Dealing with procrastination

Hello. If you're an expert at putting things off until tomorrow, if you're brilliant at doing all the fun stuff and then have no motivation and energy left for the things you're actually supposed to be doing, if you seem to spend a lot of your life running to a panic-induced deadline, you're in the right place. Join me. I'm an expert procrastinator, but I've got some brilliant tips on overcoming procrastination and getting more done. Welcome. My name is Phil Jackson. I'm a coach and mentor, and I've made it my life's work to bring you the skills you need to master, to build the business you deserve. And of course, a big part of business is getting the right stuff done. And if we can get the right stuff done without working right up to a deadline in a very stressful way, then so much the better. But a lot of us are our own worst enemies. We're procrastinators. We put things off and then we end up with a big mad rush when it comes to deadline time. So today, I've got three tips, my three thoughts on procrastination. And trust me, this is coming from a place of love. I am a huge procrastinator, naturally, and I have to really work hard to make sure I'm working at high productivity and dealing with my procrastination in a very effective way. First up, it really is very important that we break things down. A lot of procrastination is a bit like overwhelm. It's just having so much to do and so many different things on our minds that we just need to get to grips with a project, get to grips with our planning and break things down into smaller chunks. So if you have a big project with a deadline in a month, for goodness sake, don't leave it at that. Break it down, break it down until it's literally teaspoon sized amounts of work that need doing and digest those and enjoy the little wins as you're crossing things off your list. Now, there is a small warning, a small caveat, that I did find my planning process actually became part of my procrastination. And this was something that occurred to me when I was at university. So when it came to exam time at the end of each year at uni, I was brilliant at writing out a study plan and a revision plan and making sure everything was on track for me to hit the ground running on the day of an exam. The problem was because you're at university and there are people and there are pretty boys and they're going to bars and we're drinking cider.

Occasionally, my plan didn't quite execute in the way that it was supposed to. So I would have a night off, usually the day of an exam. I would have another exam in a few days time and I'd take that night off and it would throw my study plan out. I would then spend the whole of the next morning redoing my study plan, rescheduling my revision, so that I could hit the ground running next time round for the next exam. So that planning process became so enjoyable to me that actually it became part of the procrastination. So please, build in a little buffer and just beware that we shouldn't be spending too long when it comes to our planning. It is mostly about implementation. My second point is once we've broken down our big project into smaller digestible chunks, it's really important that we reward ourselves. Now for some people, just the act of crossing something off a list is reward enough. And if so, be a list maker. Sometimes it's just a little thing like at the end of this video, I'm going to go make myself a cup of tea and have a custard cream. But what's really important is that you give yourself the reward. And I see lots of people tripping themselves up with this. So they will set themselves a task and a reward. So let's say at the end of writing a blog, you're going to write a 2,000 word blog, and at the end of that blog, you're going to reward yourself with a walk round the block and a pint in the local. You have to make sure you take the walk and have the pint. If you don't, very quickly, your brain will realise that it's being tricked. Very quickly, that thing that used to really work as a reward for you, a little pat on the back several times a day, is not going to work for you anymore. The next time you set that deadline, the next time you set yourself a reward, the brain won't believe it, so it will not implement as strongly and in the way that we want it to. And thirdly and finally, I want you to just forgive yourself. We beat ourselves up about so many different things, about carrying a few extra pounds, about running late on the school run this morning. For goodness sake, show yourself some kindness. This video is actually a day late, okay? I'm filming it on the Wednesday. It should have been done by the Tuesday. But honestly, yesterday, I just wasn't in that place.

And I could have carried on with the video. And I could have pushed through. It would have been a miserable afternoon with lots and lots of takes. And I would have come away completely demotivated and drained and not able to spend any pleasurable time with my family in the evening. So after the first take, I realised it wasn't going terribly well. I forgave myself. I had a quick look at my schedule, see what I could switch around. I went to the cinema yesterday, took the afternoon off, stuffed my face with popcorn. I had some self-care. Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself these little ways. And if you can work your schedule around so that you're tapping into the times when you're most energetic, that's going to serve you a lot better than trying to slave your way through these little mental blocks. I hope that's been useful to you. And I hope you're going to be kind to yourself for the rest of the day. If you've enjoyed the video, please don't forget to subscribe because I do a broadcast like this every single week. And I would hate you to miss out on the content that I'm sharing. If you've already subscribed, I will see you next week. Take care.