How to defeat procrastination

How to defeat procrastination? Stop worrying about the outcome, be present, just do the first step—open the word document, put on your shoes, pick up the pen, get in the car, or make that phone call. Whatever it may be, the power to defeat procrastination is to realise that the reason you aren't doing the thing is an emotional one. Remove the emotions and just do the first step; then you have half won because now you're in motion. Keep that motion and keep going onto the next step.

Our emotions are super strong; they are what guide us through life and help us make decisions. Knowing that emotions can have a negative effect on you, that they can stunt your growth, is a hard one to come to terms with. Since they make us who we are, they give us passion and meaning and make the world worth being in. Removing them isn't an option; we aren't robots. But we can hack them.

Procrastination is an emotional roadblock. It's not physically painful to do the thing; it is mentally painful. We don't want to do it because it's boring or tedious. Some of us aren't getting the instant results we wanted, so what's the point? These are deep-down emotional responses. The task doesn't care if you do it or not; it has no emotions. The email doesn't care if you write it or not. The weights don't care if you lift them or not. The emotions lie in you.

So if procrastination is an emotional response, linked to boredom or mundanity, then how do we overcome those emotions? Boredom is a lack of novelty or a repetitive activity without stimulation. Knowing this, we can fight it. Only watch your favourite TV show while working out or listen to your favourite podcast. Rewards during or after an activity are a great way to add motivation to a task. Or you could always change up the task—do it in a different location each time. Or add a little humour or silliness to the activity. Finding a way to make the task fun will help.

We are in a time where people consider emotions as soft, weak, useless. Others see them as their superpower. Depending on the environment you grow up in and the generation you belong to, emotions are a response. They help us reason and make decisions. 'I've got a bad feeling about this,' so you don't do it. 'That was fun,' so you do it again. Make boring fun, and you will want to do it again.