Breaking the Procrastination Barrier
I want to start by declaring something important! For the vast majority of you (and certainly the ones taking the time to read this blog):
You are not lazy, you are just temporarily stuck
This blog is about how we get stuck and what you need to do to get back into motion. Particularly for the entrepreneurs out there, paralysis is your mortal enemy and action is your dearest friend. I’m going to tell you how to get unstuck and back into motion!
Let’s examine the ways we most commonly get stuck. This is not an exhaustive list and there are different angles by which we could examine this topic, but these are the four most common ways I find clients get stuck:
1. Fear and self-doubt
2. Not knowing what to do
3. Not believing what you are doing will produce the results you seek
4. A combination of poor focus, boundary setting and time management
In my experience, it is very difficult to be disciplined and stay on track if you are experiencing even one of these blockers, and most people experience multiple blockers all at once. I refer to them as blockers, because they block you from action, and ultimately from success.
Let’s briefly examine each in turn so we are clear about what we mean by each blocker, and then look at some of the methods we can use to get moving again.
Blocker # 1 - Fear and Self-doubt:
This is a big one, and almost universal. It will impact some people much more than others, but most people (including highly successful people) will experience periods of fear about the future, and self-doubt about their ability to reach their goals. The issue is not that you project into the future with fear or doubt; but rather, how often you do so and to what extent it blocks you from action.
It should be mentioned here that some people are able to use fear as a motivator that drives them to work harder and reach higher – many professional athletes, for example, fear losing more than they enjoy winning. If this works for you then use it! However, I will add that for many people who live this way, there is a cost that comes with it. Sometimes, it is the excessive time spent away from your family and the experiences that you miss. Sometimes, it is driving yourself on empty and eventually crashing and burning. So, if you are one of the people that uses fear as a motivator, be mindful and make sure that you are using it as a tool, rather than acting as its victim.
For most people, fear of the future or self-doubt blocks action rather than motivates it. Fear may even prevent you from setting your sights high in the first place, thereby lowering the potential you might otherwise reach. If you experience a high frequency of intrusive thoughts or fear-based beliefs, it can be hard to be consistent with basic things like starting a project or making a call to a prospective client.
So, what do we do about it? The first step is mindfulness – to simply notice that these thoughts and fears are happening, and to what extent they are showing up in you. We typically fight, run from, or suppress these feelings because we know they don’t serve us. Unfortunately, they don’t go away when we take this approach. Rather, they keep fighting to come up, and worse, we store them in our bodies – in some cases leading to severe health problems. So, notice them and do so without judgment. Remember, you are not alone in this – it is normal, but it is important that you start to change your inner dialogue.
At the same time, pay attention to what is happening in your body as these fears or doubts arise. You can’t have an emotion or a thought without a body, and your body can act as an early warning system, letting you know when something is off. As you notice how often you are projecting into the future with fear (and all the wasted energy that entails), it gives you an opportunity to make a different decision, engage a different energy, remind yourself of the beauty of the moment around you.
If this pattern persists for you, then I recommend you read Blog entry No. 1 where I describe a practice I developed to help people combat self-limiting beliefs called Walking Around Mindfulness. Let me emphasize, however, that transformational change (that kind of change where you begin to see yourself and the world around you in new and healthier ways), is built on embodied practices like W.A.M., and these depend on repetition. So, if you have identified that you are projecting with fear and you want to change it, make sure you do so consistently. That means, noticing without judgment and interrupting every time you experience these self-destructive, self-limiting patterns of thinking. Once you notice and interrupt the fear, there are many ways to generate a more positive energy including gratefulness exercises, visualization, and physical movement.
Blocker # 2 - Not Knowing What to Do
I can’t emphasize how common this is for individuals, teams, and even entire companies. In fact, I remember moments sitting with various teams and asking them what they had already tried to tackle the challenge in front of them – and hearing crickets. I have heard senior people tell me they are so busy putting out fires that they don’t have the time to ‘be strategic’ or ‘figure it out’. My response to that has always been the same: if you don’t slow down and figure out a better way forward you are dooming yourself to an endless cycle of operational fires.
For the individual, this blocker often plays out in the following way: you have a project in front of you (a lead-generation event, a major corporate initiative, or a marketing campaign) and you keep putting it aside. You know it is important, and each day that passes without starting the project simply enhances your level of stress. It becomes this thing in the distance, on the edge of your vision, causing you stress. Guess what? It’s not going away without action!
You might have even asked yourself ‘why am I doing this to myself?’, or ‘why can’t I just sit down and start it?’ There are many potential answers to these questions, but in many cases you simply do not know the steps you need to take. There might be a research component or a technical challenge that feels daunting, and so you avoid figuring it out. In other words, you are stuck!
In terms of getting back in motion, step one is to simply identify the first step you need to take. This sounds so simple doesn’t it? And yet, time and time again people get stuck by this blocker. To use my previous examples, a first step might be identifying what paper or resource you will use to begin your research. Another might be to watch a YouTube video that explains how to overcome the technical component that you currently don’t understand. From there, you begin to map out each step in the process as you currently see it – and remember, as you progress things will change, and you will adjust your action steps accordingly.
James Clear (Atomic Habits) also provides some helpful advice about motivation that I think is relevant to this discussion. He argues that when you are trying to stick to a new jogging routine, for instance, you don’t think about the whole jog. Rather, you focus your attention on getting your gear on and tying up your shoes. When you do this, starting the run just happens naturally and you will be more consistent with the routine over time. I think that makes sense and I would offer the same advice for anyone tackling what feels like a daunting project. Just focus on the first few steps, and that will create motivation and a clearer path forward. Whenever you find yourself unsure of what to do next, identify the next step or two. If you tackle these steps you will find yourself progressing again, and steps three and four will almost naturally follow. Instead of the weight and stress of the unknown, you are making strides. Remember, action is your friend.
There are so many other strategies we can use to move forward when we experience the ‘not knowing what to do block’. Examples include, using project management software to map out key milestones, connecting with your vision of the project, or reaching out to stakeholders who might see something you currently do not, or who might have previous experience on the topic. But the root cause of this blocker is avoiding something because you haven’t broken down the steps you need to move forward. So, when you notice (there’s that word again!) that you are unsure of your next steps get into the habit of slowing down and identifying what actions you need to get back on track.
Blocker # 3 - Not Believing What You are Doing will Produce Results
This can manifest in two ways:
The first is that you correctly identify that the project or initiative that you are doing is not producing results or is flawed in some way. If this is the case then the sooner you move off of it the better. The complication is that we sometimes jump to this conclusion too soon, not too late. And this brings us to the second way this blocker can manifest.
If we have begun to doubt the path we are on it is very challenging to bring energy, creativity and problem-solving to it. In a simplified way, it may not be that the work is flawed, but rather that you have come to believe it is. This may be related to Blocker #1 in that you are doubting yourself as much as the project. But let’s assume that is not the case and that it is the direction/initiative/project you are doubting. If you are not bringing your full capacity to the work, you are pretty much ensuring it will not meet expectations.
How do we get around this blocker? Again, this is a big discussion but I’m going to focus on one approach that I think is very helpful: prototyping.
Prototyping
Approach new initiatives like a scientist engaged in prototyping. That means we take a more curious and exploratory approach to the work and we look for evidence of it working or not working and react accordingly. A scientist won’t simply throw out her work because of one failed experiment. She uses that as data to adjust, rethink, and try again. She brings creativity, problem-solving, and out-of-the-box thinking to the next experiment and the next one. Little successes lead her to promising new directions.
An additional benefit of prototyping is that it does not evaluate work in black or white terms, success or failure; but rather, as a series of progressions and readjustments towards success. In other words, you can have a temporary setback without the whole thing falling apart. In a sense, I’m recommending you be more playful with your work. At the same time, this means that you need to have a better handle of what your milestones are and how you will evaluate success at those intervals. This approach works, but it requires that you are clear about what you want to achieve and when. Our milestones will remain flexible as new data comes in, but you must stick to them.
An example is a small business owner beginning a new social media campaign. They have identified the leads or revenue that they want to come from the initiative as well as their budget and timelines. They do not consider themselves experts in social media marketing so they have coordinated with a social media manager and together they come up with the initiatives, frequency, and expected results. They have also built in a series of three-month milestones and agreed that the results from the three-month mark will inform what social media approach they lean into after that marker. When they reach month sixth, they again evaluate, bring new ideas, lean into something that has been working, and drop that which has not. It could have been very easy for the small business owner to throw up their hands at the three-month mark and conclude that “organic marketing doesn’t work!” Instead, they have been intentional about collecting data, readjusting and brainstorming at specific intervals, and continuing to build on this momentum until the returns our met.
Blocker # 4 – Poor Focus, Boundary Setting, and Time Management
I’ve lumped these three blockers together in one because they tend to be connected to at least one of the other three previous blockers. In a sense, they are more symptoms than causes. For example, it is hard to bring your full focus to something you don’t believe in. Similarly, time management is typically talked about as if it were a simple matter of putting things in your google calendar and having good database software, when in fact it is something impacted by emotion as much as anything else. If you are filled with self-doubt or are coming from a mindset of scarcity, you can set all the appointments you want in your calendar and you most likely will not meet them.
You and I, dear reader, could sit down together and write a whole book about each of these topics (poor focus, boundary setting, and time management). Not to disappoint you, but that will have to wait for another day 😊. So, let’s define what we mean first and then identify some quick solutions to get you started… on that book!
Poor Focus
Poor focus is when you are easily distracted and unable to bring attention to what you are trying to do in the moment. This can be caused by Blocker # 1, or by poor boundary setting with colleagues, or by allowing those insidious beasts we call cell phones to run/ruin your life. There are obviously many other sources of potential disruption, but I think we can all relate to these. In Episode Two of the ‘Happy by Mistake Pod’ I spoke to time management and productivity expert Brad Aeon who personally has apps that he uses to keep his devices off during designated work time. He plays music that helps him concentrate and he communicates with those around him (both electronically, verbally and on his door) to indicate times when he is unavailable. The more you can focus on what you are doing in the moment, the more you will get done and it will almost certainly be of higher quality. Brad and I both believe that shortening the workday and decreasing the length of a project actual leads to higher productivity and quality than if you had more time to complete it.
If your poor focus is being caused by self-limiting beliefs and intrusive thoughts (a very common occurrence) then I suggest you review Blog Entry #1 Walking Around Mindfulness.
Poorly Communicated Boundaries
Here I’m referring to patterns of behaviour that chronically enables clients, colleagues, employees, and/or friends and family to interrupt you from the work you intended to focus on in the moment. It also refers to the habit of allowing your emails, notifications, and other technology to interfere with your focus. In my experience, setting and communicating boundaries is critical to the success of any entrepreneur.
What is particularly interesting is that I have found that female entrepreneurs seem to have more of a challenge with this than their male counterparts. I realize this is a HUGE generalization based on my own limited experience, and I ask your forgiveness in advance. Nonetheless when I have shared my observation with my female clients they have almost universally agreed. You see, in our society women still seem to be responsible for more of the household/family responsibilities at the same time as they are building or running a business. I have had many female clients over the years tell me that setting boundaries (particularly with their family and friends) does not align with their identities as loving caregivers.
This makes sense to me. However, I stress that you may need to examine the assumptions you are making around these relationships. For instance, one entrepreneur told me that she would feel like she was “letting her boys down” if she didn’t make their lunches but she was so busy she found herself making them the night before at midnight. I asked her if she thought her boys would rather have a healthy happy Mom, or a Mom that made their lunches everyday. She asked that very question to her sons (aged 15, 17, and 19) and they predictably agreed to make their own lunches!
I had a similar conversation with a real estate agent who was in the habit of “being available to her clients 24 hours a day”. We examined the client calls that came in to her over the previous week. In every case, I asked her if the client could have waited an hour and in almost every case the answer was yes. We then went through the list again and I asked if she thought they could have waited two hours for her response so that she could finish her work, and in almost every case the answer was once again yes.
I would add to this discussion that how you treat yourself ripples out to those around you, including your children. Ask yourself if you want them ignoring boundaries and working themselves to exhaustion while never quite getting anything done? Kids learn from what you model, not what you tell them. I encourage you to consider this as you identify what boundaries you need to set for success, and how dedicated you will be to enforcing them.
Time Management
Once again, this is a massive discussion that goes well beyond the scope of this blog post! What I will say is that time management theory hasn’t changed much since the 1950s when it mostly involved tips for efficiency and organization, as well as how to integrate new technologies. In the 1980s Stephen Covey added to the discussion by talking about prioritization, but overall the field is has not grown very much. Brad Aeon and others like Rory Vaden are some of the notable exceptions to this rule and I’d highly recommend you check out their work – work that I value highly.
As I alluded to earlier in this post, the missing ingredient to time management is emotion. If you are afraid for the future it will be harder to stick to a schedule. If you don’t believe what you are doing will produce results, you won’t consistently follow what you put in your calendar. If you are feeling anxious and distracted it will take you much longer to complete your work, and it will probably suffer in quality. So, as you think about time management also consider what other blockers might be impacting your ability to follow a schedule.
I think I will wrap it up here as I have predictably gone longer than I originally intended to! LOL
So, as you analyze your own performance identify which of these blockers might be at play and be kind to yourself. It is very difficult to be productive if you are experiencing any of these blockers, and near impossible if you are experiencing several at once. In simple terms:
1. Diagnose what blocker(s) you might be experiencing
2. Be kind to yourself and non-judgmental
3. Identify which solutions feel right or develop your own
4. Get back in motion
As always, there are so many different ways we can examine this topic, and this is just my perspective. If it doesn’t resonate with you discard it. If it does, then remember it is important you develop mindfulness – to notice what you are thinking and feeling in the moment – and then use that as a guide to shift yourself into a pattern that serves you, rather than holds you back.
Until next time, I wish you a happy, engaged and successful week!
