I’ve been putting off telling y’all this, but I’m a procrastinator. (See what I did there?) I’ve made strides in some areas where procrastination is concerned, and I don’t think it’s always a bad thing. But when it begins to make your home a not-so-tranquil place, it’s time to find some coping strategies.

So I’ve put off finishing some of my home projects 😉, and instead compiled a list of my seven favorite strategies which help me cope with procrastination, in hopes that they’ll help you too! See? I told you it’s not ALWAYS a bad thing…

(Click <here> if you want to see a hilarious (and quite accurate) take on how the minds of us procrastinators work.)

1. Analyze it

Analyzing the REASON for procrastination can be helpful. Be careful with this one, especially if you’re a chronic overthinker like me. (Sometimes the “paralysis” of analysis is the root of the procrastination to start with.)

You might ask yourself these questions:

Am I feeling overwhelmed? Do I need to break a task down in to smaller, less daunting ones?

Am I avoiding doing a particular task because I’m not comfortable with it in the first place and may need to hand it off to someone else?

Do I fear failure? (Perhaps you need to do some extra legwork to build your confidence.)

Or could it be that I’m just putting off the inevitable because I simply don’t enjoy it? (In that case, you may need to just employ one of the other strategies.)

Whatever the case, getting clear on the reason behind your procrastination is sometimes enough to get the ball rolling.

2. Time yourself

Using a timer can be beneficial in several ways.

If you like a challenge or enjoy games, it can add an element of fun to what otherwise might be a dreaded/boring task.

For some of us it also helps with focus. Where our mind might typically wander, knowing we’re working in a limited timeframe helps keep us on task.

Finally, a timer can clarify how much time it actually takes to perform certain types of tasks.

Oftentimes there is a big difference in the perceived time it may take to do a task versus reality. Laura Vanderkam does an excellent job illustrating this idea in her book from a few years back, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think.

For many tasks, I’ve been amazed at how little time they actually take. It encourages me to just stop making excuses and do the thing I’m putting off if the time it will take me is negligible.

David Allen, the productivity guru of Getting Things Done fame, has famously said that if anything takes two minutes or less–don’t put it on a list. Just do it immediately.

Even unpleasant tasks, if they only take a tiny chunk of time, are a no brainer to stop procrastinating over.

I think it also helps to compare tasks to familiar blocks of time. For instance, something that can be done in under a half hour equates to watching a sitcom. Or sometimes a two to three minute task like straightening the living room may equate to listening to one song on my playlist.

3. Build a habit or stack one

If the task that you are putting off is a recurring one, you may need to tap into the magic of habits.

Habits have an amazing way of putting us on autopilot. Once something becomes habit, it doesn’t feel like an actual task. It just sort of happens automatically.

I was never forced to make my bed when I was growing up. However, I like for my bed to be made. Once I figured out actually making my bed takes 1-2 minutes, I began making it most days as soon as I left the bed or at least once I was dressed.

Building

Habits consist of some sort of cue or trigger that reminds you to do a task, the task or routine itself, and then a reward. Getting ready for the day and passing back and forth through my bedroom (cue) reminds me to make my bed. I do it (routine), and then I enjoy the way it looks all tidied up (reward). It’s a simple process, but the same principle can be applied to lots of different tasks.

All household routines should eventually fall into the habit category and happen without ever having to be named on a to-do list. But if you’re a long-time procrastinator, and certain basic household chores seem to seldom get done, it may be time to work on building a habit.

No shame if that’s what you need to do. I certainly can’t cast any stones!

Stacking

If you don’t want to start from scratch setting up a cue and reward for new behavior, you may want to try stacking a habit. That simply means pairing the desired new habit with one that’s already well-established.

Dishes have been my Achilles Heel for much of my marriage. I’m currently having some success pairing my inbox zero routine with a new “sink zero” routine. Since I deal with dishes around the same time I pare back my emails each day, I try to make sure both are down to zero. The emails remind me to go check the sink. It has become easier to go ahead and keep a clean sink AND inbox throughout the day, since I know I have that “zero” goal at least once a day.

For further reading

Two great books, also from a few years ago, about the science behind habits and what they can do for your are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

4. Focus on one procrastination problem at a time

You know how at the start of every new year, you decide to start eating a whole new way, and exercising every morning at the break of dawn, and tackle your reading list by having a set-aside time each day to read… and you crash by about Wednesday of the first week?

The same thing will happen if you are a lifelong procrastinator, and you decide all of a sudden to tackle all of your procrastination problem areas at once. Perhaps a better approach would be to focus in on one problem area and try one or two strategies to help break the pattern on this ONE PROBLEM AREA. Give yourself some time for the change to gel before you move on to the next issue.

It may seem like it takes a long time to make a big difference, but is crashing and burning and making NO progress the better alternative? Um… no.

5. Prioritize

Maybe you’re like me and you look at your to-do list and you can’t decide where to start. (And so you DON’T start…)

A simple numbering system can be used to prioritize your to-do’s.

Think about deadlines first and foremost. Is there anything that has to be completed by a certain deadline?

If time is not a factor, consider which items will have the greatest impact or may be the biggest benefit to you. Or if some tasks logically need to come before others: for instance, you probably need to clean out the fridge BEFORE you make a grocery list and go to the store.

Prioritizing will give you a sort of roadmap of what your day may look like as well as to help you give you direction as to where to start, so you can get off the proverbial fence and get going.

6. Use a Productivity Tool

I’ve mentioned some of these in other posts. I LOVE using a tool that helps me lay out a visual plan to get myself started working. It’s usually cleaner and easier to read than my scrawled, long-hand to-do lists. Computer-based tools also can’t get lost in a pile and are always at my fingertips, so to speak.

I’ve dabbled with Evernote, Todoist, Workflowy, Wanderlist, and Trello, among others. My current favorite is Trello, which I also used at the holidays for my working shopping list. As I’ve mentioned before, Trello has boards on which you can arrange cards (which can hold links, checklists, due dates, and on and on). It can be used to track projects, routines, and even meal planning.

If you’re more analog by nature, bullet journals, white boards, and sticky notes may be more your thing. It’s a matter of finding the tools that work with your brain and m.o.

On particularly odious tasks, the productivity tools feel a bit like a video game, and it’s some small motivation to trick myself into doing things I have a hard time finding the focus for otherwise.

7. Simplify

Sometimes, you just need to simplify. Does every task HAVE to happen? Are there shortcuts that might make sense?

For instance, there are people who put off folding socks because they have trouble focusing on the task. It becomes a dreaded monster that begets baskets full of unmatched socks. Perhaps the easier way might be to buy ALL socks in the same color and style. And stuff them into a drawer all together. Or do like my dancer daughters and purposefully wear unmatched socks.

Maybe step back and see if the task you’re procrastinating on the most is really something that HAS to be done, or has to be done in a certain way. Can the task be simplified or eliminated altogether?

Sometimes instead of fighting against our tendencies, we should let them guide our actions, especially if there are no great consequences to doing so.

Now if reading all these strategies makes you think I’ve actually got it together, don’t be fooled. I use these strategies because my default mode is to do pretty much anything other than what I should be doing… at least about half the time. I’m a procrastinator at heart.

I was never good at the hundred yard dash in school–and I was all legs and pretty fast! But I always hesitated to jump over the starting line. I’m always prone to pause. Sometimes the “pause of procrastination” may give me time to analyze–in a healthy way– and make a good decision. But other times, it’s just my brain going off on pointless rabbit trails, and baselessly worrying about making the wrong move.

So let your procrastination shine when it may benefit you, but reclaim your tranquility if procrastination is robbing you of it. There’s no time like the present!

Blessings,