Recently, during a coaching session, my client was expressing frustration at her current procrastination tendencies towards something that was extremely high on her priority list. She found herself carving out the time, sitting down to focus on her task and then filling that time with all the other non-urgent tasks swimming around inside her head.
So together we explored where the procrastination was coming from, which turned out to be from several different places - mind full of all the other demands life had been throwing her way, lack of strategic planning as to how to spend the carved out time being two big reasons and we managed to work out some steps that would help combat these obstacles getting in the way again. That fear that she would STILL procrastinate was lingering though so I asked "What if you gave yourself just 10 minutes to focus on this?" She admitted it wouldn't be enough but would be more than she has been giving it to date. So she agreed she would set a timer for 10 minutes, focus on the task and when the timer goes off, give herself permission to stop if she wanted to. She also realised it would be unlikely that, having made a start, she would give up after 10 minutes but would allow herself to if her head was not in the right place.
We don't give ourselves enough permission in life, we just give ourselves a hard time which usually results in continued bad habits and more procrastination. I say, give yourself permission to go easy on yourself when you're having a bad day. Give yourself permission to start writing the report without having to complete the whole thing in one go. Give yourself permission to do a shorter run or workout if you're tired. Can you relieve yourself of the tendency to give yourself a hard time, can you stop berating yourself and putting yourself down and instead, practice a little self-compassion? Can you speak to yourself like you would your best friend? Give it a go and see how much lighter you feel.
I can help you face #procrastination head on. Get in touch to start making the change!
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