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You're not just a procrastinator.
00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:07.040
There's usually always a deeper reason as to why you're procrastinating.
00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:14.880
And digging in and finding that out is the key to being able to get more things done and break out of this cycle.
00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:24.559
Really significantly reduce my expectations of myself each day, and I give myself like a one thing a day rule where it's like, all right, I need to get this one task done today.
00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:30.559
Some emotional reasons why you might be procrastinating might be you're lacking joy right now.
00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:43.359
What you're doing isn't lighting you up, it's not giving you a sense of excitement, it's not making you happy, and so you feel like you're having to push yourself really hard to get anything done because you don't actually like it.
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Hi, welcome back to another episode of Coffee with Carissa.
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Today we're gonna look at why you're procrastinating and what you can do about it.
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If you're finding yourself procrastinating on things that you know you need to be doing, but you just keep putting it off because you don't feel like it or multitude of other reasons, it's not that there's anything wrong with you.
00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.799
You're not just a procrastinator.
00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:25.359
There's usually always a deeper reason as to why you're procrastinating, and digging in and finding that out is the key to being able to get more things done and break out of this cycle.
00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:34.319
Sometimes there's physical reasons why you're procrastinating, sometimes there's emotional reasons why you're procrastinating, and sometimes there are psychological reasons.
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And going to list out a few of them, and I want you to try and identify if any of these are you right now or what you're experiencing.
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So, some physical reasons why you might be procrastinating could be lack of energy due to either your menstrual cycle, hormonal cycle, could be that you're not eating a very good diet right now, and the foods that you're eating aren't giving you enough energy.
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You might be low in iron, you might be irritable or sluggish or exhausted from all of these things, or you might be experiencing just burnout or overwhelm from just doing too much, pushing yourself too hard, being too overstimulated, too much going on.
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So it's much easier for you to just go into a place of kind of avoidance than forcing yourself to keep going when your body is screaming to stop and have a rest.
00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:39.520
The physical things you can do about this to improve your productivity are things like tracking your cycle throughout the month in your calendar.
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I have mine in my Google Calendar thanks to my assistant, and I know which weeks of the month I'm most energized and motivated and productive, and which weeks I shouldn't try and push myself that hard and I need a little bit more downtime.
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You can prioritize your health by drinking more water, being more hydrated, eating more fruits and vegetables, make sure you're getting enough protein, iron, minerals, supplements if you need them, etc.
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And obviously, exercise is going to give you more energy and make you more, give you more endorphins, make you feel a little bit more motivated too.
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And then some other things to do if you are just genuinely exhausted, but you really need to get things done, is just to break them down into really bite-sized small little sprints and even set timers on your phone for like, all right, I've got 15 minutes, I'm gonna get one thing done, and then have a rest afterwards.
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When I'm feeling really burnt out or exhausted, that's the best way that I can work.
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Or I really significantly reduce my expectations of myself each day, and I give myself like a one thing a day rule where it's like, all right, I need to get this one task done today.
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That's my most important task.
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As long as that's done, everything else can wait until tomorrow.
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Or the other thing is ask for more help and support.
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If you have got team members already and you're feeling like I just can't get this done, ask them, tell them, be vulnerable.
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Hey, I'm not feeling great.
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Can you please help me with this this week so that we can get it done?
00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:06.159
It works as long as you've got good people on your team.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:12.159
Some emotional reasons why you might be procrastinating might be you're lacking joy right now.
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.240
What you're doing isn't lighting you up.
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:24.720
It's not giving you a sense of excitement, it's not making you happy, and so you feel like you're having to push yourself really hard to get anything done because you don't actually like it.
00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:52.480
It could be that you have really high expectations of yourself and you're a bit of a perfectionist, and you think that nothing is ever good enough, and therefore, if something isn't good enough, it means you're not good enough, and you think that maybe other people are going to judge you or think certain things about you, and so it's easier for you to just stay back and do nothing because of all of these fears about not being perfect enough are stopping you from actually doing anything at all.
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You could just be feeling completely overwhelmed because the size of your to-do list is way too big and you just you haven't even started on it yet.
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But just thinking about it makes you feel exhausted because you're like, oh my god, there's too much to do.
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I cannot do this.
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And what that does is usually make your brain shut down and just want to go into hits of quick dopamine, scrolling, smoking, snacking, just avoiding everything.
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And you might even have a fear of failure or a fear of success.
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What if things don't work out and then that stops you from even trying them?
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Or what if they do work out and I become way too busy, way too successful?
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Oh, that's scary as well.
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So I'm just not gonna do anything.
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So, what you can try with these things is instead of looking at your tasks as though they are permanent or final outcomes, start thinking about them as though they are experiments.
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Let's see what happens when I do this.
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So, one of I can't remember where this line comes from, but there's that saying, done is better than perfect.
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And that's kind of what I've trained myself to live by, because if you're always aiming for things to be perfect, they're never going to be good enough and you're just not gonna get anything done.
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So, done is better than perfect.
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It's better that I do something and put it out there and take an action rather than not taking any action at all.
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You can also start to set smaller little milestones and goals for yourself so that your goal doesn't become the end result.
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Your goal becomes one little task at a time.
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And then you can train yourself to start celebrating your progress and the fact that you're working towards something rather than only celebrating when you get to your end goal.
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Because let's be real, the end goal is always moving, the end goal is always changing.
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So by showing up every day and just feeling proud of yourself by making progress towards something, you're going to feel a lot better about that.
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If things are too boring, if they're not fun enough, find ways to make them fun.
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Reward yourself with little things.
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You can listen to your favorite music, you can have mini goals, have some friends or business support network people that you can share your wins with that want to celebrate with you or try and gamify tasks or set challenges for yourself.
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:14.560
And my favorite and what works for me is reminding myself of my bigger purpose and my why.
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Sometimes it's so easy to forget that when you just get stuck in the day-to-day of all of the work that you're doing.
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But when I come back to remembering why I'm doing what I'm doing, because I feel really strongly and passionately about helping women to grow their businesses so that they can have a better life for themselves, that motivates me to show up and do more and work towards things.
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But when I'm just thinking about, oh my God, I need to make some money, or I need to pay some bills, or I need to do this, or I need to do this, everything feels kind of harder rather than when you think, well, look, I get to do this because I want to.
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One of the other reasons of procrastination is low clarity, a lack of clarity.
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You're focusing on the big project, the big task, and you haven't broken it down into individual steps.
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An example for me is like making YouTube videos.
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When I think, oh my god, I have to make X amount of videos, or I have to make videos, it's just this big list of things all jumbled up.
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And when I sit down with a pen and paper and I write it down, okay, first things first, I need topics, I need to know what I'm talking about, I need to have hair and makeup done, I need to have my camera charged, I need to have my microphone plugged in, I need to have my ring light on, I need to have my computer on and my keyboard charged, and like they're all individual tasks and they all need to be done and ready.
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And if I don't have a clear breakdown of step by step by step, it can feel too big and overwhelming and I don't want to do it.
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So if you're feeling really overwhelmed by a certain task, break it down into individual steps.
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Maybe you're taking an online course and you're procrastinating doing it.
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What's the first step?
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Book half an hour into your calendar, open up your emails, click to log into the online course, click to play and watch a video, and then make some notes or take an action.
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You can actually achieve so much in half an hour to an hour if you're very clear on exactly what it is that you need to do.
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Some people really benefit from having an accountability partner, having a coach, having a mentor, being in a mastermind group where you can show your progress as you go and you have someone to share it with.
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Sometimes when you're too alone too much and you don't have anyone to share what you're doing with, or you feel like nobody cares, that can be really unmotivating as well.
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I always think about my kids like when they've made something or when they've drawn something or when they've learned something new, the first thing that they want to do is come to me and be like, Mama, look at this or listen to this, or you know, look what I just did.
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And then I listen to them and I'm like, that's amazing, that's really cool, you know, positive reinforcement.
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Then they feel really good about themselves and they want to go keep doing more of that.
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We need that too as adults.
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So if we don't have someone that we can be like, look what I did, look what I learned, this is what I'm doing, and you know, you get that little pat on the back and warm and fuzzy feelings, then you can start to just feel really demotivated and even depressed because you know you don't have that, or you feel like it doesn't matter, or you feel like nobody cares.
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That's typically how I've gotten into little depression spirals in the past.
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So, you know, get a coach, get a therapist, get a friend, be in a group of people who want to support you and use that to keep you going.
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Some other things that I find really help for my ADHD brain, especially, is having a body double.
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I feel like if I have to do everything alone or by myself, sometimes that feels too hard.
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And if I have someone nearby who just to get started or is just there with me while I do something, I get way better work done than when I'm just completely on my own.
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I don't understand it, but it's a thing.
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They don't even have to do anything, they just have to be nearby.
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There's the Pomodoro method, which is just setting 25-minute or 20-minute timers and getting as much done as you can in that time before the alarm goes off and just working in short chunks of time.
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There's the five-minute rule.
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You can trick yourself into saying I'm just gonna do this for five minutes.
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And then once you've actually started and that five minutes is up, the momentum is usually kicked in by then and you'll want to keep going.
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But it's like that forcing yourself to go to the gym or getting to the gym is the hardest part.
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Once you're there, you enjoy it, you get into it.
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Same thing with getting your tasks done.
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Sometimes you just have to force yourself to start.
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Say, you know, I'm literally only going to do this for five minutes.
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If I hate it in five minutes, I'm gonna stop.
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And if that's the case, that's fine.
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But usually you'll find you start to get into the rhythm.
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And another thing that sometimes you need to do is shift environment.
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If I'm in the same place for too long, sometimes I start to get a bit meh.
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So, you know, you might want to go work at a cafe or go work by in a park or go rent a co-working space or work with a friend, or just change locations around your business or around your house.
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I have two computers.
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I have one in my office, I have one inside my house, and I have a bunch of different places around the house where I like to sit and get my work done depending on how I feel.
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And sometimes I have to force myself to change it up if I'm just working from home.
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Other days I like to go and work at a cafe, not even to talk to anyone, just put headphones on, but I'm around people, I'm in a different environment, I'm not distracted by any other things that need doing, because you know, at home there's always cleaning or washing or things that need to be done.
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In your business, there's always other tasks that need to be done.
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So sometimes you just have to get yourself out of there.
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Um, occasionally, if I need to record a new course or work on something really undistracted, I will go stay at a hotel for one or two nights and just get myself away from everything and every one, turn off the internet and just get to work.
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So the bottom line is procrastination is not laziness.
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It doesn't just mean that you're lazy.
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It's usually your body trying to protect itself, it's your emotions trying to avoid pain or fear, or it's your mind just caught in a loop or trying to convince yourself that everything's too hard and it's easier to do nothing.
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So once you identify which one of these things is true for you, then you can start to make some changes to improve it.
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If you enjoyed this episode, if it was helpful, I would love to know.
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Please leave a comment, subscribe if you want more from this, and make sure you're in my Facebook group, Coffee with Carissa.
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Um, come and tell me what you think or if you have any other questions, and I can use them for future episodes.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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I'll see you in the next one.
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.160
You're not just a procrastinator.
00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:07.040
There's usually always a deeper reason as to why you're procrastinating.
00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:14.880
And digging in and finding that out is the key to being able to get more things done and break out of this cycle.
00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:24.559
Really significantly reduce my expectations of myself each day, and I give myself like a one thing a day rule where it's like, all right, I need to get this one task done today.
00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:30.559
Some emotional reasons why you might be procrastinating might be you're lacking joy right now.
00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:43.359
What you're doing isn't lighting you up, it's not giving you a sense of excitement, it's not making you happy, and so you feel like you're having to push yourself really hard to get anything done because you don't actually like it.
00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:50.320
Hi, welcome back to another episode of Coffee with Carissa.
00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:55.439
Today we're gonna look at why you're procrastinating and what you can do about it.
00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:10.640
If you're finding yourself procrastinating on things that you know you need to be doing, but you just keep putting it off because you don't feel like it or multitude of other reasons, it's not that there's anything wrong with you.
00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.799
You're not just a procrastinator.
00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:25.359
There's usually always a deeper reason as to why you're procrastinating, and digging in and finding that out is the key to being able to get more things done and break out of this cycle.
00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:34.319
Sometimes there's physical reasons why you're procrastinating, sometimes there's emotional reasons why you're procrastinating, and sometimes there are psychological reasons.
00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:42.079
And going to list out a few of them, and I want you to try and identify if any of these are you right now or what you're experiencing.
00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:57.920
So, some physical reasons why you might be procrastinating could be lack of energy due to either your menstrual cycle, hormonal cycle, could be that you're not eating a very good diet right now, and the foods that you're eating aren't giving you enough energy.
00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:19.199
You might be low in iron, you might be irritable or sluggish or exhausted from all of these things, or you might be experiencing just burnout or overwhelm from just doing too much, pushing yourself too hard, being too overstimulated, too much going on.
00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:30.960
So it's much easier for you to just go into a place of kind of avoidance than forcing yourself to keep going when your body is screaming to stop and have a rest.
00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:39.520
The physical things you can do about this to improve your productivity are things like tracking your cycle throughout the month in your calendar.
00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:52.400
I have mine in my Google Calendar thanks to my assistant, and I know which weeks of the month I'm most energized and motivated and productive, and which weeks I shouldn't try and push myself that hard and I need a little bit more downtime.
00:02:52.719 --> 00:03:04.319
You can prioritize your health by drinking more water, being more hydrated, eating more fruits and vegetables, make sure you're getting enough protein, iron, minerals, supplements if you need them, etc.
00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:13.120
And obviously, exercise is going to give you more energy and make you more, give you more endorphins, make you feel a little bit more motivated too.
00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:29.680
And then some other things to do if you are just genuinely exhausted, but you really need to get things done, is just to break them down into really bite-sized small little sprints and even set timers on your phone for like, all right, I've got 15 minutes, I'm gonna get one thing done, and then have a rest afterwards.
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.319
When I'm feeling really burnt out or exhausted, that's the best way that I can work.
00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:44.479
Or I really significantly reduce my expectations of myself each day, and I give myself like a one thing a day rule where it's like, all right, I need to get this one task done today.
00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:45.759
That's my most important task.
00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.199
As long as that's done, everything else can wait until tomorrow.
00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:51.439
Or the other thing is ask for more help and support.
00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:58.719
If you have got team members already and you're feeling like I just can't get this done, ask them, tell them, be vulnerable.
00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:00.400
Hey, I'm not feeling great.
00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:03.680
Can you please help me with this this week so that we can get it done?
00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:06.159
It works as long as you've got good people on your team.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:12.159
Some emotional reasons why you might be procrastinating might be you're lacking joy right now.
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.240
What you're doing isn't lighting you up.
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:24.720
It's not giving you a sense of excitement, it's not making you happy, and so you feel like you're having to push yourself really hard to get anything done because you don't actually like it.
00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:52.480
It could be that you have really high expectations of yourself and you're a bit of a perfectionist, and you think that nothing is ever good enough, and therefore, if something isn't good enough, it means you're not good enough, and you think that maybe other people are going to judge you or think certain things about you, and so it's easier for you to just stay back and do nothing because of all of these fears about not being perfect enough are stopping you from actually doing anything at all.
00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:59.920
You could just be feeling completely overwhelmed because the size of your to-do list is way too big and you just you haven't even started on it yet.
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But just thinking about it makes you feel exhausted because you're like, oh my god, there's too much to do.
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I cannot do this.
00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:17.759
And what that does is usually make your brain shut down and just want to go into hits of quick dopamine, scrolling, smoking, snacking, just avoiding everything.
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:22.319
And you might even have a fear of failure or a fear of success.
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What if things don't work out and then that stops you from even trying them?
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Or what if they do work out and I become way too busy, way too successful?
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Oh, that's scary as well.
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So I'm just not gonna do anything.
00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:47.279
So, what you can try with these things is instead of looking at your tasks as though they are permanent or final outcomes, start thinking about them as though they are experiments.
00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:49.519
Let's see what happens when I do this.
00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:56.959
So, one of I can't remember where this line comes from, but there's that saying, done is better than perfect.
00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:06.160
And that's kind of what I've trained myself to live by, because if you're always aiming for things to be perfect, they're never going to be good enough and you're just not gonna get anything done.
00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:08.079
So, done is better than perfect.
00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:14.000
It's better that I do something and put it out there and take an action rather than not taking any action at all.
00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:22.240
You can also start to set smaller little milestones and goals for yourself so that your goal doesn't become the end result.
00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:26.399
Your goal becomes one little task at a time.
00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:37.519
And then you can train yourself to start celebrating your progress and the fact that you're working towards something rather than only celebrating when you get to your end goal.
00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.519
Because let's be real, the end goal is always moving, the end goal is always changing.
00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:50.240
So by showing up every day and just feeling proud of yourself by making progress towards something, you're going to feel a lot better about that.
00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.959
If things are too boring, if they're not fun enough, find ways to make them fun.
00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:56.800
Reward yourself with little things.
00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:09.680
You can listen to your favorite music, you can have mini goals, have some friends or business support network people that you can share your wins with that want to celebrate with you or try and gamify tasks or set challenges for yourself.
00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:14.560
And my favorite and what works for me is reminding myself of my bigger purpose and my why.
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Sometimes it's so easy to forget that when you just get stuck in the day-to-day of all of the work that you're doing.
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But when I come back to remembering why I'm doing what I'm doing, because I feel really strongly and passionately about helping women to grow their businesses so that they can have a better life for themselves, that motivates me to show up and do more and work towards things.
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But when I'm just thinking about, oh my God, I need to make some money, or I need to pay some bills, or I need to do this, or I need to do this, everything feels kind of harder rather than when you think, well, look, I get to do this because I want to.
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One of the other reasons of procrastination is low clarity, a lack of clarity.
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You're focusing on the big project, the big task, and you haven't broken it down into individual steps.
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An example for me is like making YouTube videos.
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When I think, oh my god, I have to make X amount of videos, or I have to make videos, it's just this big list of things all jumbled up.
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And when I sit down with a pen and paper and I write it down, okay, first things first, I need topics, I need to know what I'm talking about, I need to have hair and makeup done, I need to have my camera charged, I need to have my microphone plugged in, I need to have my ring light on, I need to have my computer on and my keyboard charged, and like they're all individual tasks and they all need to be done and ready.
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And if I don't have a clear breakdown of step by step by step, it can feel too big and overwhelming and I don't want to do it.
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So if you're feeling really overwhelmed by a certain task, break it down into individual steps.
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Maybe you're taking an online course and you're procrastinating doing it.
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What's the first step?
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Book half an hour into your calendar, open up your emails, click to log into the online course, click to play and watch a video, and then make some notes or take an action.
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You can actually achieve so much in half an hour to an hour if you're very clear on exactly what it is that you need to do.
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Some people really benefit from having an accountability partner, having a coach, having a mentor, being in a mastermind group where you can show your progress as you go and you have someone to share it with.
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Sometimes when you're too alone too much and you don't have anyone to share what you're doing with, or you feel like nobody cares, that can be really unmotivating as well.
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I always think about my kids like when they've made something or when they've drawn something or when they've learned something new, the first thing that they want to do is come to me and be like, Mama, look at this or listen to this, or you know, look what I just did.
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And then I listen to them and I'm like, that's amazing, that's really cool, you know, positive reinforcement.
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Then they feel really good about themselves and they want to go keep doing more of that.
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We need that too as adults.
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So if we don't have someone that we can be like, look what I did, look what I learned, this is what I'm doing, and you know, you get that little pat on the back and warm and fuzzy feelings, then you can start to just feel really demotivated and even depressed because you know you don't have that, or you feel like it doesn't matter, or you feel like nobody cares.
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That's typically how I've gotten into little depression spirals in the past.
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So, you know, get a coach, get a therapist, get a friend, be in a group of people who want to support you and use that to keep you going.
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Some other things that I find really help for my ADHD brain, especially, is having a body double.
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I feel like if I have to do everything alone or by myself, sometimes that feels too hard.
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And if I have someone nearby who just to get started or is just there with me while I do something, I get way better work done than when I'm just completely on my own.
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I don't understand it, but it's a thing.
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They don't even have to do anything, they just have to be nearby.
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There's the Pomodoro method, which is just setting 25-minute or 20-minute timers and getting as much done as you can in that time before the alarm goes off and just working in short chunks of time.
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There's the five-minute rule.
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You can trick yourself into saying I'm just gonna do this for five minutes.
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And then once you've actually started and that five minutes is up, the momentum is usually kicked in by then and you'll want to keep going.
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But it's like that forcing yourself to go to the gym or getting to the gym is the hardest part.
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Once you're there, you enjoy it, you get into it.
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Same thing with getting your tasks done.
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Sometimes you just have to force yourself to start.
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Say, you know, I'm literally only going to do this for five minutes.
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If I hate it in five minutes, I'm gonna stop.
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And if that's the case, that's fine.
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But usually you'll find you start to get into the rhythm.
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And another thing that sometimes you need to do is shift environment.
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If I'm in the same place for too long, sometimes I start to get a bit meh.
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So, you know, you might want to go work at a cafe or go work by in a park or go rent a co-working space or work with a friend, or just change locations around your business or around your house.
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I have two computers.
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I have one in my office, I have one inside my house, and I have a bunch of different places around the house where I like to sit and get my work done depending on how I feel.
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And sometimes I have to force myself to change it up if I'm just working from home.
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Other days I like to go and work at a cafe, not even to talk to anyone, just put headphones on, but I'm around people, I'm in a different environment, I'm not distracted by any other things that need doing, because you know, at home there's always cleaning or washing or things that need to be done.
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In your business, there's always other tasks that need to be done.
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So sometimes you just have to get yourself out of there.
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Um, occasionally, if I need to record a new course or work on something really undistracted, I will go stay at a hotel for one or two nights and just get myself away from everything and every one, turn off the internet and just get to work.
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So the bottom line is procrastination is not laziness.
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It doesn't just mean that you're lazy.
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It's usually your body trying to protect itself, it's your emotions trying to avoid pain or fear, or it's your mind just caught in a loop or trying to convince yourself that everything's too hard and it's easier to do nothing.
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So once you identify which one of these things is true for you, then you can start to make some changes to improve it.
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If you enjoyed this episode, if it was helpful, I would love to know.
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Please leave a comment, subscribe if you want more from this, and make sure you're in my Facebook group, Coffee with Carissa.
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Um, come and tell me what you think or if you have any other questions, and I can use them for future episodes.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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I'll see you in the next one.
