Overcome procrastination, and don't fall for your pick up lines!
Overcome procrastination by identifying your excuses and building an intention plan
You've heard of pick-up lines. You know, those cheesy one-liners someone might use to get a date? Well, did you know that there are also procrastination pick-up lines?
When you hear yourself say….'hey, I have plenty of time'….or 'I work better under pressure'….or 'this is so boring'…..well, these are your procrastination pick-up lines.
They are warning signs that you are about to enter the procrastination zone.
It is normal to say these things…who wants to do something they don't like. The problem is that procrastinators fall for some of their pick-up lines and put things off.
The thing for procrastinators is to recognise their pick-up lines and change their conclusion to them. In this article, I want to:
- describe what an intention plan is and how you can overcome procrastination with one
- provide you with some examples of the typical procrastination pick-up lines
- you to develop your intention plan to overcome procrastination
1. How to overcome procrastination with an intention plan
Peter Gollwitzer, an expert on intention plans, says that you double the chances that you will follow through with almost any activity when you make an intention plan. This has been scientifically confirmed from tasks like writing a report over break to getting medical screenings for life-threatening illnesses.
So to overcome procrastination and not fall for our pick-up lines, we need to debunk all the old familiar excuses.
This involves identifying your well-worn excuses and then pre-deciding what you will do if you hear yourself saying this excuse to yourself. This immediate 'next action' that you will pre-decide to do so that you do not procrastinate – that's your new domino behaviour.
Shane Owens and his colleagues at Hofstra University demonstrated that those who perform implementation commitments were nearly eight times more likely to follow through on a commitment than those who did not create them. That could be you!
2. Typical procrastination excuses and pick-up lines
Excuses can be lame, excuses can be pathetic, and excuses can be clever. The creepy thing is that these excuses all have an element of truth. That is why they are so compelling.
What do you procrastinate on? Build an intention plan around this!Some typical procrastination excuses include:
- I’ve got so many more important things to do than this.
- I am not sure what to do. I’ll wait for more information.
- It is the last day of sunshine for the week! I’ll start it tomorrow.
- I work better under pressure – I am just a last-minute person
3. Building your intention plan to overcome procrastination
The implementation intention is to create a new response to these triggers. So your triggers are your procrastination excuses.
What are your new responses going to be?
Here are some ideas:
- IF I say to myself things like "I'm too tired", THEN I will just get started on some aspect of the task.
- IF I say to myself things like, "I don't feel like doing this now", THEN I will take the first step right now - just for 30 minutes.
- IF I say to myself things like, "I'm waiting for a moment of inspiration", THEN I will just get started, and inspiration may come.
Which type of procrastinator are you? Find out here
So you can see here that the IF part of the statement is your typical excuses (which often have an element of truth to them), and the THEN statement describes the new trigger action to the old familiar excuse.
What you are trying to do here is to identify those typical excuses you make and then create a pre-decision that decides the action you will take when those familiar excuses pop up.
Activity: Building your own intention plan to stop procrastination
Your activity is to build your implementation intention plan to reduce procrastination.
In this activity, you need to:
- Identify the words that you hear yourself saying to yourself when you are about to procrastinate. In other words, identify your well-worn excuses.
- Complete your intention with the phrase"Then I will" (and choose the ‘next action’). This is where you write the immediate 'next action' that you will pre-decide to do so that you do not procrastinate – that's your new domino behavior.
For example, I tend to procrastinate when I am tired and bored - and my usual default behaviour is checking email or surfing the Net. So that I don't fall for my procrastination pick-up line 'I am too tired,' I made the following implementation intention:
IF I say to myself, "I am too tired" or "I am bored", THEN I will stick with the activity for at least another 10 minutes.
Shane Owens and his colleagues at Hofstra University demonstrated that those who perform implementation commitments were nearly eight times more likely to follow through on a commitment than those who did not create them. That could be you!
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