I used to struggle mightily with procrastination and productivity (and I still do at times of course).
I am no expert on this topic, but if there’s a productivity hack you’ve read out there, I’ve probably tried it. I’ve read countless books and reports and taken several courses.
The problem has always been that productivity "hacks" never seem to last. I always seem to fall back into the same old behaviors after the initial excitement of trying something new wears off.
Last year, I hit absolute rock bottom with productivity. I just couldn’t seem to motivate myself to work. So I finally hired a business coach. And even after working with him for a few months I still felt stuck in the mud with my motivation.
That’s when my coach recommended I talk to a therapist and the results have been nothing short of life-changing for me.
My therapist has helped me unlock more productivity and kill procrastination faster than a decade worth of self-help books put together. No “tactic” I’ve read on the internet has come close to helping me as much as what I’m about to show you.
So let’s jump in. I’ll show you the step-by-step process a therapist taught me, that’s helped me procrastinate less and get a whole lot more done.
Step 1: I figured out my strongest limiting belief
One of the first things we did together was try to figure out my “beliefs” (both positive and negative). These are the things that you think are true about the world and yourself.
At first I didn’t even realize that I was holding onto a lot of beliefs let alone that these beliefs were strong. “I’m too smart for that!” I used to think. But I should have known better.
You can identify a belief anytime you recognize yourself thinking an absolute statement like, “I am…” or “I always…”
In the case of procrastination, I’d been holding onto a belief that went like this, “I always seem to procrastinate.” And “I’m a procrastinator.”
This was an absolute, black and white, belief in my head. It wasn’t the more realistic, “I sometimes procrastinate”, it was “I’m a procrastinator”.
Again, I didn’t even really realize I was holding so tightly to this belief.
Recognizing that belief was a helpful start but we didn’t just stop there. We started talking about how I feel when I procrastinate and almost unconsciously I started talking about how “I’m not good enough,” and “I don’t feel worthy”.
I realized I’d been holding onto this deeper belief of “I am not good enough” since childhood. I had previously suspected that this might be true, but it was insanely valuable to have a professional validate it.
If you procrastinate more than you’d like, the first step is to figure out your strong limiting beliefs (preferably just one big one to start).
Step 2: I started figuring out when my limiting belief was getting triggered.
This distinction has been extremely helpful for me:
- When I’m moving slowly while working that’s an issue of productivity. Check my emails from last week on how I solve productivity issues.
- When I can’t get myself to work, or I avoid working, that’s a procrastination issue.
So the first thing I do when I feel like I’m not working, or can’t work, is identify whether or not it’s a productivity issue or a procrastination issue.
If I’m avoiding sitting down to work, or continuing work – it’s procrastination. And if it’s procrastination, I’ve discovered, it’s got something to do with me feeling like “I’m not worthy” or “I’m not good enough.”
So the step here is simply about recognition.
I just started trying to recognize when my limiting belief of “I’m not good enough” was getting triggered.
Step 3: Analyze why that limiting belief is getting triggered and “work with it”
Here’s how this works for me.
Let’s say I’m hypothetically primed to be productive. I’ve got all my productivity hacks and ducks in a row.
- My Whoop strap tells me I got enough sleep last night.
- My office space is clean.
- I’ve meditated for 10 minutes before writing.
- I’ve done all my research (I’ve actually done the thing I’m about to write about)
- I have 30-60 minutes free to work.
- I put my phone in the other room.
- I set a timer to create a little deadline for myself.
If after all that, I can’t get myself to start writing… I know it’s procrastination and my limiting belief at work.
I’ll say to myself, “Oh, I must be feeling like ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I’m not worthy’.”
Then I’ll ask myself “why?”
At that moment, there are really only 2 possible explanations:
- I’m feeling unworthy because I’m simply running the old negative script/belief in my head.
- Or I literally am “not good enough” in this scenario – but this means that I don’t have all the information I need. This isn’t about “worthiness” it’s about objectively having what is necessary to be “good enough”.
Believe it or not, I’ve found that just saying to myself, “Oh, I’m just running Derek’s old ‘I’m not worthy’ script” is enough to solve my procrastination issues 8 or 9 times out of 10.
If saying that line to myself doesn’t help, then I think: “Okay, maybe I need more information.” And I think about what that might mean and I make sure that’s actually the truth and not another way to avoid work.
Notice that I’m really doing is modifying the belief.
I’m turning it from, “I’m not good enough” to “Yeah, sometimes I’m not good enough but not ALWAYS. And often it just means I need more information.”
And that’s literally all I do.
Running through the above thought process solves my issue of procrastination 95% of the time.
For the other 5% of the time (if my productivity tricks really are in place), it means I need to sit longer with that limiting belief, dismantling it as best as I can.
Usually with enough time, and especially if I get away from the computer or a screen and exercise, the “I’m not good enough” script just falls away and then I can get back to work.
Of course, sometimes by the time it does fall away, I’ve used up all my work hours in the day – so I just have to come back again and try tomorrow (without beating myself up about it).
Make sense?
It will be extremely difficult for many of you to accept that it can be this easy to solve procrastination issues. You need to experience it for yourself and/or get professional help to be confident that a process like this will work for you.
All I can say right now is, “It works for me! Give it a shot!”
Okay, the next logical question you might ask is, “What if I procrastinate so bad I procrastinate on stopping to even analyze what my limiting belief might be?”
We’ll talk about that tomorrow!
– Derek
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