We've all tuned into The Procrastination Station at one time or another. Some of us tune in quite regularly and live our lives never having achieved success. Me? Well, I tune in on occasion too and the past few weeks have been one of those rare times ...
if you'd rather be napping than working, you've tuned into the procrastination station
What sort of music does The Procrastination Station play ? Melancholy stuff: a little sad, a little wistful. Music that reminds us we should be doing something but, hey, that's ok listener, chill out and let your focus go.
"You could stare out of the window for a while? Maybe a nice little nap?"
Procrastination comes in all shapes and sizes, but in a nutshell, it's "a state of mind that stops you from moving forward with a particular decision, event or project by easily distracting you with unimportant and/or unproductive tasks."
And there are a million and one different unimportant or unproductive tasks that you can choose from aren't there? But even though you know you should be doing something important, you still do them and it makes you feel worse and worse until, like me, you start getting pissed off with yourself and you have to do something about it before you scream!
The most important thing you need to do is identify why you're procrastinating because you already know what about. You can do this by having a conversation. If it's a business task then talk to another business person about it. If it's personal then a good friend or family member will suffice.
"My recent procrastination was to do with reshooting some video!"
They are for the homepage of sblogit.com. I originally did them on my mobile phone and although they're ok, they're not as good as I want them to me. I know I need to reshoot them, but I've been putting it off and off, so today is the day that I redo them, because I've procrastinated long enough.
Besides, I have a client coming over to do some videos, so I'm going to fit them in after she's gone so I'm killing two birds with one stone!
So, my procrastination comes from my unconscious mind saying "hey, the videos are good enough, you don't need to reshoot them really, do you?" and that is a very valid opinion from that part of my mind so I continued to listen to the melancholy tunes of The Procrastination Station and distract myself by playing with a laser pointer and driving my cats crazy.
Once you identify that you are procrastinating about something, the way to open that particular conversation is with the words "I feel I'm procrastinating and it's beginning to annoy me". The immediate response from your friend, colleague, coach or business peer will be "what about?" That's the start of your journey of discovery, isn't it?
The four stages of that journey are:
What am I procrastinating about?
Why am I procrastinating about it?
How do I solve it and move forward?
When will I do it by?
My journey is this: "I am procrastinating about reshooting these videos because they're good enough really. The solution is to include the reshoot when a client comes over later and just get them done." See how the four stages are all mentioned? Simple hey?
I worked through this with a good friend of mine late last week and gave myself the weekend off to let it settle in and see what my unconscious mind thinks of the solution. So far it seems Ok with it (I'm no longer pissed off with myself!) and I will put my plan into action this afternoon.
"So what are you procrastinating about then?"
What project do you need to complete? What decision have you got to make? What have you got to do that you don't want to do? What are you putting off time and time again? Talk to someone you trust then switch off The Procrastination Station and tune into something more upbeat.
Foodie, sci-fi nut, cat lover, brain aneurysm & cancer survivor, countryside dweller, SaaS entrepreneur, developer and networker.
Published my first website in 1993 for the Open University and am highly experienced with Windows Servers, SQL Server, HTML, Classic ASP, JavaScript, and CSS.
I've also worked as a professional photographer in Los Angeles, USA and been a vision mixer and producer for live television in my time.
I live in a village north of Milton Keynes with my two cats, Baggins and Gimley, and a large planted aquarium full of unruly tropical fish.
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