Procrastination

I believe procrastination is the #1 killer of success.

I know multiple people with fantastic talents who won't take the first step to share their gifts with the world because their mind tricks them into thinking there's another goal they must accomplish before starting.  

I have clients who have a business generating decent income (when they decide to work). I asked them to do something as simple as purchase a domain name, and they hadn't accomplished the task in 3 days. It takes less than 3 minutes to purchase a domain name. 

So that's what I'm focusing on today: 

Influencing ourselves and others to take action and KILL procrastination.

I spoke to one of my associates, and he highlighted an excellent point when working with clients or anyone you need to take action: 

If the solution at the end of the journey is ten thousand dollars worth of crypto, and the person doesn't know what crypto is, then that outcome won't matter to them, and they won't take action. However, if they're more interested in one thousand dollars USD, that will influence them to act. 

When working with others, we often assume they have the same common knowledge we do, but that is rarely the case. Someone who may be a genius in distributed systems architecture could be a beginner setting up a small business. 

It made me think about what I was asking my client to do. I was asking her to purchase a domain name. Simple for me. However, there are many reasons why she may have been dragging her feet. 

• She may need to learn what a domain name is.

• She may not know how to purchase one

• She could be overwhelmed by all the various registrars.

• She doesn't have the money. 

• She needs help understanding the overall plan. 

So, in this case, I put together a short plan describing how the domain name fits into the overall goal and shared it with her over a phone conversation. My passion and explanation helped her to see my vision, motivating her to purchase the domain while we were on the phone. 

Solved. 

Procrastination in IT:

In IT, we often skip over adding discovery subtasks, collaborating with the POC, or reading documentation or requirements thoroughly because we believe tasks will take less time than they actually will. This leaves the Jira item in the 'In Progress' state for days before we begin. By the time we start working on it, the sprint is half over, and we still need to do all the discovery work, closing knowledge gaps before we start. The next thing you know, the task is carried over to the next sprint. 

When it comes to personal projects, our minds trick us into believing that we must be in the right frame of mind to begin working. Each day passes, and new challenges, obligations, and responsibilities arise and take precedence; therefore, the 'right frame of mind' never occurs, and we never actually take action. 

Many of us think, 'I work better under pressure,' but most of the time, that's not true. Having ample time to put the proper amount of effort into something representing your best work is beneficial. Pressure only pumps adrenaline and gets you to finish in a shorter amount of time. However, the quality of what is produced usually needs to be improved. 

We also don't want to fail or admit defeat and often don't want to do the task, so we drag our feet as long as possible. 

Wrapping it up...

In the end, procrastination is destructive behavior. Long-term effects are increased stress, which may lead to illness, strain on personal and social relationships, and resentment, and can even affect things like your finances or other responsibilities. 

Here are some super simple strategies to defeat procrastination. 

1. Make a to-do list: You'll be surprised at how much this helps, especially when larger tasks are broken up into smaller bite-sized chunks that you can accomplish easily. 

2. When you're about to pick up your phone to scroll through TikTok or Instagram instead of taking on one of your tasks, train your mind to ask, "Is this more important than completing X?'. If the answer is no, develop the discipline to remove the instant gratification tool and work on your goals. 

3. Sometimes, you have to just put your focus modes on to avoid texts, emails, and calls from distracting you. Work in a room without a TV, and block yourself from YouTube and other streaming channels while on the computer in focus mode. 

4. When you resist the urge to procrastinate and instead complete a task, Do something fun like play video games (for a limited amount of time), go to a movie, or go out to eat with your partner as a reward. Develop that reward system to train yourself to work hard so you can play hard. 

5. Become obsessed with a goal. Every waking minute, visualize the achievement and who you want to be. That will make you impatient with anything that stand in the way. Including procrastination.

I’m by no means perfect, I struggle with this every day all the time. I'll even procrastinate on one goal by working on another… It’s a perpetual challenge…

I’ve just been noticing that the more I become obsessively focused on my goals, people reach out and mention that something seems different about me. I will always share my experiences to help others achieve their dreams so I try to give them what I know will help them. Killing procrastination is one of those things.

Try some of these strategies above to see if they help, or if you're already someone who has defeated procrastination, reach out on LinkedIn or by email to give me your tips. 

Until next week! 

PS.  

Things I do: 

1. If you still need to subscribe to the newsletter, please do so here: I'll never sell your info, and you'll get a tip a week that takes 5 minutes to read to achieve more in your career or business. 

2. Let's work on a project together. You can reach out here. It would be fantastic to work together.

3. Let me help you move forward with your idea to bring it to fruition sooner while saving money. 

Later!