Ep60 Transcript: How to Stop Procrastinating – Quick Fix Friday

Andrea Vahl: Are you procrastinating doing something you really want to do, like launching a new business, learning a new skill, or doing something that you’ve always said you wanted to do, just as Lou Bortone said in episode 58 about launching his new side of his business. Well, in today’s episode of Quick Fix Friday, I’m going to give you three tips to help you stop procrastinating.

Hello dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration mindset and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

There are lots of reasons we procrastinate and I am a big fan of procrastination myself.

Oh, yes, I will do that, but I definitely have to alphabetize my record collection first.

I find that I get a lot done when I’m procrastinating from doing something else. But if there is something you really want to do, I recommend digging a little bit deeper into why you’re procrastinating as my number one tip.

Are you afraid of doing something? Is it scary? Is it hard? Is it too big of a task? Do you need to break it down into smaller chunks? Are you worried you’re going to fail? Are you worried you’re going to succeed? There’s all kinds of reasons why you might be procrastinating. And do you really want to get that thing done?

I find that the biggest way to help me stop procrastinating is to really understand why I am doing that in the first place.

And then the second tip is to have a plan of action to tackle that obstacle. If you’re afraid of getting started, how can you address that fear in some way? Maybe it’s writing out different scenarios.

Maybe it’s writing out different action plans for when that scary thing is going to come up for you. If you don’t know how to do it, who can you ask? How can you get past that obstacle of not knowing how? So come up with a plan of action to tackle that obstacle behind the reason you’re procrastinating.

And tip number three is about time. I find that when I’m procrastinating, I’m worried about the time it’s going to take. So it’s about scheduling that time and defending that time. If I have said that, I really want to get that done. So scheduling it into smaller chunks and figuring out what I’m going to do when is really helpful in committing to stopping that procrastination habit.

I’m going to give you a bonus tip here from James Clear, and I’m going to put the link in the show notes here. James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, which is a book that I really love and highly recommend. James Clear has an amazing article all about the science of procrastination, and one of the things he talks about as well is that we’re oftentimes not giving ourselves enough reward for the steps that we’re taking to achieve that goal, and that is part of the reason we’re not finding some momentum with taking some action and not procrastinating anymore. So I love that idea of rewarding yourself. I also love the idea of. Giving yourself a little bit more pain. That happens. This is something that I’ve done in my masterminds groups where we have committed to doing something and if we don’t get it done, we have some sort of pain that comes up.

Might be giving everyone in the group a bunch of money or figuring out what is going to veer us away from procrastinating so that we can avoid that pain. So check out that article in the show notes.

And accountability is another big tip. So if you are procrastinating getting something done, you might want a group or a mastermind to help you have that accountability.

A link to that episode in the show notes as well around forming a mastermind group.

So whatever the reason you’re procrastinating, I recommend just getting out there and getting it. Easier said than done.

Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for late starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.