The #1 Dream Killer That Suppresses Everyone's Motivation And How To Overcome It
What stops everyone from achieving max productivity? How the heck do you fix it? Find out exclusively right here!
I’ve spoken to 3 different people this week who all have ironically told me the same reason why they can’t get things done
It’s actually a common problem that has shown up a lot in my life as well!
The good news?
I have a proven method that I've tried myself that has solved this problem!
But first, let's back up a moment
What is this mysterious problem that seems to put up a brick wall between a person and their goals?
PROCRASTINATION
I know.. We’ve heard this word a lot before
But stick with me for a moment when I ask you this...
How good have we actually become at nipping this problem in the bud?
Let’s explore the root causes for why procrastination happens in the first place
The people I spoke with this week all had 1 or more of these on their list
So what causes procrastination in the first place?
Fear
Looming Distractions
Noises around you
Overwhelming Schedule
Let's go through these points one by one and untangle them so that they never tie you up ever again
1. Fear
At the basic level, fear stops you from taking action and therefore, invites procrastination into the picture. This is essentially happening because your mind is forcing you to stay in a place of "limited thinking" where the only things you're focused on are the things that are located in that small room your mind has confined you to.
Even though there are a myriad of possibilities outside that box, your mind will not allow you to go there because it feels more comfortable in a small space that it finds familiar. The problem is that you're not seeing the full picture here and the rest of the options out there are being hidden from you by your very own mind.
Let me ask you this:
Do you like it when someone informs you about a secret and then says they can't tell you? Of course not! Now that you know that hidden information is out there, you almost HAVE to know what it is and sometimes will not stop until you find out.
What if you could apply that same burst of motivation when it came to uncovering what your mind is hiding from you?
The secret is that you can!
You can do this by coming to an understanding that even though that small box is comfy and you can see and identify with everything in there, it's not going to help you get to where you want to go.
As soon as you come to this realization and accept this as fact, you will know that the only solution is ditching the box and heading out into the unknown.
Sure that sounds scary, but if it's the only way to make things happen for yourself, then why not?
So how do you feel more comfortable doing this?
Ditch your minds plans and just start taking action
Expect to hear chatter from your mind, and ignore it completely. Just keep going.
As you put in more action, the chatter will become less and less dominating.
When first starting to take action you may need to do a little research to find someone who can advise a plan for you in a: book, YouTube video, or newsletter on what the next steps are to take
But once you find a path that moves you forward in getting to the next step with your goal, you are well on your way!
Just think! Instead of procrastinating and wasting your day away with mindless activities that are not going to bring your goals into reality, you've now taken action and are one step closer to meeting that goal!
To summarize how to tackle FEAR when dealing with procrastination, the solution is simply to "force shut off your mind" and begin researching, creating, etc. As soon as you’ve started, you’re already well on your way to beating the procrastination monster
If you find you have trouble doing this, it means you're allowing your mind to take over again. You have the power to shut it down and your freedom to productive work lies on the other side of that.
2. Looming Distractions
What I'm talking about here are things around you that can cause you to stop your work flow. Examples are:
Too many tabs open = Focus Distraction
Phone nearby
Noises going on around you
I'm here to remind you that it's your adult responsibility to set yourself up for success with your work. So here's how you take care of these distractions so they don't slow you down or stop you.
1) Keep your browser tabs to a minimum: I've been in situations before where I've had 50 tabs open at once. Literally 50.
The thing is:
I can only focus on one thing at a time, so why do I need 50 open? The short answer? I don't..
Make an agreement with yourself to keep only 1-3 tabs open at one time and make sure that those are NECESSARY tabs that have to do with you making progress with your goals.
You'll be amazed at how much time and focus you save when you're not switching tabs, breaking your focus, and then need to take even more time to get back into focus with momentum again.
2) Phone Nearby: Most people are aware that their phone is a distraction, but then they keep their phone right next to them while working!
So where's the disconnect then?
Why is this happening?
You think you're stronger than your phone and can control yourself.
The thing is:
Why not just ditch the phone for that period of time and take the guessing work out altogether? Wouldn't you like to be absolutely certain that your phone won’t light up in front of you and then cause you to pick it up? Before you know it you've opened 4 apps and have been scrolling for 30 mins! I know because I've done it...
A very well-known successful entrepreneur, Leila Hormozi recommends putting your phone on the other side of your room and turning off sounds while you're working on your stuff. I've tried this and well.. Shes right! Your productivity will skyrocket once any device that makes sounds or lights up whether it’s a phone, tablet, or TV is out of sight and out of mind!
3. Noises Around You
This is a big one. This can show up in the form of:
The gardener with a leaf blower outside
Your partner talking on the phone in a nearby room
Your dog barking
Notification sounds from any device
We've already talked about devices so I'll move on to solving the rest of these time absorbers.
First off:
If you have a door in your workspace room, close it.
If you have other people in your household, just communicate to them that you have an important deadline to meet and you'll be back in (insert time length here). Then, shut that darn door.
You'll feel better as soon as you do this I promise.
Next:
Invest in a pair of noise cancelling headphones which will absolutely neutralize practically all outside noise and distractions from your work routine. If you want to support your focus even more, listen to some brain wave frequency sounds while working to increase your focus and productivity even further!
Ok, it's time to dive into the next thing that fuels Procrastination
4. An Overwhelming Schedule
So why would this impact our productivity?
Simply put:
When we have too much on our plate, sometimes we retreat and actually do nothing
Why is this?
The basic cause of this is anxiety. Our mind goes into overdrive and we actually don't know where to start or how long to work on something for. In a nutshell, any productivity schedule that we had crafted just gets thrown out the window because our mind is frantically trying to focus on all these tasks all at once.
The secret is in realizing:
The ability to Multi-task is actually a myth
We can really only focus on one thing at a time, and anything more than that is going to greatly lower our overall focus and performance.
The reason for this is, our attention and focus gets divided the second we try to do 2 or more things at once.
Therefore, right off the bat, we are no longer putting optimal focus into either one, so performance on both ends suffers.
I didn't want to believe this at first but the question I asked myself was:
Do I want to be doing one thing at 100%? Or do I want to be doing 2 things at 50% capacity (best case scenario)
Why is Multi-tasking so popular?
We live in a world today where the majority of us want to get things done as fast as possible.
But once we realize that the downside to multi-tasking results in us not giving our best performance to any of the things we're doing, it makes you reconsider.
I don't know about you, but the things I care about most, I want to be able to give my best to — and that involves "Single-tasking"
So what's the takeaway here?
If you have an overwhelming amount of things that you've set yourself up to do in a day, it's going to cause a lot of anxiety and overwhelm your mind.
The reason is:
Your mind wants to get all these done but it may not be able to separate a bunch of different tasks and find a way to complete them all.
Your mind also default sets your expectations for max efficiency, always setting limits you can achieve when you have:
Maximum focus
No distractions
Optimal conditions
The downside of this is:
This isn't usually the case for most of us and we are often left disappointed when we don't meet our expectations, instead of recognizing that our mind is automatically setting the bar too high. It's up to us to go in there and adjust our expectations to something more reasonable
This especially happens when you set lets say 4-5 large different goals to work on all in the same day such as:
Writing
Developing a new product
Making a podcast episode
Filming a video
Oftentimes, even if you're willing to work on all of these during your day, the results will be dissatisfying because you will have made only a little progress with each one.
What fixes this is deciding to pick one main goal for the day and hit it hard all day
An example could be: writing on Mondays, filming videos on Tuesdays, podcasting on Wednesdays etc.
Not only will you be able to get your goals worked on each week, but you will see lots of progress made each day on the goal you focus on. It will make you feel good and support more momentum to keep going with your plans.
You'll also make noticeable progress on all your goals by the end of each week and things will seem much more organized.
I'm actually smiling as I'm writing this because it seems like such a more pleasurable and productive way to schedule a week!
I hope you found this post helpful and I'd love to hear if you have anything to add with how you deal with procrastination!