When it comes to changing habits, there are no magic bullets. Habit change is a process … a gradual process of incremental change, where success comes from the compound effect of micro steps and daily progress.
From corporate professionals to entrepreneurs, university students to stay-at-home moms, embodying this growth mindset is an important tool for personal and career success. A growth mindset acknowledges that it is progress that fuels life. It is about refusing to stay stuck, at least not for too long. It is about choosing to push the boundaries of where we are so we can open the horizon to bigger possibilities. Above all, it is realising that change is not an end-goal. Change is a lifestyle. We stay nimble and adaptable, allowing ourselves to learn and unlearn, despite the discomfort, because we know that life stops when we stop learning. Now, in the spirit of learning and embracing progress rather than a final destination where we are a perfect version of ourselves, how is your current relationship with procrastination?
But first things first, what is procrastination? Procrastination is the habit of delaying action until there is a significant time lapse between when we intended to do it and when we actually do it. We all procrastinate from time to time. In fact, procrastination is not always a bad thing. On the upside, it can prevent us from making rash decisions. On the downside however, which is the majority, untamed procrastination can cause us stress, anxiety, and can lead to negative self-valuation such as low sense of self-efficacy, lack of motivation and low sense of achievement. Staying there for too long can lead to perpetual stagnation.
Now, let’s learn one actionable step that can move the needle towards less procrastination, sot that more often than not, we do what we are supposed to do, when we are supposed to do it.
Allow me to digress a little on what I have learnt about habit change through studying a PhD. I think the PhD journey is probably the one thing that gives you more time with yourself than anything else – and hear me out, it is a battlefield of the mind!
You get to face your habits, all of them, good and bad, at full scale. As a naturally first response for most of us, you try various ways to get rid of the discomfort. You will supress, deny, and run away until you can do none of that any longer. You will then be left with one option, face the gremlins. I mean you will grow. By fire by force! And this is the best part. You will grow. You will know that you have earned that growth because like iron ore, you have been through the fire and you have come back refined on the other side. You will believe in yourself and your ability to tackle great challenges, learning strategies to overcome one bad habit, one gremlin at a time.
Of course, life in its generosity, will surely give various opportunities to experience this growth. Marriage. Raising children. Working with a difficult boss. Leading a difficult team. Etc. Pursuing challenging undertakings have a common denominator – we get the opportunity to exercise our agency. The opportunity to choose. We will learn for the first time, or we will be reminded that WE ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE. And for every choice, there are consequences. So, we will accept that no messiah is coming to rescue us, and we will choose growth. We will choose to expand the horizons of our thinking and perceptions. And this my friend, is the Kanaan of personal and professional growth!
With this in mind, that there is no magic bullet to habit change, and that steady progress is what we aim for, I am sharing one actionable step that we can incorporate in our arsenal of tools to overcoming procrastination.
Parking downhill
When you park your car downhill, you reduce the time it will take to accelerate to a certain speed and to cover a certain distance. I learnt about this technique when I was writing my thesis, and it has been my number one anti-procrastination and productivity tool.
How do you park your tasks downhill?
In its simplest form, parking downhill works like this: at the end of one work session or day, park the next one downhill. In practice, when you prepare your to-do list for the day or the next day, always add this as the last task of your work session: “park next work session downhill”. You cut the tree and sharpen the saw for tomorrow’s tree cutting. You combine executing with planning. It means that you don’t only execute the tasks for the day, you also plan the next day so that you increase your next day acceleration speed.
This task involves listing the key activities you want to accomplish in your next session. Not only that, strive to put some kind of order, at least have the first task labelled. And remember, procrastination often manifests in a need to do the easy, often low-value tasks first and leaving the more difficult, high-value tasks for later, a later that often comes muuuuch much later. Use your most productive time of day for the most important task. This way you will have less and less tasks that get carried over to the next day for days on end!
So, how can you BE MORE today? Park your work downhill.
Until next time,
EK.
I am ICF-Accredited Trained Coach and a Digital Development Consultant. I offer the following services:
COACHING
- Career Transition Coaching: I help professionals navigate career transitions by clarifying their goals, figuring out ways to achieve them, and take their next steps with confidence and clarity.
- Coaching to junior and mid-level leaders: I partner with organisations to build tomorrow’s leaders today.
- Coaching for social impact: As a Development professional, I believe in our shared duty to expand our professional service to social impact outcomes.I offer tailored coaching to technology-for-social impact professionals; women & girls from underserved communities, and youth.
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- Using research-based insights to empower local tech NGOs and Social Enterprises: I partner with Digital Development stakeholders, using research-based insights to develop solutions and interventions to support local NGOs and Social Enterprises’ people and organisational capacity for successful implementation of technology-driven social impact initiatives.
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