How To Overcome Procrastination – Part 5

Posted Sep 5 2009 by Celes

This is the last part of a series on How to Overcome Procrastination.

Part 1: Why Overcome Procrastination?
Part 2: Procrastination – Symptom of An Issue
Part 3: 1st Root Cause – Lack of Desire
Part 4: 2nd Root Cause – Fear
Part 5: How To Overcome Procrastination

If you have read this far, I assume procrastination is a problem you face and want to address. In this part, you’ll learn how to overcome your procrastination through an introspective exercise. Time to stop procrastinating and get the problem nipped in the bud!

Exercise To Uncover Why You Procrastinate

As with all our exercises, grab a notebook and pen or open up your processing document. Set aside about 20 minutes or so for this. We will be doing a fair bit of writing for this exercise.

Think of your mind as containing thousands of layers of information. At the bottom of this lies your subconsciousness. Every day, more layers get piled on as you face new contexts. In order to get down to your subconsciousness, we need to clear off the layers (done through steps 2-4) and get down to the depths of the mind.

Ready? Here we go

1) Start off by identifying something you are procrastinating on, even though you want to work on it.

This should be an area where you have displayed a continuous pattern of putting off in. For illustration purpose, I’ll take the example of exercising to keep fit.

2) Ask yourself: “Why am I putting this off?”

Write everything that comes up. You may have 1 answer, 2 answers, or even 5 different answers – it doesn’t matter. Even if your mind responds with “I don’t know”, write that in anyway, then ask the same question again. Chances are, you’re going to get a different answer this time. Just keep on writing until nothing else comes up. For a reference, this process might take anywhere from 5 minutes to even over 30 minutes if there’s a lot of stuff you have to write. Everything you write in step 2 are your 1st level answers.

Possible 1st level answers for procrastinating on exercise may be:

I don’t want to exercise
I’m too lazy
I have no discipline
Exercising is boring
The gym is too far away
I don’t know
I hate exercising
I don’t have enough time

3) Pick out hotspot answers for probing.

If you remember in part-2, I shared laziness and lack of discipline are rarely ever the real issues. Approaches involving discipline and time management are the ointments and creams to mosquito bites. They usually patch up the symptoms without dealing with the root of the issue. Thus, ignore answers like “I’m too lazy”, “I have no discipline”, “I don’t have enough time”. Chances are, probing in those areas will get you nowhere.

From the remaining answers, pick out the hot spots answers for probing. Hot spot answers are answers that are more than meets the eye. When probed, they explode to reveal the other layers underneath. Hot spot answers are usually tied to:

Feelings (desire, fear, feeling of discomfort, etc) . Examples are “I don’t feel like doing it”, “I’m scared”, “I feel tired” or “I hate doing this”.
One’s ability. Examples are “I don’t know how to”, “It takes so much time and effort”, “There’s so much to do”.

In the exercise example, some hot spot answers are “I don’t want to exercise” and “I hate exercising”.

4) Probe into the hotspot answers from #3.

Dig into the answers to uncover what lies beneath. There are many ways to do this depending on the original answer. The simplest way is to question why that’s the case or why it matters. Below are some examples of how to dig into hotspot answers:

“I don’t want to [exercise]” -> “Why don’t I want to exercise?”
“I hate [exercising]” -> “Why do I hate exercising?”
“I don’t know how to do this” -> “So what if I don’t know how to do this?”, “What does it mean to me if I don’t know how to do this?”, “Why is this stopping me from doing the task?”

5) Keep repeating #4 until you reach an “a-ha” moment that cracks the whole issue wide open.

Keep probing and probing until you get the “a-ha” moment. Some people will ask “How do I know if I’ve reached an a-ha moment or not?” The short answer is this – you’ll know when it comes. There will be an inner sense of resonance when you arrive at the answer, because then everything suddenly clicks and makes complete sense. You finally realize why you’ve been trying to avoid the activity all this while – not because of laziness, but because of something else.

The more connected you are with your higher self, the more effective this exercise. If you often take time to self-reflect and have a high level of self-awareness, this exercise will be relatively easy. Chances are, the answers will affirm what you already know about yourself.

On the other hand, if you frequently repress your thoughts/feelings and have a low level of self-awareness, this exercise might take a longer time. More often than not, you’ll end up in a block during your questioning where the same answers keep surfacing. This may also happen for highly self-aware people when probing into a new territory. Some of my clients experience this when we dig into a deeply set pattern in their life, where the only answer that comes up is “I don’t know” or “I’m really not sure”.

When that happens, don’t give up. Just because you don’t reach an ‘a-ha!’ the first round doesn’t mean you’re not going to get the answer! Every time you try to communicate with your subconsciousness, you are building a stronger connection. As long as you keep pressing on (whether it’s by trying the exercise at a different time), the answer will eventually surface. Other things you can try are:

Ask the questions with stronger intention to find the answer
Use different angles to ask your questions. For example, if you reached a dead end, backtrack to the previous answer. Then, ask a different question or ask the same question in a different way. A question like “Why am I not doing this task?” can also be phrased as “What is making me avoid this task?” or “What is it about this task that’s making me avoid it?” or “Why am I not working?”.

Using this exercise, many unintuitive, unexpected revelations can be uncovered. For example (procrastinated activity -> real reason):

Someone who procrastinates losing weight (to become more attractive) -> Because he/she hates himself/herself and wants to remain unattractive so no one will like him/her
Someone who procrastinates getting close to his/her parents -> Because he/she is afraid of being alone when they pass away one day
Someone who procrastinates finding a partner -> Because he/she has low self-worth and is afraid of putting himself/herself out there
Someone who procrastinates rehearsing for a performance -> Because he/she is afraid that he/she is incapable and wants to use the excuse of ‘last minute work’ to explain away deficiencies in performance
Someone who procrastinates going to work -> Because he/she has lost the passion for the job

While some of these underlying beliefs may seem crazy to your conscious mind, they are very real and common underpinnings to why people procrastinate. If you’re wondering why they are so counter-intuitive, it’s because they are usually based on misconceived beliefs formed when we are younger. Since your discerning ability is lower at a younger age, you form many beliefs based just from what you hear or observe around you. Over the years, these beliefs become embedded into your subconsciousness and subsequently guides your actions.

6. Create an action plan to resolve the root issue.

Now that you have uncovered the root issue, it’s now time to create your action plan to address that. For this, you can refer to the ESPER framework, a 7-part goal achievement series I have written.

Realization of the issue is usually enough to trigger one into action. That’s because it becomes immediately apparent how procrastination is the wrong solution to move forward. For example, if you have lost the passion for your job, your immediate move should be to identify a work you’re passionate in and start pursuing that. Procrastinating your current work only prolongs the issue – it’s not going to help you in any way. Another example is procrastinating on finding a partner because of low self-worth. The logical step forward should be build up your self-worth, not avoid relationships your whole life.

Wrapping Up

I hope this 5-part series has given you a deep level understanding of what exactly causes procrastination and how you can overcome it. Procrastination is always a sign of an issue in your framework of thinking. Rather than using XX tips, life hacks or time management tools to try to resolve procrastination which ultimately gets you nowhere, you should dig into what exactly is leading to your behavior of procrastination. Only true doing that, can you then finally overcome procrastination for good.

This is the last part of a series on How to Overcome Procrastination.

Part 1: Why Overcome Procrastination?
Part 2: Procrastination – Symptom of An Issue
Part 3: 1st Root Cause – Lack of Desire
Part 4: 2nd Root Cause – Fear
Part 5: How To Overcome Procrastination

If you have read this far in the series, I assume procrastination is a problem you face in your life. In this part, you will do a self-questioning exercise to uncover the drivers behind your procrastination.

Exercise To Uncover Why You Procrastinate

As with all our exercises, go and grab a notebook and pen or open up your processing document. Even though it’s a very simple exercise, there will be quite a lot of writing done in order to uncover the different layers in your mind to get down.

Think of your mind as a…

Ready? Here we go

1) Start off by identifying an area you are procrastinating on even though you don’t want to. This should be an area where you have displayed a continuous pattern of putting off in. For illustration purpose, I’ll take the example of exercising to keep fit.

2) Ask yourself: “Why am I putting off exercising?”. Write everything that comes up. You may have 1 answer, 2 answers, or even 5 different answers – it doesn’t matter. Even if your mind responds with “I don’t know”, write that in anyway, then ask the same question again. Chances are, you’re going to get a different answer this time. Basically, keep writing until nothing else comes up. For a reference, this process might take anywhere from 5 minutes to even over 30 minutes if there’s a lot of stuff you have to write. These are your 1st level answers.

Possible 1st level answers for procrastinating on exercise may be:

I don’t want to
I’m too lazy
I have no discipline
Exercising is boring
The gym is too far away
It takes a lot of time
I don’t know
I don’t have enough time

3) Pick out hotspot answers for probing. Pick out the ones that are hotspots for probing – usually related to desire, fear or a feeling of some sort. If you recall from part-2 and part-3 of the series, the 2 key drivers of procrastination are 1) lack of desire 2) fear. From the example above, “I don’t want to” is a definite hotspot since it’s hinting at a lack of desire.

Some answers may not hint any emotion but are actually hotspots. For example, procrastinating on doing a report because you don’t know how to use powerpoint. Answers like “Because I don’t know how to…”, “It takes so much time and effort”, “It’s too tiring”, “There’s so much to do” are usually gateways to deeper answers, because it relates to one’s ability. Take note of these.

Remember in part-2, I talked about how laziness and lack of discipline are rarely ever the real issues. Approaches involving discipline and time management usually patch up the symptoms without dealing with the root of the issue. They’re the ointments and creams to mosquito bites. Thus, ignore answers like “I’m too lazy”, “I have no discipline”, “I don’t have enough time”. Chances are, they’re not going to lead you anywhere productive. Trying to probe in those areas will likely leave you swirling around in a circle with the same answers.

4) Probe into the hotspot answers from #3. Dig into the answers to uncover the meaning underlying that. This is quite open-ended – there are many ways to do this depending on how the original answer is phrased and depending on your personal preference. Below are some ways on how to probe into the answers.

“I don’t want to [exercise]” can be probed via “Why don’t I want to exercise?”
“Because I don’t know how to” can be probed via “Why am I avoiding this task because I don’t know how to?”, “So what if I don’t know how to do this?”, “What does it mean that I don’t know how to do this?”, “Why is this stopping me from doing the task?”

5) Keep repeating #4 until you reach an “a-ha” moment which cracks the whole issue wide open.

Using this exercise, many unintuitive, unexpected revelations can be uncovered. For example,

Someone who procrastinates losing weight (to become more attractive) -> Because he/she hates himself/herself and wants to remain unattractive so no one will like him/her
Someone who procrastinates getting close to his/her family -> Because he/she is afraid of being alone when they pass away one day
Someone who procrastinates finding a partner -> Because he/she has low self-worth and is afraid the partner will break-up after knowing him/her fully, underneath the facades and shields
Someone who procrastinates rehearsing for a performance -> Because he/she is afraid that he/she is incapable and wants to use the excuse of ‘last minute work’ to explain away any deficiencies in performance
And the list goes on

Many of the fears that underlie procrastination come from misconceived beliefs formed since young. At that age, we do not have the mental capacity to evaluate the truth behind what people say. Thus, it becomes tucked away as a truth-north principle. This memory becomes embedded into our subconsciousness over the years. Even as we take in new information as older selves, the old snippet of information is already protected from the outside world in our subconsciousness. In order to rectify our limiting belief(s), we need to first identify the underlying belief (via digging the root out by identifying the effects or implications caused by it.

Notes About The Exercise

A Strong Connection With Your Higher Self Leads To Better Results

The results of this exercise are highly dependent on how connected you are with your higher self. That’s because the questions require you to look deep within yourself to seek out the answers. If you often take time to self-reflect and have a high level of self-awareness, this exercise will be relatively easy. Chances are, the answers will affirm what you already know about yourself.

On the other hand, if you frequently repress your thoughts/feelings and have a low level of self-awareness, this exercise might take a longer time. Initial answers you get may seem ordinary at best. More often than not, you’ll end up in a block during your questioning where the same answers keep surfacing. This may also happen for highly self-aware people when probing into a new territory. Some of my clients experience this when we dig into a deeply set pattern in their life, where the only answer that comes up is “I don’t know” or “I’m really not sure”.

When that happens, don’t give up. While it may seem as if you’re not making any headway, the fact is this: Every time you try to communicate with your subconsciousness, you are building a stronger connection. Think of your mind as an ocean. The answer you are seeking lies at the bottom of the seabed. To see what the answer is, you need to shine a light down to the bottom of the sea. If you have a low level of self-awareness, you are working with waters that have strong waves. These waves are constantly colliding into each other and causing Naturally, the echo-back will take a longer time and be softer than the standard echo. The impatient will face two scenarios: a) They shout at the ocean bed, wait a few minutes, then walk-off when they don’t hear the echo. However, if they had waited a few minutes more, they would have heard the echo-back with the answer. b) They shout, wait quietly for a few minutes, then doing other activities. The echo returns after a while, but they don’t hear it because they’re too caught up with whatever they are doing.

Just because you don’t reach an ‘a-ha!’ the first round doesn’t mean you’re not going to get the answer! It just means you need to spend more time introspecting, ask the questions with a stronger intensity (in other words, a stronger desire to find the answer).

Another way is to use different angles to ask your questions. For example, if you reached a dead end, backtrack to the previous answer. Then, ask a different question or ask the same question in a different way. A question like “Why am I not doing this task?” can also be phrased as “What is making me avoid this task?” or “What is it about this task that’s making me avoid it?” or “Why am I not working?”.

How to address procrastination

- Find your desire

- Address the fear

- Your actions to deal with what you’re trying to avoid

I’d like to mention that with every new consciousness level, it enables us to uncover even deeper reasons behind what we thought to be the reason initially.)