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I’ve received many emails over the past couple of months in response to the Positive Motivation Series of posts earlier in the year. I’ve been asked about my own motivation strategy and whether it works.

I used to be the world’s worst procrastinator. If there had been a Procrastination Olympics, I would have won Gold. I was a 10th dan black-belt, zen master procrastinator who could out procrastinate a lump of rock.

I would do the whole range. Thinking about doing things, then putting them off. Doing other things first: more interesting things, less interesting things, then, finally, just things – anything, just so long as it meant not having to do the thing I was procrastinating over.

And this wasn’t enjoyable. I’d be stressed about the things I wasn’t doing, and be pissed off at myself for being the sort of person who procrastinated. Bills would go unpaid, washing up would remain undone, books remain unread, websites remain unbuilt… All in all, it was a bit of a car crash…

(Which gives me an idea – perhaps somebody should sell this idea to Channel 4 as a replacement for their ailing Big Brother “show”: gather 12 procrastinators together and watch them grow increasingly stressed in their avoidances as the viewing public votes to burden them with more and more tasks?)

Anyway… Here is how I beat procrastination once and for all – it’s built around the S-M-E-R-T-E model:

Stimulus. This can be external, or internal. Something that happens, or something we feel needs to happen, or a thought that occurs to us.
Memory. In response to a stimulus, our brain accesses memories. It does this to determine whether the stimulus is good, or bad, benign or scary, etc. The memories accessed in response to stimuli are often unconscious to us.
Emotion. Emotions are felt when these memories are accessed; often the emotion we fear is the overriding emotion in the memories we have just accessed. In a typical procrastinator, the emotion is usually one of reluctance to act.
Response. Response refers here to either cognitions or behaviour that happen in response to the emotions we have just felt.
Termination. The end of those cognitions or behaviours; so in the procrastinator, this would be finishing watching Dial M for Murder or whatever…
Evaluation. The evaluation phase is often unconscious. In the procrastinator, a thought process will run along the lines of “Great! I avoided doing that for a little while – a great result!”

The S-M-E-R-T-E model is a useful model for most problems in life. For example, phobias run along these lines (see the spider, access memories of being scared by spiders, feel the fear, run away crying, relax when away from the spider, think “great – I avoided the spider”), as do problems with confidence or self-esteem, anxieties, insomnia, eating disorders, etc…

So, you can probably work out that for the procrastinator, it is the Emotion and Response part of this model where the major problems lie. Here’s the process I follow:

Stimulus. So, for example, seeing a pile of washing up.
Memory. Unconsciously, my brain will access childhood memories of having to do the washing up, and hating it.
Emotion. Those old resentments and resistances flood back, leaving me feeling all “procrastinaty”.

At this point, I’ll:

1. Consciously access memories of being motivated to do something, which brings about feelings of motivation to combat the procrastination feelings.
2. I’ll consciously access memories of time flying by (time distortion is a hypnotic phenomenon) – to remind me that that it’ll only take 10 – 20 minutes, and that time will fly by (particularly, if I listen to music whilst doing it).
3. I’ll then consciously access memories of completing the washing up, which brings about feelings of satisfaction. I’ll then affirm that I want those feelings again.

Because of this intervention, I’ll have a new emotion; rather than the childish resistance felt previously, I now feel motivated, and certain it will only take a jiffy to get the job done.

With that emotion felt bodily (and it doesn’t need to be strong, just stronger than the old procrastination feelings) my Response is now different – it is easy to do the behaviour of “getting it done”. Those behaviours happen automatically in fact.

When the resourceful behaviour is complete, I’ll then use the Evaluation stage to consciously generate good feelings, and congratulate myself for doing a good job. This is important – it helps to build good, happy memories for the future. The more happy memories you have for getting things done, the less of a procrastinator you will be.

The above works for any type of procrastination, except perhaps where there is a fear of failure involved. Just follow the instructions, substituting a task you’re struggling with for my example of “doing the washing up”. After a while, the process becomes natural – try it…

(And not tomorrow…)

That’s all for now, if you find this post helpful, don’t forget to vote for my blog…

Warm regards,

Adrian

http://www.lastingchange.co.uk