10 ways to finally overcome your procrastination and lack of motivation
You know exactly what you should be doing but for some reason, you’re just not doing it. In fact, you are avoiding it with all your might. We have all been there. The reason? Probably something deeper within us that is beyond the scope of this post. However, there are some simple steps you can take to overcome even the hardest form of procrastination. For all of you with too little patience here is the full list, although some steps might not be what you think they are and will be explained later:
Let’s go through the steps one by one.
A dramatic countdown: This one not only sounds stupid when you read it but also feels pretty stupid when you’re doing it. Nevertheless, it worked for me more than once. Picture this: You are in front of the task that needs to be done. Now, in the most dramatic way you can think of, count out loud, backwards from ten to zero, and watch your adrenaline rise. The extra adrenaline will give you the motivation you needed to start.
Coffee, tea, maté: This one is so obvious but lately more and more young people are telling me that they are not big fans of coffee and I can’t figure out for the life of me how they are getting through college like that. Of course, caffeine is a drug and if you can avoid it you obviously should. In fact, you definitely shouldn’t be consuming it in the first 60-90min after waking up. (I wrote a whole post on the things to do right after you wake up to fuel your motivation, check it out here.) Anyway, caffeine is powerful when it comes to motivating you so if you haven’t used it for that purpose yet, you might want to give it a try. (Besides, there are some studies pointing out the health benefits of coffee - you don’t want to miss out on these, do you?)
Delay the tasks with a timer: Now, this goes against everything you will find in any motivational book ala “swallow the frog first” and “One big thing” and so on. True, if you can do the most important thing first thing in the morning, that would be ideal - but, would you be reading these lines then?
Next time you struggle to find the motivation to do something, set a specific timer for around 30min and do something from your “I have never regretted list”. When the alarm sounds, move right back to the task and see if you can find the energy to start. If you still can’t, try point #1 now.
Discipline and boredom: I write almost every day… Am I motivated to do so every time? Hell no! I block out a specific time of the day that I know would be available the majority of times. Each day when the time comes, I sit myself down in front of the laptop. That’s the discipline part. Now, the next part is crucial, I allow myself to just sit there without doing or writing anything, (It’s also about first building the habit before you can optimize for results). If I sat there for an hour without writing a single word I would still count it as a successful day. I mean it. However, you would be surprised how bored your brain gets if it can’t be distracted by your smartphone or the latest news. So most of the time when I stare at the screen, after a couple of minutes my brain is like: “might as well write something to keep us entertained”, and the words start to come out. You can do the same with the task that causes you to procrastinate. Block out a specific time for it each day and allow yourself to not do it but don’t allow yourself to do anything else whatsoever. The goal is to let the task at hand compete against boredom.
Motivation buddy: Whenever I’m thinking about skipping my scheduled workout I think about my most disciplined friend. Let’s call him Tobias. The question in my head goes like this: “What would Tobi think of me skipping my workout for no good reason?” That emotional blackmail, or whatever you might call it, convinced me many times to put on my workout clothes and just do it.
Walk around the block: Give yourself permission to be unmotivated, but every time you catch yourself in this kind of state, take a quick 10min walk outside. You would be stunned at how fast motivation fuels you when you are facing a walk in heavy rain. Of course, walking in nice weather and sunshine will also boost your motivation.
Bird by Bird: This one has entered common knowledge so much that I’ll keep it short. Break down a big task into super small increments that you can accomplish in 30min sprints or less. When you approach the task make sure your phone is in airplane mode, and all other distractions are out of the way. It’s amazing what you can achieve in half an hour of concentrated work. Plus, sometimes you will forget the time and enter a state of flow and work well beyond the first sprint.
Change of mindset: Here is where it gets most interesting for me. Every time you lack motivation ask yourself: “What would a successful person do?” If you are facing a decision- let’s say between watching Netflix or writing that dreaded report you’ve been putting off- repeat this in your head: “I’m a successful person and I know what is good for me and my future”. You can apply this way of thinking not just for motivation but also for clean eating, working out, being a good partner, and so on.
Dark chocolate: We are entering dangerous grounds… However stupid it might sound, it is scientifically proven that dark chocolate boosts dopamine levels. Do not use this excessively, however, otherwise, you will face bigger problems than your procrastination.
Cold shower: We have come to the atomic bomb of motivational tools. You will shy away from using this one but you can’t deny its effectiveness. It will shorten your motivational crisis by at least two years and save millions of innocent lives… wait, sorry, I’ve got carried away with the atomic bomb metaphor... Let me try again; Not unlike chocolate, cold showers are scientifically proven to boost dopamine levels. Unlike chocolate, the boost itself is way higher. We are talking 250% increase! (For comparison, sex will yield only a 100% increase.) Cold showers have a lot of other health benefits, unfortunately, another feature they possess is that they are extremely unpleasant. Nevertheless, if nothing else on your list works I guarantee that this will do the trick. How long do you need to torture yourself? For as long as you can endure, however, even a five-minute cold shower will have an effect.
Our list is now complete, but that does not mean that there aren’t any more tools... Ten is just such a nice number, so we wouldn’t want to ruin that, would we?
Where do you go from here? Well, why not write yourself a nice little note with all ten steps and place it somewhere visible? If you find yourself on the couch too often watching TV then maybe the TV screen is where the list should go. Feel free to add to the list and erase what didn’t work.
Is this going to solve all of your future motivational crises? Probably not. After all, you are human and our brains are most likely wired to rest and conserve energy in times of abundance. So it’s only natural that in our current world, with all its comforts and luxuries our brains are shutting us down. Don’t beat yourself up about that, in fact, you should really take it as a good sign that you are not facing an imminent threat to your life… Or have you ever seen an unmotivated Antilope not running away from a lion? Alright, before you have to suffer through more of my unsophisticated metaphors, I’ll leave you for now.
Have a successful day
GNF