The Cure for Procrastination
Photo by Pedro da Silva on Unsplash
The Cure for Procrastination and (this really works!)
In High School I was diagnosed with ADHD. I had struggled with being organized, staying focused, getting my homework done (I don’t remember ever getting my homework done actually.) I would procrastinate assignments until days after they were due. It’s not that I didn’t want to do well in school, I just didn’t know how to stay organized and focused.
Medication helped a little, but it didn’t really cure the thing. Turns out I had a severe sleep disorder that was probably the main cause of my symptoms, but that’s a story for another time. I continued to struggle in college and it followed me into my professional career as a self employed musician, teacher, tutor, and then coach. Exercise helped, meditation helped, but I still wasn’t as focused and productive as I wanted to be and needed to be in order to be successful.
Finally getting diagnosed and treated for my sleep apnea was an overnight change in energy and focus. My hope was that my focus problems would be a thing of the past. But alas, I was still procrastinating and getting distracted on important tasks, especially since I was working from home more and more as a coach. If you’ve ever worked from home you probably know how challenging it can be to stay on task.
Ok Greg, get to the point. What’s the damn cure?? I was amazed when one of my coaches introduced a technique to me that was free, simple, and worked better than any ADHD meds. And this isn’t one of those “sign up for my program to learn this one simple technique” kind of things. I’m going to give it to you right now.
There are a few versions of this, the first one is called an Authentic Action Text String. I don’t know who invented this, but shout out to Zo Tobi, Jeremy Blanchard, Justin Haaheim and Josh Van Vliet. Here’s how it works:
First: pick a friend, any friend. Or a colleague, coworker, cousin, comrade, whoever. Pick a time where you want to be focused and get stuff done. This is especially helpful if there’s something you’ve been putting off for awhile. Let your friend know that you’d like to text them your actions during that time. So it might look like this: “Hi Lisa, I’d love to do an authentic action text string with you today from 2:00-3:30. Can I text you my actions during that time?” Lisa says “SURE!”
2:00 comes along, and I text my friend my first action and how long it’s going to take. It’s helpful to start with the thing you’re most likely to put off. “Hi Lisa, I’m going to update my YNAB budget by 2:30.” Then I do it! Once I complete the first action, I update my friend. “I did it! My next action is to email a potential client with a link to my latest blog by 2:45.”
If you don’t complete your action by the time you said you would, that’s ok! Update your buddy anyway. “Hi Lisa, I need 15 more minutes to update my budget.”
Your buddy can join you in sharing their own actions (so you can be working together) or they can just support you by receiving your texts. Your buddy can help you celebrate each action you complete by sending you fun emojis, or they can ignore you. It works either way!
Why does this work? Who cares! It really works. Try it out and you may be surprised by the energy, focus, and even FUN you can bring to the most daunting tasks. There is something about the energy of being in relationship with someone while you work that just naturally empowers focus.
Want to make it even more fun? Schedule a virtual co-working session with a buddy. Find a time to do a video chat and do the same process. Why virtual instead of in person? In person is great, but it’s more complicated to schedule and you could use that as an excuse to wait to get that thing done.
But what if I don’t have any friends to co-work with? Just kidding. What if none of my friends are available when I want to work? Do it with a stranger! There’s a website for this called Focusmate.com and it let’s you set up virtual co-working sessions with a buddy whenever you want. It’s such a brilliant idea I wish I had come up with it myself. As a matter of fact I wrote this post while co-working with my brand new friend Kathy on my FocusMate. If I hadn’t set up the appointment last night I’d prob still be in bed.
So there you have it. The cure for procrastination.