Breaking Free From Procrastination
Posted on October 16, 2014 by Michael Harkin, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Procrastination is horrible. It creates anxiety. It muddles our brains. But how do we overcome it?
Procrastination has us doing all sorts of trivial things – just to avoid doing what we know needs to get done. But what exactly is happening during procrastination?
The main problem is what is called the Procrastination ‘Doom Loop’, that horrible cycle of waiting for the right mood to come along before you tackle a project and then realizing that the waiting has only put you in a worse mood than before. A recent article by the Atlantic monthly* provided some key insights into the problem and, even better, a solution.
Their chief piece of advice was a simple, two-step process.
First, recognize that you need deadlines. Second, have someone else provide those deadlines.
“For pathological procrastinators, recognizing that we need deadlines to bind ourselves to our responsibilities is the first step. The second step is recognizing that our own deadlines are less effective than other people’s deadlines.”
Business owners are especially prone to procrastination. They become swamped with all the projects they must complete, trapped in a host of mini ‘Doom Loops’ until finally, years later, they wake up to the realization that large sections of their business have been neglected.
The unfortunate truth is that things will not get better on their own – and your mood won’t change by magic. If you find yourself in this situation, follow their advice – set deadlines and get someone else to hold you accountable.
*www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/the-procrastination-loop-and-how-to-break-it/379142/
