Next Level University

#1790 - 1 Way To Work Through Procrastination

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Ever feel like you’re constantly putting things off? In this episode, Kevin and Alan share a simple but effective method to tackle procrastination by focusing on progress rather than just finishing tasks. Discover why we procrastinate, how to stop letting things pile up, and the importance of self-discipline in staying on track. Listen and learn practical tips to help you see a different perspective on procrastinating and start progressing steadily.

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Show notes:
(2:04) A necessary pivot
(3:32) Struggling with procrastination?
(5:15) Progress is not completion
(6:30) Systems accountability
(9:12) We all have this...
(11:30) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
(12:28) Things that matter less
(15:59) Experience and delay
(18:32) Why do we procrastinate?
(19:42) Simple to grasp, challenging to master

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

Speaker 1:

Sometimes I am willing to procrastinate a result in order to prioritize an experience, but if you do that too often, you'll never get the result. On the other end, if you do it too often the other way, you'll never enjoy the experience.

Speaker 2:

Potentially, you have a certain number of days available to construct and build toward that goal. Whatever it is Fitness, finance, whatever Every day that you procrastinate, you are going to take more time to get to that goal.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Next Level University. I'm your host, kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host, alan Lazarus. At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Speaker 2:

Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life love health and wealth.

Speaker 1:

We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits and defining your own unique version of success Self-improvement in your pocket every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Next Level University, next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of next level university, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. Today for episode number 1790 one way to work through procrastination. So we're gonna hit you with a 15 minute episode because we've changed our schedule. This schedules this week and we are trying to play at a new run rate. Alan and I both have a lot more clients and things have been nuts behind the scenes in really good ways. I I told somebody this the other day. I said it's very much aligned overwhelm. I would rather be overwhelmed with abundance than overwhelmed due to scarcity and that's kind of what's happening right now.

Speaker 1:

So, okay, one way to work through procrastination. I was on a podcast yesterday and the person I think it was I don't remember the name of it, but the person was a procrastination coach and first of all I said to them that's such an interesting thing, very interesting niche, yes, super interesting. How did you do that? How'd you get into that? He told me, and then he interviewed me on productivity procrastination, which was weird for me. He's like I don't really think I do that much and I don't really think I'm that productive. So we'll see what kind of value we can add. What'd you find out? Super productive. I had to talk myself up because I was like Kev, you do 15 podcast episodes a week. You've got to be somewhat productive to get all that done and not everything else burned to the ground.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're very, very productive.

Speaker 1:

Whether or not you consider yourself productive is a different story. It depends. It depends on what room I'm in. So one of the questions was how would you help someone overcome procrastination? Because one of the first questions was what is your definition and relationship with procrastination? Now, and I said my relationship with it is procrastination is sometimes a necessary pivot that feels bad but is the right choice in the moment, doesn't need to get done right now is pretty important, and sometimes you find out that it never needed to get done, it wasn't that important or it just kind of worked itself out eventually don't always bank on that, but it does happen sometimes.

Speaker 1:

And he said what is the advice you'd give to somebody who is struggling with procrastination?

Speaker 1:

And I said there was a time where I lived with my best friend, matt, and when I lived with him we were renovating his home. He had a top bottom duplex and it was going to be a rental unit and I was helping him renovate it. And one of the things we wanted to do is we wanted to put a new light on the front porch and we bought the light at home depot and then we put it somewhere and we said we'll get to that next week. And every time the weekend would roll around and we would get ready to do it. We would just get overwhelmed and procrastinate. And we would play Call of Duty or NBA 2K and we would just hang out order wings and just chill and we couldn't figure out why. It just was like I don't know, man, I don't feel like doing it this weekend. And then we dug into it. Well, we're going to have to take the old light off, we're going to have to rewire it, we're going to have to turn the power off. We might have to paint if the new light isn't as big as the old one. And eventually, I think three or four weeks into this procrastination, we said let's just open the box and let's take a look's just see what it looks like. We open up the box, it came with very simple, easy, detailed instructions. It was like four screws and we said all right, let's go look at the old light. That's already on there now. That's four screws. Okay, I mean, how hard is really turning off the power? I know exactly where it is. I've done it a dozen times, we've done this before. Let me go turn off the power, let's just toy around with it. Eventually, it took us 15 minutes to take the old light off, put the new light on and it was perfect. It was easy. We didn't have to paint anything, it was easy.

Speaker 1:

So I said on this podcast, I said I think one of the best things to do is to understand that progress is not completion. You don't have to complete something to make progress. One of the reasons we don't start it is because we don't want to go through the entire process of doing it. But you don't have to. Yesterday I got an email from a client who said hey, kev, can you check something out for me. Can you check this thing out for me? And in my mind I immediately said this is going to be a giant pain in the ass. I'll do it Saturday. I'll do it Saturday. I got time Saturday, I'll do it Saturday. And then I said honestly, let me just take a look and kick the tires, let me shine a flashlight on it and see what happens. It took two minutes. It literally took two minutes. And now I'm two minutes ahead because now I can send a message back and cool, now we were at the next step.

Speaker 1:

So that's the advice I would give to anybody who does struggle with procrastination. Next step so that's the advice I would give to anybody who does struggle with procrastination Don't think about it, as I need to complete this. Think about it as the goal today is to gain awareness around the process of what I'm doing, and you might find, just like when you go to the gym for five minutes, that's your goal. I'm just going to go to the gym today for five minutes. When you hop on the treadmill, you're already there. Five minutes might turn into 10, and that could be the way to build a new habit. So that is my take.

Speaker 2:

I've been thinking about productivity for nine years Because, truth be told, when I left corporate I realized that I wasn't actually that self-disciplined corporate. I realized that I wasn't actually that self-disciplined. So in school, the bell rings, you have to be in class, you're punished. If you're not, the bell rings, class is over, bell rings again for the next class, then later on, there's all this structure, sports teams. There's head coach, assistant coach, defensive coach. There's all this accountability built into the system. There's so much accountability built into school and into sports and into college. Even College is a little different, because some classes you don't have to go to. I used to check the. What is it called? The syllabus?

Speaker 1:

Nice, that's the one, I know shit too man, yeah nice.

Speaker 2:

I used to check the syllabus to see if class was required. If it was, I'm going to cancel this class. I'm going to take another one. No, I'm kidding, but there's less. But there's still a lot of structure. You have to, you're graded, there's progress reports. There's so much structure. There's TAs, teaching assistants, there's lab, all this stuff. And then you go to corporate. Same deal, man. You have a desk, you have your office, you go to the office, you have to report once a week to your superior. There's just so much accountability built into the system.

Speaker 2:

And then, when I was 26, I quit corporate and I was on my own. Whatever you want to do, alan, what do you feel like doing today? Baby, get a lift in, shoot a video maybe. Do some fishing, eat some Chipotle.

Speaker 2:

And I realized, holy crap, I'm not as disciplined as I thought, because up to that point, I had been pretty achiever oriented and that was really hard for me. And I think, statistically speaking, I probably had more discipline than most. But that is something. And I think, statistically speaking, I probably had more discipline than most. But that is something that I think people go through a lot. Because here's the problem Everyone out there listening or watching this at work, you probably have quite a bit of discipline, whatever your job is, whatever your main role is.

Speaker 2:

But when it comes to the gym or when it comes to yourself or when it comes to things where there aren't systems of accountability, there's just so much less discipline. There's so much more procrastination. Procrastination is a byproduct of a lack of self-discipline, because procrastination is the stuff we don't want to do, pure and simple, and there's not a single person I coach or ever have coached that isn't procrastinating and or neglecting something. There is no human who's not neglecting something. That's not a thing. The closest I've ever seen is Emilia, and she still has a laundry list of things that we procrastinate. Every single Sunday we have a certain list of things that we need to get done, and then we have a certain things of like want to get done, and the want to get done list doesn't ever go away and it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

Speaker 1:

Your life sounds fairly exhausting. It is, I think, my life's pretty exhausting, but yours sounds way more exhausting than mine does.

Speaker 2:

It really is. I'm not a tree, yeah, so, but you and I talk about this all the time. I think it's so important and I actually just changed my phone yesterday. So my Google tasks list, so I have a Google tasks list with MIT's most important tasks and I have on it, I'd say at least 50. And so, okay, let me give you an example get verified on LinkedIn, and I'd say at least 50. And so, okay, let me give you an example Get verified on LinkedIn. I could get verified on.

Speaker 2:

LinkedIn. We're podcasters. I don't even know how to do that Same. It's on there. It's been on there for probably a year. Yeah, yeah, makes sense, right? What's? Another good example Full iPhone cleanup. Yeah, yeah, makes sense, right what's?

Speaker 1:

another good example Full iPhone cleanup. Oh God, that's yeah same.

Speaker 2:

I mean, think about how many photos I have. It's 65,852. What the hell man I know, Of what they add up, they do. I don't need 65,000 photos on my phone, isn't that?

Speaker 1:

wild to think of that. Your phone's just hanging on to 65,000 photos and it doesn't even matter. It's like how many more could you take if you wanted to Another 65,000,? I'm sure, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

How wild is that.

Speaker 1:

What a weird time to be alive. And they're 4K photos, man, it's a lot of them and that's not.

Speaker 2:

Is that counting videos? I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think so, I think so.

Speaker 2:

Let's not go down the rabbit hole. Okay, yeah, let's not.

Speaker 1:

Next level nation. What is happening? If you've thought to yourself, I want to try coaching, but you don't really know where to start, group coaching would be a wonderful place for you. That's really why we created it in the first place. We start a new round every 90 days. So if you're hearing this, go to the website nextleveluniversecom and we have the landing page where you can actually hold your spot right now. Even if there's a group going on right now, you can still lock your spot for the next one. The biggest thing that we've seen is, as we get closer and closer to the date, unfortunately, some people end up missing. The group fills up and they can't do it, and then they end up regretting that. So please head over to the website. The link will be in the show notes and we would love to see you there.

Speaker 2:

There's all these things that I've been putting off cleaning my iPhone for at least a year, and it messes with your self-esteem. It's really hard. This is I want to try to make this land in a way that I never have before. This is why achieving goals is so brutal, because it requires you to do so much more. You just have to do so much more. I mean, you just said my life is exhausting, and it is, but I will achieve so much more than the, the statistical average, and I would love to believe that it's possible to have a life that doesn't suck and achieve more, and I just don't know if that's real. I just don't. So it's almost like the moment you set a goal.

Speaker 2:

So Matt had goals he had. He wanted to rent out the upper part of that property. He wanted to move out and then rent the bottom unit and then have a rental property. That's why there's stuff to do. You could just play video games. We did a lot Right, and every time you were playing video games, instead of doing something productive, you were wasting time that could have been allocated towards your goals.

Speaker 2:

And you have said this for years, and it's so true. Would you rather wait longer to get your goal. So everyone think about a goal you have. Maybe it's buy a house. So everyone think about a goal you have. Maybe it's buy a house, maybe it's dream car, maybe it's start a family. Whatever that goal is, whatever that vision board is, you have a certain number of days available to construct and build toward that goal. Whatever it is Fitness, finance, whatever. Every day that you procrastinate, you are going to take more time to get to that goal, and I think it really does come down to that simple truth, and a lot of us have a really hard time with this procrastination thing. So what I would say is procrastinate the things that matter less. That's the only way I've been able to deal with this is and we say this at the NLU team everyone on the NLU team has their top three, their top three priorities. Christina is a good example. Christina has support the team, digital assets and IT.

Speaker 2:

I said let everything else fall. Let everything else fall. Someone else will catch it or will let it fall, and I try really hard to do that in my own life too, and so for me, it's coaching, training, podcasting. Those are the three that I try really hard not to let fall. And for you, you have your three. And so I think, think in life, trying to be good at everything and this is a holistic podcast health, wealth, life and love it's really, really, really alarmingly difficult, and I want to give people the. It's almost like I want to give you the permission slip to to complain about it, give you the permission slip to to be like yeah, okay, today kind of sucks, I have 12 back-to-backs, no bathroom breaks, but and I will achieve my goals more than other people and I will be fulfilled more than other people. You just talked about working on your birthday be fulfilled more than other people. You just talked about working on your birthday yesterday and how you didn't want to take it off because you knew that you'd waste time toward your goals, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, it was a big piece of it. Yeah, it was also. I just that's always kind of been the way I am, I don't. I mean, if it was a job, if I was going to a job I didn't like, yes, I would definitely try to use that as an excuse to take the day off for sure, but it's, that's not the case. That's not the case anymore.

Speaker 1:

I last night, so Taryn, got me a wonderful cake and we made homemade pizza and it was great. Right, I was like homemade pizza, it's lower calorie. I'll be able to measure it, let's that. But I had a bigger. I told her. I said I'm gonna have a bigger slice of cake than I intended on with a side of ice cream. Let's do it. The reason is I number one. I'm kind of already ahead of my weight loss goal to the grind, to 165, as I'm calling it. But I'm okay if it takes me a couple extra days. Right, it was just that it's like I'm willing to procrastinate sometimes. I am willing to procrastinate a result in order to prioritize an experience. There you go, that was fire. But if you do that too often, you'll never get the result ever on the other end if you do it too often the other way, you'll never enjoy the experience.

Speaker 1:

Potentially so, that's why this is always.

Speaker 1:

It always boils down to. This is a personal. It's a personal thing. If I was doing a bodybuilding show that was on a certain date and I had to make a certain weight, I wouldn't have had the cake exactly I would have had. I wouldn't have had the pizza. Probably I would have had ground beef and rice, like I have every day, and veggies every day for the last however many days. That's probably what I would have had, but it's different. I can prioritize it differently. The goal can get procrastinated a little bit further down the line and that's why that's what makes it personal, that's.

Speaker 2:

A really good distinction is you are either procrastinating the goal getting the goal or you're procrastinating the thing you don't want to do toward the goal. It's almost like you're putting off the goal or you're putting off the thing.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, but at all times they're the same thing, yeah, kind of. So you're always putting off the goal, kind of, if you procrastinate, if you press, if you procrastinate, yeah, uh, last piece, if you had a fitness show and you were going to step on stage and I really hope this lands in a new way based on the build-up of this episode the pain of you getting stomped on stage is greater than the pain of you not having the cake. Yes, that's why it works. It always works.

Speaker 2:

I had one of the group coaching members reach out and say hey, I'm struggling with habit tracking. Uh, what's your advice? How can, how, can you help me? Great question. I said commitment device. Look, have you, have you ever heard of a commitment device? She said no. I said a good example is one of my clients paid me double for one of the sessions and then it carries over to the next session and I keep the money. If he doesn't get a hundred percent on his tracker and he keeps on redoing it every single session, I say hey, do you want this to pay?

Speaker 1:

for this. So well, yeah, it quite literally works so well.

Speaker 2:

he literally said and this is his words, not mine, and he's listening right now I just don't want to lose that 147 dollars. Yeah, and I I'm like that is. That is exactly what it is. You will do more not to lose than you will to win. And the stuff we procrastinate is the stuff where there's no punishment. That's a thing. And eventually there's a punishment, it's just a very delayed one. So you have to try to find a way to Miyagi yourself, to actually get yourself to do it. And, by the way, I do want everyone to know there's no one who doesn't procrastinate. There's no one, including me. I have mail I haven't looked at in months, like I, everyone procrastinates something and I need to get to it. And just here's what I would say Everyone procrastinates. Some people procrastinate less and on the less important things.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad we did this one because it's very tactical. It's a very simple not necessarily easy thing to do, or easy, not simple whatever. I don't really understand the difference between the two. Some people say it's simple but not easy, or easy but not simple. I don't know the definitions well enough to know if that actually makes any sense. So maybe it's something easy to understand but hard to practice.

Speaker 2:

That's what we're gonna go with I think that's what people are trying to say, okay, well, I'm gonna say that from now on, because I don't understand the other one. You know, it's like, like it's simple to work out consistently, but it's not easy. Yeah, but what do you mean?

Speaker 1:

it's simple, like conceptually, it's simple yeah, like a rubik's cube is simple in theory, you turn some shit and make everything the same color, but in practice it's like impossible. I think it's I don't know, maybe I'm just saying it wrong.

Speaker 2:

No, no, that saying is actually garbage, kind of Honestly Like fall down seven times, get up eight. I never liked the. It's simple but not easy, even though I've used it. I've actually used it and then regretted it because I don't think people, I don't think it. It's not good enough in my opinion.

Speaker 1:

well, it doesn't make any sense to me. But a lot of stuff doesn't make any sense to me that makes a lot of sense to other people, so I'm just assuming I don't understand it. That's where my natural tendency is okay. If you want to hear alan and I clown about one line bumper sticker, self-improvement in a kind-hearted, joking way, not a hurtful, toxic way make sure you subscribe. And more than anything, it's a great opportunity to get a little bit better every single day. Again, some days you're not going to want to listen to a podcast, you're not going to want to grow, you're not going to want to journal, you're not going to want to exercise, but if you get the notification on your phone and you release the new episode, which you do every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, maybe that'll be the gentle kick in the butt. You need to do the thing. So subscribe on whatever platform you're watching or listening to us on.

Speaker 2:

We just updated the website. It is ready to accept members of group 16, which starts on October 8th. Tuesday, october 8th, 5 to 6 pm.

Speaker 1:

Nice.

Speaker 2:

There's bi-weekly sessions. Picture a 90-day period where everything we just talked about in this episode it's designed to keep you accountable. It's like being on a sports team Like-minded people, no one wants to let the team down. Assistant coach, two head coaches, engagement in WhatsApp community Private Systems where you're checking in every other week. It's connection calls in between. It's literally designed to help you stay as accountable as possible. And, yeah, sign up.

Speaker 1:

There's no way that you don't leave the 90 days being the most consistent version of yourself. There's no. If you do it and you commit to it and you show up and you track habits, you will leave as the most consistent version of yourself, 100%. That is a guarantee.

Speaker 2:

Use the promo code NLULISTENER all one word NLULISTENER and you'll get 30% off, which comes to less than $97 per month for the three-month program.

Speaker 1:

It's a rare bargain, as they say, A bargain at twice the price. Some may say you ever heard that one before?

Speaker 2:

No, you ever heard that before.

Speaker 1:

It makes total sense. Yeah, even if you doubled the price, it'd still be a bargain. A bargain at twice the price, son.

Speaker 2:

Mm-mm.

Speaker 1:

You don't agree. I mean, I agree that it shows how much belief Alan has in group coaching.

Speaker 2:

No, I just. That saying makes no sense. Why would?

Speaker 1:

you, why would you double the number? And then it's like saying it's like saying the price is so good that you could double it, and it would still be a bargain.

Speaker 2:

Got it okay. That's the first time in my entire life that that landed what can I say?

Speaker 1:

I'm a wizard. I heard that from a lot of older gentlemen when I used to work at the gas station. I'd go to their window and be like it's 47 and 25 cents boss. I say boss a lot more than I do. And there was this one guy who was he was an older gentleman. He used to say I bargain it twice the price. And I was like dude, what in the hell are you talking about? Give me the 47.

Speaker 2:

I got somebody waiting over here. I gotta, I gotta check this person's oil.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how to do that, I need the cash son as always, we we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow. Talk to you soon. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Speaker 2:

We mean it when we say family. If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. Everything you need to get a hold of us is in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Thank you again and we will talk to you tomorrow.

People on this episode

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host