Which one would work best for you? Do you have other methods you use that work well? Let me know in the comments!