When I was living life with an eating disorder this pesky ‘“P” made recovery seem impossible at times. Procrastination led me to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and guilty. Emotions that my eating disorder fed off of. Although I’m fully recovered now, procrastination still creeps into my life from time to time. The difference between then and now is I’m aware of when I’m getting pushed around and I know how to take action.
I want to share with you three tips that help me push through procrastination.
1. Get to the emotional root of your resistance
Dig deep and write out why you want/need/have to do the thing you are procrastinating. Examine what fears surround doing it. Procrastination can be a defense mechanism that guards you against fears such as failure, rejection, etc. Maybe you let a lot of time pass before calling a friend back and you feel they’re going to be upset. Take a moment to describe the possible worst-case scenario and the best-case scenario. Maybe your friend is actually upset or maybe she has been busy herself and forgot you even haven’t called.
2. Do one thing you have been resisting
Now that you labeled what you need to do, just do it. Sounds so simple, huh? When you do the thing you were resisting you literally take back the power you gave to the thing that you were resisting. Wow, that was a mouthful, but an ultra-important point. When you put something off it begins to take its toll on you and ends up consuming your thoughts and energy. Sometimes you think more about doing it than it would have actually taken to do it in the first place! For example, in the past, I have procrastinated on getting out the newsletter because I was in the middle of re-branding Recovery Warriors. I wanted to send a newsletter that would reflect the new brand and image. Trying to rush the creative process in order to get out the newsletter, I finally realized I was sabotaging myself, my brand, and the word I gave to my amazing newsletter subscribers. I know corresponding with them is more important than the perfect logo. So I sent out a simple newsletter with no fluff and frills.
3. Social Accountability
Tell someone other than yourself what you are going to do so they can hold you accountable. It’s easier to break commitments to ourselves than to others. The more specific you can get the better. For example, instead of saying I’m going to call Grandma, say I am going to call Grandma tomorrow evening and talk to her about ________.
After reading through these tips I hope you have some motivation to cross some things off your list this week.
(Last Updated: May 24, 2022)
