Daring Mondays: Mastering Procrastination

Procrastination, like Happiness or Wealth, is one of those catch words that is guaranteed to get people’s attention or sell products. We either all do it, or we, at least, all think that we do it. The thing I’m coming to realize with this whole Dare project is that not all procrastination is merely “procrastination”. If you are (like me) just blocking out all the laundry that needs to be done or forgetting to stick the CD you promised to mail in the post then I can confidently say that, yes, you are a procrastinator!

But when it comes to living my life with daring, I’m being confronted more and more often with the fact that a lot of the times my procrastination is really turning out to be something else entirely: Avoidance. I’ve shared my personal issue with avoidance in a previous post, suffice it to say that it really breaks down to Fear (yes, I do think fear is more appropriately spelled with a capital in this instance).

I mean, obviously if I’m trying to be Daring then the whole point is to muster up the courage to push past the Fear, but it turns out that procrastination is a convenient technique that lets me get around that whole Daring thing. After all, I’m not really wimping out if I merely forgot to follow through on that step. And, no one can blame me if I ran out of time before I could get around to doing my planned promotion work. I am a known Procrastinator, so it’s not unheard of for me.

But, you can only hide the truth from yourself for so long. Eventually, I’m going to have to face the fact that there are a few things that are still floundering in the To Do list simply because I’m a little afraid to tackle them. Not that knowing I’m wimping out (when I promised myself I wouldn’t) is making it easier to face the monster and get it done. What I need is a new tool or technique, one that doesn’t help me avoid the subject at hand, but rather one that will help me create some kind of momentum, or, at least, a miniscule amount of progress.

Which led me to today’s Daring Challenge (as I have come to think of these posts): this week I’m going to do 3 small and simple things from the categories I’ve been “procrastinating” in. I don’t mean I’m going to do three things off the list; no, what I mean is that I’m going to do a small thing that leads to another small thing that may eventually add up to taking a thing off the list.

Frankly, most of us have difficulty making truly effective To Do lists. We put huge things on our lists as if they are only one small thing, i.e. Clean the Kitchen, Do the Laundry, Write Book. Most of the things on our lists are really multi-step items. Cleaning a kitchen consists of many steps or stages: wash the dishes, pick up garbage, wipe down stove, wipe down counters, put dishes away, wash sink, empty garbage, sweep floor, wash floor… (and that didn’t even include the oven, windows, cupboards or fridge!). For me doing the laundry needs to be written in multiple steps. If I don’t write, “Wash Laundry, Switch Load, Fold Laundry” chances are it might be days before I remember to get the first load out of the washer (I did mention my procrastination and forgetfulness thing, right?).

Chances are that the scary things on our list have just as many tiny steps rolled up into one. “Write Book” is months worth of work summed up into two simple words. No wonder it’s too terrifying to tackle and keeps being pushed to the back of the burner. This week let’s break it down into smaller steps until it stops being too frightening to even consider. Is “Write One Chapter” doable? Maybe just, “Create Outline”, or you could be like Julia Cameron and put “Write Three Pages” down as the thing to do this week. Three simple things that help you to create tangible progress on something you’ve been procrastinating; it’s easy and you’ll be surprised how motivating such a simple thing can be.

Your three things can be all on the same thing, so you might put “Write three pages, Research book proposals, and finish table of contents” on your list. Or, you could pick three items from three different procrastinating tasks, either way think about your Daring Goal – what cliff did you decide to jump off this year? Now, what To Do’s have you been “procrastinating” on for fear of actually facing them? Pick three simple tasks that you could do this week, nothing scary or too big, just tiny steps towards the beginning. Add them to your To Do list for the week. If you want a little accountability blog about them, or just stick in them my comments. I’m always happy to Ra! Ra! Ra! for you.

Yours,
Megan

p.s. I have actually been taking this Daring Monday venture seriously and am planning my post theme ahead of time, so I knew last night exactly what I was going to be focusing on this week. This morning I pulled a card from my Wisdom of the Hidden Realms Oracle deck and was surprised (or maybe not considering my rate of synchronicities lately) to find my interpretation said:

That said, if you do all the small things now, the big ones are accomplished as if by magic – and always when you’ve stopped trying to do it all at once and all by yourself.
– The Camel Boy (as Challenger) by Colette Baron-Reid