Overcoming Procrastination – Hypnosis for Procrastination
Do you need hypnosis for procrastination? We all know what’s it’s like to procrastinate. There’s that wonderful sense of relief from stress that we sense once we decide to postpone a task. A temporary relief from pressure. We may begin the day full of good intentions, only to end up with a tidy house, an active Facebook feed and an untouched to do list.
This can often be followed by guilt, stress and frustration later on as we panic and do the task in a state of panic, or if it just doesn’t get done at all.
This year, I’ve seen a large increase in the number of clients coming to see me for hypnosis for procrastination. Often it’s work related; this is where it may show the most, as either it affects our income or our performance at work which is often noted. But can also be around relationships, travel, health, hobbies, or sport and exercise. It’s not entirely known what causes procrastination but there appear to be links with impulsiveness, low self esteem and low self belief and fear or either success or failure.
Fear of Failure and/or Success. I experienced my own journey through overcoming procrastination last winter. There were several tasks that I needed to do that, if addressed, could have quite a profound affect on my career and yet I seemed to find an endless stream of ‘busyness’ that got in the way of me starting. For me, it was a fear of failure, or rejection; ‘What if they say no?’ or perhaps even a fear of success. ‘What if I do this and then can’t sustain it? What if people discover I’m actually a fraud?’. We all have these feelings from time (even Sheryl Sandberg) but if they are getting in the way it’s time to take action. Just recognising that a fear is causing the procrastination is a great start, so take a moment to question for yourself if this could be an issue.
Eat that frog. It’s so tempting when we first start work in the morning to ease yourselves into it. Do a few easy win tasks that aren’t too taxing first of all. I know that being self employed, it’s tempting to do choose any domestic task, be it the washing, sweeping the floor or rearranging the fridge before settling down to that task that seems like it will be hard or unpleasant. But it you start off with the hardest, most unpleasant task first, you set a precedent for yourself for achieving more that day. You realise that the task wasn’t so bad or hard after all and the good feelings associated with having done the task will spur you on to want to do more. It’s like Brian Tracy says in his book on overcoming procrastination ‘Eat That Frog!’; you’ve got to eat the biggest, ugliest frog first, then the rest won’t seem so bad.
Social Media and Email are the ultimate distractions. Sometimes it can feel almost like a drug; in fact in his brilliant book ‘Focus’, Daniel Goleman talks about how checking Facebook and email can be addictive, since it sets of the reward mechanism similar to that of when a person takes cocaine. It’s a mini hit of information so easily obtained that it drives us to continually check our phones and email for another rush of information. Try turning off the ‘push’ settings on Facebook, Twitter and your email so that it at least doesn’t bleep at you every time you get a tweet. Go one better by turning off the internet on your computer and phone for a set amount of time while you’re trying to complete a task. I’m still working on this one!
Break it into smaller chunks David Allen style. In his book ”Getting Things Done’, Allen recommends breaking every task into smaller chunks. Sometimes a single task can seem too overwhelming, too nasty andtoo big a frog to gulp down in one, so we put it off. For example, if I’m putting off writing a blog post about procrastination (haha) I can break it down. Step one, I’ll research the sources and books I’ll use for the article. Step 2, I’ll write a draft of the main key points. Step 3, I’ll pad out the draft. Step 4, I’ll do the final edit. It’s much easier to break it down and less daunting. Look, it worked!