55: Dethroning the Queen of Procrastination

See the show notes for this Episode here.

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Transcript:

Bonnie Christine [00:00:00]:

And this is truly the only time where I get into what I consider a flow. This time where I feel at one with my work and I'm doing the best work of my life.

Bonnie Christine [00:00:15]:

I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tin me town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the professional creative podcast.

Bonnie Christine [00:01:22]:

Last week I was on a call with a small group of really smart people, incredible entrepreneurs and just incredible people, and this question came up. I'm going to read it to you. This person says, I am the queen of procrastination. No matter if I make something my number one priority for the week, set time blocks in the calendar, set rewards to get this priority task done, I seem to always find something else to do in my business rather than the number one priority. I might tick off every task from my list except for the number one priority. Do you have any strategies to help me do that number one thing with the highest priority? And I just felt the whole room start nodding their head. I think that this is something that we can all so easily relate to. Even if you don't always struggle with procrastination, I know that I definitely have times where I will do the same thing. It might be around certain tasks in my business or certain times of the year, and I just find that I am not doing the thing that I actually need to do.

And so I have learned a couple of tricks over the years to get myself going on the highest priority. So I wanted to share those with you today, but also just kind of unpack this whole thing of procrastination, because I personally don't know anybody who doesn't struggle with this even at least a little bit. No matter if you are just beginning in your business or you are wildly successful and so there's something there that needs to be unpacked. The thing that I think is helpful is to know that procrastination is such a common behavior that no matter what realm of people you're in, what circles you're hanging out with, everyone experiences it to some degree. It's a complex phenomenon. And it's influenced by so many different factors.

Some of them psychological, some of them can be neurological, some of them can be environmental. So before we dive into some ways to overcome procrastination, I think we've got to figure out why we are doing it in the first place. So I want to talk about the top five reasons that we procrastinate. Number one is the fear of failure or success. And so this one really requires you to think a little bit on whether or not you have this or not. Because at first glance, I often feel like, well, I'm not afraid of failure, and I'm also definitely not afraid of success. But actually, sometimes I think I might be.

So the fear of failure looks like potential negative judgments from other people or negative judgments from yourself. What if you try this thing? Maybe it's a really big goal that you have and you're afraid of not doing the thing correctly, doing it the way that you want. And so for me, sometimes this pops up when I am starting a new collection. So if I'm starting a new fabric collection and maybe I haven't made any artwork for a couple of months, I really do fear, like putting my pen to paper. What if I've lost it? What if I don't like what comes out? What if I fail? What if I can't make it the way that I want it to look? And so I think I do struggle with that. And then fear of success looks like maybe if you do do this thing that you want to do, there's some extra pressure or maybe higher expectations placed on you from other people in your life or even yourself. And so there's also like, if you are successful in it, there's this fear of, well, could you be successful a second or third or fourth time? And so these things will hold us back and make us play small. So fear of failure or success is number one. Number two is perfectionism. Perfectionists are often procrastinators because they delay starting, or maybe they start, but they delay completing tasks because of the fear of not meeting their own highest expectations or standards. And so I find that perfectionism is the number one thing that kills our productivity. It slows it down or halts it altogether. So it's always better to get something released and out into the world rather than sit on it and overthink it and make sure that it's absolutely perfect.

Number three is just the lack of motivation. And I would say that this is the one that I struggle with the most, even though I find that I feel like a very motivated person. This one really comes to life when a particular task or goal feels difficult. It feels difficult, or perhaps it doesn't align with your interests or goals. And if that's the case, we need to maybe revisit why we're doing it in the first place. But for me, when I procrastinate, it's generally because whatever the project is feels difficult. It feels difficult to start, it feels difficult to get in there and break it all down. And because it feels so difficult, I find that I just have a lack of motivation to get started. And so lack of motivation is number three.

Number four is analysis paralysis. Have you ever experienced this? It's like there's too many choices, there's too many moving parts to this very complex task and so you don't even know where to start. This reminds me of another question that I spoke with a student with over the last few weeks. And the question was basically like, there are so many things in my mind, I don't know what to do first. I don't know whether to finish my portfolio, start a website, or register my business name or all of these things. And so I just sat with her and helped her really list out in an order of priority what to do because it was analysis paralysis. There's so many different things I don't know what to do. And so I'm paralyzed. I'm not going to do anything at all.

And then number five is called short term reward bias. Basically this is a cognitive bias where we really just value the immediate rewards more than future rewards. And so as a result, we choose to do something that gives us a reward right in the moment. And so really what this looks like is being able to cross off everything on your task list except for the big thing, because crossing off all of those smaller things feels so rewarding. And so we tend to do the smallest tasks on our list first to get the reward. And then oftentimes what happens is that by the end of the day, when we could potentially start on that big thing, we've exhausted all of our focus, all of our deep work ability, and we're not able to start on the big thing because we used up all of that on the little stuff. And so that short term reward bias is also something that I find that I do sometimes as well.

So those are the top five reasons that we procrastinate again, number one is fear of failure or fear of success. Number two is perfectionism. Number three is lack of motivation. It's typically because something feels difficult. Number four is analysis paralysis. And number five is short term reward bias. And so before we move on, I would love to just call you to a little bit of self reflection. You've got to spend some time with these five things and really figure out why you procrastinate. Do you struggle with one of these five things? Are you a perfectionist? Do you lack motivation around certain tasks? Do you have a fear of failure or perhaps fear of success? Understanding your personal reason for procrastination can absolutely help you target it and figure out how to work around it effectively, but you have to understand why first. You've also got to understand that overcoming something like procrastination, it's a slow process, and you'll likely experience it at a certain degree for really the rest of your life. But the more you know about why you procrastinate and the different reasons for it, the quicker you'll be able to identify it and then overcome it. The other thing that I want to talk about before we get into some tactical ways to really attack this, is the identity shift around this.

So something that I've been thinking a lot about this year that is one of my biggest takeaways from a book I read called The Power to Change by Craig Rochelle. So this book really explains how oftentimes we try to set new habits by modifying our behavior. And oftentimes those habits don't stick because behavior modification, like trying something new, isn't necessarily the thing that will last forever, but what will last forever is an identity shift, changing the way that you think about yourself or changing what you believe about yourself. And so the identity shift should come first, and then the behavior modification kind of just follows naturally afterwards. And so what I really want to talk about is this question started with this sentence, I am the Queen of Procrastination. And that's a really powerful thing to say. And I say this kind of thing all the time as well, without giving it much thought. So I'm not trying to give this person a hard time, but let's think about that. Saying I am the Queen of procrastination really settles into our bones. Like, yeah, that is who I am. And so I want to offer just an identity shift around that. And so I've put together a list of ten affirmations that can be a really powerful tool for shifting your mindset and actually creating change, because what you believe about yourself is what will eventually modify your behavior.

Bonnie Christine [00:12:20]:

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So my website, Bonniecristine.com, and the podcast website Professionalcreative.com are all entirely built out on Kajabi by me. I didn't have to hire a programmer or anyone else to come in because the designer is that easy to use. Kajabi honestly lets you say goodbye to the headaches of managing multiple platforms and connecting a million things. And it's like having a personal assistant for your online business because it also has a super intuitive interface and easy to use tools that help you manage your courses or your memberships or your digital products. Kajabi's customer service team is also top notch. They are always there, always happy to help, and they're always rolling out new updates and they're always there to help you succeed. Trust me, I've put them to the test. So if you're ready to simplify your life and take your online business to the next level, head on over to bonniecristine. Comresources and sign up for Kajabi experience the free trial. I think you are going to love how it streamlines your business.

Bonnie Christine [00:14:37]:

So I am going to give you ten different affirmations that are specific to overcoming procrastination. I'm going to read them to you, but we'll also put them in today's show notes so that you can go grab them anytime you're ready. Okay, so here goes.

Number one, I am capable and prepared to conquer any task that comes my way.
Number two is I am organized, efficient, and always stay on top of my responsibilities.
Number three, I am a person who tackles challenges head on and right away.
Number four, I am disciplined and prioritize my tasks effectively.
Number five, I am focused and productive.
Number six, I am in control of my time and my life.
Number seven, I take immediate action and make decisions confidently.
Number eight, I value my time and use it wisely.
Number nine, I am committed to reaching my goals and nothing can hold me back.
Number ten, I'm a person who follows through and completes tasks successfully.

So these ten affirmations, what I suggest doing is repeating them, saying them to yourself every single morning. And you can do this, by the way, with anything that you're struggling with. I do this kind of thing all the time because what I believe about myself truly impacts my days. And this is a way of redefining those neuropathways, and that's possible, which I think is really exciting. So when you say them, it's important to say them with conviction and belief and actually visualize yourself, like truly embodying these qualities and the actions. And with time and consistency, you can actually start to shift your mindset and your habits around this thing, around procrastination. And so again, we'll put these ten over on the show notes for today's episode if you want them. So now let's dive into the six ways that I find really helps me overcome procrastination. Number one is to really focus on breaking down large tasks.

I think that these big goals and larger tasks are what can seem so overwhelming that they cause us to procrastinate, breaking them down into smaller, like very manageable, bite sized pieces, makes them feel less daunting, and it always allows us to experience a sense of accomplishment because we're able to cross things off more quickly, right? Like, just imagine finish my portfolio. Well, that's a huge task, right? And so it's going to be a long time before you can kind of cross that off your list. And so why don't you break that up into a bunch of smaller tasks, like create one pattern today and create the second pattern tomorrow, or gather inspiration today and work on pulling together a color palette tomorrow. And so there's a lot of different ways that you can break down these really big goals and that will help them feel way more manageable. And so I want to reference episode number four, where I shared this map, this downloadable map with you where you can take a really big goal and then break it into different big rocks and milestones and action tasks. And so I would take something really big and break it up onto this map and then it'll feel more achievable. Number two is to play with different time management techniques. There are a lot, and so you'll have to try to figure out which one works best for you.

For me, this concept of time blocking and batch working work really well. So time blocking for me is where I take a task and decide how much time I think I want to spend on it. And that's usually somewhere between 1530, 60 and 90 minutes. And for that time block, I will do nothing but the one thing which is fairly unusual, right? Like typically we're kind of multitasking and checking different things. We've got a bunch of tabs open and we've got our phone and we're checking email and Instagram and all this stuff like while we're working on something. This time blocking means you're doing one thing for the entirety of that block of time. And this is truly the only time where I get into what I consider a flow, this time where I feel at one with my work and I'm doing the best work of my life. And you have to really be intentional about getting into that zone.

And so the other one is batch working and so doing like, activities together. So, for instance, I'm recording three podcasts today because there's a little bit of setup time, right? I've got to get my notes together, I've got to get in a quiet place. I have to get my mic set up. And so I do them back to back to back, and that is a better use of my time rather than doing them kind of popcorn style. So putting like, activities together also really takes advantage of the brain or the mental space that you have to get in for that particular task.

Number three is rewards. Now, I've talked about this a couple of different times, and so this concept really is about the fact that we're our own boss, we have to set our own deadlines, and then we have to hold ourselves accountable to them. And it's a tricky thing for some entrepreneurs because we likely used to have someone kind of give us deadlines and hold us accountable for a job. And so now when you're an entrepreneur, you're doing that yourself. And if you lack the ability to give yourself a deadline and then hold yourself accountable to it, you've got to figure out how you can do that. How can you bring other people in to hold you accountable? Do you bring the public in? Maybe you announce it on social media to hold yourself accountable, or your family or friends or Mastermind or circle of something. And sometimes rewards will help hold me accountable for things as well. And so I'll set a deadline and then know that if I meet the deadline, I get this particular reward, and if I don't, I don't get it. And so it could be anything from a treat, like going out to my favorite restaurant, or maybe I get to buy something that I've been wanting, or maybe I get a massage, or maybe it's nothing that actually costs money. It's just a reward, like a day off to spend at home or read a book or sleep in or something like that as well. So a reward system works for some people, doesn't work for others. But it is something that helps me really focus on meeting a deadline. And then also let's celebrate when we do accomplish things in our business, because I think it's easy to forget how great of an adventure that is as well. The key here is that it has to be something that motivates you, has to be something that makes you excited. It has to be something worth the motivation, right?

Number four is to limit distractions. I believe wholeheartedly that our focus is our most valuable resource and also the most rare resource that we have. Everything is pulling out our focus every single day. And now we have to learn how to utilize our ability to focus. This can be your superpower in a world where everyone is distracted. What if you really learn how to hyper? Focus on what you want to accomplish. This is something that nobody else is doing, everyone is struggling with. So why don't you really, really hone in on your ability to get focused and do your life's best work? And so focused means not distracted. So for me, when I'm going into this, this is related to time blocking. For me, I have to remove my phone, literally put it in another room. I have to close my tabs and only have one tab open. It's even better if I don't have to use technology at all. If I can just use paper and pen or something like that, it's putting your family and your children kind of on alert that you're going into this focus time period. It's not thinking about things you need to add to your Amazon cart or not thinking about checking email or checking slack or all these things that we do and going into this hyper focused ability to work and so that's limit distractions.

Number five is to implement healthy habits. Now, this at first glance, doesn't seem related to business, and it 100% is. If you follow me on social media, you know that I share sometimes about how regularly I exercise and how healthy we eat. And while you may think that that is somewhat disconnected from business and being an artist, I really believe that it's 100% intertwined. Regular exercise, eating well, and getting enough sleep is absolutely related to your goals in business and creativity. It improves your mood, it improves your energy levels, it helps your cognitive functioning, and it makes it easier to stay motivated and focused. It's all about a certain feeling that I want, and I want to feel like I can attack the day, right? And so implementing those healthy habits, drinking enough water, exercising, eating really, really well, and prioritizing your sleep can absolutely help. All of those things help you become more focused, and it will help you overcome procrastination. Truly, when I've let one of these things slip and I'm not feeling like I can attack the day, I will procrastinate, I'll feel like I'm going in circles all day because I'm just not able to get that hyper focused mindset that I really want.

And then number six is just a little bit of tough love. Sometimes we just have to get out of our own way and start already. And I'm talking to myself here as well. Sometimes we've just got to start understanding that starting is the hardest part is actually one of the things that will help you overcome procrastination the most. And I have to remind myself of this all of the time when I'm putting something difficult off, I know that if I just started already, it would begin to unfold and it would feel easier and I would get my head wrapped around it. And so I will kind of trick myself into, let's not think about how complicated it is or the fact that I don't know what these certain steps look like or I'm not sure if I can even do this to begin with. And let's just get started already. Because once you get started, truly, one little thing will lead to the next little thing, and before you know it, you'll be fully immersed in the project and making progress. And it feels so good. So as a wrap for this deep dive into overcoming procrastination, I just want you to remember that you're not alone. And this is something that we all struggle with at different degrees. And I can even tell that I struggle with it more during certain seasons than others. But no matter what it looks like for you, you have the power to conquer procrastination.

We are dethroning the Procrastination Queen and you can truly thrive in your creative endeavors. It is within you and you can decide to do this. Keep in mind that small, consistent actions will often lead to that big, big significant change or goal met that you're working on. Try to implement some of these strategies that we've discussed today and start with the most manageable one for you. But before you begin trying one, I want you to really be reflective over why you think you're procrastinating in the first place. Because the more that we can understand why, the better we can conquer it and overcome it. Friends, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Professional Creative.

Remember, you can grab those ten affirmations around being focused and productive and overcoming procrastination on today's show. Notes that's at professionalcreative.com, you are capable, you are creative, and you are on your path to honing your passion and your craft. Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.