How to Stop Procrastinating

Megan's Podcast === Yeti X & USB Video-2: Stop procrastinating. You're not the only one that feels guilty about it either. I procrastinated for a month about making this very video. Okay. I listened to this researcher and psychologist named fuchsia Seroya. I think it was Isaiah. She says that the root cause of harassing nation is not that we're avoiding a task per se, but we're avoiding the emotion that we are associating with that task. Go ahead and stew in that for a minute, because I know I did. If you don't know this about me by now, I am the queen of avoiding emotions. Okay. What's that? Sadness. Hurt. Barry now, before it gets loose, procrastination may sound fancy, but if you take away all the big hair and makeup, It boils down to the basic run, the mail, emotional avoidance that we all know and love. And when I heard this, I hit pause to give myself a minute to step back and assess whether or not I agreed with this. And guess what? I found that, uh, it makes a hundred percent sense based on my experiences. And you know, that's a lot, cause I'm an old lady. In fact, I had this office full of stuff that needed to be cleaned out for over a month. I've been procrastinating this, okay. Christmas stuff, Gemma's toys, stuff that was waiting to sell on Facebook marketplace, which by the way is a whole other thing, that I love to procrastinate. There are also, there's also stuff that needs to go to the attic, which I hate going to the attic because it smells funny up there and it's, you know, it's like an allergy waiting to happen. Anyway, one of her suggestions to overcome procrastination was to give yourself a time limit because psychologically it's easier to think about, well, if I have to suffer, I'm only going to suffer for 10 minutes and then it'll be over. So that's what I did. I sent to myself, I said, self, we're going to go in here. We're going to do 10 minutes of whatever it is. We got to clean out and put away, and then we're going to stop. And I set a timer and everything. Okay. Here's the funny thing. Do you know what happened after 10 minutes? I looked around at all my progress. And I was so impressed with myself. It was full of accomplishment and confidence. And I celebrated that I was almost done because I had the momentum and this sense of motivation to spend another 10 minutes. And I set another timer for another 10 minutes. I said, I'm just going to give it one more ago. by the time 20 minutes had ended, it was completed. And. That's actually evidence of another thing that fuchsia mentioned, we're actually really bad at guessing our emotions. We usually predict that we're going to feel a lot worse than we will actually feel. So tip number one, give yourself a time limit for something that you really don't want to do. Give yourself 10 minutes or five or two, whatever it is. Confession, by the time the office was. All cleaned up. I actually felt kind of dumb for how long. Took me to actually do it because I had been putting it off for so long. I used so much brain space on avoiding it over and over. And I would constantly come up with, in my mind as a, to do item. And then I would just. Feel overcome with dread. I was overwhelmed and I was just like ignored another day. Snooze button. Last week at work, I started to procrastinate something else. I was working on a contract that was particularly complex. Then I suddenly felt overwhelmed. Didn't really understand why. So. I start go cook break. And as soon as I took a break, I immediately realized what the problem was. Because along with that contract, there were a whole bunch of other things that were swirling around in my head for that day things that I needed to do, or pick up how to get some specific groceries, for example, so I grabbed a notebook and I started dumping out all of these things onto the paper, which is giving you an example for number two, tip number two, make a list. Allowing all these unfinished things, this rural around it puts a strain on our minds and making a list frees up that brings base. So you kind of dump it out on a paper and out of your head, I ended up making three lists that day because. I had specific things that I needed to get from the grocery store I had. Chores on it needs a completer on the house for that particular day. And then I also had some Droy projects that were swirling around up there, let me tell you what there's not a day that passes by without me redecorating in my head. Okay. Well, what if I don't like making lists, Meghan? Okay. So you're that guy? Well, there's a similar trick that my husband does. He utilizes the same psychology. He paid good money for two checks that are out here all the time, helping her remember to do stuff. And believe me, when I say they're constantly reminding him and telling him what to do, one is named Siri. The other is named Google. Of course I'm piling on as well, because I'm asking him, please put the dishes away and blah, blah, blah. So between all these chicks in the house, We don't, we don't really don't know who's in charge here because this poor guy he's being told what to do. All day long. So tip number three, tell Siri or Google to remind you. Chances are you probably have one of them checks in the house yourself. Okay. What's something that you procrastinate leave it in the comments and let me know. I don't mean to brag, but I'm a professional at procrastinating going to the doctor. Anybody else? I'd go to the doctor last week. So it was very much procrastinating that dreading it. And I hate going to the doctor for a lotta reasons. I'm not going to share them because my intention here is to help you not to pass on my trauma. So moving on anyway, the appointment was long overdue, but I finally bit the bullet and went after I rescheduled it twice, but we're not going to talk about that, but when I got home, I was feeling terrible because Hey, going to the doctor and I had two cookies. I ate two cookies, no one cookie. Too. And since I wasn't feeling well, I made some tea, I laid down, I watched football and I also throw it from white flag to my husband. And he also brought home dinner because he's amazing. Number four. This is an example. Pair the task with a cookie. Or something else that will bring you joy. I guess it doesn't have to be a cookie, but maybe it's a soak in the tub. Maybe you get your nails done. Something that's for yourself out of the ordinary and considered self-care for you. That book, atomic habits. He calls this habit stacking. And after you complete the task that you've been dreading, you do something that will bring you positive and joyful emotions. Those emotions will help you combat the negative ones. I'm a stake that I continually make is assuming that my emotions are wrong. Your emotions are not wrong. They aren't necessarily right. Either. But they're just a thing. It's a thing they're part of you. They're not you, but they're part of you needless to say, you can't turn them off though. Instead of burying them, I'm working on accepting them and then making them work to my advantage. So tip number five, take a moment and uncover the emotion you were avoiding. And debunk it. Because sometimes it's just plain wrong. One big emotion. And I avoided all the time is the feeling of inadequacy. I used to have this monster report that was doing Thursday and I was a professional out, avoiding it, putting it off to the very last minute masterful. Really, when I came to the realization of, you know, avoiding a task is avoiding your emotions. This report came to my mind immediately. Okay. Because this report was so long complicated, and I remember I had to read my own directions in order to complete it correctly. And I hate reading directions. Reading directions makes me feel inadequate. I realized that's ridiculous, but I had to think through this. Okay. I was, and completely am capable of completing this thinking report. Any report, really? I can do it. I just didn't want to read the directions because. Rated versus makes me feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I know I'm a real piece of work. Imagine how my husband feels. Okay. So, Do you ever feel guilty about the things that you keep putting off? We can start to feel really guilty and also shameful and a homeless, other negative emotions for delaying the task that we know we need to do, here's a newsflash though. Feeling guilty actually makes it even worse because you already have negative emotions associated with this task. And now you're piling on guilt. On top of that, which makes it even worse. It makes you procrastinate even more. So number six, tip six, give yourself some grace. Let it go. Give herself a break, give yourself a hard time about it. Ain't helping una, helping anybody else, either promise you that. All right. I got to go. But leave a comment and tell me what you've been procrastinating on. So I know I'm not alone. Love you talk to him. Oh,