Whats Stopping You?

Strategies to overcome
productivity problems
Tutor: Michael Bryant

Workshop Overview
Part One:
Understanding how you
procrastinate

Part Two:
Strategies for Change
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Workshop Overview
Part One: Understanding how you
procrastinate
Procrastination questionnaire review
Overcoming your procrastination habits
Naming your fears
Thoughts create feelings

Workshop Overview
Part Two: Strategies for Change
Moving from self-doubt to confidence
Moving from inaction to action-taking
Time management
Self-hypnosis for change.

What are your goals?

Exercise:
1. Write a list of things youre procrastinating about
2. Give each item a letter as follows:
A Urgent and important
B Important but not urgent
C Not important and not urgent

3. Pick one item you want to focus on for this

workshop

Procrastination questionnaire
Exercise: Rate your Procrastinator Types

Subscale 1: Guilty types

Subscale 2: Avoiders
Subscale 3: Disorganised types
Subscale 4: Self-doubters
Subscale 5: Passive aggressive
Subscale 6: Perfectionists
Subscale 7: Pleasure seekers / lazy
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Procrastination Habits
1. Putting the cart before the horse
2. Mastery model
3. Fear of failure
4. Perfectionism
5. Lack of self-rewards
6. Should statements
7. Passive aggressiveness
8. Unassertiveness
9. Coercion sensitivity
10.Lack of desire
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Procrastination in Relationships
Procrastination affects not only work-related
matters, but also relationships.
What is being deferred here is friendship and
love. Procrastination in relationships can take
two forms:
fear of intimacy or
fear of separation
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Causes of Procrastination
Perfectionism: Two types :
Adaptive have high standards and believe

their performance lives up to these. They want

perfection often before they have worked for it, as
they cannot accept the time it takes to achieve a task
of the (often impossibly) high standards they set.

Maladaptive - are over-concerned about

making mistakes. This group are high achievers, but

are flexible enough to know that they will sometimes
fail and will need to improve on their efforts.

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Causes of Procrastination
continued

Lack of Self-Confidence
Poor Study / Research Skills
Anger
Lifestyle
Emotional and mental health
problems
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Understanding Procrastination Patterns

Five-stage process describing how many
people procrastinate:
Equating the task with your self-worth
Using perfectionism to make the task seem
even more difficult
Anxiety completely blocks you from working
Procrastination rescues you from anxiety
Introducing a threat to complete your task
(deadlines may help us to overcome our delays, as can the
potential fear of failing your course / job.

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Fear may be one of your reasons for

procrastination if
Thinking about the task makes you feel
uncomfortable.
You worry a lot about how it will turn out.
You hesitate to get started for fear youll mess
it up.
You wonder if you can handle it.
When you try to do it you feel tense, your
heart races, or you start to feel hot.
You think people will criticize, reject, or
laugh at you.

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Fear is not your problem if you

procrastinate because:

You are feeling lazy.

You are tired.
You are feeling
discouraged.
You just cant concentrate.
You would rather do
something more fun.
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Thoughts create feelings:

Examples
Your negative thoughts + Your emotional
reaction = Procrastination (P.)
I dont what to do + Anxiety = Procrastination
I cant deal with this right now + Fatigue = P.
I hate having to do things like this + Irritation
= P.
This is going to be so messed up + Dread = P.

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Thoughts create feelings:

If you can identify the:

thought and the feeling

that together are leading you to procrastinate, you can
choose another way to cope.
Examples:
Too exhausted = rest for a while, then work.
Dread = think of positive possible outcomes.
Uncomforatable = think of past coping events.

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Thoughts create feelings

Procrastination Model:
Actions:

Thoughts:
Im going to
mess it up.

Procrastination,

avoidance

Feelings:
tense, anxious,
fearful
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Thoughts create feelings

Action Model:
Thoughts:
Get started. It
doesnt have to
be perfect.

Actions:
Take action,
Make progress

Feelings:
Empowered,
encouraged.
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Moving from self-doubt to confidence

Core Strategies:
Respond to your Inner Child with
encouraging thoughts
Identify main messages from your Inner
Critic
Convert Inner Critic to your Inner
Coach.
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self-doubt to confidence:
Discouraging vs. Encouraging thoughts
Discouraging
I cant handle it.

Encouraging
I always say that
when Im
stressed.

I dont know what to Slow down. Figure it

do.
out or ask for help.
Its not going to
work.

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Come up with a plan

that is
more likely to work.

Moving from inaction to action-taking:

strategies
Figure out whether laziness is your problem.
Understand the social consequences of
procrastination.
Find out how you might have been trained to
let others do your work.
Learn to transition from pleasure seeking to
taking action.

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Moving from inaction to action-taking:

Exercise:
Name some examples of your style of pleasure
seeking procrastination, e.g.:
When you dont mind doing a chore at home
and you have the time to do it, but you watch
TV instead.
When you have had enough sleep and you are
looking forward to starting your day, but you
want 5 more minutes of sleep anyway.
When you over-prepare or over-research
instead of writing or starting the task.
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Time
Time is management
fixed, measurable and finite.
Procrastinators resist planning ahead.
Integrate SMART goals into your plans:
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely
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Time management strategy:

The UnSchedule
The UnSchedule is not based of time-keeping
based on what you should do.
The UnSchedule is a weekly calendar of all your
committed activities. It helps you to:
1. Look ahead at the week to see how much time
you have already committed.
2.Review at the end of your week, being able to
see where your time has actually gone.
3. Learn to use little bits of time (i.e., 30 minutes)
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UnSchedule example:
work on paper
Monday

Tuesday

Wed.

Wake up, jog,

shower

Wake up, jog,

shower

Wake up, jog, shower

Breakfast, kids
to school

Breakfast, kids to
school

Breakfast, kids to
school

worked on
paper

Watched daytime TV

work on paper

GO TO WORK

GO TO WORK

GO TO WORK

6am

Etc..

3pm

Pick up kids

Pick up kids

Work meeting (late)

Help w homework

Make Dinner

Pick up kids
Dinner

9pm

TV News

worked on paper

Etc..

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Pub with Sabina

Self-hypnosis for change

Self hypnosis demonstration
Hypnosis FAQs
Demo

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Self hypnosis CD

How to make your own

self hypnosis CD

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Books
Procrastination: Why you do it. What to do About it Now, Jane
Burka, PhD.
Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination
and Enjoying Guilt-free Play, Neil A. Fiore
Self-Hypnosis For Dummies, Mike Bryant
Isnt it About Time?: How to Overcome Procrastination and Get on
with you Life, Andrea Perry and Joel Mischon.
Eat That Frog!: Get More of the Important Things Done, Today!,
Brian Tracy

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