Today, I finally dropped off a bag of unwanted clothes at a charity collection bin.
Not a monumental achievement worthy of a post you may think … But it’s taken me SIX WEEKS to get around to doing it.
WHY?!
I’ve been staring at the bag in the corner of my bedroom and thinking “I must do that” for so long that I started to see it as a permanent artistic feature.
I’m sure I’m not the only one that puts stuff off - even when I know I’ll feel so much better once it’s done. At any given point I’ll always have three or four things that have been lingering on my ‘To-Do’ list for weeks. Each day I find new and inventive ways to dodge and delay doing them. I find myself doing anything but the one thing I know I should really be focussing on.
I did this A LOT when I was a carer for my mum - even more than usual. But I’m getting better at calling myself out on it and now I have some strategies in place to power myself into action when I feel myself ‘freezing’ over a task.
So what can you do when you’re being a professional procrastinator? I’ve come up with a few tips that I’ve started implementing in my own life to get things done:
1. DIG FOR THE REAL REASON YOU’RE AVOIDING IT
There’s usually a secret reason lurking behind my avoidance of a task. When I dig (not even that deep) there is often some logic to my seemingly illogical procrastination.
If I commit to clearing out the garage, I know I’ll have no excuse but to finally bin my school shirt that everyone signed on the last day of Year 11 and I’m not sure I want to. Knowing that Mum is dying is making me want to hang on to anything I can that’s from the past - from a time when everything was ok.
The charity shop I need to take these clothes to is right by my ex’s house and I don’t want to bump into him. Imagine if I see him and he asks me how things are and I tell him about Dad’s cancer. The last thing I want to do is cry in front of him. Plus with all the stress I look awful - no way I want him seeing me looking like this.
If I call the insurance company, they’re going to ask for my reference number and password but it’s Mum’s policy and she’s too ill to remember. I don’t want to have to go through it all with the person in the call centre and say the words out loud that my mum’s dying just for the sake of updating the details on a policy we’ll probably never actually claim on.
As the Chinese General Sun Tzu once said - “Know thy enemy”. When you know what the real problem is, you can set about solving it. So get clear with yourself about what’s at the root of your procrastination.
2. BREAK IT DOWN INTO SMALLER TASKS
Small …
Smaller …
No, smaller still.
There, that’s better!
Instead of thinking of it as one big, scary, insurmountable task, split it out into tiny stages. Say, for example you have “find new job” looming on your list, try:
Update work experience on CV
Ask Tom to read over my CV
Set LinkedIn to ‘seeking new role’
Set up alert on Indeed
Set up alert on Guardian Jobs
Email recruitment agent
Set calendar reminder to search & apply online every Sunday evening
Bitesize tasks feel more manageable - and you’re therefore less likely to avoid them. It’s the overwhelm of big tasks that can cause us to freeze and/or put things off.
3. ADD A TIME ESTIMATE NEXT TO EACH TASK
This one was a real game-changer for me.
I often build jobs up into a massive obstacle in my head, which then makes me even more likely to put it off. Or, conversely, I’ll see something ‘bitty’ on my list and think “ah, that’s not that major, I’ll do it another day”. Putting a realistic time estimate next to each job grounds me back into the reality of the task at hand.
Now I’ll look down my list and quickly pick off all the 5 minute niggly jobs. And it’s so satisfying to tick them off. If there are three things on my list that I’ve estimated to take 10 minutes each, I know that just half an hour of focus will get them all done. That seems a lot more manageable and the satisfaction I know I’ll feel once they’re done is enough to get me started.
4. YOU CAN’T POLISH A TURD - BUT YOU CAN ROLL IT IN GLITTER
Drawing up Power of Attorney to look after your dad’s affairs because he’s no longer well enough to do it for himself.
Clearing out your mum’s wardrobe after she’s died and deciding what to do with her clothes.
Sometimes, the task at hand is a crappy one no matter how you look at it. But while you can’t change the nature of the job at hand, you can sandwich it between more enjoyable things.
Treat yourself to your favourite drink to sip on while sending the emails you’ve been avoiding. Put on a playlist to help you power through the job at hand while singing along. Or climb back into bed so at least you feel cosy and safe while filling out the online forms you’ve been meaning to do for weeks.
Wrap up the task in lots of layers of loveliness so you can disguise it as much as possible.
5. IMAGINE IT’S ALREADY DONE
Picture how you’ll feel once you finally do the thing you’ve been avoiding - light, free, relieved, satisfied, content, proud. Whatever the feeling, really bask in it for a while.
Think how nice it will be to walk in your hallway without tripping over the wire from the hoover you’ve been meaning to give back to your Mum for months now. How much fresher your bedroom will feel once you’ve given it a new lick of paint and you don’t have to look at the felt tip scribbles your now 5 year-old left when they were a 3 year-old.
Focus on the feeling that is waiting for you and use that as your motivation to get started.
NOW!
Yes, really, NOW … go get started on that thing right now. Take one tiny step towards ticking it off your ‘To Do’ list.