I am a huge procrastinator. Like really huge. As in, it is a significant problem in my life huge. I would say I have been procrastinating on some things for over a decade. So yeah, way worse than not getting to that term paper or whatever.

I’m going to attempt to articulate my issues with it, and hopefully you can relate on some similarities, and glean anything from this article that can may find helpful with your own plight to overcome this nasty affliction.

Let’s get what we know out of the way first:

  1. True procrastination is based primarily in fear. I am participating in avoidance behavior because I don’t want to face the thing that needs to be done. Whether I should be scared of that thing or not is irrelevant. The issue is that I am, and am not moving forward as a result of that fear.
  2. This gives way to habit. Fear can eventually dissipate, but by the time it does, the habit of not doing remains in its place. I’d say laziness fits into this category as well. Being lazy often is just a bad habit.
  3. You want to start someday, but you don’t have the time or the energy. You are tired, and you don’t want to put the work in.

These are basically the only reasons why you avoid doing something. Fear of doing it, and the habit of not doing it.

So how do we combat it?

Well, that’s the hard bit, right? If you know that your procrastination is based in fear and habit, you have to do two things:

  1. Face the fear, and act despite it.
  2. Create new habits that assist in getting the thing done.

Facing the fear, then acting despite it

So it is easy for me just say that, and call it a day, but the truth is that this is nearly insurmountable for some people. It’s not a question of whether they feel like doing something or not. They physically cannot get themselves to move forward. Like an unseen force that they can’t pass through. An impenetrable glass window, where they can see everything they want on the other side, but can’t get to. It’s super frustrating, and drives you mental. This is the sort of procrastination I am referring to. Not the kind of procrastination where you don’t want to wash the dishes because your favorite show is on, so you’ll do it later. That is more of an unpleasant task that no one really feels like doing. But it gets done eventually. It gets done, because eventually the problem just grows until you can;t avoid it anymore. And of course, by then, it’s a larger job than before.

So, at some point, we have to act. We don’t want to. We wish the thing that we needed to do would go away, but it doesn’t. It just sits there and nags at us.

But there is a thing about the previous statement that may differ in your situation. Dishes need to get done. Papers need to get written. But, what about businesses that need to be started? Or books that need to be written?

The issue here, is that it isn’t a need. It’s a want. You want to start a business, or you want to start a book, but you can’t, and you don’t have to. That is the difference. Yes, you have to make money, but you don’t have to run a business to do it. You can get a job. You don’t have to write a book. You can watch TV instead. See, without the requirement to do so, you don’t do it. Combine that wishy washy commitment with fear, and you won’t start.

Let’s say that you do finally commit to a course of action. You are finally going to start that business. Do you know what you are going to do? Do you know what your Day 1 is going to look like? Without any sort of plan, I guarantee it won’t get done. So what can we do?

Well, waiting for motivation is definitely not going to work. Mel Robbins, a very popular motivation speaker right now, has a whole system called the 5 Second Rule, where ii basically tells you to act immediately after the count of 5. One of her pillars is that motivation is bullshit. I totally agree. If you wait to feel like doing something, you may be waiting for a very long time. You have to start right away.

So, we have to act despite fear. Despite not knowing exactly what we are doing. Despite not seeing all the steps. If you know step 1, then it’s good enough to start. Trust me on this. If you are wasting time searching on YouTube for ways to beat procrastination, ironically all you are doing is procrastination.

You will not think your way out it. You have to act your way out. Take action and make a bit of progress.

I can’t harp on this enough. There is no system that is going to get you to want to take action. Stop looking for one. It’s fear that is stopping you, and you have to deal with it head on. Break the insurmountable mountain into smaller pieces. I am talking micro small.

You want to write a book? Awesome. Understand it will take a lot of effort. If it didn’t, I bet the book would absolutely suck. And don’t expect to write it in one draft either. You may write half the book, but halfway through, get such an amazing idea for the story, that you may have to trash what you’ve written, and start again. That’s fine. If you are still committed knowing that it will take a lot of work, then start small. Choose the genre of the book. Then choose a title. Then draft out the very basic elements of what the story is about. Then flush out a character, then another. And so on and so forth.

Same with a business. Do you know what sort of business you want to start? A blog maybe? Great. What is the blog about? Seahorses? Cool. I love seahorses. Do you have some articles? No? Can you come up with 5 ideas for 5 articles? I bet you can. Ok, so you have some article ideas. Now you have to set up the site. Find some hosting. That’s easy, just literally google web hosting, and pick one. Then get WordPress set up with a simple install. There, step 2 done. Then put a theme on there. Either buy one, or download a free one. Get that installed. There, now you can start writing. If you got stuck on the initial first step because you didn’t know anything about hosting, you could of faced that issue and dealt with it within an hour. The trick is to break things down. I bet there is a minor thing you are procrastinating on right now, that you could literally complete in under an hour. If there is, try to get that thing done. See how you feel after. If you feel great, you will want to feel that way again. You can, if you complete a bit each day towards your goals.

So, at this point, we know what we want to do, and we have broken it down. But now what?

Create the action habit

This is the second part of the secret sauce. You now need to install habits to keep yourself going.

When you start a running program, and you are totally out of shape, you are not going to enjoy the start. You are going to feel like utter shit as you run, and you are going to suck at it. But that is how it is supposed to be. If you were an awesome runner already, you wouldn’t need to go through this torture. But the reality is, you ARE out of shape, so you need to do this. You’ve committed to running, and you have started (which is definitely the hardest part). But now, you have to do several runs. That my friend, is going to require habit. And here is the crappy part. It’s going to take a few weeks to work. How long? Some people say 21 days. But I’ve also heard 66 days is the secret number. But you know what, it doesn’t really matter. Because are you planning to quit on day 22? Or day 67? No, you’re not. You are trying to install the habit of running, so you can stick with it. You start running, and it sucks for the first week. The 2nd week, if you are running at the exact same pace, it will seem a bit easier. By the 3rd week, that current pace or distance will seem to easy. You will need to increase it. Your threshold for what you can handle will go up. If you stick with a consistent running regimen, you can go from barely doing half a mile, to running full marathons. Hell, ultra-marathoners run even further than that. Habit is totally required for running. Without it, you won;t progress. You can’t run a couple of times, then be able to run a marathon. It would be next to impossible for the average person to do.

For the business example, the habit could be to work the same time for the same interval every day. Everybody can work at least an hour a day. This is your power hour. To make it even more consistent, set it at the exact same time every day. If you currently have a 9-5 job, then either get up earlier to do it, or do it in the evening. You may be tired while you are doing it, but it’s getting done. No one said it would be easy.

For the book example, this is basically the same idea. Write one page a day. One. At the end of a year, you’ll have a 365 page book. Animal Farm by George Orwell is 112 pages long. Using this system, you’d have it done in under 4 months. Is your book going to be as profound as his? Most likely not. But you got it done. And that’s better than most.

Just think systems. Create a system for what you want to do. Keep it dirt simple, then execute it. It must be simple. If it is complex, you won’t stick with it.

Watch out for the inevitable excuses

This is how you derail yourself. And it is really just being lazy if you stop and think about it:

  • I just worked all day, and I’m too tired to do anything else.
  • I have no idea where to start. For instance, I know I want to start an eCommerce business, but I don;t know what to sell.
  • What I want to do will take money, and I don’t have any.
  • I’m not smart enough to do that thing.
  • Other people think my idea is stupid. I’m not getting the support I need.
  • Insert lame excuse here

I’m not going to spend too much time on any of these examples. I just wanted to illustrate that you will find reasons to not do the thing you want to do. And they may seem impassible, but I guarantee that if you commit to what you want to do, you can get it done.

Don’t have time? Make time. Turn off your TV. Get your kids to help with chores around the house. Decrease time spent on other activities. You WILL find that extra hour to work on your project.

Don’t have money? Does the thing you want to achieve even cost any money? If it is a business, start a business that doesn’t take much money. Or get a small loan from the bank. Nothing huge. A few grand. Only if you borrow it, make sure you spend it on the business. I know there is a fear that you will lose this money. But understand that most business will require a bit of start up capital. Figure it out. Sell some stuff that you don’t need anymore. Work a side gig. Whatever.

Not smart enough? Start and you’ll get smart quickly. There are plenty of morons that have their own businesses.

People think your idea is stupid? Ignore them.

Recognize that you will talk yourself out of things. But make sure the commitment is there first. Once you have a rock solid commitment in place, you can create a platform to build your habits on.

In conclusion

Procrastination is what they call the silent killer. It will just hang around you like a black cloud and won;t go away on its own. You have to shoo it away.  The only way to do this is through action. The only way I know to get something done that you don;t want to do yourself, is to hire it done. If that is not an option for you, then you will need to put in the work. Stop looking for a solution. That is the solution. Take action. Build habits to sustain the continual action. Repeat. That is how it is done.

Final thought:
Procrastination is not laziness. It is anxiety. You cure this anxiety through taking action and forming habits. Because you start out scared, the actions you take can be small. But over time, the fear will shrink as your confidence in your ability grows. Excuses will come up, attempting to get you to stop taking action, but you must recognize them as a natural resistance, and push through them.