How to stop procrastinating and enjoy working again in 10 minutes
Lessons learned from a normal Saturday morning
Hi friend,
Hope this finds you well.
I’m writing today’s edition from Gateau, a Swedish coffee shop chain with brags about its delicious but ridiculously overpriced French pastries.
Why I’m sitting here?
Well, luckily, my girlfriend works here…
…and love to I capitalise $$$$ on her 50% staff discount.
So I got myself a cup of black coffee to write this.
In either case…
Today, I’ll tell you the little-known reason why we procrastinate (and how to overcome procrastination).
Let’s dive right in:
Last Saturday, I rose out of my bed with energy
“Today’s the day I’ll write my 2nd educational email course”
- I thought.
So I got out of my bed.
But then…
Ouch! What the f*ck was that?!
I felt deep pain in my inner hip.
And against what any naughty-minded readers might expect…
…this inner hip pain wasn’t caused by a little-too-intense bedtime cardio session the day earlier.
In fact, I’d felt this pain every day for over 4 months now.
I knew it was because I sat too much and didn’t mobilise my hips.
(which I don’t understand because I tend to mobilise my hips, if you know what I mean)
To solve this urgent pain, I pulled up 5 different physiotherapist Youtube videos.
And I followed Tom Cruise’s reincarnation’s instructions for 30 minutes
Done.
Hip pain relieved.
“Now, I’ll write my 2nd educational email course”
- I thought.
But first, I went upstairs to make myself my morning oats, usually the Peanut Sigma recipe.
While eating the oats, I started to read The Economist.
40 minutes passed.
I put away my oat bowl & thought:
“Now, I’ll write my 2nd educational email course”
So I went down to my room.
But first…
…let’s check if any of my cold outreaches responded.
So I went on Twitter.
Turns out, none had responded.
So I took one quick look on the timeline…
…and then I was stuck.
I do not kid you when I say that, in the next 60 minutes, I learned everything there is to learn about glucose monitoring.
1 glucose monitor costs $30-50.
It has a small needle that goes into the blood stream.
Glucose monitors last 10-14 days depending on the model.
Stable glucose / blood sugar levels are heavily beneficial for longevity.
And you attach a glucose monitor with some weird device.
Attaching it doesn’t hurt. Just pinch.
But let’s get back to the topic.
Procrastination.
After scrolling the timeline, my dopamine was so depleted that I wasn’t motivated to do anything.
I should’ve started working on my email course…
…but I went to Youtube.
And I kid you not - the first video on my timeline was:
I was SPOOKED but couldn’t resist watching it.
Suddenly everything made sense to me…
We don’t procrastinate because we are lazy.
Rather, we procrastinate because a task causes us conscious or subconscious stress.
We’re afraid of doing it.
And to cope with that…
…our brain triggers a fight-flight-freeze response.
Procrastination means we flee from the task at hand to avoid short-term stress.
This isn’t a character trait, it’s a natural stress response.
Then, it hit me:
I was procrastinating because writing an entire educational email course (around 5 days) seemed like an impossible task.
I was afraid of writing the course.
I was afraid of failing to write it.
I was afraid of writing it & producing trash.
But how would I overcome this fear and re-program my mind to stop procrastinating?
My first impulse was to discipline myself.
That’s what everyone on Twitter says.
“Just do it bro”
But…
…according to research mentioned in the video, that’s not a good approach.
Being hard with ourselves & doing the task forcefully layers more negative emotions to the task, making it even harder to execute.
Also, you won’t enjoy the work.
So friend, don’t do that.
Instead, the best strategy to overcome procrastination is to do 2 things:
Acknowledge and address the negative emotions
For example, you could journal about the feelings a task provokes in you.
That way, you detach the negative emotions from the task.
(shoutout to Marvin for helping me realise the power of detachment)
Break down the task into smaller, doable goals
Writing 1 email course, an ebook, or a 7 posts sounds like a bunch.
But writing 1 email, 800 words, or 1 post seems doable.
I just gotta to that simple task 7 times.
Set small achievable sub-goals to beat procrastination.
So, next time you come catch yourself procrastinating:
Grab a journal.
Write down your feelings about the task.
Divide the task into smaller subtasks.
And then just do it, friend.
With that said, I wish you a successful week.
All the best,
Nils
PS. If you want to get more done in less time, enroll in my free educational email course, Solopreneur Supercharge. It’ll teach you how to use AI & automations to get more done & earn more $$$ next month.