Habits and Hustle - Episode 324: My Best Tips for Overcoming Procrastination

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

Struggle with procrastination? In this episode of the Habits & Hustle podcast, Jennifer admits she is a natural procrastinator, especially when it comes to things she doesn’t enjoy doing or things she thinks she is bad at doing. Although, the reality of life is that we aren’t going to be good at everything and we also aren't going to enjoy doing everything–but we still have to do it. So, how do we overcome this and learn to break our toxic procrastination patterns? If you can relate, get ready for Jennifer to share her best Habits & Hustle tips. She explores the different parameters she has implemented into her everyday life that have greatly changed the way she tackles tasks. She also explains how procrastination can be detrimental to our self esteem, how overcoming procrastination needs to become a habit, and the little things she does to eliminate distractions All the tips Jennifer shares are simple, tangible, and available to you at any time for whenever you’re ready to start tackling your procrastination, too. What’s discussed: 0:00 - Introduction to procrastination 1:45 - How some people don’t have time to procrastinate 2:05 - Why we procrastinate on the things we’re bad at 2:53 - How to make big tasks feel less daunting 3:37 - Getting things done first thing in the morning 4:39 - The correlation between procrastination and self esteem 5:59 - How to eliminate distractions 7:44 - Utilizing time blocking 8:30 - Tell us what you think in the Facebook group! Key Takeaways: You procrastinate less when you break things down into smaller, sizable chunks. If something feels daunting to you, instead of thinking about the daunting task at hand, reframe the way you think about it by focusing on getting a small piece of it done today. The smaller you can break up your task, the less daunting it will end up feeling. Procrastination is one of the simplest ways to destroy your self esteem and being your own accountability partner is one of the best ways to build your self esteem. If you make sure you do the things that you tell yourself you're going to do and do them completely, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment, and that leads to building real self confidence. Put all the hard things you need to get done at the start of your day. Don’t allow yourself to do anything else until you have fully completed these tasks. Turn this into a habit: Tackle the uncomfortable things first before falling into doing what feels comfortable. Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Are you a procrastinator? I'm actually not. I don't have time to procrastinate. That was a very short and there was nowhere for me to go. It wasn't very open-ended. No, I'm not. Okay then. Well, let me tell you something. I tend to be a little bit of a procrastinator. I tend to procrastinate on things that I really don't want to do. Like, if I really don't, I'm not someone who's good at, like, just doing things if I'm not interested in it,

right? In the mood. In the mood. So I have to set parameters for myself and ways that I can actually get through all the hard stuff, which I was thinking that you were going to say the same thing. You're like, nope, not at all.

I don't have time to procrastinate. It's like physically impossible. Well, I mean, the truth of the matter is there is something to be said for, if you want something done, give it to a busy person. I do feel like that is true. Like I feel like the most efficient people are the people who are able to like knock stuff off of their to-do lists, which I'm, you know, to be, to be fair, I am, I am okay with that, but it's because I had to set all these like very strict parameters

for me to be able to do that. So that's why I wanted to bring it up. I think that a lot of people procrastinate when they're not interested in things. And there's also other reasons why people procrastinate. I think people have fear around whatever the task is. I think people also have perfectionism. If they can't do it perfectly, then they don't want to do it and they think of all the things otherwise.

And I guess people can fall on the idea of ADD, or I'm too ADD, I can't focus on doing something. I don't know. I think that people rely and use ADD as a, sometimes, not always, as an excuse to get out of doing things that they should be doing or as a way of like when they don't finish a task or... Yeah, I think it's like I used to procrastinate all the time. But then, I don't know, I just feel like as you grow up, it's like, I need time to wind

down and I want to sleep. I'm like, you know, I'm older now, I can't pull like an all nighter where like a procrastinate all day and then I study all night. Like I can't function that way anymore. So it's like, I feel like you just have to get things done. Otherwise, what do you do? Well, depending on what it is, right? Like, I think it's let's pick an example, right? So for an example, I think that it's not I don't necessarily believe that I don't procrastinate on everything. It's the things that I think I'm bad at, if I was to be honest. I procrastinate on the things that I think I'm bad at.

So then I just don't want to do it because the idea is so overwhelming because I know it's going to take me so long to get it done. Where it's like, or I don't know how to start, right? Either you don't know how to start because it's so overwhelming and you don't feel like it's a strength of yours and therefore you don't know how to start because it's so overwhelming and you don't feel like it's a strength of yours and therefore you don't do it. So of course, because this podcast in general and also with every episode,

we wanna talk about ways we can overcome an issue versus just like bitch and moan about what it is. Let's just unpack that a bit, right? So things that I've been able to do that's helped me and other people I've interviewed is break things down into much smaller sizable chunks where you tend to procrastinate less when you do that, right? So if something feels so daunting to you, instead of thinking about the daunting task at hand, maybe just like change that way,

reframe the way you think about it until like just a little piece of it. If you just did this little piece now, it makes a big difference. Yeah. What about knocking out all the stuff you're really good at first? So I was just going to talk about that. I talk about that in my book is I like to do another one of the ways I set a parameter for myself is I put all the hard things that I need to be, but what I need to get done and make it so it's done first thing or really early on in my day. And I won't allow myself to do something else unless that thing is

like taken down, like taken off my list that way. And I do that by saying, if I want X, I need to really do this first, right? It helps a lot. And then it becomes so habitual, where that's the real key, right? You want to make things so habitual for you, that you become used to doing these uncomfortable things or these things that like tend to really slow you down or really get in your own way. And you make it much more manageable to do. Yeah. You know what I mean? 100%. I like making a game plan the night before.

That's always helped me a lot. Where like I know exactly what the first four or five tasks I'm going to do in the morning are and I just get to it. I think a lot of people spend so much time planning their tasks, like they have their planners and their notes and their to-do list, then they never end up tackling them. I always make like an actionable four or five things. I'm just going to knock out right when I wake up and then I just get them done. Yeah, that's why it's really, that's exactly right.

So you get those things done. I also believe there's something to be said about a correlation between confidence and fulfilling the commitments you make to yourself. I think a lot of times where we lose our confidence is when we have these things that we have to get done and then we don't do them and it's kind of letting yourself down. It lets you're like, oh shoot, you know,

I knew I had to do that, I really need to do that, and I never did. And then, you know, you're chipping away at your self-esteem and your confidence. The one thing I really believe in is that if you really wanna build true self-confidence, is you gotta make yourself your accountability partner, make sure you do the things that you tell yourself you're going to do and do

them completely. And once you do that, you feel that sense of accomplishment and it really helps with that self-confidence. That's how you build real self-confidence. That's why I love the gym so much as an analogy, right? Because if you have a goal and you then achieve that goal and then it can progress you to the next point, that's really like these life lessons

that I've learned from the gym, like the discipline and the patient and the accountability really does work in every area of my life. It actually helps me even with the procrastination. I've learned these fundamental tools and I apply it to all parts of my life. But a big one also is eliminating as many distractions as you possibly can.

Focus mode. Focus mode on the phone is the most brilliant thing. You ought to put your phone on silence. That phone is the bane of my existence. I need it, I love it, but it's addictive. And it stops me from doing so many things. That's like really why people a lot of times don't get their shit done is because people respond.

Like just because someone's texting you and emailing you and calling you doesn't necessarily mean that you have to respond in that one second. Absolutely, that'd be crazy. But that's what happened. It's like because you hear that ding, ding, ding, or ding, or whatever, and it's like, it gets you out of that mode of focus,

and then it gets you down, like, you know, you gotta get yourself back into that place. There's literally focus mode on your phone. It's called Do Not Disturb. It's called, it's called... No, no, it's literally, and then you don't get, it's not just silent, like, you don't get any incoming anything.

So phones go straight to voicemail, texts don't appear, like, it's so brilliant. No, it's Do Not Dist like you don't get any incoming anything. So phones go straight to voicemail, texts don't appear like it's so brilliant. No, it's do not disturb me. People use it. I mean, I just think that is it all the time. People should use it more to actually when you have like a deadline, you have to put these things into play, you got to eliminate these distractions, use your phone for do not disturb because it's so hard. That's why even at like, again, not to always use the gym as an analogy, but I will. You know, when you're when when people are at the gym, and I've also been victim of this too, like, you know, you're like, you're texting with your friend, you're on the phone while you're

working out, like, number one, what happens is then you're half-assing everything, you're half-assing the workout, everything's kind of like done in like a rhythm that's poor. And then when you get back into the rhythm of trying to get back into that flow state of exercise, it's really hard. So I think it's really like a great thing to do is block out, like block times out. Like this is what I'm going to, this block of time is when I'm going to do this.

This block of time is when I'm going to do that. And when you, again, the key word today is parameters here is setting parameters and creating ways and strategies where you can win versus lose. And that's basically what I have to say about it. I love that. Time blocking, monotasking, monotasking, time blocking, eliminating distractions, doing it first thing in the morning, all the things, you know, and not

letting your fear or perfectionism stop you from starting and breaking things into small, sizeable chunks where it doesn't overwhelm you as much. I think that's basically all. Yeah, tell us what you think in the Facebook group. Yes. And don't forget to subscribe. And of course, can you please leave us a review? Leave me a review? I'd appreciate that and I think that is

We're out. That's great. Thanks guys. I hope our little actionable items can help you procrastinate just a little less