- Good morning, good like, welcome back to Amy TV
where we come together to help you go after
the life that you want.
If you're like me, you have found yourself procrastinating
from time to time and time and time again.
Today, I'm gonna share some advice for those procrastinators
out there who would really love to make a change but need
actually good advice to see the reality in this.
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It may seem like time management tips don't actually help
procrastinators, but in fact, the procrastinators
actually do a heck of a job managing their time.
They schedule the time to do a task at the very last
possible space of time before it is due
or before somebody will make them feel like crap
for not having it done yet, some of the time.
But in most cases, the thing actually gets done,
so shouldn't that count for something?
Actually, I think so.
According to research from Joseph Ferrari
out of DePaul University, as many as 20% of people
are chronic procrastinators.
Ferrari says, "it really has nothing to do
"with time management...to tell the chronic procrastinator
"to just do it would be like telling
"a clinically depressed person to cheer up."
Awkward, Amy, knowing this, why are you doing
a time management video for procrastinators?
Look, I read the research, I agree with the research,
and I believe that time management tips look different
for everyone, so whether you're in this 20%
of chronic procrastinators or you're high performing,
there are still going to be great
time management tips for you.
In this particular case, if you believe you're one
of these procrastinators, then it's all about
what you're feeling in order for you
to effectively get something done,
and that's what we're gonna tap into.
Before we dig into some time management tips
for procrastination, you know what time it is,
I have to give a little bit of Twitter gratitude
to my dear friend, Tiffany.
Tiffany, thank you so much, I acknowledge you
for your time and attention on these videos,
and a big shout out for that retweet.
If you would potentially like to be featured here on Amy TV,
all you gotta do is follow me on Twitter and retweet
my latest video when it comes out.
It's real simple like that.
All right here are my tips for procrastinators
when it comes to managing your time.
Look, you know you get things done,
so stop playing the comparison game.
It's very easy to both negatively do this to yourself
and positively, so on the negative side,
it's always aw, I'm such a procrastinator,
it seems like everybody else is getting things done
ahead of schedule, seems like,
you don't know what they're doing,
and you give yourself a hard time.
On the positive side, you might be that person
that's like oh it's cool, I got this, I'll get it done
when I get it done, when did you do it?
Yeah, no, I ain't got time for that, I'll get it done
the day of, okay?
And you're very confident in how you feel
about being a procrastinator, you've come to terms
with it as a personality trait, and you know what?
It very well could be.
But meanwhile, while you're doin' all this procrastinating,
you're procrastinating even harder because you're comparing
yourself to what everyone else is doing,
and there's really nobody's got time for that.
And it can also be extremely paralyzing
when you start thinking about how everyone else
is doing something or doing things while you're trying
to do something or do your own things.
So rather than filling up your mind with that,
then just let that go, and then find out how much space
you have to start thinking about doing the thing,
maybe a little bit sooner.
Next thing I suggest is to spend time with high performers,
and I say specifically high performers,
you could just call them doers,
you could call them anything you want,
but when you hangout with people in person
or in a close network, people at work,
maybe not necessarily online
because online can be a different perception for you.
A lot of those people don't tend to be real
depending on how you feel when you interact with them,
but somebody in real life in your circles
that gets things done, someone where you've noticed
gets things done, I can't talk today,
but gets things done, get it?
Just find out what happens when you spend
a little bit more time with them
because you might find that their instincts,
their gut check, their ability to just stop doing something
and move on to the next might start rubbing off on you,
and that's going to be a positive thing for the most part
as long as you've chosen the right people
to surround yourself with.
If you surround yourself with procrastinators
who stop everything they're doing in order to go
play video games if it's not their job.
Now I'm not hating on people if that's their job,
but if they're doing it and it's just for fun,
and they're not getting something done whether it's
a school assignment or a work project or a presentation
or whatever the case may be, if you surround yourself
with people like that, then you're not inclined
to see activity that would make you want to change.
So take a good look at who your top five people are
and think who am I hanging out with
that's already high performing, and how can I start
to lean toward more people like that more often?
My third piece of advice is something I call
the power hour challenge.
Power hour is something that I learned a lot more about.
I've heard of it in the past, but I learned a lot more
about it from Gretchen Ruben, because you know,
obsessed with Gretchen Ruben around here.
This is basically the tasks that tend to add up,
whether it's cleaning around the house or making
that photo album you've been meaning to do
or just cleaning out your refrigerator, stuff like that
that gets put off, put off, put off
because there's no scheduled time for it.
Having a weekly power hour can be really useful
for getting some of that stuff done,
designating the time and doing it.
Procrastinators, though, may not do it.
But I'm challenging you to do a specific type of power hour,
one that happens before you do the project
you are procrastinating on.
So if you're looking for something else
to procrastinate with, here is something I am giving to you,
and that is a power hour before your project.
But it has to be in the space
where your project will get done.
This may or may not work for every single thing
you've gotta do, but hear me out.
Let's say for instance you've gotta work on a paper,
and quite frankly, that sounds boring,
like utterly boring, but if you walk over to your desk
or your home office and you go to work on that paper
and your office is destroyed, you're even less likely
to be able to focus especially as a procrastinator.
So now, instead of just going straight in on the paper,
do a power hour before that paper.
Just Tasmanian devil through your office and clean it.
You're gonna wipe down the counters,
you're gonna put books back, you're gonna do
whatever you have to do, whatever the case may be.
Spend that time doing that with the intention
that that will be the fire starter behind actually doing
your paper or at least prepping the space
for a paper to be done.
If you're priming the area for you to be focused,
you're much more likely to actually be focused,
and you're much more likely to actually start,
which starting is the big thing here.
Starting is a big part of the battle.
Next is the five minute rule.
Starting is a big part of the battle
because it's a huge piece of this.
So let's say you do that power hour.
Now you need to do the five minute rule.
You need to at least spend five minutes starting
on your project, five minutes, so that you can have started.
This will do a couple of things, one, you'll find you'll
be happy you actually started something
that you've been procrastinating on,
and hopefully it's not gonna be procrastinated on
as much as it would have been.
But also you may find that after five minutes
and you've actually done something,
five minutes is not very long, and you'll end being there
for 10 or 15, and then if you get hung up after 15 minutes,
hey, you put 15 minutes worth of work into it.
Is this gonna work every single time?
No, but what about the potential of it?
You know that especially when you started that power hour,
that was something you were procrastinating on,
and yet, ya started on it, and you finished on it,
so why won't it work in this situation?
Your five minute rule could turn into a power hour
of your project, but it's really just focusing
on the project.
My next piece of advice is to limit decisions.
If you know you have to spend time on something one day
that's going to consume a lot of mental space for you,
then remove other things that are gonna take mental space.
Make your breakfast the day before so you can just pop it
in the microwave, have an outfit laid out for you,
tell everybody that you're not taking calls
so you don't have to field them that day
or decide if you're going to field one that day.
Start to make decisions in advance that you know
will trip you up in the future so that you don't let them
trip you up in the future or at least limit
a couple of decisions you'll make.
I find that choosing my outfit requires way too much
mental space which is why I try to do it when I come up
with a good outfit idea, and I'll put everything together
so that it's ready to go when I need it next.
That could be the night before for you,
that could be a week in advance for you,
or it could be at the last minute, which would be fitting.
My next piece of advice is
to stop overcomplicating everything.
It's very easy to let something stay in your head
and get complicated if you don't actually start working
on it because you start thinking all the different
possibilities and different things you might have to do
and it gets overwhelming and then there's
this really disgusting web of crap in your head
for something you haven't even started doing yet,
something you haven't even started experiencing yet.
You're likely overcomplicating the process
and can just simplify it by actually getting it
out of your head.
This is something that morning pages has helped me
a lot with when I'm feeling overwhelmed about the day ahead
of me or I have something coming up.
Then I'm brain dumping for three pages every single morning
and suddenly things start to get a lot simpler
because it's just out of my head.
When we leave things in here, we don't work them out,
it's a great way to get overwhelmed,
maybe even start to get depressed.
So whatever the thing is, just start treating it
like it's very simple.
I have to create a presentation.
It's that simple.
I just have to create a presentation around my ideas.
Instead of oh my gosh, I have to take my idea
and I have to turn it into a presentation
and I'm probably gonna have to do this and do some research
and then there's gonna be transitions between the slides.
Forget all that, simplify.
I'm making a presentation.
The more you approach it that way,
the less it's going to bog you down.
And finally, if you really, really need it,
choose a treat for yourself.
If this is like a big deal, and you're like,
I'm definitely going to need some kind of reward
at the end, then do you.
That might be an hour of Real Housewives time or more.
Or maybe even bigger, maybe you're gonna go on
a shopping trip, okay, treat yourself at the end
of a big thing, especially if you get it done further
in advance and you want yourself to feel that win.
If you get it done more than four hours in advance
or more than four days in advance
or more than four months in advance, whatever it is,
how are you gonna treat yourself?
Maybe even make a system, like if you miss this deadline,
then the treat changes to something not quite as good.
These are all super fun things to do
while you're procrastinating by the way,
I mean I personally love the idea of sitting down
and designing a treat system, I don't know why
I don't do that more often.
All right, let's share what we learned today in a tweetable.
Someday is not a day of the week.
Janet Dailey.
Now I want to hear from you.
What do you tend to procrastinate the most?
Leave that in the comments below.
That's all for today, thank you so much for tuning in,
I appreciate it as always.
Make sure you subscribe for good vibes,
kiss the ones you love, and go after the life you want.
Cheers.
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