simple strategies to combat procrastination

Summary

everyone procrastinates. so let’s not pretend you’re broken. here’s both the motivational version and the science version.

1. the motivational version is Shia LaBeouf. just do it. yelling at yourself works more often than you think. procrastination is mostly avoidance of discomfort, and the cure is doing the uncomfortable thing for two minutes until momentum carries you.

2. the science version. a 2024 study found that future-focused people procrastinate way less than present-focused or past-focused people. they have a clear target out in front of them, so today’s friction matters less than tomorrow’s reward.

3. set a future objective. a real one. write it down. then today’s task either moves you toward it or doesn’t. removes a lot of the “should I do this” noise.

4. self determination theory. you need skill, autonomy, and social support to stay motivated. build the skill so the work feels possible. own the decisions so it feels like yours. surround yourself with people who are also future focused so accountability is automatic.

procrastination is a structural problem, not a character flaw. fix the structure. and when you catch yourself stalling, try harder.

Transcript

introduction to the topic of procrastination and its impact on entrepreneurs by jerred moon

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

discussion on the reasons behind procrastination, including avoidance of discomfort and fear of failure

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. All right. I do it. We all do it. And I’m not talking about poop. I’m talking about procrastination. So today let’s go over some simple strategies to combat procrastination and get you implementing more and procrastinating less.

analysis of how procrastination can lead to stress, guilt, and missed opportunities

I’m Jerred Moon. This is the Better Human Business podcast. And procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or decisions. And it can lead to stress. It can lead to a sense of guilt. There can be loss of productivity and even just missed opportunities. If you’re not doing what you should be doing, you’re procrastinating.

emphasis on embracing discomfort to overcome procrastination

You’re getting behind in just potential opportunities in your life. But I’m not here to beat you up about it, make you feel bad about procrastination. Because like I said, you do it. I do it. We all do it. But why do we procrastinate? Well, a big reason is the avoidance of discomfort. We don’t want to kill comfort.

exploration of fear of failure and perfectionism as causes of procrastination

We don’t want to do the hard thing. We don’t want to face the decision or have to put in the work. It’s just a common thing in humans. Like we want to avoid discomfort. You have to embrace discomfort. You have to kill comfort. You have to move forward just in your life if you want to procrastinate less.

mention of shia labeouf’s “just do it” motivational speech as a strategy to combat procrastination

There’s the fear of failure. That’s big across entrepreneurs is maybe we don’t want to swing for the fences on something. We’re putting off that big project, that bigger thing, that next move, that next chess piece that needs to move on the board for us. But we’re afraid we might fail, so we’re procrastinating.

introduction of scientific strategies to reduce procrastination, focusing on future-oriented thinking

We’re not doing it. It’s in the back of our minds. It’s not something we’re acting on. Another one that’s big for entrepreneurs, perfectionism. You are too focused on whatever action or whatever project or whatever it is, you’re too focused on it being perfect. And so perfectionism is holding you back, it’s making you procrastinate.

suggestions for setting clear future objectives and improving skills to minimize procrastination

Those are simple things like poor time management, lack of motivation. Another big one is decision fatigue. Sometimes when you just have too many decisions coming in, you feel overwhelmed, you procrastinate. Instead of making one decision at a time because there’s so much and you’re so overwhelmed, instead of just making one here, one there, doing this one today, that one tomorrow, you just procrastinate.

encouragement to make autonomous decisions and seek support to combat procrastination

You just don’t do it at all. You shut down. Many of those are common culprits when it comes to being a procrastinator and I’m sure one, if not all of them have resonated with you in some way in your life at some point. So how do we stop procrastinating? What are the simple strategies to combat procrastination?

jerred moon plays shia labeouf’s motivational audio clip to emphasize the “just do it” approach

Well, I’m going to give you option one and it’s going Shia LaBeouf style and just do it. So look, in option two, I’m going to give you some solid science to follow so you can procrastinate less. But you have to know that even the best scientific strategy is just going to come with a large dose of just do it.

discussion on the scientific study about time perspectives and their relation to procrastination

You can put everything in place. You can set yourself up for success the best you can, but after a certain point, it’s just about starting. It’s just about doing. It’s about making some progress and not all the progress, just some progress, a step forward, half a step forward, and then you have to get uncomfortable and take action.

advice on being future-focused and how it helps in reducing procrastination

And so this awesome video Shia LaBeouf came out with about eight years ago. Maybe you’ve heard it, seen it, whatever. Maybe you haven’t. I’m going to play the audio clip right now. This is option one. Like I said, becoming less of a procrastinator comes with a large dose of going Shia LaBeouf style and just do it.

strategies for better time management and decision-making to avoid procrastination

So let me play this audio and then I’m going to get into the actual scientific steps in option two on how to procrastinate less. So let’s hear from Shia first. Just do it. Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday, you said tomorrow. So just do it. Make your dreams come true. Just do it. Some people dream of success while you’re going to wake up and work hard at it.

conclusion and call to action, highlighting the importance of taking steps to reduce procrastination and improve productivity

Nothing is impossible. You should get to the point where anyone else would quit, and you’re not going to stop there. No. What are you waiting for? Do it. Just do it. Yes, you can. Just do it. If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up. All right, that’s option one. Like I said, it doesn’t matter what study, what hack, what tips, what tricks, what strategies I go over.

At the end of the day, the rubber’s got to meet the road and you just have to do it at some point. You have to take that initial action. But option two, there is some actual science behind this. There’s a great study that came out in 2024. It’s called Time Perspectives and Procrastination in University Students Exploring the Moderating Role of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, and it looked at, you know, what the associations were with procrastination and ultimately how to procrastinate less.

In simple terms, the study explored how time perspectives, either past perspective, a present perspective, or a future perspective, and how that influenced procrastination. So ask yourself these questions. Are you a person who’s always looking to the future? Are you future-based? Are you someone who’s always present and in the now, or are you looking into the past?

And worse, do you have a negative association with your past? If you’re always focused on the present or the past, according to this study, that had a higher correlation with procrastination, and especially if you had a negative association with your past. So if you’re always looking backwards about what happened or what’s going on behind you, or even if you’re in the present, those had a higher correlation with procrastination.

But if you’re more future-based, you’re more future-focused, the people in the study who had this future-focused mindset, they procrastinated less, far less than those who had the present or past mindset. Not a lot of people who are, you know, type A implementers, entrepreneurs, go-getters, they have a very future-focused mindset, sometimes to our own detriment, to where we’re not focusing enough time on the current moment, or we’re not looking enough at the past to learn our lessons, but it keeps us from procrastinating.

So if you ever find yourself in a procrastinating state, you feel like you are procrastinating, there’s some simple takeaways here. First, try setting clear future objectives, know exactly what you’re after. I know that’s when I start procrastinating a ton, is where I’m very unclear of what the outcome is.

Like, what am I going for? What am I doing? What am I shooting for? Because just doing work doesn’t make any sense in my brain, it makes me procrastinate. But if I know, hey, here’s the goal, here’s what we’re after, when I have that, when it’s very clear, I know, okay, now that I’m clear on that, I can take the steps that are necessary to move forward.

So always have that future focus. Now, other things that were cool from this study, some extra nuggets here, was it kind of went into the self-determination theory of procrastinating less. So other things that you want to focus on, specifically work on building your skills. So you want to feel competent in what you’re doing, you want to feel autonomous in what you’re doing, so work on building your skills.

Make sure that the actions you’re taking are decisions that you have made, so make the decisions for yourself, and then also seek support from your friends and mentors. Those are just some like added nuggets on top of being future focused, because you don’t want to not be working on your skills and just doing some Monday task that you hate.

You want to feel like you’re getting better at something. You don’t want to work on tasks that someone else is giving you, you know, that you might think that you should be doing, but not really. You want to be very bought in to the tasks that you’re doing. So even if someone else gave you the tasks, you want to, at a minimum, be bought in for those.

And then you also want to seek support. This is not a solo game. You need friends, you need mentors, you need other people in your life to support you. So, you know, build that framework, have that one person, have those two people, the three people that you can go to talk about the stuff who are also future focused, building their skills, making decisions for themselves, and also want support from some sort of friend or group network.

All right, that’s it. That’s everything from just do it to actual scientific strategies to procrastinate less. Hopefully you got something out of this. There’s a lot to unpack here, a lot to do, and I know it’s hard to stop procrastinating, but you’re just going to have to try harder.