Tips to Stop Procrastination

You Already Know WHAT To Do

Procrastination isn’t so much a matter of poor organization as it is a psychological block:

Trust me, procrastination is not a time-management problem. It’s a complex problem involving personality, situations and motivation.

Here are three psychologically sound tips to help procrastinators overcome this problem.

1. Just get started. Don’t waste time over-planning and over-thinking; research shows that once you actually begin a task, your perceptions of that task change. And making even a little progress boosts your well-being, which in turn gives you more motivation to work.

2. Suck it up. It is a distastesful task? It is difficult? Would you rather be doing something — anything! — else? Tough. You need to just plunge in and deal with it. It’s a  hard-nosed approach but necessary with procrastinators, who tend to avoid dealing with the negative emotions associated with unpleasant tasks.

Don’t Give in

Don’t “give in to feeling good” such that you focus on short-term mood repair. Keep your focus on long-term progress on your goal.

Brutal Honesty

3. Be honest with yourself. Stop the self-deception. You might argue that you’ll feel more like doing it tomorrow, that you work better under pressure, or that it can wait. As Pychyl notes, you won’t, you don’t, and it can’t. Instead of giving in, recognize these thoughts as red flags that signal your desire to procrastinate and go back to tips 1 and 2.

Action First, Feelings Follow

One can liken procrastinators to 3-year-old’s who don’t want to do something, arguing, “I don’t feel like it. I need to feel better in order to act. First, I need to feel better.” Wrong, he says; in fact, your feelings will follow your behaviors, so progress on that task will actually improve your mood.

While tips aren’t a sure-fire recipe for success — after all, tips are only useful if you follow them — I think these three could really make a dent in your procrastination habit.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Neural Maps

Neural Maps

In terms of productivity, developing new attitudes, behaviours and habits are not only desirable, they are essential.

They are necessary because without them you won’t be able to function effectively. Most routine things you do are done on “autopilot”, like driving your car, cleaning your teeth, doing your job etc.

As a human being you (along with everyone else) constantly:

•    Make connections in your brain

•    Divide things into pair of opposites (such as good, bad, right wrong)

•    Look for coincidences

•    Compare & contrast

•    Differentiate

•    Make meaning out of the connections you make

What you are doing is making new neural pathways in your brain and strengthening existing ones. These maps show up in areas such as skills, habits, opinions and beliefs.

Sadly, as I see it, most people seem to live their whole lives unconsciously, totally conditioned by family, peers, marketers, advertisers and propaganda. They don’t have an original thought; everything they think is thrown up habitually by their subconscious minds, some of it dysfunctional.

Does Intelligence Matter?

But no matter how much you improve the processing power of your “human computer” there is still the matter of the “data set” with which it views the world.

Put another way, the data on your “human hard drive” determines to a large extent how you interpret “new data.”

Or simpler still: depending on your experience of life up to this point, how you react to new experiences can differ radically.

For example, a man having been rejected by a woman may perceive that moment as humorous or devastating.

A woman may perceive the apparent sexual advances of a man as threatening or flattering.

A speaker may perceive laughter as his audience laughing with him – or at him.

Why?

Same stimuli + different perceptual instruments + unique neural map = different data”

“Neural map” refers to our best understanding of neuroscience to date: neural networking.

The human mind can be viewed as a complex network of data and connections between those data. (Warning: colossal understatement follows.)

In relation to your well-being, the data matters and the connections matter.

These connections are a complex web of different sensations, feelings and beliefs and actions.

Which neural maps may be hindering your productivity?

Why not create new, more empowering ones?

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Congruence and Productivity

What is an Emotion?

This is the sixth post and last post on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

It is said that emotions are the body’s reaction to a thought. Fair enough.

It follows then to say that if there was no bodily reaction to an event or thought then there would not be an emotion.

In a sense, all you would be left with is an opinion, a viewpoint.

In her book Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert puts forward a strong argument that not only do thoughts trigger feelings by the release of chemicals in the brain, but the opposite is also true. Feelings affect thoughts. Just think of a time you were sick. The chemicals communicate in both directions, from brain to body and body to brain.

Who is Driving The Bus?

She has the view (which I share) that the subconscious mind IS the body because that is where the emotional memories are stored.

Whether we like to admit it or not, our subconscious minds run the show.

If we consciously aim for a goal that subconsciously we believe we do not deserve or are not worthy of, then the subconscious will win. It wins because it uses feelings to get its own way.

You are not aware of the real reasons, all you know is you don’t feel good and that is enough to stop you. Of course, gut feelings can be and often are beneficial as well.

All I am suggesting is that you take a look. It may well change your life.

Get Congruent

People who learn to steer their subconscious mind so it is pointing in the same direction as their conscious mind are far more likely to achieve their goals than those who do not.

We call this congruence.

My job as a performance coach is to enable my clients to be as congruent as possible so that self sabotage and other self limiting behaviours are minimised.

Simple isn’t it?

It is okay to write or say this, but it is not so easy to stop the feelings coming up when things aren’t going so well.

Or is it? My job is to help you do that.

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How to Reduce Stress

What Causes Stress?

We’ve all heard of common solutions to relieving stress. Things like meditation, breathing, diet, exercise and positive thinking all come readily to mind.

Bridging the gap between our western attitude to life focussed on material wealth and an eastern or traditional approach to life centred on our beingness for me is a real key.

Our society today promotes the myth that striving to be more, producing more and having more will ultimately solve our problems and make us happy.

Anything less we are led to believe makes us a failure. Add to that the information overload we all suffer from, it’s no wonder many people suffer from stress, depression, frustration and addictions.

A quick look at health statistics, mental and physical will readily confirm these assertions.

What is Success?

So how do you measure this thing called success? I think before we can measure it we need to define it. It means different things to different people. One of my favourite definitions is:

Progressive Realisation of Worthwhile Pre-Determined Personal Goals.

Coming from this perspective, the enjoyment is in what you do on the way to the achieving of the goal. In a way, the actual goal becomes secondary to the unspoken real goal which is self actualisation.

How do you know when you’ve made it? We are conditioned, it appears, to always view ourselves as somehow inadequate, not quite making the grade, and so we continue to strive to improve ourselves, to work even harder in order to get better results, accumulate wealth, material possessions or even enlightenment.

It’s struggle that we are sure to lose. But every day we repeat the same pattern, unconsciously striving for whatever it is we think will make us complete.

The reality is, you’ll never make it, you ARE it. You just aren’t aware of it yet.

Be Happy Anyway

It’s a big trap most fall into and in this respect we are like Sisyphus who, in ancient Greek mythology, was doomed forever in Hades to push a rock up a hill. He would nearly make it to the top when the effort would overtake him so he and the rock would roll all the way down to the bottom. He’d then have to start the whole futile exercise over again, with inevitably the same result.

It is all too easy to get caught up in and overwhelmed by the demands we put on ourselves that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that “Things” don’t make us happy.

Now, please understand there is absolutely nothing wrong with setting goals for anything. We , as human beings thrive on it. It’s the dysfunctional subconscious patterns, habits and beliefs that distort the whole process.

Why not be fundamentally happy anyway, BEFORE and DURING your quest, rather than putting unrealistic and impossible to meet conditions on yourself and those around you? Your sense of self worth stays with you regardless of what happens.

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Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Conditioning and Productivity

I was thinking the other day on the different factors that help people produce consistently good results on a day to day basis so I created the following video to explain in simple terms how this happens and more importantly, what to do about it.

 

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Finding Fault With Others

This is the fifth post (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

“When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears.” Goenka

All sorts of problems you have with other people and situations can be examined and with a little practice you can catch yourself while the incident is taking place or at least shortly after.

I was on my way to work one morning, walking along the footpath on a busy road in an industrial area, when I noticed a vehicle approaching with its left indicator on. The driver wanted to turn into the driveway that I was just about to walk over. I stopped and waved him through.

Well, that is exactly what he did but he drove straight past without even looking at me or putting his hand up to say thank you. My immediate reaction was one of anger at his apparent rudeness.

Almost immediately I asked myself what it was about his actions that I did not like.  After a few seconds’ reflection I realized that it was his apparent unwillingness to acknowledge me that got my blood boiling.

But wait a minute, isn’t that what I have been doing to myself all these years? And to others?

I have been more than willing to note everything that I’ve done wrong and beat myself up over it, reinforcing my inadequacies, but I have never acknowledged the good things I have done.

Wow!

That poor man was an unwitting accomplice in another act of self-healing.  He may not have seen me, maybe he did deliberately ignore me, he could have been under a lot of stress or there was some other reason entirely.

Whatever it was, it belonged to him, not me.

Sometime ago a young man called Bill came to see me because he was finding it hard to cope at work. He found himself getting really irritated at a female co-worker far too often and didn’t know why. He knew it was irrational but couldn’t stop it.

Bill and I sat down together and had a look at what it was he did not like about her behaviour. The trait she displayed that he recognized as his own was selfishness. He saw that that was exactly how he had been behaving at home, refusing to help around the house and generally being uncooperative with his parents, especially his mother.

Bringing that to the light of day caused him to take stock and start to consider others as he would consider himself.

While it is very obvious that someone who takes and does not give is very selfish the converse can also be true. That is, someone who will only give and refuses to receive is also selfish.

Why is that?

Simply put, they are not allowing others to give. Denying others the opportunity to do what you love to do is not a fair exchange – is it?

Anna found herself getting slightly irritated with her mother at a family barbecue one evening. She overheard her mother putting herself down with a throwaway comment similar to “I couldn’t do that, I am not smart enough”.

Through her previous work with me she had learned how to apply the mirror. On closer inspection she found that was exactly what she had been doing to herself for a large part of her life. Yet she had not been consciously aware of it.

Until now.

Andy was at a business meeting one evening and started talking to a woman with a Scottish accent. He took a dislike to her almost immediately and withdrew from the conversation and possibly some new business. When we looked at this incident together a week or two later he was able to understand the cause of his discomfort and deal with it.

She had came across to him as being a “know it all”. On reflection, he recognised that quality in himself at times. Also, her accent and looks reminded him of an aunt he had when he was young that he disliked intensely.

Fortunately, he was able to meet with her again soon after and discuss doing business together.

As a result of our work, she no longer bothered him as he had “made the darkness conscious” and learned to be more accepting of himself.

Do any of these examples ring a bell for you? If so and you would like to delve a little deeper into your own behaviour give me a call. Initial meeting is free and without obligation.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Self Esteem

This is the fourth post (part 1, part 2, part 3) on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

“When you become immobilized by what anybody else thinks of you, what you are saying is that someone else’s opinion of you is more important than your own opinion of yourself.” Dr. Wayne Dyer

I remember being at a function and being introduced to somebody who seemed to look down on me. I sensed sarcasm and that this person felt they were superior.

My feelings were a mixture of feeling inferior and being angry.

Looking Through the Mirror

Looking back on the incident using the mirror it is clear that again, I was seeing something in a person that I did not like about myself. That is, I sometimes behaved in the same way towards other people I considered inferior to me.

Dropping the need to judge others has been a wonderful release for me as I am learning to be more accepting of myself.

Because I have given up blaming people, which is a very destructive form of judgement, I no longer feel the need to forgive anybody for anything. That does not mean I cannot hold them accountable for their actions – I can.

What it does mean is that if I don’t assign blame, I accept that what is, IS. There is nothing and nobody TO forgive.

Looking through the eyes of the mirror I can see that their pain is my pain. They are stuck in their own stuff just as I was. If you are like most other people then you are probably much harder and more judgmental on yourself than you could ever be towards anybody else.

Lunacy

Imagine meeting somebody whom you instantly dislike because you consider them arrogant. The other person sees the same in you and an argument starts over something trivial.

Then you have the sight of two people having a go at each other when all they are really doing is having a go at themselves.

It is bizarre and funny looking at it from this angle but that is what happens.

Does something similar happen to you occasionally? If you feel like you need some help why not give me call on 0421 210 444 anytime. It won’t cost you a thing to find out if I can help.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Heal the Past

This is the third post (part 1, part 2) on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

“Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasure”. Rainier Maria Rilke

I was playing for my local soccer team one Sunday morning some years ago.  During the game a few things had not gone our way, and I found myself blaming the referee for our shortcomings.  As we were leaving the field I went over to the referee (who was only doing it as a favour) and abused him. Among the words I threw at him were “useless”, “incompetent”, “weak” and well, you don’t really want to know the rest. But, I’m sure you get the idea.

My Fault

Almost immediately after this outburst I felt a great deal of guilt and apologized profusely to him and the other players, but it was some years later when I recalled the incident that I applied the mirror to it. No surprises here, but it is a good snapshot of how I viewed myself at the time.

My failure was to not accept responsibility and understand that the result of the game was really in my hands and those of my teammates, not in his.  My eagerness to pass judgment on him was really a way of blinding me to my own perceived faults.

One of the ways to heal the past is to follow this simple process:

• Locate or remember a time in your business, work or socially someone or something upset you

• Observe what it was about that person or situation that you did not like

• Write your thoughts down, i.e. he or she was selfish, arrogant, and ignorant and so on.

• Consider what it was about the situation that you were resisting.

• Go through each of the items you have written down one at a time, honestly look at yourself and see if any of them may apply to , now or in the past. You may see yourself as sometimes selfish for instance.

• As soon as you realise that the part of him or her you don’t like is exactly what you don’t like about that part of yourself, take another look. Do you still feel the same way? The simple act of acknowledging something you were not consciously aware of is part of the healing process.

Different Point of View

Looking at it now, this does not mean that I just changed the point of blame on to me so I could be even harder on myself.

It became an opportunity to understand myself better.  After all, if my feelings towards him could suddenly disappear due to this realization, then maybe I could do the same for the feelings I had for myself.

It gave me hope.

If you see yourself in any of this and would like some help, give me a call on 0421 210 444 to arrange a Free, No Obligation 30 minute chat to see how we can work together.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Perseverance and Productivity

Hi, I’ve often pondered on the tiny difference there can be between winning and losing, especially in sport. This video demonstrates in a very clear and motivating way how small differences can have a huge effect on outcomes.

If you want to get that little bit more from yourself, call James on

0421 210 444 NOW!

If the video doesn’t appear above, please click on the Post Title at the top to see it

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Why We All Need A Coach

The one critical reason why we all need a coach is that sometimes our perception of a situation is skewed and one dimensional. We all could do with someone to assist us to obtain a more balanced perspective in life.

It can be like riding a tobbogan down a hill in the snow again and again. There are many ways to get to the bottom but if you keep going down the same path you’ll make deep tracks that make you go faster but seriously limit your ability to change direction.

You get comfortably stuck in a rut.

If that rut is your life then the tracks that cause your problems are your fears, beliefs and habits.

Counter-Productive Belief

For a long time I ran my business with the belief that I should really look after my customers.

“Nothing wrong with that” I hear you saying to yourself. Perfectly true. But it wasn’t until someone helped me see what I couldn’t. That yes, I was looking after my customers but I wasn’t looking after me. There was an awful lot I was doing at my expense while thinking I was doing the right thing.

I was unable to see both sides of the equation.

Once seen from this new perspective and acted upon, it made a huge difference in terms of profit and self confidence.

Sport and Life

Having a coach to help you with your goals, beliefs and to develop empowering habits really does make sense. How many top sports people do you know that don’t have a coach? I’m certainly not aware of any.

You are participating in the most important game of all, your life.

Make the most of it.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

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