A simple way to stop procrastination...

Today I want to talk about something I expect we all do from time to time:
 
Putting off little jobs, until they become HUGE jobs in our head!

I’m sure you know the ones I mean ;)

My example...  

A friend of a friend contacted me recently, as she’s moving to Vancouver. She wanted to know how I liked living here, how easy it was to make friends, etc.
 
Her last text to me was from September... ahem. (Late September, I should add! ;)
 
After a week or so of not replying to her, I started to feel really bad.
 
So much so that it made the tasks seem so much worse.
 
It magnified in my head, to something monstrous!
 
The more I thought about it, the harder it was to reply to her.

But then...
 
This week I bit the bullet. I finally messaged her back (hooray!) With lots of apologies :)
 
And guess what?
 
It took less than 5 minutes!
 
It was pretty enjoyable as well (I mean, I was just sending a text message!)
 
How often do you do this: finally get round to a task, only to discover that it didn’t take long, and wasn’t a big deal?
 
I bet some of you are nodding your heads. It’s human nature.
 
But here’s something you can do to help (taken from Dr. David Burns’ Feeling Good book - which I highly recommend):

1. Take a sheet of paper, and create six columns.
   
   
2. Title the columns: Date; Activity (broken into small steps); Predicted Difficulty (0-100%); Predicted Satisfaction (0-100%); Actual Difficulty (0-100%); and Actual Satisfaction (0-100%). 
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3. Each time you find yourself procrastinating on a task, note down the date, and the task details. Then predict how difficult the task will be out of 100, and how rewarding you think it will be. (Do this before you do the task.)
   
   
4. Do the task. Yes, get it done :)
   
   
5. Once you have done the task, note down how difficult the task actually was, and how much satisfaction it brought you.
   
   
6. Take a look back. Were you putting off tasks that were, in fact, super easy? And did you enjoy some of your tasks more than you thought you would?

 
Think how you’d feel if you had fewer tasks hanging over your head.
 
I know I feel good looking at my messages and not feeling so guilty.
 
What task is hanging over your head?
 
And how can you help yourself to "get ‘er done"?!
 
I wonder how many teeny tasks you could cross off your list, if you dedicated 30 minutes to getting through as many as you can?
 
As always, I’d love to hear how you get on!
 
You’re doing fine. I promise. We’re all works in progress – none of us have it all figured out :)
 
Hugs,
 
Claire
 
PS - How long I thought it would take to write this post: 45 minutes. How long it really took: 17 minutes :) How much I enjoyed it: lots! 

❤