Do you put off those challenging or unpleasant tasks to the last minute and then feel super stressed as you scramble to get them done on time? Is procrastination killing your productivity at work and at home?
You may have a strong avoider saboteur. If you focus on positive and pleasant tasks in an extreme way and avoid difficult and unpleasant tasks, you are letting your avoider saboteur derail your success and happiness.
How much time and energy do you waste worrying about the things you are avoiding? Often the stress of putting something off is higher than the stress of actually doing the “hard” thing. For example, sometimes I procrastinate about writing my weekly newsletter. When I sit down and start writing, the words just flow, and it’s always way easier than I imagined it would be.
Are you great at getting the easy stuff done first and then run out of 🧠 brain power for the really important items on your to-do list? Studies show that you only have a limited amount of optimal cognitive power per day, typically first thing in the morning.
I know I have a clearer head and get things done way faster after my strict morning routine of waking up early, working out, meditating, and drinking coffee, so I always tackle the hard stuff then. When do you have the most brain power?
I have a strong avoider saboteur and a history of procrastination. What piece of advice has helped me stop procrastinating the most?
🐸 Eat the frog! Tackle the hardest items on your schedule first. Don’t waste your precious cognitive bandwidth on the easy stuff. Pay attention to the time of day you have the most brain power and make progress on your most challenging projects then.
One of my clients has taken back the control over her life by weakening her avoider saboteur and completely ditching her procrastination habit. Both at work and in her personal life, she is consistently doing the hard stuff first, which has significantly reduced her stress. She even got a big promotion at work to her first leadership role recently as her productivity skyrocketed 🚀. She credits her success to my 6-week Positive Intelligence Bootcamp that gave her science-backed tools to motivate her to take bold actions and to leave that pesky avoider in the dust.
Ready for another life-changing, science-based hack to stop procrastinating forever? Keep reading to learn about a tool that has seen amazing results in the lives of millions of people all over the world.
💡 Have you heard of Mel Robbins and her “5-Second Rule”? Mel Robbins was the keynote speaker at an HR conference I attended at the Vancouver Convention Centre in 2019. Her 5-Second Rule bridges the gap between thinking about what you need to do and actually doing it.
The moment you have an instinct to act, speak up, or to stop procrastinating, count backwards 5-4-3-2-1 and move. It sounds really simple, but it works.
Take action in a 5-second window when you would normally stop yourself by overthinking. Within five seconds of having an impulse to act, your self-doubt or avoider saboteur kicks in, and your brain starts to work against you. This is why you need to move even faster than your self-doubt.
I set my alarm ⏰ for 5am each day, so I can work out and tackle some items on my to-do list before my kids wake up. When that alarm goes off, I could backwards 5-4-3-2-1 and leap out of bed, instead of hitting snooze a gazillion times.
5-4-3-2-1 awakens your prefrontal cortex, which gives you a moment of focus and control. It rewires your brain and programs healthy new habits.
❓ How can you use the 5-Second Rule to take action on something you’ve been avoiding in your life?
5-4-3-2-1 – speak up at work, have that tough conversation with your partner, get out of your warm bed and go for a run in the rain, say yes to that scary new opportunity, ask your crush out on a date.
Stop procrastinating and book your free Confidence Booster session here: https://calendly.com/annagradiecoaching/45min
Lots of love,
-Anna