Stop Procrastinating

Stop Procrastinating: On Completing Complicated Goals

By Fay Ferris

Do you have difficulty completing complicated goals? If you have tried and failed to do any of the following, then you have experienced the difficulty of completing a complicated goal: 1) changing your lifestyle, 2) getting out of debt and starting to save, 3) improving a relationship, 4) making a career move, or 5) preparing for a life transition (a birth, a wedding, a death).   These are all admirable goals, but you may not have realized how complicated they are because they involve many steps (some of the steps you may not even know about yet), and will take some time before the goal is completed. In this blog I hope to give you some ideas of how to get started and how to complete any complicated goals you may have.

It is very common for us to put complicated goals to the side until there is more time or a “better” time. We often procrastinate on making these very important changes and each New Year the same goal appears on the list, which can be discouraging.   If this procrastination continues, we need to think about why we are procrastinating. I know that sometimes I procrastinate on various projects and when I examine why I am procrastinating, I discover that completing the goal is actually quite involved, either by many steps, requiring a lot of time, energy, money, or other scarce resources.

Another reason we procrastinate on complicated goals is because we do not want to think about them. For example, writing a Last Will and Testament is one of the most procrastinated upon activities. We all know we will die, and dying without a Will is tortuous to your loved ones, yet many people leave it until their last moments or die without a Will.

If you find yourself procrastinating on a difficult or unpleasant task, then you can use the David Burn’s Anti-Procrastination method. After writing down your goal, the first and very important step is to list all the little baby steps involved. This step alone can help you feel more optimistic about where to start and that achieving your goal is possible. Write the steps for completing your goal vertically, with spaces in between, on a large piece of paper. For example, to get your Will completed you might write the baby-steps as follows:

1. research Wills on the internet
2. find an informed and credentialed professional
3. collect the information of assets, names, etc.
4. list all the relevant information and your last wishes for the professional
5. make a copy
6. call and make an appointment
7. visit the professional
8. collect any further information which the professional requests
9. visit the professional again to sign the Will
10. put the will in a safety deposit box
11. tell the executor where the will is kept.

Then, with each step listed, estimate how difficult (in %), and how satisfying (in %), each step will be. If the percentage for difficulty is 100%, or if you discover there are more steps involved, you should probably try to break that baby step down more into more baby steps in order to make it easier (That is why I recommend you leave spaces in between the baby steps).

Approach this like an experiment: Will my predictions prove true or will the task be easier and more satisfying than I predicted. Test your prediction by DOING the first baby step, and re-evaluate the difficulty percentage and the satisfaction percentage based on your actual experience. Keep this all on one document. Move on to do the next baby step, and give a percentage for the actual difficulty and satisfaction you experienced. Eventually, you will see that things are easier and more satisfying than you thought.

Another major problem people report is that they do not have time for their goals – they are too busy. I liked a comic on the wall of my doctor’s office: the Doctor in the comic asks to his patient “What would work best in your busy schedule – exercising for an hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?” (Sorry I do not know the comic).

There is magic in regularity. I like to keep up with the research in my area but that involves a lot of reading. So I set a resolution of reading research for 10 minutes a day. Even when I am really tired or busy I can still manage 10 minutes. I have read so much more since I started this resolution it is startling! I told a friend about this and she started the same resolution and recently remarked that she had read twice as many books as usual using this 10 minute method.

We all know that health resolutions can benefit from this daily regularity. Try not to let all-or-nothing thinking get in the way as it can really sabotage a good idea. For example, if you cannot find the time to exercise for an hour a day, try exercising at home for 15 minutes. Or try walking around your office for 2 minutes every hour. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Let me say that again: Something is better than nothing.

It is also important to set some special time aside each week for the accomplishment of the baby steps of these complex goals, and to keep yourself accountable weekly. Here is an idea that I have found helpful: pick a day and an hour, say Monday at 11:30 until 12:30, and dedicate that hour to completing one or maybe two of your baby steps. I call this a Power Hour, and I straightforwardly and courageously try to get the nagging tasks completed. I do not expect myself to work for more than an hour on it each week because that might feel overwhelming and take too much time out of an already busy day. It may take a while to accomplish your goal, but at least you are taking action and eventually your goals will be completed.

I hope I have given you a few ideas of how you can begin to make changes and accomplish even the most daunting of your complicated goals.

Fay Ferris, RCC, CCC