Procrastination Is Habit Forming
How to beat procrastinating your routine tasks.
Today’s topic is procrastination. The quick and dirty tip is to make things habitual.
Listener Julia wrote in asking:
“Do you have any tips about procrastination? It gets me everywhere—in my school life, in my home life, in my cleaning. Every time I can find a reason to procrastinate, I use it. Exercise… I mean, everything.”
How to Stop Procrastinating
We all procrastinate, and we put off the very things that are most important. What is up with that? You mentioned exercise. Here’s how I procrastinate exercise:
“Time to exercise!” I say as I leap out of bed. Then I look around the room for anything shiny. “Oh, look. A penny! That reminds me, I saw a lot of loose change around the apartment. Maybe I should gather it all up and take it to the bank while I’m thinking of it. And as long as I’m going to the bank, my checking account needs reconciling.” The next thing you know, it’s 6 p.m., and everything is done except my workout. Trainer Tyler would not be pleased. He might punish me by making me do my next workout in front of a mirror wearing spandex. Given my current body shape, that would be torture, indeed.
But I’ll bet there’s a lot you don’t put off. Most people shower, brush their teeth, and get dressed every morning without procrastinating. They just do it. People who cook go shopping weekly and stock up. They don’t procrastinate, they just do it. And when it comes to putting on shoes and socks, well, gosh darn it, I just put those socks right on my feetsies and leap into my day.
The difference is thinking. When you think before you act, you can talk yourself out of anything, no matter how important it might be.
Habits are Thoughtless
What makes the things you do on time effortless is not their importance. I can survive months without doing laundry, especially if I don’t care about keeping my friends. Laundry is just not that important. I can get gum infections and lose all my teeth if I don’t brush regularly. Brushing is that important. Yet I treat them equally. I do laundry weekly and I brush daily. That’s because I’ve made them habits. Habits are actions we streamline to the point where they’re no longer a decision, they’re just something we do. They don’t require thought, so we don’t procrastinate. We just do them.
Stop Procrastinating by Making Things Habits
The easiest way to overcome procrastination is to make things habits. You can have daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly habits. I brush my teeth daily, do laundry weekly, pay bills monthly, and do spring cleaning yearly. That’s when I find all the socks that vanish during weekly laundry.
Establish a habit by making it regular. Put it on your calendar to remind you. When the time comes, treat it as an appointment. Better yet, make the appointment with a friend until it becomes habit. Call your friend at the appointed time and check in. “I’m doing the dishes now.” If you’re in a relationship, your shmoopie will be thrilled to help you develop a habit, especially if it involves cooking for the two of you, cleaning up shmoopie’s dirty socks, and going to the gym after polishing off that entire bag of Funyuns.
Use Space to Reinforce Habits
You can reinforce habits by connecting them to different spaces. I write in a friend’s apartment, where I get totally absorbed in writing, except when the cat demands attention (I’m a sucker for anything that purrs). I work out at the gym and pay bills at my desk. Since each space is associated with only one activity, over time, I move to that space and the habit kicks right in.
Use Action Days for One-Time Tasks
Some things only happen once, so making them a habit won’t help–even though some people do turn one-time events into a habit. Like my friend Mike and weddings. All I can say is that what happens in Vegas really should stay in Vegas. And if it doesn’t, you shouldn’t go back and visit Vegas. You can handle one-time events using action days. I schedule action days occasionally. In this episode’s transcript, you’ll find a link to my episode on action days and a signup to be notified next time I run one.
When All Else Fails, Use Carrots and Sticks
For one-time events, reward yourself when you do them, and punish yourself when you don’t. For instance, if I don’t finish this episode by 8 p.m. tonight, I have to clean the litter box. That’s the punishment. But if I finish by 5 p.m., I get a wonderful sushi dinner. You can add more pressure by inviting friends to join you for the reward. That way you have to cancel if you don’t meet the deadline. I’ll make evening social plans that must get canceled if my writing isn’t done. It’s amazing how many pages I can write when my pre-purchased Harry Potter movie tickets are on the line.
Procrastination comes from thinking. Beat it by making your regular events habits on regular days at regular times. Have a friend join you for mutual support, and schedule activities in different places so going to the space kicks you into action. Add in action days, penalties, and rewards and you should be able to overcome any procrastination.
Get a FREE Book Chapter
Want a FREE book chapter about beating procrastination? Read chapter 2 from my book here.
Resources
- – My episode on Action Days
- steverrobbins doitdays – sign up to be notified of future action days
Procrastinating image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
