Overcoming Procrastination

The Business Owner Breakthrough Podcast is back with host Pete Mohr discussing the world of procrastination. Everyone procrastinates, but it's important to avoid it as much as possible. In this episode, Pete explains why procrastination happens and how it can be overcome.

Here are a few things Pete covers:

• Understanding the root cause of procrastination
• Recognizing your triggers for procrastination
• Reframing your thinking to focus on the benefits of completing a task
• Breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable pieces
• Creating a plan to avoid procrastination triggers in the future

It’s time to take action:

Now that you've learned about procrastination, it's time to take action. Start by identifying the underlying issue that causes you to procrastinate. Then, create a plan to avoid these triggers and make progress toward your goals.

The procrastination worksheet mentioned in the episode can be found at www.simplifyingentrepreneurship.com/pro

Are you looking to make some changes in your business and your life in 2024?  Head over to speaktopete.com and book a chat with me to see if we're the right fit!

Transcript

Unknown: 0:35

Are you ready to move from operator to owner? Well, decisions in your organization should be made at the lowest possible level of your business. Every day, there is a framework that can help and it's called the five P's. Understanding your promise, aligning your product process and people to it will generate the most amount of profit. And that's when the freedom comes. Freedom from the day to day management and freedom to start doing the things that you want and deserve to do. Inside and outside of your business. No one ever said it was easy, but it's time to start the process on the business owner breakthrough. If you'd like to chat with me about helping you break through in your business, simply go to speak to pete.com that speak to pete.com to book an appointment and to see if we're a right fit. Well, we've all been there, you're staring at the blank screen a looming deadline, and you just can't seem to bring yourself to start, or maybe a start, but you can't seem to make any real progress. It feels like you're stuck in quicksand. I know. I've been there so many times. Well, welcome to the world of procrastination. Just to let you know, everyone lives in this world, everyone procrastinates. And it's just some people procrastinate more than others. And hopefully, you want to be one of the people that doesn't and that's why we're having this little chat today. So contrary to the popular belief, procrastination is really not a sign of laziness. In fact, it's, it's quite the opposite. Your biggest procrastination is usually the thing that you need to do the most. So why do we continue to procrastinate? Well, you know, it usually has to do with understanding what's really going on when we procrastinate. Procrastination is a form of avoidance behavior. And it's usually triggered by one of two things, it's usually either the fear of what it is that you need to do, or the discomfort around what you need to do. And if you stay tuned, I'll provide a link at the end of the conversation here today, with a great procrastination worksheet that I've come up with, we might be afraid of failing or not living up to our own expectations, or the task at hand might make us feel uncomfortable because it's challenging or outside of our comfort zone. Well, in either way, the key to overcoming procrastination is to address the underlying issue. Why are you procrastinating and usually it's kind of if you can identify the specific triggers for procrastination, it's crucial in order to overcome it effectively. So think about the things that trigger you for procrastination. It's usually a symptom of a deeper issue, like fear of failure, maybe lack of motivation, or feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand, you don't know how to do it, right? Understanding the root cause of your procrastination can really help you address these problems and find the solution that's going to work for you to get through it. Right, we need to get through the procrastination, for example, you know, if you realize that you procrastinate on tasks that you find boring or uninteresting, and no, that's certainly me, you can try to reframe your thinking and focus about the benefits of completing the tasks, once you get them completed. Think about those benefits. On the other hand, if you find yourself procrastinating due to feeling overwhelmed, and you don't know how to get it done, well break the task down into smaller manageable pieces, maybe delegate some of it to others that do you know, Ben Hardy, and Dan Sullivan wrote a book a couple of years back. And it was called who not how based on a concept that Dean Jackson came up with. And the idea there is that you don't need to know how to do everything in your business. You just need to know who can get it done for you. And as the business leader, as our businesses grow, we can't possibly know everything that goes on all of the time. And you have to start letting some of that go. And that's one of the main reasons why you're procrastinating some of those bigger things because you just don't have the time to get it done that know how to get it done all this sort of stuff. So in addition to addressing the underlying issue, identifying these triggers for procrastination can also help you create the plan for avoiding these triggers in the future. And if you think for example, if you realize that you tend to procrastinate when you're working from home due to distractions, like the dog coming in, or the phone ringing or you know the laundry needs to get done these different things. You might choose to set aside specific times for work. To create a dedicated workspace that minimizes these distractions, just remember, we all procrastinate, but you don't want to be one of those that procrastinate more, you want to be one that procrastinates less. So we're gonna go through a few tips to overcome procrastination. And the first one is the five minute rule. And it's a simple technique that involves getting started on a task by committing to work on it for just five minutes. This can be an effective way to overcome procrastination, it allows you to get started without feeling overwhelmed with the task at hand. The idea is that once you get started, you'll often find that you continue working for longer than the initial five minutes, and the momentum of taking action will carry you forward. And, you know, it often takes a lot more than five minutes just to get down to it and get into our focus zone. So just committing that first five minutes will help you get there. And then once you're there, you're going to realize that, hey, I'm gonna stay at this and keep rolling. Number two, breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces. This is one of my very favorite ways of doing it. You know, this allows you to focus on completing one small piece at a time, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the larger task as a whole. In addition, as you can complete each of these pieces, you'll experience a sense of accomplishment. And that's the good feeling of getting these little bits and pieces done just makes you want to carry on even more. Step three is eliminating the distractions. It's key to increasing the productivity and overcoming procrastination. This may involve finding that quiet, dedicated workspace, whether it's at home or at work, turning off your notifications on your phone and your computer. Finding ways to minimize these distractions in your environment is so important. Don't have any dings, and rings, and rings, and knocks and all of these other things. That might sound fun, but they're taking you away from your focus time. By eliminating distractions, you can stay focused on the task at hand, and avoid getting sidetracked or maybe even losing motivation. Step four. Creating a timeline or a schedule for completing tasks can help you to increase accountability and prevent procrastination. And I use a daily planner, you guys have heard me talk about it before the one page daily planner, you can download that as always at simplifying entrepreneurship.com forward slash planner, there's a little video to show you how to use it too. I mean, I love to create timelines and sort of checklists and things like that, it helps me and it will probably help you too. But it may involve breaking down these large tasks into smaller pieces and getting them out there. You know, having a clear plan and a time in place. When you put that time beside it that deadline. It really makes things happen. And that's step five, you know, set the deadlines for yourself and hold yourself accountable. As business owners, we often don't have anyone to hold us accountable. So we have to do it ourselves. We have to come up with plans and systems and planners and notifications that are going to help us get things done and give us the reminders that we need. And you know, here's another thing, working with a coach or accountability partner can help you keep you on track as well to write by setting those deadlines and holding yourself accountable. You will increase your focus and motivation and avoid the temptations to procrastinate, you basically don't leave yourself time in that focus time to procrastinate right, because you're setting the deadlines that are going to make you strive ahead and get those goals done. Step six or final step here, and there's so many but these are the six we pick today, finding a support system, you know, having a support system, your family, your friends, your co workers. By having a supportive network in place, you can stay motivated and on track. By having a supportive network in place, you can stay motivated and on track, even when faced with challenges or setbacks. You know, when it all comes down to it, we all procrastinate. And procrastination is such a complex issue. There really are no easy solutions. And hopefully some of these tips and tricks will help you along the way. But understanding that it's not simply a character flaw. It's not laziness, all of those kinds of things. But how are you going to break through the first step is you don't have to do it yourself. Find somebody else who can help you through, whether that's a outsource partner, whether it's somebody in your team, a friend, anybody that can help you that has the understanding that you need. If you spend your time doing that, as opposed to actually trying to learn some of these things. You're going to be that much further ahead as a business owner. So for that quick and easy worksheet. To help you through procrastination I mentioned earlier in the episode, simply go to my website, simplifying entrepreneurship.com Um, forward slash pro p r o. So simplifying entrepreneurship.com forward slash Pro to get that and download the procrastination worksheet. So now you have six steps to help you through procrastination this week and a worksheet. When you are procrastinating this week, pull up this do the six steps work through the worksheet and then you'll have an even better week. So let's go and make it a great week and Ira ironic media production, visit us at our ONICK media.com