3. How to Stop Procrastinating and Get Stuff Done

Hello and welcome to episode three of a dopamine kick. Today we're talking all about procrastination which is a real favourite of mine is definitely a vice that I have. So initially, let's have a chat about what is procrastination and why do we do it? So, one of the first reasons that we procrastinate is a fear of failure. Our brain is wired to avoid pain and it will put off unpleasant tasks or fear of judgement as long as possible. You think in your mind that it's better to not do something, then do it and be discovered as a fraud.

Yeah, and you know what? It's normal for you to procrastinate everybody procrastinate. That's a normal fact of life, but it's when procrastinating gets in the way of your productivity. That's when it becomes a problem. And when we talk about procrastination, basically what we mean is putting things off, over analysing, which leads to something called analysis paralysis, which means you've got too many options or decisions to make and you end up overthinking, becoming overwhelmed and instead of taking action that you just end up shutting down or not doing anything at all, and you become paralysed. Which leads to you guessed it more procrastination. Like that Jack in the beanstalk episode that was about procrastinating, wasn't it? Or am I just making that up shell

It what was basically about procrastination and procrastination is really bad. It only leads to terrible things. And it doesn't create a healthy life. That's what you know, it had to you had a good message. You know, it really did. So if you remember Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. It did have some underlying good

I don't think, no, I don't have I don't think I have DVDs anymore. So I wrote that part. And that is definitely something I used to do when I my youth many years ago when I had exams is I would justify my justify to myself so I really needed to clean my room or something and that was work so it was okay to do that instead of revising because it was a bad thing. Or like cooking i need to eat so I have to cook a meal and you know, maybe that is a three course gourmet feast rather than just beat on toast. But again, it's like it's not a fun activity. Like I couldn't justify going out and socialising with my friends or watching TV instead of revising, but I could justify doing a bad thing that I didn't want to do, but it was all still procrastination. You know, I never I never ever put my DVDs in alphabetical order unless I was meant to be revising or doing something similarly unpleasant.

That is so, so true. Why is it when you've got something that really needs to be completed, you end up doing something else. I'll just give you an example. So the other day I was supposed to be editing a video for a client, and instead, I decided you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to download the app Shmul that's what it's called. It's a singing karaoke app on your phone and sing fairy tale of New York by the pogues because that's what I felt like I needed to really do it my life at that point in time. But why? Why?

So you might think that you work best under pressure. That's definitely something that I used to think that you know, if I had six months to do something, I would cram it all into the last month because that's when I work best under pressure. And that's when I get the results and if I try and do things early, then I just waste time. But that's actually been shown to not be accurate. So a study into procrastination. Which will link to in the show notes show that students who procrastinated received lower grades on all assignments, and overall suffered greater stress and illness than students who did not procrastinate. So again, this is just your brain, tricking you by giving you dopamine rushes for procrastinating into thinking that is the best way for you to do things, when actually it's been scientifically proven that it's holding you back.

So as you said Sparky, a key is to catch yourself procrastinating and we all secretly know when we're doing it when we get that thought, oh, I'll just do this or I'll just do that first. That's when you know you're procrastinating. Once you've caught yourself, that's the first step. And then you need to find what is going to work for you to break you out of that procrastination. So we've got a couple of things that we're going to go through with you. So the first thing that you can do to stop yourself procrastinating is to break your list into achievable goals rather than one big target. This helps you get your dopamine kicks from taking off little things on the list, rather than just pretending you're being productive by doing other tasks that you didn't need to do.

Yeah, breaking down tasks and goals and things like that is a great one. As we mentioned in the last episode. Another one that you can actually do is give yourself five and that just means give yourself five minutes to actually do something. The theory is that you can put up with anything for five minutes. And after five minutes if you choose, you are free to walk away from the task although most of the time which star it's you know, it's a lot easier to continue. So set yourself a timer, maybe give yourself that five minutes think to yourself, I'm going to sit down I'm going to do this for five minutes and I'm going to give you all my attention and then after five minutes, you might find that you actually want to continue doing it. Or sometimes you might even just want to increase that for a little bit longer as well you know so it all helps.

And that's that's exactly the same for me once I actually start something, you know, it's very hard for me to stop there and especially if I'm really enjoying it as well. So like for example, I might be editing a video and I don't really want to start it but once I get started I'm like wow, four hours have gone by. Now when did it when did that sort of happen? You know what I mean? So it is literally just about getting started. And I think that that's why give it five is a really good place to actually start.

Another thing that you can try and this doesn't work for everybody but it's worth mentioning is to reward yourself for accomplishing things that you didn't want to do so things that you are procrastinating on now this doesn't have to be gifts doesn't have to use money. You don't have to buy yourself a new thing every time as a reward. It could even be just something as simple as if I accomplish this thing that I don't want to do tonight. I'm gonna have a bath with one of my favourite bath bombs. It can just be something really small. It's it's to act as a motivator, and then a dopamine rush when you get your reward.

Yeah, and that's a really, really important one. And we spoke about dopamine so much in this podcast already, but it's really important to make sure you're enjoying things along the way and that you're rewarding yourself doing it because dopamine, like we've said before plays such a massive part in the way that we are the way that we act in who we are our habits, our mindset. So it's important to make sure that when we're doing things that we don't particularly really want to do, we're actually making them fun along the way and to help with that dopamine kick. The next tip that we've got for you is to face your why. Why are you actually procrastinating Are you procrastinating out of fear. For example, are you worried about being judged on a project? I mean, this is something that I do a lot of the time as well. Like I will go to bed and I will think oh I'll do that tomorrow I'll finish that tomorrow just don't want to think about doing that project because I'm not happy with it or I'm worried about what someone else is going to think about it so face your why and think about why is that you're actually procrastinating think about how you can change that. Okay, you can change how you feel about that situation, which then makes you think okay, well I'm procrastinating

This one is a really, really big one for me, and it's something that I do a lot when it comes to procrastinating especially over academic achievements. I feel a real pressure there. So I will often procrastinate. Not like revise for things, leave it all to the very last minute and then frantically try and cram everything in. And in a way it's sort of me allowing myself to do badly so you know, if I've not really revised appropriately for an exam and then I fail it it's almost like oh well i did't really try anyway. So whatever. Whereas if you"ve studied really hard and revise really hard for months and then you fail. That's a lot more crushing. So that's definitely something that I have always struggled with and still do is procrastinate out of fear

and you know, fear can hold you back so much in in any area of your life. So let alone procrastinating as well out of fear. So many things that come from fear. Fear is such a big one that we probably should do an episode on at some point. Definitely. I guess that's why it's important to actually set realistic goals which is the next point. So if you listen to last week's episode on how to set a SMART goal, then you will know that having large and unrealistic goals can cause us to procrastinate or feel overwhelmed. And to feel that sense of impending doom like oh, it's just too much to get done. It's just, it's just too much. I'm just not going to bother starting you know, I guess got we all feel like that and I could go on about you shall but I do all the time. I think to myself Oh that's such a mammoth task like I'll get it done at some point.

Yeah, definitely. I sort of get into my head that I can't make a start if I don't have appropriate time to actually get to a certain point in the task. You know, I can't just be like, Oh, just do this for 10 minutes. Like, I'll think oh, no, I need a good hour to get that set up. And I don't have an hour right now. I only have 15 minutes. So I'm not going to start it today. I'll start it tomorrow instead. And it's all just excuses really, and just letting your brain trick you into procrastinating. Yeah. So the next point that we've got to help you stop procrastinating is to visualise your completed task. I know it feels good to procrastinate and put things off, but how good were you feel? Once that task is done an hour away? Can you imagine yourself crossing the finish line handing in that assignment, whatever it is you need to do? How much better will it feel once it's done was off your mind and you no longer have to think about it.

You know what it feels incredible when you've got something done when you've lifted that weight off your shoulders and you've got enough time now to actually do all those things that you were procrastinating on wherever your mind and you can actually get on with the next thing. So visualisation is a really good tool here and is something that you can do in everyday life you can visualise had in your assignment in or visualise getting your place cleaned, anything like that. And also if you do struggle to do some visualisation, because I know that some people do, you can actually ask a friend to keep you accountable, or you could write it down as well. So there are many different ways that you can actually do this sort of visualisation technique. And yeah, hopefully that works for you. So I guess we should go on to the next one, which is shell's best one.

So the next thing we've got is how can you make it fun? So this is my favourite way to avoid procrastinating is to just make it more fun. There's so few tasks that you can't improve with just some uplifting music. Or even you know, maybe if it's not something you have to concentrate on, you could put a podcast on as well. I just find that really makes a big difference whether I'm cleaning the house, filing taxes, gardening, any of those unpleasant things that nobody likes to do, just put on a absolutely banging playlist and it makes it much easier. So the next thing to do is to check your mindset and see whether or not negative thoughts are creeping in and making it easier for you to procrastinate so an example I've got for this one is having a messy desk. I absolutely hate having a messy desk. I really struggle to concentrate and as mess and clutter around I prefer it to be empty. I don't enjoy cleaning my desk clutter just seems to appear. And it always takes me so long to get rid of it because it's usually important stuff that I can't throw away but haven't managed to yet find a home. But if you're thinking to yourself, oh I hate cleaning my desk that's really negative and it makes you want to procrastinate, if instead you refrain that and think about how much you enjoy working with a clean desk, how much easier it is to concentrate how happy you feel when the desk looks nice and clean. That's so much more motivating to get started.

This is this is another point really isn't it like we get so overwhelmed with clutter we get so overwhelmed with our environment and you know I read this book once and it said that environment is the hidden hand that shapes your behaviour and it's true if my desk is very cluttered i really struggle to concentrate too. If my kitchen is cluttered. I don't want to cook if my bathroom is cluttered, I don't want to clean or I don't particularly want to have a shower. It's all those negative thoughts that can start creeping in.