12 Essential Steps for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting Your Time Back

Christine Li  0:01  
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 132. 

If you've been procrastinating or if you tend to use procrastination as a coping mechanism frequently, then this episode was made with love for you. It was made for you so that you can think about your process of procrastination, what is involved in it, what are all the different micro steps you need to take to make sure you steer clear of the work that you actually really need or want to get to. And I made this episode also, so that you could have 12 Different essential steps that you could think about to transform your process of working and being so that any journey you take towards any destination can be a lot more smooth, quick and fun. Let's go listen to this list of 12 essential steps to take to overcome your procrastination and get your time back together now.

Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn a powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important, and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast.

Hello, there. I am Dr. Christine Li. And today I am going to give a quick list of 12 essential items you want to know about when you're intending to overcome your procrastination and get your time back, I am going to use the idea of going on a road trip, perhaps a car trip, maybe even a plane trip, but a trip nonetheless. And we're going to use that concept to really think about what are these essentials going to do for us? How are we going to set ourselves up for getting from our current place to our intended destination. And it's really quite simple. I think we really complicate things. And we get stuck in procrastination. And my intention today is to help you simplify your process, simplify your mindset and get to where you really want to be. So the first essential step that you need to do is get yourself a destination goal. I think it's amazing that many people including myself, of course, sometimes we try and try and try. effort, effort, effort, time, time time, we put in all of this labor. And we don't really quite articulate to ourselves where we actually want to end up so we don't specify, we don't dream about, we don't plan out what our destination goal really is and what it's going to look like what it's going to feel like to get there. And so I'm putting that as step number one, and you're hearing Luna in the background, shaking her ears. So forgive that background noise there. 

The second step that I would love for you to take as an essential step is to only take what you need, when we're going to Florida, let's say from New York, where I'm based, there are only certain steps that we need to take. So that's step number two, just figure out what the basic, most important essential steps are to make the trip and don't take anything more with you. Just keep yourself focused on getting where you need to go. Keep it simple. Don't do any side road trips when we're talking about productivity and just keep yourself on the straight path. The third essential is to forgive yourself. This is sometimes not involved in an actual road trip. But it's oftentimes necessary for overcoming procrastination because typically when we're procrastinating we are feeling badly about ourselves somewhere and we're feeling like we're running out of time, like we're holding other people up. Like we're not reaching our goals quickly enough. We are holding ourselves back from other things, all of that weight, all of that emotional heaviness that comes on our trip with us oftentimes. 

So step number three is to forgive yourself before you even start traveling. Just let all of those heavy thoughts, those blocking thoughts those annoying harassing thoughts, those critical thoughts? Let those thoughts go and forgive yourself so that you can start a proper journey. 

Step number four essential number four, is to pack lightly on a road trip, I have gotten into a good habit, I think of really packing quickly and packing lightly. And just knowing what I need to take and being real with myself, every time I bring a book, on a short trip, I never end up reading it, I might try to stick one in the luggage. But that's still I think is packing lately, I've gone are the days when I've packed two or three bucks on any trip. So decide where you want to go, how you want to get there, what needs to happen, and the spirit with which you want to go. But also take only what you need so that you're not dragging around. Oh, the grades from the last essay, I really need to do better on this essay. Oh, that last performance really wasn't that good. Now I really have to blow the minds off. No, you don't want to blow the minds off, you want to super hyper impress the people that you're talking to don't put that kind of pressure on yourself go lightly, pack lightly, and I really didn't mean blow the heads off anybody. 

Okay, numbers five fuel the tank. So if we're going in a car or a plane, you want to make sure that you are topped off you are filled with the proper energy to get you through to Florida. And if we're talking about your brain and body, we want to keep you healthy. So start healthy. Start by hydrating start by exercising start by having those positive thoughts. Start by exercising regularly. This will all help you to avoid procrastinating. I know it sounds like maybe extra work. But in so many ways. Things like exercise hydrating sleeping well, that saves your work because you end up having great energy, great focus, great motivation. And that added up leads to loss of time saved, and lots more accomplished and accomplished in a higher quality way. So feel your tank, make sure that car the plane are well washed, well taken care of. 

And keep going to step number six, you want to make it pleasant, I hope you're enjoying this delivery of the 12 Essentials, I happen to be in a very good mood right now. And I would say I try to keep myself in a good mood, because I think our mood really shapes our experience. And again, it helps us to avoid the impulse to delay or distract or to just avoid difficult things, hard tasks, big goals, big visions, because you know what I've trained myself and I've trained a lot of other people to decide, You know what I no longer want to run in the other direction. From my goal. If you're leaving from New York to go to Florida, you don't want to turn your car towards the direction of Maine, it just doesn't make any sense. So when you get in the car, when you get on that plane, have a very pleasant mood, it really, really helps. 

Step number seven is to trust the process. I've heard this from somebody else. I wish I could remember who I heard this from. But the idea is if you're doing a car trip, and you're passing all of these road signs, you don't need to obsessively remember or look at every single exit sign that you pass that would be a waste of your energy, it would be quite boring. And it's just not useful to you, you instead could decide you're going to improve your mood, you're going to listen to a book, you're going to make sure the tank is full, whatever you need to do, just trust the process. Know that you're going to get to Florida. It might be a long trip, but you're gonna get there. 

Step number eight be committed, we know you're going to get to Florida, even though it takes about 16 hours, door to door. Don't have doubt about that. You really wouldn't have doubt about that. I would imagine if you were setting off to that road trip. So don't have doubt when you're doing a paper when you're preparing a lecture. When you are cleaning your bathroom, whatever you're doing. Don't saddle yourself with unnecessary doubt or negativity it just does not help you to get to your destination. 

Number nine fix the roadblocks. This is a really important essential step. Roadblocks will be there along your path. I think these things sometimes are unavoidable. Maybe a cop has pulled somebody over that might be a roadblock to you going at full speed, but you're still going to keep going you don't think then turn around and say, oh, forget about it. I never wanted to go to Florida anyway, you just might change your speed or your pace, but you're still going to continue to your destination. So attack any roadblock that is in your way. If it's your mindset, fix your mindset, if it is somebody asking a favor of you decide to tell them no, because that would end up being a roadblock for you getting where you need to go, because fixing your procrastination will allow you to be more helpful to that person down the road. So take care of yourself, fix all the roadblocks. Again, keep yourself healthy. And don't don't don't doubt yourself. 

Number 10 is Be confident. And that's a simple one. I think it's it's in the spirit of all these other things. When you pack lightly when you feel your tank. When you know your destination, you should generally have a pretty confidence spirit about your trip, because you're all set. So use that confidence to make the journey to your destination, a happy one. You don't want to spend the entire car trip. Figuratively or in this analogy. You don't want to spend the entire road trip thinking, Oh, I forgot my toothbrush and figuring out whether you did or didn't. Because guess what you can buy a tooth box with toothbrush. At any road stop or in Florida. It's just a small thing. So be confident that you have everything that you need, that you can take care of things when you get to your destination. And be happy when you're when you're working through things, or on the road. 

Step number 11 see the sights and pace yourself. So often we get lost in the bigness of the goal in our desire to be somewhere at the destination. And then we just lose the entire value of the long journey that we take to get there. So often, our journey is really part of the enjoyment, it's part of the lesson, it's part of the great memories we're going to create for ourselves. So take your time, set the sights, see the sights and set the sights that you need to but also be calm about it, just pace yourself. Florida's always going to be there, and you just have to get there safely. And happily, alright. 

And step number 12 is celebrate when you get there. If you've ever driven from New York to Florida, it really is quite a celebration when you've arrived. You want to mark your progress, you want to celebrate the fact that you've finished, you want to take a breath, and take in everything that you've accomplished, and really be happy. I think that's a missing piece. For people who tend to be stuck in procrastination, we forget to celebrate. And then we forget to start. Because if there is no celebration to look forward to why start. So transform your entire road trip system for yourself. When you're needing to overcome procrastination. Set yourself up from the beginning, decide to do it in a healthy, mindful, purposeful, and confident way. And then enjoy the process. Enjoy the journey and celebrate when you're all done. I really hope that this list of 12 essential items for your road trip for overcoming procrastination has helped you and just know that you can repeat the journey whenever you need to simplify the steps as you go. You can even go faster when you really get this system of steps which really work they all work together. When you get this system ingrained in your mind and your body and your heart and your energy. You can use this over and over and over again for success. And I wish you only that that and happiness and great health of course. 

I am Dr. Christine Li, thank you so much for being here today on the make time for success podcast. Now go ahead and make more time for yourself. Rescue your time from that sticky, nasty procrastination. You don't need it anymore. And come back here next Thursday for the next episode of the podcast.

I'll see you soon. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. We'll talk to you soon!

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