Part of the reason why I've allowed this habit to exist is because of the lack of consequences attached to my behavior. I've been told in the past that I'm motivated by the fear of negative consequences and, with no repercussions in place, I've allowed my inaction to flourish.
Actually, the negative consequences exist. They just haven't reached critical levels yet. Now I have to make a choice. I can choose to continue as I have in hopes of delaying the inevitable or I can take a proactive approach and alter the outcome of my future starting now.
The lesson I learned from the compound effect is that making great decisions each and every day will ultimately transform my future. The same is true for the opposite. What I desire is to take quick, immediate action if I don't receive an immediate reward for doing so.
Implementing a new habit isn't easy but I really want this so I'm willing to do what is necessary to build this as a long-term behavior.
Shrink the Deadline
When I craft out my list of actions that need to be done for the week, I rarely assign deadlines. Next thing I know, the week has flown by and many of the tasks remain untouched. I just assumed that I had an infinite amount of time to complete which only fueled my inaction. That's one of the worst mistakes in productivity because the more time we allow ourselves to complete a project, the more we procrastinate.
In school, I was a master of completing work last minute and still getting a decent grade. Now that hard deadlines don't exist, I just take my precious time. A while back, I did this experiment where I assigned very short, immediate deadlines to my tasks. Instead of saying that I have until Thursday to do such and such, I'd give myself a timeline of an hour or less to complete it. This generates a bunch of energy and excitement about accomplishing the task as quickly as possible. Even if it wasn't complete within the time limit, I'd at least get a chunk of it done in a timely manner. What I realized from conducting that experiment is that setting ultra-short deadlines really lessens the amount of resistance that's typically associated with completing tasks. There isn't enough time to get bogged down with negative thoughts. The longer I put something off, the harder it is to start.
Layering In Rewards
On TV shows when the kid would ask their mom for dessert, she would respond "not before you eat your vegetables." Lately, I've been that kid who's eating dessert for dinner. Anytime I'm doing something that's unrelated to the objectives on my list, I'm misallocating my time. An alternate approach is to do what needs to be done first and saving extracurricular activities for later as a reward. This way I can fully enjoy any time that I spend doing non-work related activities can be true enjoyment. Otherwise, it becomes an act of escapism. When I first launched my business, I came across an online guru suggested that we set rewards for each sales milestone reached.
This technique was so motivating for me that I decided to apply it to my to-do list. Next to every action on the list, I'd write a mini-reward. The reward didn't have to be anything major, just something to commemorate the fact that I was accomplishing my goals. So, for example, I'd burn a scented candle as a reward for completing task 1. If I complete a certain number of tasks for the day, I'd treat myself to a pedicure and so on. This technique really helped me to burn through my to-do list. It also worked to refine my motivations. Instead of being motivated solely to avoid consequences, I longed for the next reward. Small, consistent rewards set off our dopamine receptors which will propel my desire to succeed.
Cultivating the Art of the Instant Manifestation
Conquering your list of priorities isn't just a productivity task, it's also a means of exercising our manifestation muscle. Manifestation comes in many forms. Most people only talk about attracting our desired outcomes. Another powerful manifestation method is to establish a desire and work to quickly bring it into existence. If we do this multiple times a day, on a daily basis, we greatly increase our belief in what we're able to accomplish. Belief is a powerful tool in the manifestation process. If we can't accomplish simple tasks on our to-do list, how are we going to manifest greater outcomes?
Lastly, I need to spend more time focusing on the rewards that exists on the other side of that to do list. Ultimately that list comprises of steps I need to take to get to my ultimate goals. Why would I want to slow that down? Every day of procrastination is one extra day that I have to wait for my vision to become real. That's not something that I want to put off for another day.
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