How to Develop a Procrastination-Busting Routine

Jul 27

You've got important tasks to tackle, deadlines to meet, and goals to hit.

But when it’s time to do the damn thing, procrastination sneaks in and is all, "Hey, let's binge-watch funny cat videos instead!"

Three hours and 100 funny cat videos later, you haven’t accomplished anything.

The truth about your procrastination problem

A lot of people don’t “get” why they procrastinate. Or they get it all wrong.

Procrastination isn’t a motivation problem.

Or a laziness problem.

It’s not even a procrastination problem.

Procrastination is a COPING SKILL.

You are not “a procrastinator.” You are STRESSED. And there’s a task that feels stressful. Maybe you want to do it well or you’re afraid to do it wrong. Whatever it is, that task makes you feel stressed out.

So when you put it off, you get some relief. (Hello “flight” in fight or flight).

Of COURSE you don’t feel like it

Nobody feels like running to the post office, responding to that stressful email, or going to the gym.

If you’re waiting until you “feel like doing it” - you’ll end up waiting foreverrrrr.

The idea that you’ll feel motivated later is a straight up lie.

So you put it off. You tell lie to yourself you’ll do it “later.” Your stress and anxiety go down.

Until eventually the idea of missing the deadline creates MORE stress, anxiety, and dread than the actual task.

And you crank that sucker out.

Here’s the thing: people who are super productive aren’t productive because they’re motivated. They’ve learned how to create procrastination-busting systems to help them do tasks, regardless of how they’re feeling about them.

And now I’m going to teach you how to do it too.

The procrastination-busting routine steps

This routine can be customized to work for you and your life.

And you DON’T need to wake up at 5:30am or do a whole Miracle-Morning thing (unless that’s your bag).

Here are the steps to procrastinate-proof your routine:

Make a simple plan
Manage your stress and anxiety
Just do it
Reward yourself

Stop procrastinating: Make a simple plan

“Winging it” doesn’t work. “Winging it” is like me telling myself I’m going to eat healthier and then when I’m hungry I open to pantry and then make a decision about what to eat. OF COURSE I’m going to reach for the Doritos.

VERSUS deciding “when I’m hungry I’m going to eat a package of cashews.”

Planning ahead helps us make better decisions. Because you don’t have to make a decision while ALSO dealing with the urge to procrastinate (or eat Doritos).

Start your day by taking a few minutes to PLAN how you will spend your time.

Break out that to-do list. Because this is where procrastination lives and dies. We’re not going to do this shit in our heads. 100% things are more stressful in your head than when you look at it on paper.
Keep it real. It’s not procrastination if you run out of time and energy to do it. And some of y’all think you have superhuman energy reserves and 40 hours in a day. Let’s not fail before we’ve started mmmkay? It’s better to underestimate how much you can get done and then do bonus tasks than make a 40-hour day plan.
Find the task you’ve been putting off.
Simplify the task. I had a client who had “learn marketing” on her to-do list. What does that even mean? It was such a huge task that it was stressing her out even more. Instead, we made it really granular. “Watch four YouTube videos on Instagram marketing.”
Decide when, where, and how long you’re going to work on the task. Plan to do challenging tasks when and where you feel the most productive.
- Time - If you turn into an exhausted pumpkin at 5pm don’t decide to do it at 6pm. Do hard tasks when you’re most productive and energized. Save easy tasks for when you’re pooped out.
- Place - Where do you feel productive? Where do you LIKE to work? Where are you free of distractions? This is your place.
- How long - How long will you work on the task? 15 minutes? An hour? Or until the thing is DONE?

The point is to keep it SUPER SIMPLE and work with your own natural rhythms and tendencies.

NOT to do it based on some perfectionist fantasy you have about how you’re “supposed” to be.

Stop procrastinating: Manage your stress and anxiety

Quick review for all you fast scrollers: Procrastination is not a laziness or motivation problem. It’s a coping skill.

You get stressed about a task. You go into fight or flight. You choose flight (ahem, procrastination).

So, yeah, you could totally white knuckle your way through the task by forcing yourself to do it. But that’s going to poop out your nervous system.

INSTEAD, why don’t we address the root and bring that stress and anxiety down to a more manageable level?

If you’re following your plan, it will eventually be time to do THAT TASK and the cat videos will start calling your name.

Here’s what I recommend:

Ask yourself - “Why don’t I want to do this task?” Maybe you think it’ll be really hard, maybe you’re afraid to fail, maybe you hate going to the post office because it is super not-fun and annoying and you’d rather lay on the couch (I LOATHE THE POST OFFICE).
Then ask yourself - “So what?” No really. It sounds boring? - So what? It sounds hard? - So what? You do hard things all the time. You could fail? - Sooooo what? Maybe you’ll learn something. “So what?” sounds harsh. But it also takes the way the OMG THIS IS SUCH A BIG DEAL element.
Ask yourself - “What do I need to think to believe I can succeed at this task?” We tend to choose to do things that feel easy. You have that challenging work task but instead you choose to do laundry, wash the dishes, and productively procrastinate - because you know you can accomplish them. But what if you believed you could do the scary task AND do it well? This will reduce your stress and make it easier to stop procrastinating and do the damn thing.

Stop procrastinating: Just do it

So far in your procrastination-busting routine, you’ve:

Made the decision to DO IT.
You created a simple plan about when, where, and how you would do it.
You felt the urge to procrastinate
You coached yourself through it

Aaaaand…You still don’t want to.

This is not a problem.

Find a thought that gets you moving. My favorite procrastination-killing thoughts include:

“This will be fast.”
“This will be easy.”
“This is no big deal.”
“I’ll feel so good when I’m done.”

And then you just do it.

Stop procrastinating: Reward yourself

YOU DID IT!

Now you have 2 choices:

You can take a dump on yourself for making such a big deal out of the task OR
You can reward yourself for being a procrastination warrior

One is going to make you feel like shit, activate your nervous system, and trigger more coping responses (ahem, procrastination).

One is going to create new connections in your brain and make you more productive in the future.

Rewards are personal. Find what works for you. But you can choose a procrastination reward that is:

External - Do something that brings you pleasure. Go for a walk, take a hot shower, scroll Tik Tok, etc.
Internal - Spend a couple minutes feeling accomplished and proud. Tell yourself how amazing you are.

Your procrastination-busting routine summary

For all y’all tl;dr peeps, here’s a quick rundown of the procrastination-busting routine:

Procrastination is a coping skill. If you procrastinate a lot, you need a few new skills
Make a simple plan. Keep it easy. Don’t wing it. Decide ahead of time that you’ll get shit done.
Manage your stress and anxiety. It’s not that bad. You can do this.
Just do it. Take a deep breath. Take a step.
Reward yourself. Wire your brain for productivity with rewards.

Now, go forth and achieve your goals, my productivity superheroes! The world is waiting for your incredible impact.

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