Category: procrastination

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From procrastination to productivity: Unleash your inner Wisdom Warrior

Discover practical strategies to break free from procrastination and thrive

Do you find yourself procrastinating? 

Is this something that you would like to change? 

Most people that I speak with, the answer to both of those things is, yes, I do procrastinate and I would like to change that. 

Here is a simple exercise that probably you hadn’t thought about. Very simple, and I love simplicity because when things are simple, then they get done. 

  1. Pull out a piece of paper and follow along with me. If not now, save this video and come back to it. The first thing to do with your piece of paper is make a T chart. We’re going to be taking a look at our energy.

Our energy is directly related to our time and how we choose to spend it, which is directly related to procrastinating or not procrastinating.

  1. On the top of the whiteboard (page), write the word “energy”. On the left side of your T chart, put a plus. Those are things that give you energy on this side. On the right, put a minus. Those are the things that take away your energy. When you think of these things, do not confine yourself to “work” things. 

If you are a solopreneur like myself, you may be thinking of things like, “oh God, I hate sales.” That might drain you of energy. How we do anything is how we do everything. 

So if your mother drains you of energy, write her down. If your sister drains you of energy, write her down.  You don’t judge. 

Now, what gives you energy? Maybe when you can just watch a movie and relax, that gives you energy. What else? Running? Sleeping late?  There’s no judgment to any of this, and you write it all down.

  1. Next, circle one thing that takes away your energy and get really specific about it. For example, let’s just say your mother takes away your energy. Well, what about your mother that takes away your energy? Consider this story. Maybe when  you go to visit her for Sunday dinner, you feel like a little kid again. You feel yourself getting into some old patterns that make you feel “less than” and you don’t like it. And you go to sleep with kind of a pit in your stomach. 

There’s power in writing this down. That’s the step of Acceptance before a Solution. Acth out for the pitfall of NOT writing “it” down because you do not have a SOLUTION. 

Say you visit mom on Sunday, and you wake up Monday morning and you aren’t yourself, BUT you still want to see your mom. Now you can consider solutions. Perhaps you find a day to go out for lunch. That way, you’re not at her house anymore. We don’t have those memories. We don’t have those old patterns as much that would creep up. 

When going out for lunch, it’s a finite amount of time. It’s on neutral ground, and you still have the rest of the workday.  You’ll have more energy potentially over the weekend. 

By Sunday night or Monday morning, you go to plan your week, you HAVE MORE ENERGY! There’s time management for you. You hopefully have filled your weekend with energy filling activities and doing that. Guess what will give you that more energy? All of these things will help you love yourself more. 

February 14 was Valentine’s Day…the day we remember how much love affects our lives.

I received a beautiful message this morning from a dear friend of mine saying how much she valued me and my unconditional acceptance of her wherever she was in her journey. I realized that that’s my superpower. What is YOURS?

As I think through some of my more special clients, it’s when we get so deep in our relationship where they can begin to unconditionally love themselves. I have a deep belief in them. I have a deep belief in you. It’s just that only some of you are meant to be in my circle. Will you be next?

In conclusion, when you want to stop procrastinating as much, slow down and take a look at what’s happening in your energy field, what’s giving you energy, what’s taking away your energy, and work on each one very slowly. There are many more steps and further, deep inquiry in this process. And this is a really, really great beginning!

Don’t forget that the first Monday of March Wisdom Warriors, we are going to be talking about procrastination and how to eliminate it. We have a different topic every month.  Come for yourself and be surprised and delighted with our amazing free community. 

You will be able to lean on one another and when you want to take the next step, I hope to have room for you in my programs. So as you’re doing this, ask yourself, am I ready for a revelation? Am I done messing around? If you are, please talk to me, because on the other side, it’s amazing and I’d love for you to be with me, and I’d love for you to be with you for a change. Thank you. We’ll see you on March 4th.

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Growth Organization Planning prioritize procrastination productivity in the workplace Time strategies

What is the secret to getting IMPORTANT tasks done vs. procrastinating?

Let’s look at 2 familiar scenarios and how to harness your brain

Today, this beautiful fall day, our topic is less sexy than the fall colors:  time and tasks. This cake slice lives on the third layer of the Productivity Success Cake -in the productivity layer. It’s  important because there are sometimes false ideas that to do a task, you just write down ‘Jones Project’ and you get ‘Jones Project’ done in your to-do list. NOT TRUE!

I am going to show you two different methods to do this. Pay close attention.

Method One: “Okay, today I want to do the Jones Project. I want to exercise, I want to make client outreach calls, and I want to figure out my health insurance”.  I would say that this isn’t bad because you’re actually doing something to plan your day.

However, a better way to do all this is to dial it down to specifics….see below.

Method Two:

  • 6.00am, get up
  • 6.00am – 6.15am Coffee and stretch
  • 6.15am to 6.45am Shower and dress 
  • 6.45am to 7.00am Breakfast
  • 7.00am to 7.20am Drop off son
  • 7.20am to 7.45am Meditate and set intentions
  • 8.00am Jones Project

Notice I didn’t add, “check my email.”

Pro tips:

Within the Jones Project, start a new list. “Jones Project” is not a task. It’s a project. There are many situations like Jones. Maybe it’s a client proposal, maybe it’s a letter or letters you have to send out – it’s more than just a simple ‘pick up the phone and call somebody’ and you already know who you’re going to call. For each PROJECT, there are multiple steps. Those multiple steps come with their own unknowns and their fears behind the unknowns, and that’s what causes procrastination.

In Method Two, notice that I’m adding the preparation to my day. You may want to add things like affirmations and whatever you want to do to get ready for your day. Once you look at your PROJECT, start with an outline. Scope of work? Timeline? Gather materials? Each one of these is its own little list. 

Ask yourself, “to start the Jones Project, what do I need for that?” Stuck? Many times just gathering the materials will help you get going. I have worked a lot with salespeople who might, for example, want to call four prospects or four clients every single day, but it just never gets done.  What I suggest is to pre-think about that list of people that you are going to be calling, the phone numbers and all the information so that when you get down to doing the task, you’ve already got the list, it’s already set up. You don’t have to wonder “Who am I going to call?”.  Lets face it, nobody wants to pick up the phone anymore. 

To sum up, planning ahead with steps may not feel sexy, but it sure helps to remove procrastination. How about you?

Please let me know, what was your best takeaway? 

What will you move forward on today? 

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More time in my day Planning Positive Thinking procrastination Productivity Time strategies

5 ways to ‘Get it Done’ without beating yourself up again

 Goldilocks decision making = gold

You want to get it done, but you just can’t get started. You beat yourself up.

What’s behind this beating yourself up…again? What’s behind this knowing that you’ve got stuff to do, but just feeling completely overwhelmed and just not doing any of it?

Recently, I was in Arizona, and I watched my son experience this exact thing. He knew he had to open his mail, he knew he had to pay his parking tickets, he knew he had to deal with a lot of rather mundane and boring tasks like figuring out “paid time off” and “dealing with insurance” and “looking at doing another job” etc.  Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur and struggles to make the connections., You’ve got to reach out to podcast guests, you’ve got to create your content, and your newslette,….you’ve got to invite clients into your world. But you just feel stuck and you can’t get there. 

This article is for you.

Before we dive into the five tips, ask yourself what’s really going on. 

Usually it’s actually a self-esteem issue. We feel some version of “not good enough.” We look at the past as evidence of what is to come. We do this rather than instead of accepting the past and deciding that this time, we’re going to take different steps and have a different outcome.

OK. Let’s get to the 5 Ways to get it Done!

  1. Celebrate success. So many of us shy away from this critical practice Come to my free monthly Wisdom Warriors, and let us all celebrate your successes with you. The first thing we do on those calls is to celebrate our successes. In my private groups, and in my private one to one high end coaching, again, the first thing we do is we celebrate. 

Usually when people come for coaching, it’s not because everything is going well. It’s just the opposite – everything is not going well. So, when I ask for a celebration, it’s counterintuitive. People have a hard time remembering what went well. You can always celebrate showing up. You can celebrate how pretty the trees are starting to get. You could celebrate anything. Celebrating rewires the brain, and success breeds success. It’s biological; changing the neurons in your mind. Even what may feel to be the tiniest of successes such as getting out of bed in the morning, high fiving yourself in the mirror like Mel Robbins does. That’s something to celebrate. 

  1. Remove your “shoulds” or “you’re supposed to’s.” We do it all the time. We think it’s going to work.  It doesn’t work at all, actually. Try this instead: rather than feeling glum about having to do the laundry, think about how nice those clothes will smell when they come out of the dryer. If you don’t want to deal with your finances, think about how nice it’ll be to have  to have that bill paid.  That’s a way to get started; to get out of your own way.  
  1. Tap into your creativity. If you don’t like to do “something” and you consider yourself to be a creative person, try  tapping into your creativity.  Last week I was trying to help my son to do a lot of “boring” tasks. He’s 21 and there’s a lot of “life tasks” that he just can’t get himself to do. I served as a body double. He said, “Mom, it’s amazing. When you’re just sitting here, I can just go ahead and do it”. His other strategy was to put on his headphones. This was his creative solution. He’s a highly sensitive person, quite distracted by other people’s conversations and his own thoughts.  Maybe you, too, share this characteristic.   Having somebody present really works, and you can do this on zoom as well. 
  1. Give yourself permission to delegate. One person’s passion can be another person’s “non passion!” Get creative. If you have someone close to you who is really good with numbers (and you are not), but you are really good at organizing and getting things done (and that other is not) then work together to get stuff done.  Turn boring tasks into games. For example, grocery shopping. Turn it into a game. See if you can get in and out in 30 minutes.  If you do it in less, reward yourself with a latte!  
  1. Try even if you believe you will fail.  Perhaps you create a schedule at times,  then  don’t follow the schedule, before you even have a chance to try the schedule. Why? Maybe you believe you’re not good at schedules and don’t want to fail. Because you don’t want to fail, you try to save yourself and not even try.

Let’s not do that. Let’s make the task smaller, and smaller, and smaller…

Tell me, which is your favorite tip? What small steps are you going to take? Hit reply and let me know!

Remember: the first Monday of the month is  Wisdom Warriors, which is my free group, so please come along. It’s at 12pm Eastern.  It’s just all love…not some salesy webinar.. So, bring your friends and have some fun with it.  Free, powerful coaching and community. A gem!

Too shy for zoom? Come to your own private Facebook group and share the love that way. Be in community!

Want to work with me privately? Let’s have a conversation!  I hate to see you stuck. Stuck sucks. We don’t want that. 

Here’s to getting it done, de-stuckifying, and being with like minded others.

Cheers!

Carol

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Growth More time in my day Organization Planning Positive Thinking prioritize procrastination Productivity Time strategies

How to give your time to the projects that will bring income…and still stay creative

Boredom got you? Here is your solution

One of my community members has reached out to me about managing your time so that you have the best income within the time that you have. 

They write, “I have a problem with giving my time to the projects that will bring me the income now”.  What I’m hearing:  this person knows that they need to change their time management, such that they are being very deliberate about how they spend their time, so that they have the best income for the smallest amount of time. This person is a parent and has a lot of responsibilities outside of their business.

As a reminder, time management falls in the 3rd layer of the Productivity Success Cake, (the Productivity layer), above health and environment. Therefore, before we do anything on our time management, we want to make sure that our health is in a “good enough” place, (doesn’t have to be perfect), and that our environment is in a “good enough” place (doesn’t have to be perfect!). You can complete the Productivity Success Cake quiz here, completely free, and see where you rate (for your own purposes) on that cake. 

Now, when we dug a little deeper and the writer went into more detail about this issue, they said that they had tried different things, but that they believed what was getting in the way was:

believing that ‘everything is valuable’

The person writing in with this issue knows that time needs to get slotted to a certain kind of work (where money comes), and yet this belief ‘everything is valuable’ is preventing it. And if this is valuable, then it all has to get done. What I know about having everything needing to be done at the same time, is this is a recipe for overwhelm. When we’re in overwhelm we don’t do anything. We become stuck; we become stagnant.  In flight or freeze, that’s freeze – what we don’t want to do. So going back to the beginning, we don’t want to believe that everything is important. When we believe that everything is important and therefore needs to get done, we don’t do anything. 

Here’s where prioritization becomes really important. 

Then there are some other things that this person wrote to me.  This person found that what they know to make money (albeit inconsistent), it felt boring, repetitive, & unfulfilling. This person was thinking, ‘building my business requires many things working together in a set routine, but I can’t make myself do the same thing every day. I get bored and gravitate towards tasks that feed my creativity’.  What it takes to create that momentum and build on that momentum is known, and yet there’s this yearning, this boredom, this lack of dopamine, this lack of creativity.

Behind this, there might be a belief that it’s all or nothing. Here is what it may sound like: “either I do these boring things and I make money, or I have fun and I’m creative and I don’t make the kind of money I want to”. So do you see how these beliefs start to really impact what’s going on? 

Now let’s address ‘inconsistent income’. Money was coming in, but it felt inconsistent. When the inconsistent money came in, this person realized, “hang on, I need to do some automation to get more consistency.”  That automation was probably pretty boring. So now we’re back to the real problem: “It’s boring to make money. I really want to be creative”. 

Well, I have some really beautiful news for you. It does not HAVE to be that way.

The way I teach things and the way I run my own world, my own life and my own business is that fun, joy, and creativity are not mutually exclusive to earning an amazing living. Not just a good living, but an amazing living. These things can and will and do (and actually I believe must) coexist. Joy and income are not opposite sides of the spectrum. 

I recommend that your first step to get to a joyous place and really dial in to be able to earn the income you deserve is to download your Unscatter My Life guide. What you’ll find is that there’s a roadmap.

The Roadmap: Decide, Discern, Discover, Practice, and Celebrate. The person who wrote in with their conundrum is in the “Decide” step, because the decision must be made. “Do I really want this? Why do I really want this? What do I have to gain? What do I have to lose?” Lack of decision slowly kills us and will completely put a cap on greatness. We can only operate in that kind of a situation for so long. 

So- say this person decides “You know what? I’m done with this crap. I’m going to go ahead and do these steps”. The step after Decide is Discern and that’s where we really dig in to what we love, what we’re good at, what the world needs, and what we can get paid for. 

Before we ever get to that Productivity Success Cake (which is Discover), we really dial in on the Discern step. When we’re so deeply discerning, then that serves as our north star. The problem is not being able to focus on the things that make us money, as that’s the presenting problem. The real issue is some beliefs that are behind here, and therefore actions that then support those beliefs (i.e.  when I make money, it has to be boring. It has to be the same thing all the time, and it has to be unfun). guarantee you that you’ll stay in that loop until you die. So we don’t want that. We want you to turn that around, make a big decision, a big bold decision. 

Download the guide, do the exercises and make your decision, and from there you can go into the discernment. 

That was a lot. I can’t wait to support you. Once you download that guide, there’s a place where you can have a free call with me so that you get your own roadmap and should you decide to take that step now, you’ll be on the road to deeply discerning and therefore acting in your own best interest. And that’s why I exist in the world. So I will hopefully see you on that call. It will blow your mind and change things for the better. What do you have to lose?

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Get Organized More time in my day procrastination Time strategies

It’s a kind of magic – How to free yourself from the time trap and make time expand

Oh, if only we had a Time Magic Wand. Wouldn’t it be nice to call our personal Fairy Godmother (or father) every time we can’t accomplish something on time?

In my previous post, I wrote about the chronic lack of time we all seem to complain about. I invited you to shift the perspective from time in terms of quantity – HOW MUCH more time we need – to time in terms of quality – what we can actually DO in the time we already HAVE.

In this fast-pacing world, we can easily become overwhelmed with “to-do” lists of tasks that drain out the best of us. This constant feeling of being overwhelmed, of not being capable to cope with many tasks or situations at one time, leads to chronic stress and fatigue. We feel like we cannot take a break, cannot go outside at lunch, etc. The truth is that these practices will actually increase your productivity.

So, let’s take back control of our work-life. Not with magic (or not Fairy Godmother kind of magic at least) but with some sound techniques that, when applied in the right way, can certainly give us the feeling that our time has actually expanded. (Note, our time will not have expanded. Our brains will relax into doing Our Great Work.)

1. Value your time- treat it as currency
Ask yourself this. Would you give out money to everyone who asks, just because they asked for it?
In order to start giving our time the value it deserves, we must take a step back and look at the existing state of our day. What’s happening now? Awareness is key. Acceptance is next. If we have a daily routine, great. The next step is to identify the activities that are of highest value toward our stated goal. When we allow others to dictate our schedule, we feel out of control, responsive, and exhausted. A related concept is fulfilment. The more you can find fulfilment in what you do, the more you can contribute to the world by being who you are and living with purpose. I once participated as a speaker in a retreat and we created Fulfilment Jars. Each person added rocks to his or her jar when he or she created more fulfilment in his/her work life. It was empowering.

2. Use your time wisely
What is the key to making the most of your time? Have a clear set of priorities and work towards reaching your goals. It’s a good idea to break down your top priorities in a written set of smaller goals. This is an example:
Priority – spend more quality time with my family

  • Goals:
    – Finish work every day at 5.30pm
    – Spend 1 night out with all the family every week
    – Etc.

Constantly review your goals, then make them a part of a good written plan. With your plan in hand, try to separate the majors from the minors, the really important things from the things that you just have to do. And prioritize. A little thought will save you a lot of time. A little accountability and a series of micro steps toward the goal will work wonders, too.

3. Stop making excuses
Just stop it! This step had me thinking about a really funny video

Some people are just late. They are always trying to squeeze in one more thing. They like to play beat the clock. They don’t want to get stuck waiting for a start time. And, heck, they are busy and important, right? Well ….

What’s true is that being late erodes confidence and trust. So, if this sounds familiar, try flipping the mindset to “I can read 10 minutes of that e-book if I am 10 minutes early.” (hint: these are strategic priorities!)

An excuse should be a warning sign that our priorities are not in alignment with our values. Tell that to Doctor Bob in the video.

4. Focus on the present
Be present. That’s Deepak Chopra, right? And that’s awesome. Another gift of the present is the incremental steps of the present moment as a way to the strategic vision of the future. Bit. By. Bit.

5. Don’t procrastinate
Procrastination kills creativity, it kills motivation, and it will do nothing but wear you out. See another article of mine for more info. When you procrastinate about something, you avoid doing it because you find it unpleasant. But, WHY do you find it unpleasant? What are your expectations and how can you change them to re-motivate yourself? A good way to re-motivate yourself is asking why something is important (relate it to your larger mission). Visualize yourself in your success. Cool, you are doing this for a reason! Remember – you are in control!

One of the keys to effective time management is just staying in charge. It’s important in running a business, and a life. If you don’t stay on top of things, the business will run you before long. You have to stop every once in a while, and say,

“Wait! Who’s in charge here?”

YOU ARE!!! Success is the constant process of working toward your goals, little achievement by little achievement. Little achievements can produce big results, and anything is possible in those 24 hours we’re given each day.

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Get Organized procrastination Productivity

Did she really recommend that I procrastinate?

SOMETIMES PROCRASTINATION IS “GOOD!”

Let’s be real. Do you procrastinate?

If “yes” then welcome to Being Human. There is NOTHING wrong with you. (Can I stop reading now?) Procrastination is our way of avoiding something unpleasant. Our bodies and minds are saying, NO! My challenge to you is, why is it unpleasant? This question equals, “why am I procrastinating?”

Ask yourself:

  1. What is your expectation?
  2. How did you establish said expectation? Did it come from childhood? Teachers? Supervisors?
  3. What might happen if this expectation did not exist? That you CHANGE it to another one?

Example of expectation:
I must spend every moment of my workday being productive.  I cannot afford to take a lunch – that’s for lazy people.  I’m productive, busy, professional, and irreplaceable…I need to keep my game face on.

Example of changing this expectation:
I am important in my company.  I empower others and lead by example.  I know that taking frequent breaks clears my mind and allows me to do my best work.

When you change unrealistic expectations, you honor yourself more. When you honor yourself more, you are far less likely to be distracted, and to procrastinate.

And now, on to the Productivity Success Plan.

Last time, we dove into the first step in this plan. Step One was to identify what procrastination looks like for YOU (in other words, when you procrastinate what are you actually DOING?)

Step Two: The Procrastination Rescue Ritual
OK, so now you realize you are procrastinating. How do you Get Out of Procrastination-ville right away? Start your own Procrastination Rescue Ritual!

What’s a Procrastination Rescue Ritual?

This is a SIMPLE WAY to get you back on track. It’s so easy to get off track, right? So, first, NOTICE, and then, come up with a Really Simple Ritual so you can do it and you start actually getting stuff done!

Here are your 3 steps:

  1. Check in
  2. Center Yourself
  3. Re-motivate

Sound simple? Too simple? Yes, it’s simple…and simple WORKS.

Here’s what this might look like:

  1. You sit down at your computer. You check Facebook for work posts. The next thing you know, you see a sponsored ad for something cool, or you sister posted fun vacation photos. **YOU NOTICE***
  2. Yikes! Am I procrastinating (yes) (ask why? See above, too boring of a task, too long of a time allocated, what is it?)
  3. Procrastination Rescue Ritual time:
    • Check In: What do I need right now? A cup of tea and headphones? A quick walk? Shut down all my browser windows?
    • Center Yourself: Breathe. Do a mini meditation.
    • Re-motivate: Ask yourself, why is this important (relate it to your larger mission). Visualize yourself in your success. Cool, you are doing this!

STEP THREE.
Once you’ve rescued yourself, it’s time to Move into the Now. Ask yourself three essential questions to maximize your time and energy (we will do this 3/5)

And here’s a preview of the next 3 steps!

STEP FOUR
Removing Distractions

STEP FIVE
What needs to change?

STEP SIX
Celebrate!

Plus…here’s a BONUS TIP!

Sometimes thinking about the task is much bigger than actually doing it. Right? Go on, just start…something.

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