Show Notes

Welcome back to the Designer Practice Podcast. I’m your host Kayla Das.

Procrastination is one of the biggest blocks that prevent business owners from moving to the next stage of their business. And I think we can all agree that we’ve all procrastinated something in lives.

In this episode of the Designer Practice Podcast, I’m going to share with you 5 strategies for managing procrastination when it shows up when your starting, growing or even scaling your private practice.

Understanding Why You’re Procrastinating

The first place to start though is to under WHERE Procrastination comes from and WHY It is happening for you. Although, I believe we all have procrastinated with something at some point in our lives – we don’t actually procrastinate the same things and that’s because when we understand the three reasons we procrastinate we can better understand WHY we procrastinate and then be better able to choose which strategy best fits for that reason.

Let me break it down a little here.

In my therapy practice one approach I come from is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach – how our thoughts, influence our emotions that influence our behaviour.

Procrastination is a behaviour – that’s actually linked to a specific emotion. And there are three emotions I’ve found to be highly related to procrastination Overwhelm, Underwhelm & Fear.

Overwhelm

When someone feels overwhelmed by something they are looking at the task or situation as a whole and because it’s so large it leads to procrastination. I use the analogue of a stairway. It’s like you’re at the bottom of the stairs and you’re looking up at a staircase of 100 steps – it seems like a daunting task to reach the top but the best way to take it step-by-step – as that gets us closer to the top. It’s easier to avoid it than to tackle it front on

Underwhelm

When someone is underwhelmed by something they really just do not enjoy the task and may not find meaning or purpose of the task. Even if they know it “should” be done – it doesn’t mean it’s something they enjoy or are energized by the task – so its procrastinated.

Fear

Then finally is fear. And this is also where perfectionism comes into play. There’s lots of research showing how perfectionism and procrastination are linked. But really when someone experiences perfectionism there is a fear of making a mistake or dear I say “not to be perfect.” But it’s not just fear of making a mistake. People procrastinate for all types of fear: fear of failure, fear of what others will think or otherwise fear of judgement, fear that they aren’t good enough (in other words they experience self-doubt and imposter syndrome). Among just a fear fears. But when we fear something – procrastination can also set in.

So really the first step of managing procrastination is to understand WHY you’re procrastinating. Is it because of overwhelm, underwhelm or fear?

Then based on the reason you can choose a strategy that helps manage that reason. Because one of the biggest issues is that we assume all strategies will work but unless you know why you’re procrastinating you might actually be implementing a strategy that doesn’t align with that reason.

Now I’m going to give you 5 strategies for managing procrastination that I use in my business

Overwhelm Strategies

Let’s start with Overcome:

Breakdown a Bigger Task into Bite-Sized Manageable Tasks or Steps

The first is to breakdown a bigger task into bite-sized manageable tasks or steps.

When you take time to plan the steps needed in order to complete a larger task you create a roadmap for yourself that in turn helps guide you. Larger tasks are almost always many small tasks masked as one.

Let me give you an example how I used this strategy in my business: 

Before I started this podcast, I was actually considering starting a podcast for about a year. But because I’ve never done a podcast or even been a guest on a podcast I didn’t know where to start and I felt super overwhelmed with the idea. I bought a course – which really helped – but I still didn’t know what to do. Until I was a guest on a Podcast and then I realized by being a guest the process wasn’t actually that difficult – so I spend about 15 minutes developing the steps I needed to take in order to start my podcast and I spent about 30 minutes setting up the backend side podcasting (which I learned from the course I had taken) and whalaa the Designer Practice Podcast was born in 45 minutes!

Even though I procrastinated it for a year once I broke down each step I needed to take I was able to move forward quickly – and without this strategy I would probably still be waiting for the day I would start my podcast and you wouldn’t be listening to this episode right now.

Prioritize your Tasks

The second strategy is to prioritize your task.

Sometimes we believe that everything has equal importance but usually this isn’t the case. At the beginning of your day or week, take a few moments and prioritize your tasks in order or importance.

Now you can prioritize your tasks in many ways. But how I do this this my practice is I actually create a Top 3/Alternate 3 list. So, for the long-list makers listening I think you’ll like this strategy. So, I am a list person, I have a long list going all of the top. But long lists actually breed overwhelm because once that list gets bigger it feels like a never-ending mountain of work. But the Top 3/Alternate 3 Strategy helps me keep my list but also help prevent overwhelm.

So let me explain the strategy:

So first of all, I take two different color post-in notes and I choose 3 things on my big list that are the most-important tasks I need to complete that week. Then on the other post-it note I write down 3 alternate things that I can do after (and only after) I complete the top 3. If I don’t get to the alternate – it’s no biggy – I can either move that post it note to next week or if my priorities shift the following week I’ll create a new top 3.

How this helps is it helps me focus on the MOST important stuff without getting to bogged down with all of the little tasks that are not necessarily moving me forward in my business. It also helps me focus and feel more accomplished because I can certainly get through 3 things this week.

Now you might be wondering why I said two different color post-it notes. For me, I am a visual person and what I realized when I wrote the top 3 and alternate 3 list on the same colored post-it it actually increased overwhelm for me because now it just looked like a two-page list. Whereas, when I wrote them on two separate colors my brain focused on the one color – which help alleviate overwhelm.

If you’re someone who prefers to prioritize daily tasks over weekly tasks you could modify this technique by having a Top 1 / Alternate 1 for the day. This way you know to focus on one specific task and then you have an alternate if you complete it. But I don’t recommend doing a top 3 alternate 3 for one day – because it’s going to be counterproductive and actually increase overwhelm.

So that was the two strategies for overwhelm:

Underwhelm Strategies

Now let’s go to underwhelm:

Pomodoro Method / Racing the Clock

Using the Pomodoro Method or what I like to call Racing the Clock.

If you’ve never heard of the Pomodoro Method before it is time management technique developed my Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. Basically, its premise is that you set a timer for 25 minutes and when the timer rings you take a short break.  

It’s really helpful for underwhelming tasks because when we aren’t too interested in the task it can seem daunting or draining to even start the task. But this method helps break it down into short intervals which makes the task much more doable.

However, in my practice I’ve modified this technique a little to best fit my needs and personality.

So, the Pomodoro Method says to set a clock of 25 minutes. But I actually set it for whatever time I feel I want to work on it – as long as it’s less than 30 minutes. I’ve found any longer than 30 minutes I just don’t want to do the task.

In my practice, Case notes is the absolutely least whelming task. I really really dislike case notes (please don’t tell on me). But as therapists we know we have legal, ethical and practical reasons why case notes are important. But it doesn’t mean it makes it any easier to do. So I usually set a timer for either 15 or 20 minutes (depending on how many case notes I want to get completed) and I work through them during that time.

But this is where I add a tweak to fit my personality. I love racing the clock – and that’s because I set the timer to the most obnoxious and loud ringtone that my cell phone has and I race the clock because I do NOT want to hear the clock go off. So, it helps me race it.

But this doesn’t work for everyone, some people like the congratulatory ring tone da-dah-dah so they can feel accomplished. It’s really working with yourself instead of against yourself.

Pairing a Physical Activity with a Mental Activity that you Enjoy

Next, is pairing a physical activity with a mental activity you enjoy. This strategy works well if what your procrastinating is a physical activity that doesn’t take up much brain power. It doesn’t always work when it’s the other way around though.

Let me give you an example: Maybe you need to clean your office; or fold your laundry; or even clean your bathroom. You might be procrastinating it because it’s underwhelming for you. If this is the case, you can always pair it with a mental activity that also requires your concentration but specifically something you enjoy.

Maybe you can listen to music while clearing out your filing cabinet; or watch your favourite television show while you fold your laundry; or maybe you put on your favourite podcast while cleaning your bathroom (I do this one A LOT).

So, it helps distract you from the underwhelming physical activity by incorporating a mental activity that requires a little bit of concentration and brain power of something you enjoy.

Fear Strategy

So finally, how to manage procrastination when fear sets it.

Fear is its own thing. And the key here is to understand that to conquer fear, we need to face it head on. And that’s where the first strategy comes in

Take Action Towards the Fear

Take Action Towards the Fear that You’re experiencing – despite your fear, even when you don’t feel too confident. If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me “Kayla, when I feel confident, I’m going to do XYZ.” I would be a millionaire. But my response is always the same “You’ll be waiting a long time then.” Because when it comes to fear, you only build confidence by facing your fear over and over again and taking action towards the fear so that you prove to yourself the worse isn’t going to happen – and even if it does, it’s usually not as bad as we think it is.

Let me give you an example of this in my business. So many of my listeners know I have a free group on Facebook called Boosting Business: Therapists Private Practice Community. I launched the group in 2021 and as of the time I’m recording this episode it has over 3600 people in the group.

However, what most people don’t know is that I had the group opened for 2 months before I invited a single person in the group. I created the group in March 2021 and I didn’t invite a single person under middle of May 2021 – May 14^th to be exact (and yes, I remember because it was probably the first real big step, I took in myself outside of the initial quitting my job to start a business).

Why did I wait so long? Because I was plagued with fear. My fear was that “no one would want to join” I thought to myself “Why wants to be the first person in the group, or second and so on.” And I remember the day I invited people into the group vividly. I was so scared my heart was pounding, I had so many thoughts of failing in my head. – but I took action anyway.

First, I invited my close friends who are therapists that was about 10 people – that was the easiest step as I knew these people. Then I invited my email list to join the group – which was only about 250 people at that time. This was super hard I thought to myself “Oh no. My email list is going to think I am no body and they aren’t going to want to join my group.” Mind you I was new at business coaching at the time too! But and a bunch joined. And then I shared my group with anyone and where I can think of – and it just kept growing.

I think the hardest for me was inviting my 250 people email list because I remember sitting at my computer for what felt like 15 minutes trying to press send on my email provider – when I actually pressed sent, I had a rush of panic too. It wasn’t easy – but it was the second-best thing I ever it. With the first being putting in my resignation to go into private practice full-time. I don’t regret either decision but they definitely caused me the most fear.

It wasn’t that I didn’t experience fear – I was absolutely terrified. But I did it anyway. And now I have absolutely no issue with sharing my group with everywhere I go – because I built confidence by doing it so many times. I learned where it was appropriate and I also learned where it wasn’t appropriate to share the group – but the worst never happened. Actually, the opposite – the group grew to 3600 (to be that’s a huge accomplishment).

So, take action towards the fear – confidence it built by taking the actions over and over – not before.

Conclusion

So, there you go, 5 strategies to help with managing procrastination. Now I want to say there are so many more strategies out there but I definitely believe it is important to first identify the cause of your procrastination and then choose a strategy. Because when we try certain strategies and they don’t work – it’s easy to internalize it as “I’m the issue” or that “nothing will work” but it’s likely we are trying a strategy that isn’t applicable for the reason that you’re experiencing procrastination.

It’s also important to note that not every strategy fits every person and not every person likes or agreed with all strategies. So, it’s about finding a strategy that works for YOU so that you work with yourself and not against yourself.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you enjoyed this episode or the Designer Practice Podcast as a whole and you’re listening on a major podcasting platform, I would be entirely grateful if you would leave a review so that other therapists and coaches will know that this podcast can help them as well.

Thank-you so much! Until next time.

Bye for now.

Credits & Disclaimers

Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay

The Designer Practice Podcast and Evaspare Inc. has an affiliate and/or sponsorship relationship for advertisements in our podcast episodes. We receive commission or monetary compensation, at no extra cost to you, when you use our promotional codes and/or check out advertisement links.