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Stop Procrastination
Procrastination is a very common problem. The good news is… you can
beat your procrastination when you apply the simple eight-step process
below.

Before we go through each of the steps, take some time to put aside any
blaming, beating yourself up or talking yourself down that you may have been
doing around your procrastination habit. Procrastination is simply doing
something other than what you had planned to do; in effect you choose to
make something else more important or urgent and postpone doing what you
said you were going to in pursuit of a different goal.

In NLP, we say that all behavior has some positive intention and can be useful
in a given context. Procrastination isn’t bad per se, it can be highly useful in
the right context. However chronic procrastination, can be very disruptive and
detrimental to a life well lived!

So it’s time to take control and chose when you will procrastinate and when
your procrastination habit needs to go…

Step 1: Catch Yourself In The Act Of Procrastinating

Catch yourself in the act of pursuing something other than the goal you have
stated. Procrastination is the result of other processes at work. Therefore your
procrastination habit will have clues, contexts and times when you always
procrastinate and when you never procrastinate.

Think of something you frequently procrastinate but wish you didn’t.

Ask yourself:

 How am I doing this procrastination?

 What’s going on in my environment just before I procrastinate?
 What’s going on in my mind, body and emotions when I tend to
procrastinate the most often?
 What events or situations seems to be present when I procrastinate?
 How can I set a ‘flag’ that lets me know when I’m about to procrastinate
or entering the ‘danger zone’ when I know I’m likely to procrastinate?

Write down your answers to the questions above.

Step 2: Identify The Intention Behind Your Procrastination

All behaivour is purposive or adaptive in a given context. Therefore when you
procrastinate you do so for at least one of two broad reasons:

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1.To gain pleasure

2.To avoid some form of perceived pain

Think about what the thing you procrastinate about from Step 1.

Ask yourself:

 What end is this behavior seeking?

 What reward do I get or pain do I get to avoid by procrastinating?

Detail your answers on paper. The better the understanding of what ends the
behavior of procrastinating is serving in a given context, the more options you
have for disrupting it.

Step 3: Map Out Which Procrastination Tactics You Use The Most
And Which Rewards You Receive From Them
Everyone has some “tried and tested” tactics they use to put off what they
don’t want to do. Map out your best/most used ones below and the reward
you get:

What I Say I Want What I Actually Tactic(s) Used Reward I Enjoy

Do Instead and Perceived
Pain I Avoid

e.g. Exercise 3 Watch TV for 6 Turn on Netflix to Get the emotional

times a week hours every night. watch my favourite pleasure of
show and lie to watching favorite
myself when I say show and avoid the
“I’ll work out later.” perceived pain of
Then time passes working out…
by and suddenly it
“too late to go”

Step 4: Map Out What Perceived Pain You Avoid By

Procrastinating
Capture what perceived pain points you avoid by putting off the desired action
you say you want.

What I Say I Want What I Actually Tactic(s) Used Perceived Pain I

Do Instead Avoid

e.g. Exercise 3 Watch TV for 6 Turn on Netflix to The perceived pain

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times a week hours every night. watch my favourite of working out, of

show… going out in the
“cold and wet”

Capture as many examples as you can think of.

Step 5. Get Clear On What You Really Want Instead…

Clarity has power. When you are clear on what you truly want, your brain can
begin to sort and filter for more of that. Without clarity about what you want
instead of the procrastinating behavior, your brain will continue to cruise on
auto-pilot and repeat more of the procrastination habit you don’t want!

 What I really want to do instead of (procrastination pattern) is…

E.g. Walk 1k, three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at
8AM so that I can enjoy a greater sense of being healthy and fit and drop 6lbs
to fit in to my jeans!

Define what you want in sensory-based words that a camera could see you
do. Then write it down in as a simple action plan. The more compelling and
vivid your description the better.

Make sure you describe it in sufficient detail that your brain can go

“I’ve got it. When this event occurs (e.g. it’s Monday 8AM), it’s time for
this programme (Walk) to run.”

The brain is event-driven, so the more you can clearly mark out the what,
where, when etc. in sensory rich terms the easier it will be for your brain to
‘trigger’ and start doing the new behavior that you want.

And once you have done the new pattern a number of times, the easier it
becomes for you to repeat the new pattern because your nervous-system has
literally received new instructions to start building a new thought-feeling-action
loop that eliminates the old procrastination pattern that used operate.

Step 6: Define What Are You Willing To Trade?

You have defined what you want instead, it is now time to decide what are
you willing to trade to get it?

For example above, if the person wants to exercise 3 mornings a week, are
they willing to cut back the amount of time they spend watching TV by two
hours so they go to bed by 10:30pm?

There are always trade-offs that need to be made.

What they are will be different for different people. It is up to you to figure out
what you are willing to trade to achieve the new behavior?

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It helps to ask:

 What resources do I need to invoke to create the desired behaivour?

 What CONDITIONS can I create in my life that will make the NEW way
of acting (practically) inevitable?

This shifts your thinking to a higher order and creates higher order cause
which compels the lower order result to occur. For example, if the person who
wants to exercise 3 mornings a week enrolled a buddy to workout with her,
she is far more likely to show up on time and without fail. If she entered a 5K
walkathon and told her friends and family, again most people are far more
likely to exercise when the know there is a meaningful goal they are
committed on.

Combine the three conditions (enroll a friend, sign up for a 5K walkathon and
make a public commitment by telling family and friends) and the person is far
more likely to follow through and exercise 3 times a week.

There are many ways to get your body-mind to habituate to a new behavior.
Something we cover in much more detail inside Habit Hacking.

Step 7: Create Compelling Reason To Start Today?

Think about the desired change you want to create. Ask yourself:

 What will make it worthwhile?

 What kind of future do I want to create right now?
 How will acting in this new way benefit my life?

Take some time to think through all the different areas of your life that will
benefit when you start to act in the new way you want.

 How will you life be better when you stop procrastinating about [fill in the
blank] and start acting in [new desired way]?

 What kinds of problems or issues won’t be present anymore when your

procrastination is firmly in your past?

The more connections you create and the more visceral and impactful on your
nervous system you make it, the quicker your brain and body will start to do
the new behavior.

Step 8: Intentionally Practice Doing The New Response

Your body learns by doing.

So practice doing the new behaviour at every opportunity you can.

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Use the following framework to help keep things simple:

What I Want

What I Need To Do Different

My Game Plan (Contexts/Events & My Desired Responses)

My Why (What will make it worthwhile)

To learn more about how to change your habits, be sure to check out Habit
Hacking, our complete 30 day program designed to help you break bad habits
and form good ones.

To your success,
Tom O’Connor

www.nlptimes.com
Real NLP Skills For The Real World

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