The Procrastinator's Guide to Taking Action Now!

byOGJAnthony

52 followers

4 weeks ago

"Tell[ing] the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up." -- Joseph Ferrari

If I were a superhero, I'm pretty sure my character would be called The Procrastinator.

Working a full-time job as a manager, and the equivalent of a second part-time job as a corporate trainer, one of the things I often struggle with when it comes to building my own business is finding the time.

What's interesting, however, is that time management often has nothing to do with time.

Now, as you might know, the systems we have in place inside Wealthy Affiliate most certainly help, but even then, I often struggle with the dreaded "P" word... procrastination.

If this sounds like you, too, I'd like to suggest a wonderful little technique I've learned from one of my mentors called the "unblock" method. But, first, a little context...

Let's say you have a particular goal in mind. For this example, let's say you need to write your next article for your site. There are several ways you can approach the challenge.

First, is the easiest. It's the Do Nothing Method. The challenge, however, is obvious: doing nothing, well, does nothing to get you closer to your goal of getting a blog post done.

Next, we have the Motivation Method. In other words, trying to convince yourself that it's worth it and then trying to make yourself do it. Just think of the dream life you'll have with a successful blog. Easier said than done, right?

The third might be referred to as the Discipline Method. You remind yourself that goals take discipline and, by golly, you've just gotta put your head down and force your way through this.

This is the,"Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." method made famous by journalist, Gene Fowler. In my experience, this isn't very effective, at least not in the long term.

Finally, we get to the Unblock Method. This is my favorite. For me, the Unblock Method is extremely effective, because I don't have to convince myself or force anything. It's just one simple question...

What is blocking me from doing it right now?

Sometimes, it's simply uncertainty. I'm afraid to start because I don't know where I'm going or what I'm supposed to be doing. I just need more planning.

But most of the time, even if I eliminate the uncertainty of where I'm going, I can still be stopped dead in my tracks out of fear. In fact, you may have seen it here in my previous blog post. I basically had to ask everyone's "permission" before I felt comfortable starting a blog here in WA.

Crazy, right?

But here's what I have come to find out: I like all of you. And I hope all of you like me. So, this isn't meant as a dig towards any one of us. But here's the reality...

No one really cares!

Okay, not exactly. It's not that we don't care about one another, but more that we're all just too focused on our own lives to pay attention to others. And, at least in terms of procrastination and fear, that's actually a good thing.

If you know that, in the beginning stages of your new blog or YouTube channel, no one is really seeing it anyway, that makes it a heck of a lot easier to create content. And by the time you actually do start getting traffic, chances are you will have developed the courage to keep going.

So, as alluded to by Ferrari earlier, we can't always follow the Nike way and just do it, because that's forcing things. We need to take a step before that...

Instead, the key to overcoming procrastination really comes down to asking, "What is blocking me?" and then doing something about it. It really is that simple.

Give it a shot and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how well this works.

Have a great week!