Overcoming Procrastination
The effective way to regain control of your life
In my childhood, I used to be a procrastination master. As a student, I was well known for my style of pushing to the last moment.
I have vivid memories of my friends urging me to become a responsible student. You know, like planning your study sessions and all the other good behaviors that nerds indulge themselves into.
I couldn’t work on something well in advance. I wasn’t one of those kids.
I wasn’t a bad student either. I simply had my own way of pursuing my studies. Not surprisingly, it often involved some last-minute late-night sessions.
To some extent, it worked out well for me. I graduated and started my professional journey.
My way of life as a professional is a different story.
I’m passionate about what I do. I value hard work and meaningful relationships with my colleagues. We share a common vision and so we are together on a mission to create a great service for our clients.
I won’t let them down through procrastination. I’m demanding with people around me and I must lead by example.
Because teamwork is at the center of professional development, procrastination and the domino effect associated can be detrimental to your business and to your life.
In fact, procrastination can be your most dangerous behavior.
So, how can we overcome procrastination?
1. The habit loop of procrastination
“Don’t prepare. Begin. Our enemy is not lack of preparation. The enemy is resistance, our chattering brain producing excuses. Start before you are ready.” — Steven Pressfield
With any behavior, self-awareness is a decisive first step. Observing how you slip into the routine and being aware of the pattern unfolding can help a lot.
Whatever you are trying to accomplish, starting is usually the worst part. A natural reaction to an unpleasant situation is simply to avoid it. It happens all the times.
As we expose ourselves to a displeasing task, our brain relates the project with something painful and immediately turns his attention to a more engaging activity. This gives us a temporary reward — it feels good because we don’t focus on the task as initially planned and instead indulge in a more enjoyable behavior.
But the pleasure fades inevitably, and we need to weight second-order consequences.
Life is full of people who always wanted to do a bunch of wonderful things but never got started.
The thing is, strong habits produce addiction-like reactions, so that wanting evolves into obsessing cravings that can force our intellect into autopilot.
In his remarkable book, The power of habit, Charles Duhigg describes the formation of habits as a three-step process. The habit loop of procrastination goes like this:
2. Leveraging the Pomodoro technique to avoid procrastination
“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.” — William James
Trying to modify our habits is no small task. In fact, it is what life is all about. In the last part of his book, Charles Duhigg gives us a four-step process for change.
- The first step is to Identify the routine, the behavior you want to stop. In our situation, it is straightforward: we need to break our habit of procrastination and become more productive.
- Experiment with the reward. This one can be tricky. Most cravings are obvious in retrospect but incredibly hard to see when we are under their sway. Charles Duhigg suggests putting yourself in the shoes of a scientist in the data collection phase. If you are not sure what precisely your brain is craving for, write down the first 3 things that come to mind whenever you indulge in the behavior.
- Isolate the cue. The cue is the trigger that powers the routine. Continuing with our procrastination case, the cue is the task you don’t want to work on.
- Have a plan. Once you found the cue, plan your actions in advance. This is a decisive step because you need to avoid having a moment of hesitation the next time the cue kicks in. In our case, the plan is called the Pomodoro method.
So, in what exactly comprises the Pomodoro technique? you ask.
The beauty of this technique lies in its simplicity. The next time you notice your brain responding to the cue of procrastination, do this:
- Turn off everything (yes, I’m talking about your best friend, Mr. Smartphone)
- Focus steadily on the task for 25 minutes (25 minutes, it’s nothing right?)
- Take a 5-minute break and give your brain a reward (ok you can check Mr. Smartphone now)
Look, I know how it sounds. You ‘re thinking: “really? This is all you got? I will change my life by using a timer for an arbitrary time of 25 minutes?”
At least this is what I thought when I first heard about this approach.
Yet, I can assure you, it’s a powerful tool. Altering the habit loop of procrastination will increase your productivity and make you happier and more successful in the long run:
When you implement this technique, you will realize it carries a lot of benefices:
- You will be surprised what you can achieve with 25 minutes of high-quality focused work. Focusing on a single task in uninterrupted sessions, you will produce more than you thought was possible and this will give you a strong sense of satisfaction.
- With this approach, you are encouraged to break big goals into small amounts of time. Nothing looks unachievable anymore.
- You will learn to say no. Let’s say you’re in the middle of a Pomodoro when a colleague comes over your desk and start chit-chatting about his day. Just acknowledge the distraction and say you will be available in a few minutes.
- Also, the system helps to concentrate on the process and not on the product. Most of the time, the output is responsible for our discomfort because we focus too much on the final result.
Notice that 25 minutes is the default scenario. It turns out the mental suffering associated with an unpleasant task tends to last 20 minutes. More often than not, you will find yourself focusing on the task at hand for an extended period (as we’ve seen, starting is the hardest part).
But don’t push too far. The human brain usually cannot focus effectively on a single task for over 30 to 40 minutes.
Therefore, the reward is important. just like muscles build that extra strength during resting time, your brain needs to switch off to consolidate.
3. The final touch
“As long as you are alive, you will either live to accomplish your own goals and dreams or be used as a resource to accomplish someone else’s.” ― Grant Cardone
A good working day with the Pomodoro technique consists in repeating cycles. The generally accepted practice is to repeat 4 sets and then take a longer break. It looks like this:
Of course, you can add some flexibility. Some people plan their entire day in terms of Pomodoro cycles while others reserve it for the hardest part of their day.
In any case, if you implement this technique, you will be more productive than most people. But to become consistent at that level of actions, you require something more: belief.
Living an effective life only makes sense if you get what you want.
Believe in yourself, set inspiring targets and work toward them.
Only you can do it. Be confident enough to follow your curiosity and intuition. As Steve Jobs puts it, “They somehow already know” what you truly want to become. “Everything else is secondary.”
Look, if you don’t know where you are heading, chances are, you are not going anywhere. Don’t mix up a technique with a system. You need to set objectives and build a system to achieve them.
And you better make your goals big. As Grant Cardone teach us in The 10X Rule, we procrastinate because we set goals that are average, and the average is uninspiring. Therefore, the moment we encounter a complication, we quit.
Don’t set reasonable targets, it’s not exciting.
Realistic thinking depends on what others think. If you base your life on someone else’s opinion, at least chose a giant!
Anything is possible. You have a lot more potential than you realize.
Just do it.
Thanks for reading 😊
