The Mojo to Kill Procrastination
There is an old saying “Show me your habits and I’ll show you your future”. This can go either way. From mastery of a skill to early death. Behaviors repeated enough times with an emotional charge added become part of our physical wiring. For better or worse, this collection of habits becomes the blueprint of our daily lives.
Let's talk about the big mac daddy monster in this list of habits. It’s so massive, we all experience it in one form or another on a regular basis. This killer is called procrastination. You may make the claim that you never procrastinate and maybe this is true. Hat tip to you but you still are on the receiving end of this. Yes, we are all affected by the Godzilla of habits, procrastination.
So what does procrastination kill? How about your life? Countless lives could have been saved if people who procrastinate going to the Doctor got their asses in earlier for a checkup and got that lump or unhealthy symptoms explored. I’m talking to you Boomers! Especially men. During the pandemic this got even worse with people in lock down. Of course, in many cases, lockdown was a great excuse to skip that overdue colonoscopy. How many die of heart disease because they kept procrastinating, quitting smoking or overeating? I’m going to start exercising as soon as the holidays pass! Yeah, sure. Good luck with that.
How about the death of dreams? Yes, procrastinating the things you have been wanting to do for years in many cases never happens. How many trips have you decided will happen after you retire and have time? Maybe, but also maybe you won’t be quite as spry and that mountain you wanted to climb is now just too difficult for you. How many creative endeavors have been put off because… something, something, I'll try it next month.
The death of wealth. Imagine if we just saved a small amount of money when you first started working and kept that habit up. Some of us did, most of us didn’t. The usual story is I can’t, I don’t make enough and I’ll save when I’m making more. I’ll do it later. Meanwhile heading to Starbucks for a Grande something or other.
I recently read about a massive study focused on the cost of employees procrastinating tasks at work. Since we are all online these days, that has made procrastination and distraction super easy. The study found that unproductive workers added to a loss of around 33 days per year. That's 598 billion annually for U.S. companies alone! They did this study in 2014, so I can only imagine the numbers now.
Procrastination is such a pernicious habit that it can destroy your relationships and lead to huge missed opportunities.
The good news is that it is a habit that can be tamed. Can you completely ditch it? No, and there are some positive reasons we procrastinate. Sometimes you need to put off certain tasks for a variety of reasons. It’s important to actually examine and identify those reasons. What is your why for putting this task off? Most of us know when we are just flat out procrastinating. Procrastinators are reacting emotionally and that emotional response is basically escape.
When we are facing a task that seems hard, boring, or maybe a little scary, the limbic system in your brain kicks in and overrides your executive function. RIP your planning and organization. Off we go in whatever direction that grabs our attention. Next thing you know, you’re looking in your fridge trying to figure out how you got there!
I can speak of this from my own experiences with procrastination. It led to years of investigation and study to find methods to override this challenge. There isn’t one size fits all when it comes to strategies to beat procrastination.
With that said, of all the strategies for beating procrastination, the one that has shown the greatest measurable success is, drum roll please, accountability.
That's right, accountability is a powerhouse of procrastination killing mojo!
Sure, you might say. I always hold myself accountable! Not so fast. There are some and I mean a small sum of people that are pretty good at holding their own feet to the fire in a functional way (that means not regularly beating yourself up) but for the vast majority of us? That’s a big nope.
I recently was reading an article in Harvard Business Review about a study done by the Association for Talent Development. The study took a deep dive into your odds of goal achievement. On average, when you set a goal, you have a 10% to 25% chance of making that goal happen. Now, tell someone you respect and that goal can go up to a 65% chance of success. Take that goal and meet regularly with someone checking your progress and your odds can go to 95%.
That's the power of accountability.
Helping hold someone accountable is something I specialize in. You can find me here at MondayChangesEverything.com Hiring someone to be there to cut through the bullshit and hold you to your promises you made to that most important person, yourself is a serious commitment to growth. For those who prefer to not bring in a professional, there are other ways to help stack the deck in your favor.
Find an accountability partner. A friend who won’t let you slide when you don’t follow through. No friends? No problem. There are sites that will pair you with an accountability partner. Check out the Google and pick one
Make your goals too small to fail. Break down those big hairy goals into much smaller pieces. By checking boxes as complete, you can start building that accountability muscle.
Post your goals on your social media and ask for that accountability help.
The bottom line is if you really want to get those things done that you have struggled with procrastination with, it’s time to ask for help. Of course you could follow the same non working strategy that has repeatedly let you down in the past. Just sayin!
