Are you done with procrastinating? Listen to this episode to find out why you procrastinate (no, it's not because you are lazy!) and get tangible strategies to stop procrastinating for good.
Visit our website and sign up for updates: https://www.womenfaculty.com
Are you done with procrastinating? Listen to this episode to find out why you procrastinate (no, it's not because you are lazy!) and get tangible strategies to stop procrastinating for good.
Visit our website and sign up for updates: https://www.womenfaculty.com
Welcome to the thriving academics Podcast. I'm Ulya Tsolmon, a professor and certified coach, and I share insights on how to create your best work and live your best life. If you want to go from surviving to thriving without sacrificing what's important to you, then listen on To find out how. Hello, my friends today in this episode, I want to talk about procrastination. So many of us have had experiences where we put up working on our priority tasks or even have had trouble starting. So I want to dissect what's going on in the black box. So procrastination, if you will, so you know why you do what you do and why you don't do what you want to do. So recently, I was doing a workshop on procrastination. And one of the professors described how she procrastinated. She explained that when she sat down to do something, she felt a very strong urge to go check stuff on the internet, look up something that really has nothing to do with the task at hand, or suddenly became very important to look up things. For the kids check email, check world events, asking what's going on out there, all seemingly important, but really tasks that are not moving the project forward. She was frustrated with herself because she wanted to work on the project. She was committed, but could not bring herself to focus and get the job done. And she was procrastinating with productive and unproductive stuff. But none of that was really accomplishing the key objective of finishing the project. And the procrastination was adding to our stress and the stress, then, in turn was contributing to procrastination. So can you relate to this example? Procrastination can take many different forms, it can look like what I described. Or also it can look like really doing anything but the task and I really mean anything. Tasks that you would not normally choose to do it other times would start looking very appealing. Laundry, for example. Sometimes procrastination also can take a form of continuous resisting of the task. So you're basically negotiating with you both yourself when to do it, how to do it. And before you know it, the time has gone by. Sometimes procrastination looks like being very certain that something that doing some marginal tasks first is the most important step. So for example, organizing a desk having the perfect weather, perfect lighting and maybe proper level of motivation. And convincing yourself that of course, a clean desk will mean I'm ready to work. Having a clean desk is probably nicer than having a cluttered desk, but it probably does not directly stop you from typing words on your computer. So after time passes by, and no progress has been made and your project, then you start blaming yourself for not doing it and asking what is wrong with you. So then as the deadlines approach, you try to scare yourself into completing the task. So procrastination can take many forms. It can include completely unproductive activities, and also marginally productive activities. But the key identifying factor for procrastination is that you're not really doing what your priority tasks are. So why is procrastination still a problem for such accomplished people? So you have master's degrees, JDS, MDs, PhDs, and some of you are on your way to getting your PhD. You would think that, spending many years completing so much education and showing up to do hard work on the way here, we would be having no issues with motivation, confidence and procrastination. Yet, most of us can catch ourselves procrastinating. So at this level, we procrastinate and then we think that this is a real problem because we should not be procrastinating we'll look around and it seems like If it's only us who seemed to be struggling with procrastination, it becomes such a hidden problem that it doesn't lend itself to solving. Then you get more stressed when you think about falling behind. And that stress then stands in the way of you starting the project. And you get into this negative spiral that is very difficult to break out of. So now let's dive in why procrastination happens. So procrastination occurs because your brain is trying to protect you. Your brain is the one that does the work and also the one that can prevent you from doing the work. Your brain is not a machine that has only one purpose of coming up with ideas and thinking about ideas and doing the work. But its primary role is to ensure your survival. Your brain's priorities are not to meet deadlines, or write the next chapter or submit grants, your brain's priorities are to make sure that you live another day is concerned with the following key objectives, one, doing things that ensure your survival, making sure you eat enough and that you're not expending energy on unnecessary things, and to avoiding things that threaten your survival. So by scanning the environment for threats and be ready for fight or flight, now, procrastination is most likely due to the second function, avoiding things that threaten your survival. You might be thinking, well, working on projects, and worrying about projects is not really a matter of life and death. Yes, it's true. We know that, but our brains do not. Our brains do not want to take a moment to assess whether the incoming potential danger is real or not. Its default is to run away just in case, the upside of running away is higher than sticking around and finding out. So your brain is wired to react subconsciously to any hint of danger, without consulting your conscious self. And the reason the brain thinks fear or alarm associated with a project is dangerous is because it is picking up on your thoughts and physical cues you generate when you think stressful thoughts. So when you're worried about your project, then you body starts releasing stress hormones, your physiology starts reacting as though you are under physical distress, then brain picking up on those cues, decides to move you away from the source of the stress. And sometimes you don't even register why you got up to get another cup of coffee, even though you have had enough. Or you may think tending to plants right now is a very, very, very important task. And you go ahead and do that instead. Or you may start working in your inbox because it's so work and you feel productive for a while. Either way, you find yourself distance from the very thing that your brain thinks is a source of danger, your tasks that you set out to accomplish. So the brain cannot differentiate between primal fear that signals immediate danger to survival, or the fear that you will feel disappointed in the future. So for example, when you thinking the following thoughts about your project, this is a lot of work, it's not going to be good, it won't work anyway, it might fail. So this will be a waste of time and effort. This takes too much time. It's never ending I'm already so behind. So when we think they start, we start feeling fear or apprehension. So once we feel fear, then our brains start taking over by trying to get us to safety, which means away from the source of pain and fear away from the scheduled tasks away from the project. So the brain will be very clever in doing that. Suddenly you think you must have another cup of tea, or check social media, do online shopping, or remember some other non priority thing that suddenly feels very important and appealing to do? So your brain is trying to protect you and get you to safety because your thoughts about the project are just too painful. Okay, so knowing that it is your brain acting on cues of danger, and it is true trying to protect you is an important step in tackling procrastination. So this means that you are not broken or incompetent or lazy. Your brain is actually doing an amazing job and working beautifully. So nothing has gone wrong here, your brain just cannot distinguish between mortal danger and disappointment. So the first step is to figure out what is the negative emotion that you feeling? And what thoughts are triggering them. So let's say it's fear of failure. The first step is to figure out the thought that is causing this fear. So it may sound something like, I will fail, or it won't work out, or this will never end. So after you figure out this thought, then you can alleviate the level of fear by challenging the painful thought that's causing the fear. So you could question this thoughts. Is it really true that I will fail? What does feeling mean? Does it mean that the grant is rejected? Is that really a failure? In what ways it is not a failure? Why should you not have failures? What if failure is a necessary part of the process? What if you can't move forward, take the next step without this failure? And then you can question what happens when you fail. So your brain might think that your life is in danger. But what could really happen? So some people say, of course, if this grant gets rejected, I'll be homeless, living under a bridge, just like that in one swoop step. So a rejection letter comes, and off, you go pack your blanket and pick a bridge. That's what your brain wants to offer you. But you got to question it. There are multiple things that need to happen between the rejection letter and taking of residence under a bridge. It's not automatic, that many things you can do to prevent the ultimate outcome of living under the bridge, coming to reality, if that is your fear. So by questioning the severity of the thoughts, implications, we can create more new ones, and what we are really afraid of, and what we actually want to avoid. So question your thoughts, that would be a very important step. Another thing that can be very effective is to first calm your nervous system down by assuring that you are safe right now in this moment. So there is no bear chasing you, there is no immediate danger. And by delaying thinking of the scary thoughts flow later. So you could say to yourself, let me work on this next thing, or the next section or the next task. And then think about all the terrible things that might happen if I fail. So that way, you can calm your nervous system down by telling your brain that it is not an immediate emergency, that it is not an immediate threat to your survival, and that you still have control over whether to share it or submit your work later on. And just tell yourself, let me just get this next section down first. This way you push the fear into the future, and create space to make progress now. And by making progress. In turn, you're going to generate the evidence and confidence that it's not so bad after all, when when actually take the next step. And before you know it, the bulk of the work will be done. So, when dealing with procrastination, it is very important to understand what is causing it and figuring out what it is that you're trying to avoid the thoughts and the emotions. You need to stop blaming yourself, you're not lazy, nothing is wrong with you. Trust me on this, nothing is wrong with you. Next with an understanding of your worries and fears, then you can start making decisions as how to manage them. You can change the thought the feeling so your nervous system calms down and you can actually proceed. In the upcoming episodes. I will teach you the behavioral model that can really help you shift from the default fear based behaviors and actions to intentional, purposeful thoughts. emotions that can calm the brain and let the brain work on the project rather than on your survival. So that's all I have for you today. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast. Have a beautiful rest of the day. Until next time, take care. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about all the things we're talking about, check out women faculty.com Where we take these concepts and apply them. Come join us and do your best work and live your best life.