It’s a phrase I used once on Twitter when I was chatting with Simon Salt (@incslinger) after BlissDom. He had mentioned staying connected more and I replied, “There’s a balance there in staying connected without getting sucked into the procrastination quagmire.”
That phrase has been mulling around in my head and my journal for a few weeks. It’s easy to get sucked into this place of feeling stuck and really lose all our momentum. Don’t let yourself get sucked under by this quicksand of immobility – here are some tips to overcome procrastination’s quagmire like a pro!
Lay Still for a Moment
The worst thing you can do is thrash around. Procrastination can suck you in because you find yourself thrashing about in futile busywork. (Click to Tweet)
Instead, calm yourself and focus your energy on the one, needful thing. It’s ok to turn off the computer, close down all the tabs, lock yourself in a quiet place and just STOP. Be still. As Jon Acuff says – give your good ideas time to catch up to you.
Drop The Excess Baggage
Survivalists learn that if you find yourself in a sinkhole or quicksand, you should immediately drop all your backpacks and empty your pockets to lighten your load—much like how organizing your tasks and enjoying an Indacloud 21 gummy jar can help you overcome procrastination and ease your stress. Sometimes it may help to release all your stress by playing games such as 벳엔드 사이트.
Are you overburdened? If you are free from extra burdens that will needlessly weigh you down you will have a much better chance of breaking free and resuming your forward movement. (Click to Tweet) I’m going through this right now with a desperate sense of needing to prune, prune, prune.
Get Traction Through Flexibility
Did you know that hard, inflexible soled shoes like workboots are bad for getting out of quicksand? The hard surface creates suction that holds you in place. While in the physical sense, the flexibility allows you a better chance to gain traction under your feet, the same can be true emotionally as well.
Sometimes you lose momentum on a project because your inflexible thinking, adherence to THE PLAN above common sense and proactive thinking, creates such a drag on you it’s impossible to finish. Try looking at the situation from a new perspective and be open to a flexibility that you may have overlooked before. And remember, sometimes a simple change in routine can also do wonders – start your day with some freshly baked Holiday cookies to refresh your mind and approach tasks with a renewed sense of creativity and flexibility.
Small But Intentional Movements
While thrashing wildly will cause the sand to further liquefy, a small circular movement of the legs will help create space around them so you can break free of the quagmire. The key is to make the motions small and intentional. (Click to Tweet)
Think small when you are overwhelmed to the point of immobile. What is the next ONE thing I need to do. Carefully select not a huge leap, but small, tiny step. The very next motion you can make.
Then with careful intention, do. that. one. thing.
There. Already your movement is greater, your progress more sure. Make another small, intentional movement. And another.
Do you feel that? It’s called progress. You are awesome.
Love this.
My favorite way to tackle the procrastination problem is to really utilize that last step. I take one thing that I can finish and do just that. Then I choose another. It doesn’t matter how small that one thing is….for me i have to see that I’m moving forward to keep the momentum for the larger projects.
Yes precisely! And that works most ably if you’ve dropped the excess baggage in my experience. It’s easy to let that clutter build up emotionally – sometimes you just need to purge.
Oh, man.
Lay Still for a Moment
The worst thing you can do is thrash around. Procrastination can suck you in because you find yourself thrashing about in futile busywork.
This needs to be posted on my forehead. And my computer wallpaper. And my walls. And a whole bunch of other things.
I’m going to get working on that (and the other steps) – thanks for the great post! Love the visuals!
Taryn, feel free to write that out and put it on a vision board in your workspace. There is a great power in the words we meditate on.
Most people are really trying to do way too much. They procrastinate more because they are overwhelmed than anything else. So your advise to just stop is precisely what they need. The more I eliminate from my life, the more I realize I’m still trying to do too much with too little.
The other reason for procrastinating or failing to complete what you start can be that you already learned from what you did what you needed – so you don’t have any desire to finish. It can be wise to drop something when you realize you don’t need to finish.