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

I'd been meaning to talk about this topic for a while. Every time I sat down to actually do it, I'd end up pulling up old spreadsheets and reformulating formulas instead, because "that's important too."

I'd study those other things so intently that I'd exhaust myself, then tell myself I couldn't batch record videos or create good content while this drained. I'd need a 20-minute nap.

For those of you who don't know my language yet, 20 minutes is what I call an hour and a half to two hours. 🙂

Then I started watching videos about procrastination. You know, "research."

That's another classic form of procrastination.

This time, though, my research turned up a really good TED Talk from Princeton about procrastination, and it reframed the whole thing for me. Procrastination is a safety mechanism, one 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, make conscious decisions anyway, and still get stuff done.

The Success-Failure Paradox

The speaker of this TED Talk is Nic Voge, and he frames procrastination as a success-failure paradox.

He frames it as an attempt to preserve self-worth rather than self-sabotage. The higher the stakes, the stronger the procrastination.

Voge explains this often comes from internalized standards built on our own past achievements. If you did something well before, you're more likely to stall the next time, afraid of not living up to it.

I could relate. After one of my most popular videos ever, trying to follow it up made my procrastination so much worse than usual.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert described something similar after Eat, Pray, Love took off. She wasn't sure she could write another book that would live up to it.

The closer the deadline gets, the more the fear of not finishing eventually outweighs the fear of not doing it perfectly.

If you struggle with this particular kind of procrastination, Voge recommends focusing on your awareness, tipping the scales away from avoidance and toward approach.

He suggests reconnecting with why you want to accomplish something in the first place. In his own life, he tries to treat things as an experiment instead of an all-or-nothing result, or breaks them down into smaller pieces so they feel less overwhelming.

Decluttering Procrastination

But what does any of this have to do with the procrastination we feel around the house? One of the biggest questions I hear from my students is, "How do I just get motivated to start?"

Going by Voge's framework, is it that we're afraid our results won't match our expectations? I don't think that's the whole story.

I think procrastination around the house usually has more than one cause, and it tends to show up as simply not taking action at all. It's one of the most passive ways to sabotage the results you're after.

My goal is to help you build clutter-free, holistic spaces that feel good to live in. But creating that space is only one phase, the much bigger phase is maintaining it.

When it comes to this kind of procrastination, I've got six ways to coexist with the tendency and still get stuff done.

#1. Practicing Awareness

First, work on practicing your procrastination awareness. You might already feel pretty aware when you're procrastinating, but part of what makes procrastination sneaky is how easily it masks itself.

The act of procrastinating and the act of rationalizing it both come from the same place, your brain. Your left brain handles rationalization and analysis, while your right brain runs the emotional and artistic side of things.

So while your right brain thinks, "I don't want to do this, I'd rather be doing something fun," your left brain quickly cooks up a justification to back it up.

That's exactly why practicing awareness can help so much when you're working through procrastination, and it barely takes any effort.

There are plenty of ways to build this awareness. Some people put a rubber band or bracelet on one wrist and switch it to the other every time they feel the urge to procrastinate.

Others keep a journal or notepad, using tally marks, or drop a coin in a jar each time the urge shows up. I've become more of a habit-tracking and journaling person myself, mostly just paying attention.

Either way, you end up with the same result, real data you can actually use.

You may notice trends, certain times of day, week, or month when you feel less productive, or specific tasks that trigger a stronger urge to avoid. Once you can see that pattern, it's a lot easier to set limits or plan around it.

#2. Getting Ahead Of The Procrastination

Now you can put that data to use with tip two and get ahead of the procrastination. This is something I do constantly, and it's a big part of my systems for creating simplicity in my life.

It comes down to batching. Batching everything has been a huge game-changer for me in overcoming procrastination, especially during the weeks when I know I'll have zero motivation and feel mentally drained.

I plan ahead for those weeks. Getting ahead of the game lets me work and create from a place of freedom instead of pressure.

#3. Lower The Resistance

Procrastination equals resistance, which is exactly why chunking down big projects works so well. Making a project feel smaller makes it feel more manageable.

Take a big project like clearing out the garage and break it into pieces. Go through three boxes, or bring a few bags down from the attic, then see where it goes from there.

If it still feels overwhelming, start even smaller. Make a list, move one box, or just pull down the attic ladder.

#4. Turn Negative Into Positive

You can sit there thinking 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 anyway. So put that mental energy toward making the experience better instead.

What podcast could you listen to while running errands? What audiobook have you been dying to start?

I love this trick so much that I've pulled my car over on the side of the road just to keep listening to something good. When you give yourself something to learn or be entertained by, even chores like the post office or grocery shopping stop feeling like such a drag.

#5. Add Urgency To Everything

Another method is adding urgency to everything, which I also use to declutter faster. Urgency is why we can crank out a college essay the night before it's due, even after two weeks of avoiding it entirely.

If you can create that same urgency without waiting until the last minute, your procrastination starts to shrink.

Two Ways to Add Urgency

Build In Accountability

We're far more likely to follow through on something when we're worried it might inconvenience someone else or make us look like a flake. It's a big part of why personal trainers work so well, they're an accountability coach with a vested interest.

For home projects, this could be a Facebook group, friends, family, or neighbors keeping you on track. It could even be as simple as planning a dinner party, since people coming over adds both accountability and a deadline.

Use Timelines

Timelines are necessary for urgency to work at all.

Without a schedule for what needs to happen daily or weekly, I wouldn't be consistent about anything. Trust me, I've tried.

Like I said before, if it isn't scheduled, it isn't real. Set timers, build in reminders, or use outside deadlines like a scheduled donation truck pickup to keep yourself on task.

#6. Enlist Help

Lastly, enlist help, even when you don't strictly need it. Doing something with someone else is just more entertaining, and it goes beyond accountability.

It's almost like splitting the pain in half. We rarely go grocery shopping alone because that alone feels like a chore, but going together turns the same chore into a social event.

That activation energy it takes to get out the door is real, and having someone else along makes it a hell of a lot easier to actually leave the house.

Let Procrastination Work For You

Procrastination is data about what you're avoiding, and why. Once you can read it, you can build your days around it instead of constantly fighting it.

If you're working on simplifying your life for more time, energy, and mental capacity, learning to work with your procrastination instead of white-knuckling through it is one of the biggest wins you can bank.

Which of these six methods would work best for you? Do you have other tricks that work for you?

Let me know in the comments!