If you've been procrastinating on a variety of things, maybe you've been procrastinating on building your website, maybe you've been procrastinating on starting that podcast or that blog or the next podcast or blog, or you're procrastinating on planning, whatever it is, you've been procrastinating on, this is the episode for you. You are not alone. I am here with your friend and I'm going to share some tips and tricks on how to overcome procrastination.

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Fighting Procrastination

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Squirrel Brain

What's up. I want to talk about procrastination today. I actually had an entirely different plan for this episode and I found myself sitting at my desk this morning, procrastinating. I have three videos I have to record today. Two marketing videos, a podcast episode, and I'm sitting at my desk and I don't know if it's my ADHD brain. I've like self-diagnosed myself after watching Shalene Johnson and Angie Lee. Basically, I'm like, “oh my gosh, I have ADD or ADHD”, whatever it is. I don't know if it's that or if that causes me to procrastinate or, or what it is. But I just found myself sitting at my desk doing anything and everything to avoid the actual few tasks at hand. I'm finding myself getting into my email and then I'm looking at emails and then that sparks an idea, “I should send this person a report” and then, “oh, I should upload this video,” and “oh, I should go tweak these landing pages”. I'm doing everything I possibly can to avoid recording these videos. Why? Partly because I really had no idea what to say. I was thinking yesterday “ what am I going to record a podcast episode on?”

I think that often happens that I procrastinate when I feel unsure about things, you know, whether it's creating content or a course or a program. I know what I want to teach, but I haven't got everything down so I just kind of avoid  recording, right. I avoid doing the work because I'm just a bit unsure of myself.

So I think that's what was happening today with wanting to record a podcast episode. I felt like it was something I really should share because I've been doing this for years.

This is the fourth season of my podcast and even I still get in these moments of what the heck am I going to talk about? What do people want to hear about, what makes the most sense for what I'm offering in the future or, you know, just kind of going in that pattern of trying to figure out what I'm going to say and do, whether it's a podcast episode or it's a social post, or it's an email going out. Sometimes we get in these moments, in these funks where we just don't really know what to say. So I wanted to come on and talk about procrastination a bit. I don't know that I have too much to say about it, except for the fact that it probably happens to the best of us.

Leaning Into That Creative Space

I have a few little thoughts and tips and ideas on how to get yourself out of procrastination mode. One of those is if you are sparked by something creative, like something else, go with it and flow with it and it can put you in the mood to do that other thing that you've been procrastinating.

I told myself “I’m just going to talk about procrastination on this episode” and maybe we talk for 20 minutes but I’m just going to go with it and I know it will spark some creativity in me once I just kind of get things flowing with something that feels aligned.

So for the two marketing videos that I have to do, this is going to kind of get me in my groove for the rest of the to-do list that actually is super time sensitive that I have to do today. 

Working Against Deadlines

Another time that I find myself procrastinating is when there are deadlines, I work very well against deadlines. So if my deadline is two weeks out, often I can find myself procrastinating on that task because I'm like, it doesn't need to be done yet. So I fill my days with other things that can be done or that I'm interested in doing, because I just kind of keep pushing it off because it's not due. Then it comes time to where it's due and then I get like a burst of energy and then I want to accomplish it.

So knowing that, it's like that motto or that theory or that saying that you'll spend as much time as you give yourself. I know Clare and I have talked about this recently as she's a projector in the human design and she goes that’s so me, like if I give myself three days to do something, I'm going to do it, but she's actually really efficient. Her human design is a really efficient person. So we've kind of gotten to the point where if she doesn't have a ton to do social, she’ll stretch it out over a few days when really she could get it done in a couple hours and she's stretching it out. So it seems like she's doing more work, right. But that's not the efficient way to do it. So the other day she gave herself three hours to record some training videos for our digital duplication academy and she texted me and she goes, oh, I gave myself until 12 o'clock today to finish these videos and I just hit stop on the last video at 12 o’clock.. So she gave herself a smaller amount of time to do it and she actually got it done. 

Claire and I always talk about how we work really well on deadlines, but then that often makes us feel a bit stressed out because then we feel like we're racing against deadlines. Then when you get in this cycle of procrastination, then it's like the worst of it and then you get extra stressed and you get cranky, maybe you get a cold sore if you're like me. So we don't want that to happen.

Working Around Your Cycle

I don't want that to happen for me. I don't want that to happen for you. So kind of recognizing your patterns and knowing and understanding when, you know, asking yourself, okay, when do I tend to procrastinate? Is it during, if you're a woman, is it in your cycle? So I don't know a ton about your cycles in terms of like our energy and obviously like our moods we can get cranky before our cycles and all of that. I heard someone speak recently at a summit that I was at about like, kind of running your business around your cycle. It was kind of this fascinating thought and topic. We're not taught that much about our cycles in school or, you know, anywhere from our doctors or anything like that.

But I don't know the ins and outs, and maybe I could and should bring someone on the podcast to talk about this working effectively around your cycle. But I was paying attention this last month. Once I heard that to kind of see like what is my mood? When I was in my cycle, I'm like on my period, I was tired and I wanted to take a nap and I wanted to be lazy. So if you keep really good track of your cycle and then like during ovulation time, I definitely find that I'm more productive, more proactive and I have more energy. So if you know your cycle really well, that's also a way that you could set deadlines for yourself and pay attention to yourself. 

If you know that you get tired when you're on your period and you know, when your period is going to happen, don't schedule a bunch of things that are going to take a lot of energy. When I have to show up on camera, I have to bring the energy for you because video sucks energy from you. So I have to come with an extra big smile and I have to come with extra big energy. So if I have to do that when I'm on my period, it's just kind of like a bullet, right. I do more procrastination. So maybe that is something that you try and you schedule things around your cycle to be more productive and proactive during the middle of your cycle during ovulation time.

In April we did a family vacation during spring break and I scheduled a masterclass literally for that Tuesday when we came back. So we came back on Sunday and then scheduled a big masterclass on Tuesday. Like that was the worst idea. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't want to do it right before, because I had a lot to do in terms of getting ready and packing and all of that. So I knew that I didn't want to do it right before. So I thought, well, maybe I'll just do it right after, and I can get everything done before, but then I felt a little bit stressed about having to get everything done literally before vacation still, even though it was after. 

So recognizing and using old patterns and habits as lessons learned how to not do things in the future. So again, this kind of comes in with this whole failure mindset where nothing is a failure, even though I was so stressed before spring break and literally got two giant cold sores on spring break because I was stressed. I should have been taking my supplements and I should have been taking my CBD and I wasn't because when I do those things, it works so well to decrease my stress level.

I never feel like it's a failure because I always learn something from it. So realizing, okay, next time we shouldn't schedule a masterclass right before a vacation. We shouldn't schedule it directly after like give myself a week of space so that I can kind of get back and get in the groove of things and like get ready and like be calm, cool, and collected about it, you know? Sometimes it's procrastination and sometimes it's things that come up last minute. So this is also why I recommend, if you are a procrastinator, set your deadline, like if you like to work against deadlines, set your deadline for at least three days before it really needs to get done. 

Working Ahead

Then don't do that whole game where you're like, oh, I know what actually needs to be done three days later. So you like, wait, like set that hard deadline and stick to that deadline. Even though, you know, it's three days late. It's kind of like when we tell my mom that we have to leave the house at eight o'clock when actually we really have to leave the house at eight thirty..

My parents used to set the clock ahead 10 minutes in the house. Every single clock was 10 minutes ahead because we were notoriously late. As a parent, I completely understand and recognize that it's like you're trying to get ready. Oh my gosh, I have to get the kids ready. Like, it's the dot where you're supposed to leave and like, no one has their shoes on. Then the kids are complaining about putting their shoes on and they want you to help them. Then like, you're 10 minutes late. So my parents would set the clocks 10 minutes ahead so that we could be on time. Then they knew the clocks were set 10 minutes ahead. And so I was like,

oh, well we still have 10 minutes and then we would find ourselves late to church again, like walking in when it started. Getting the last seat in church. I just remember that so vividly. So it's one of those things like now we will tell my mom, okay, you have to be ready at eight o'clock. And then she was like eight or eight thirty. What's the real time? And we're like, yeah, the real time is eight o'clock. So kind of one of those things, don't do the whole thing, like set your deadline three days ahead and then know you have three days and, and let you go past your deadline, stick to your deadline. It's going to be so much more calming for you to get it done early.

Even though you're on your deadline, give yourself a little bit of wiggle room. That way, you know, if you're having some procrastination or when things come up.So setting the deadline a few days before it's actually due, can help with your procrastination because you might still procrastinate to the deadline, but it's still going to be on time. Then if something comes up at the very last minute and you can't do it on the day you want, then you have a little bit of wiggle room. 

I think the message today I just want to share is that procrastination is a thing. It happens to everybody, but we can kind of use these little tips and tricks to work around procrastination and make sure that we are getting the things done that we want to get done when we want to get them done by. So if you have any tips, if you find yourself being a procrastinator and maybe you have come up with some tips and tricks that help you, I would love to hear, I love to have you share them with this community. 

So I'm back to leaning into that creative space, whatever it is that you're going to go do for 30 minutes to get the juices flowing and get your energy flowing, and then go back to what you really had your mind and you know, to do lists set, to do that day. 

So that's it for me today on procrastination share with me, you can always send me a DM on Instagram, Facebook, everywhere I'm @thekrissychin. So you can shoot me a DM and let me know about maybe your procrastination styles and how you're overcoming procrastination until next week. 

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