Overcoming Procrastination

In this episode of The Efficiency Advantage, productivity expert Juli Shulem tackles one of the biggest barriers to success: Procrastination.

Discover the real reasons people delay important tasks—from uncertainty and boredom to perfectionism and fear of failure—and learn simple, practical strategies to break the cycle.

If you’ve ever said “I’ll do it later” and then felt stressed, rushed, or overwhelmed, this episode will show you how to take action faster, reduce stress, and finally get things done. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Are you ready to finally break free from overwhelm, procrastination, and burnout? If you're ready to focus on what truly matters and create momentum to reach and exceed your goals in business and in life, then this podcast is for you. Welcome to the Efficiency Advantage, the podcast where clarity meets action and purpose that fuels your progress. So here's world-class productivity expert and your host, Coach Julie.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Welcome back to the Efficiency Advantage Podcast. I'm Julie Shulam, and today's episode is all about procrastination. Okay, so what defines procrastination? Well, that's when you are consistently avoiding starting something that needs to get done. That's it. Now, we all have times when something had to get postponed or is put aside for another time. And that's that's okay. That's not really, you know, procrastinating, that is having to postpone something because something happened. But procrastination is when you are really avoiding doing something. And often it's kind of described as mental paralysis, which is the inability to get yourself to move forward on something. Now, people procrastinate often until the reality sets in that, oh my goodness, I need to get this thing done. So even if you don't feel ready, but this deadline forces you to become ready, then you might actually start this project. And this is particularly common for individuals with ADHD. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what happens around procrastination. Now, when working with college students, it was prevalent because it was very much exhibited by that pulling an all-nighter kind of a concept right before an exam or waiting until the last couple of days before a big project or paper was due. So for some, that huge adrenaline rush would cause them to work on this project, whatever it is, and they would do a pretty good job because that pressure of that imminent deadline spurred them on. However, it often was at the expense of a lot of stress and anxiety, and that is really hard on your brain and your body. So, in my experience with clients, I have generally found that there are some underlying reasons that a person consistently procrastinates. See if some of these resonate with you. First, uncertainty, confusion around something. Well, ask yourself: do you understand what steps you need to take to complete the task or project? What do you need to learn or get information about in order to do the task? If uncertainty is holding you back, get answers. Learn what it is you need to know. And consider the first step of this process of getting these answers is actually the first step in the process of doing the project itself. You can count that as having started. And many times doing that kind of removes the blank page syndrome, and you just get started on it in that process, like learning the information, gathering the data, getting the instructions, finding out what you need to do so there's no confusion around it. Because from what I've seen in life, confused people don't perform. They are not productive. So reduce the confusion and the uncertainty, and you'll see you'll probably get started on that task much easier and faster. Second reason, the assumption that there will be time later. Really? Best laid plans? Seriously? Can you remember a time when you put something off assuming there was, oh my goodness, so much time available? And then the unexpected thing happened, consuming all the time you thought you had. Never assume that there will be time later. Why put yourself under that kind of stress? And I have saw this time and time again with students at you know college right before exams. They would say, oh, wait until this time period, and then I'll just cram it all in. I had a student get so sick, literally got the flu, had 103 fever before exams, she didn't even have a chance to study for because she kept putting it off, despite my helping her schedule it and to get it done. She learned she never did that again. Another reason that people procrastinate is they just don't like the task they have to do. Okay, fair enough. But what benefit can you come up with to make it more enjoyable or at least tolerable? Granted, not everything that we have to do is going to be amusement park fun. But even if it's drudgery, we can find some value in it. This is an attitude thing. Granted, it's something you have to be able to get over. So when you think about it, does the idea of just being finished with it, getting it over with entice you to maybe want to start? Think about that. When you don't want to do something, dragging it out just keeps it in your life that much longer and makes life less fun because you have this task in front of you that you're avoiding. And when you get it done, it's this huge weight lifted off your mind and it's out of your life. You don't have to think about it anymore. But continuously ruminating on it, there's no joy there, and that's not going to make the task any easier. So shift your focus and see how you can push past this. Now, another reason, sometimes the task is just boring. Maybe it's a repetitive task and it just doesn't have any joy for you at all. And that's perfectly logical. There are many things that are boring we don't want to do. But if you gamify it, that can be more exciting, right? What if you did a played a beat the clock game with yourself? Test yourself, say, okay, let's see, can I get this done in 20 minutes? And set a timer and see if you can beat the clock. You can even do that kind of a competitive thing with a colleague or a workmate. If you find a way to make it a little bit more exciting, a little more fun, then that boring task won't be quite so boring. Now, that doesn't mean you do a less than good job. You have to do a good job and do it more quickly, or at least try to make it so that it's not dragging on. Don't draw it out, in other words, make it so that you get it done more quickly. Again, same with the thought before. If you dislike it, boring is just about as bad. Get it done. Get it done, it's over with, move on. Now, the last area that I have found that people get stuck with in terms of procrastination is perfectionism. I actually consider perfectionism and procrastinating evil cousins because they tend to go together. And this is often indicated by a fear of failure. So this is a mindset. And if you are somebody who feels that I can't do this because I'm afraid I'm not going to do it good enough, it's not going to be perfect. So I'm just not going to do it at all. If that's your mindset, let me help you with this. Because I'm a recovered perfectionist and I had that mindset. It had to be done perfectly. Okay, there really isn't any perfect in almost every situation. Good enough is wonderful. It's a great place to be. Because if you strive to do every single thing perfectly, you're not going to get things done. I have a mantra that I share with clients all the time. It is better to be finished at a B level than to never be done at an A level. If you think about it like that, how much more productive could you be? Think about it. You're not gonna necessarily be able to do anything or everything perfectly. But what does good enough look like? And if you aim for that, it's probably excellent. That's all that needs to be done. Versus not doing it, missing deadlines by landslide, and causing a cascade of unfortunate situations to follow suit. Get it done. Trust me. You can ask yourself some of these questions that might help you to kind of move forward. So when you're stuck, think about what is the payoff of doing this task? What will the result be? Why are you doing it at all? Maybe someone has given that task to you that has been delegated to you and it's part of your job. Okay. Well, how will you feel once it's completed? How will your future self feel about having that done? And make sure that you know how difficult will this really be. Sometimes we make it bigger than it is, like, oh, it's gonna be so hard. I have to do this and that and this. Well, is that really gonna be that hard? Or is that just an assumption? And consider how much time will be required to do that task. Now, if you don't know that right off the bat, figure it out. Guesstimate. Yeah, it doesn't have to be again perfect, but guesstimate how long you think it's going to take to get those steps done in that task. And then schedule them. And determine what is the cost of not doing that thing. Hmm. There might be some serious negative fallout by not getting it done at all. Now, one of the things I've always said, and you've heard this on other podcasts, when you've got a list of things to do or a big, big task and it's got multiple steps, break it down, break it down, break it down. Okay, break it down so that it is into the simplest, smallest steps, because those you can tackle. Those aren't the big scary ones. And once you start checking those things off, your motivation will increase. So will your self-confidence. Now, having an externally imposed deadline always helps. That's way more effective for most people than a self-imposed deadline. But a self-imposed one is still better than no deadline at all. Now, a good way to impose them on yourself is to put them in your calendar. Now, if someone gives you a deadline, you also want to put that in your calendar, of course, too. But for most, having something in your calendar feels like a commitment, which is a good thing in this case. Now, obviously, if you never look at your calendar, this process won't work. So go back to the episode on calendaring and make sure you know how to use your calendar and you use the process of looking at it regularly, make that a thing. Another really cool method is to have someone else hold you accountable. Now, this isn't exactly an externally imposed deadline because the other person probably isn't expecting you to do it. It's not for them. They're simply helping you to be accountable to yourself. So if you don't trust yourself to follow through, then having someone be there for you is probably a good option. And here's another really cool idea: reward yourself. Ah, there are four cool ways you can reward yourself when you're working on a task. One, upon completion of the task or project, you get whatever. Now know what the reward is in advance so you have something to look forward to. Kind of like when you have a vacation in your schedule. You know, you can work for months knowing, ah, in June, I get to go here. Think about that with regard to your task or your project. What can you have at the end of it? Another one, if the project or task is kind of big and long, then how about reward yourself at the intervals of when you finish a step in the process and you get the reward then? That's another one. Now, you can also do it after a specific amount of time has been applied toward the task. So let's say, oh, if I work for an hour on this, I'm going to get this reward. Awesome. And then the last one, which is one I use often, is during a task. So when I exercise, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I do it every day anyway, I get to listen to my favorite audiobook or podcast or listen to comedy or something. So I get to do something that I love to do while I'm exercising. I get two things done at once, the best multitasking ever. But the nice thing is I get to do that only when I exercise. So I kind of put these rules around it for myself. And you know what? It works. So there's a couple of other things that can also spur us on to pushing past procrastination, and that is what I term as productive procrastination. So that is essentially when you're doing all those other tasks on your list and kind of avoiding the big one that you really should get done. But you got all this other stuff done, and that feels pretty good. Now, this works well in some regard because you end up getting things done that you kind of need to do anyway. And the success of finishing things will actually inspire you to start that other one, the one that you've been procrastinating on. So once you have gotten some other things done, you will tend to be inspired and motivated to start on the other one that you've been putting off. But don't wait until the last hour of the day. You know, kind of take stock on how much time you've got left and give yourself a fighting chance of getting a good chunk of it done in the time that's left in the day. And then this is something that I do, and I call it anti-procrastination. And that's essentially planning well in advance and starting long before you may need to, because that way it kind of propels you to get stuff done before maybe something might come up. And by doing it early, you end up getting so much accomplished and feel so good about being ahead that you then feel like you've got this really wonderful free time ahead of you. So that's another way of thinking about it. All right, so I've given you a whole bunch of ideas of how to work through procrastination. It's not always going to be perfect. Again, there is no perfect. But I hope some of these ideas will give you that imitation and inspiration to move forward on something you've been procrastinating on. I want to thank you for listening and remember that if you have a question about anything in the productivity or organizing space, you can send in a question or comment to askJulie.com. Julie is spelled J-U-L-I, and that's just askJulie.com. And I'll do my very best to answer it in an upcoming episode of this podcast. Thank you so much. Have a productive day. And if you're getting some helpful information from this podcast, please subscribe so that you will know when the next episode is ready to listen to and share it with others. You never know who needs to hear this material, and that the time that you share it may just be the day that they need to hear it. So again, have a productive day and thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

So that's it for today's episode of The Efficiency Advantage. Head on over to Apple Podcasts iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a private VIP day with Coach Julie herself. Be sure to head on over to the EfficiencyAdvantage.com and pick up a free copy of Coach Julie's gift. And join us on the next episode.