Banish Procrastination With a Daily Dose of Mindfulness

Life can be busy, really busy. We all have 100s of things to do, and 1000 more things we should have done but didn't do thanks to our backstabbing friend, procrastination!

Then there are the worries for the future, bad memories from the past, and problems in the present to contend with.

Stress, stress, STRESS. Worry, worry, WORRY. procrastination, procrastination, PROCRASTINATION.

Rinse and repeat!

BUT, what if you brought your life back to what is happening right now, in the current moment?

In modern society to be seen as busy is almost like a social statement!

BUT this is having a detrimental effect on our mental wellbeing. What we need is to be less busy and start taking time out to recharge and refocus.

A Daily Dose of Mindfulness

“Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending (and accepting) who we are already”. — Pema Chödrön

I often ask my students if they brushed their teeth for 2 hours straight once a week instead of twice a day for 1–2 minutes would it be beneficial?

No, of course not! Your teeth would properly get damaged from an intense burst of attention and then suffer the rest of the week from neglect.

The same can be said for mindfulness practice. You will not reap the benefits if you do not practice consistently.

Mindfulness can improve focus, enhance creativity, productivity, reduce stress and procrastination. Although mindfulness is not about relaxation it can help you feel a little calmer and more self-aware.

Developing a mindful lifestyle takes time, practice, and patience. Finding the time to improve our mental and physical wellbeing is unfortunately not always easy.

Overcoming the barrier of Procrastination

Procrastination is a toxic habit that can stop you from becoming your best self.

When we feel negative emotions, such as anxiety, stress, frustration, or even overwhelm toward a task it is likely we will turn to cat videos, ahem I mean procrastination.

We do this because negative emotions can feel uncomfortable, and we try to do something else that will bring comfort.

Because these emotions are uncomfortable (they cause pain in our brains!), we try to avoid them. Hence, we procrastinate.

The procrastination cure is taking action despite our negative thoughts and emotions causing great discomfort.

You are not your thoughts. And you are not your emotions.

Take a deep breath and sit with your thoughts for a minute.

Don't try to change them, just let them be.

Start to become aware of your internal dialogue.

Just like the weather thoughts and emotions come and go, sometimes they can be light and breezy, other days grey with rain, but other times they can bring a whole storm!

Thoughts and emotions just pop up, they come and go like clouds in the sky. They are like the weather. Sometimes it’s sunny; sometimes it rains — sometimes you feel happy and motivated; sometimes you feel sad and depressed.

If you’re trying to finish writing a story, going to the gym, or anything else worthwhile that you are finding difficult chances are that negative thoughts and emotions will pop up.

You feel a sense of stress, anxiety, you overwhelm

These thoughts and feelings certainly don’t help with motivation.

Your inner voice starts telling you to do the task tomorrow. You’ll have more energy be motivated then.

You see, your mind is an excuse given generator that sparks into motion directly you start to feel a little uncomfortable with something. Although its intentions are good it's just trying to keep you safe...

...from that saber tooth tiger that no longer exists!

Common examples of the excuse generator

"I am too tired. I will do this tomorrow"

"Just one more cat video then I will crack on with my essay" - 20 cat videos later and not a single word written".

"The internet has gone done this is the sign from the universe it isn't meant to be"

“I should have started this earlier. Now I will not finish. I give up!”

“I need to prepare before I can start.”

“I'll just grab ANOTHER coffee.”

"One more episode of blah, blah on Netflix"

Do any of these sound familiar?

When we procrastinate it's not the cat videos getting in the way-it's our thoughts and emotions.

The daily mindfulness practice of 1-2 minutes twice a day can help us to better regulate our emotions thus leading to less procrastination - in theory!

Letting go of thoughts & emotions that dictate your behavior

Our thoughts and emotions influence us to act in a certain way.

When we procrastinate, we are letting our thoughts and emotions control our behavior.

For example, when stressed or overwhelmed we may avoid, which leads to procrastination. Another example is if we are angry or frustrated we might clench up and shout.

If we are aware we do this we can change our response.

For example, when we feel frustrated or angry we can spend 1-2 minutes taking some mindfully deep breaths to help calm us before reacting.

If we feel we are beginning to avoid we may need to apply the opposite approach and take action.

Key Takeaways

Procrastination is an issue with emotional regulation. When we face tasks that make us feel uncomfortable we are likely to experience negative emotions, such as stress, anxiety, frustration, overwhelm.

Our inbuild strategy for coping with them is often avoidance. That’s when we turn to procrastination to give us some comfort in the uncomfortable.

The key to overcoming procrastination is not to get rid of negative thoughts and emotions, but to build an awareness of what triggers them so we can take action.

Therefore Mindfulness is key to overcoming procrastination!

One of the best ways to strengthen our mindfulness is to practice at least once to twice daily.

It does not have to be a full-on mediation, but just taking some time out for 1-2 minutes to focus on your breath and become not judgementally aware of your thoughts and feelings.