How to Stop Procrastinating and Get Stuff Done!

We know we do it. We want to stop doing it. Logically it should be easy enough, but why have we let procrastination kick our behinds day after day, week after week, year after year? Now add in the 2020 factor. Many more of us are working or learning from home and have no one looking over our shoulder and/or monitoring our progress. Our schedules are more flexible which can be great, but it also gives us more wiggle room to procrastinate! Finally, this year has ramped up feelings of being overwhelmed and out of control. Sometimes we’re unsure of where the next week, day, or even moment will take us. Procrastination can be more of an emotional issue than a time management or “laziness” problem, so this new mix of heightened anxiety only seems to make matters worse.

We’re revisiting an episode from 2019 where we try to understand and overcome procrastination. We break down the motives which we may or may not even be aware of. It turns out those motives aren’t necessarily the same for everyone or even the same for an individual every time. When it comes to why we put things off, we break it into four major reasons which we categorize with the four P’s.

In addition to the four P's, we explore the story of the infamous Instant Gratification Monkey We uncover the lies we tell ourselves and even give a few personal confessions about the areas that seem to trip us up the most and what we did or are doing about them. But mainly, we provide some helpful life hacks on how to turn things around for good. We’re ready for procrastination to end and action to start.

We want to help anyone who struggles with this sneaky little habit. Whether it’s waiting until the last minute to complete an assignment, putting off health concerns, holding off on tasks, conversations, or creative pursuits that have the potential to enhance our lives, let’s stop procrastinating! Let's take back the power of time and use it to our own advantage!

If 2020 has taught us anything, it has reminded us about the uncertainty of time, resources, and even where life will lead us next. Our time is precious. We need to protect it and make the most of it. We may not ever completely stop procrastinating, but getting better at avoiding it can make a huge difference in our lives and the lives of our families, friends, co-workers, and all those who depend on us.

There’s no gift like the present! You could procrastinate....but don’t wait another minute—listen now to this week’s episode that will keep you on track, on schedule, and right on time!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:

Being overwhelmed and procrastinating is nothing new, but it's gone to a whole another level here in 2020 with the unexpected becoming expected and our lives going in a 1000000 different directions. So we wanted to revisit last year's episode on procrastination and see if we could finally kick it to the curb. On behalf of Lanee and I, I'm Sandy. Welcome to Imagine Yourself.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:26]:

We are imagining ourselves kicking the habit of procrastination to the curb.

Sandy Kovach [00:00:32]:

Let's do it because I hate that guy. Yeah. Mister procrastination. So now you

Lanée Blaise [00:00:37]:

hate him, but sometimes I feel like, dang it. Do I love procrastination? We have a

Sandy Kovach [00:00:41]:

love hate relationship because we have a love relationship in the moment with procrastination perhaps. But then later on, when we have to pay the piper, we don't like him.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:51]:

We don't like him at all. Then if you really think about, there are no benefits because in the end, you still have to get the thing done or talk to the person or make the changes or turn in the project. You just have less time to do it and you got all stressed out.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:07]:

Procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder. That's a quote I found from Mason Cooley. There's a ton of good procrastination quotes because people are probably, like, instead of doing their work, they're probably, like, thinking of procrastination quotes and going, hey. I'm gonna make a meme with a new procrastination quote. So no. I don't know. But we all do it. As a matter of fact, I can't think of anybody that I've ever talked to that doesn't suffer from one degree or the other, from procrastination.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:35]:

So we're gonna try to be totally honest about this, about our own foibles in this area, and try to maybe flush it out a little bit so we can, what'd you say? Kick him to the curb? Kick it to the curb

Lanée Blaise [00:01:48]:

or him. I like that you made him a man. Yeah. Mister procrastination. Mister procrastination. Because now I'm glad that you're kind of saying this because I just figured that people are wired differently and that I'm just one of those people who's wired to procrastinate because I feel like I do know some people who, as soon as they get a project, they just go for it. I thought my daughter was like that. She just seems to, as soon as there's something is assigned for school, she works on it.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:15]:

But she told me that's the stuff that I like doing. I get excited about doing her passion about. She said, when it's stuff that I don't wanna do and I have zero passion, I do wait around and procrastinate.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:28]:

Well, I have heard that some people's brains are wired differently, and some have more of a tendency to procrastinate than others. So that's part of it too. But yeah. I mean, we don't have a problem procrastinating with things that we're excited about doing, but there are different things. I kinda broke it down into do you mind if I do, like you always like to do these little cute ways to remember things? Well, this time, I'm bringing the 4 p's here.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:52]:

Bring you

Sandy Kovach [00:02:53]:

bring it. Bring

Lanée Blaise [00:02:54]:

it, Sandy. Help me.

Sandy Kovach [00:02:55]:

I need to mention that I can't totally take the credit for this because doctor Rita, my nail tech, gave me the idea to help people remember to put together the 4 p's. Yeah. Four reasons why I think people procrastinate. 1 is perfectionism intimidating, and we don't wanna do it. We get overwhelmed, etcetera, etcetera. Number 2 is pain, which is what your daughter was talking about, dreading the task. Yes. We don't wanna do that spreadsheet.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:30]:

That's boring. We don't want whatever it is, we don't wanna clean the bathroom. Pleasure. We find something better to do. Hey. Look at that cat video.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:40]:

That's fun. That helps me.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:42]:

Yeah. Actually, the cat video is more of the 4th thing I wanna talk about. Pleasure is probably something that you actually aren't just distracting yourself with, but it actually is more fun to do. Preoccupation is my 4th p, and that is distraction. That is finding something goofy on the Internet when you're supposed to be actually working. So, yeah. Perfectionism, pain. Pleasure, preoccupation.

Sandy Kovach [00:04:04]:

Four reasons why we might procrastinate. Do you think you fall into more of one of those p's than the other?

Lanée Blaise [00:04:10]:

I think I fall into the pain one the most because I know that there's different myths in this world. Like, you click your heels 3 times and say there's no place like home and you'll end up in Kansas. That's one. But the one for me is if you don't wanna do do something that needs to be done, you just wait long enough and it'll just go away. And those are equally untrue things that I've just told you. But But, yeah, it's not going to just go away because there's ones where there's tasks to be done. And like you said, sometimes they're boring or sometimes there's someone you might need to confront or something for a job interview, something that is intimidating. And that is the pain part.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:49]:

And I think that's the one I suffer from because the perfection part, we did a podcast on perfectionism and I kind of smooth that over as I've gotten older that everything doesn't have to be perfect. Distractions, yeah, that definitely preoccupied. You gotta make sure you stay disciplined.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:06]:

That's my big thing. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:08]:

Pleasure. Of course, there's always something more awesome that you could be doing. But the

Sandy Kovach [00:05:12]:

It is a nice day right now. You wanna go outside?

Lanée Blaise [00:05:14]:

I mean, we can stop right now. Just click off, and let's go out and enjoy this beautiful day. That part I can kinda deal with, but it's the pain. It's the ones that intimidate me. I get overwhelmed. I don't wanna do it. Some weird thing inside of me tells me a lie and it says, if you just wait long enough, you'll never have to do it.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:36]:

But now I think that you're not the only one that believes that. Right? I think that's probably the motivation for a lot of people.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:42]:

This makes me feel like lies is the big issue actually. Because it's like you almost have to pull the curtain back and evaluate the lies that we're telling ourselves, that it's okay to wait. There's no harm in doing it later. I don't need to start now because I just do it later. You kind of saying later later will never come.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:59]:

Later. Yeah. Well, when you say later and you're not defining Lanee. Okay. So some people the old cliche is, put it off till tomorrow. But the reality is you're not really putting it off till tomorrow. You're putting it off till some day in la la land that will never occur.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:14]:

And that's where I feel like you're trying to convince yourself. You're just putting it over in some pile that you know you're never going to get to and there's no benefit in that. And that makes me think, what if we flipped it and tried to put a deadline on it, put a fixed time period on it, and also put a fixed reward system in place so that, yes, I will have to do this thing that I'm begrudging and dreading, but I'm also gonna get this great reward that day too and that might make that day way off in the future actually turn into opening up your calendar. And on August 25th by 5 PM, I will do it. It will be done, and I'll have that reward.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:01]:

Kinda like we would do with our kids Lanee. You probably use this tactic, you know, if you eat your spinach, you can have the ice cream.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:08]:

Or like your doggy. Give her

Sandy Kovach [00:07:10]:

a treat. A treat. Yeah. Every time okay. So every time Lanee comes over for a podcast, we have to make sure that the animals don't come into the studio or try to push open the door. So Ali, the dog, gets a treat, and Krypton, the kitty cat, we give him canned food and take him down to the basement. Then we close the door, you know, so we can't come up. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:32]:

He's he's got his litter box and everything down. He's fine. He'll be fine.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:35]:

It's a reward system. So it's a thing where you know that, okay, she's here. It's time to get to work, but this will be the reward. And your little buddies seem to embrace it now, but it did take a bit of training. It wasn't at first, it's like not as comfortable, but every time you do it, every time you put it into practice, it gets a little bit better each time.

Sandy Kovach [00:07:59]:

So what you're saying is that we can train ourselves like dogs.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:02]:

Yes. Yes. Exactly what I'm saying.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:05]:

Like, isn't that Pavlov's dog when you ring a bell and they salivate?

Lanée Blaise [00:08:08]:

They start to associate, and we can do that, that process of associating something that was ordinarily only bad, only dreaded, to the fact that it does have a silver lining. It does have a reward.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:20]:

I can't get a doggy treat at the end.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:22]:

Yes. Exactly. And then it's over. Then you finally have that thing that's been looming over your head is finally completed. And, of course, that's rewarding too, but I feel like that's not enough of a reward for procrastinators.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:35]:

If that were enough of a reward, no one would procrastinate.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:37]:

We wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:39]:

That's right. Because people would know if all these procrastination and productivity hacks were all we needed. You know, how you read, you know, 5 ways to be more productive and 3 different apps that you can use. But you can have the best app in the world if you're not willing to

Lanée Blaise [00:08:53]:

To just buckle down and and do it. Yeah. Because it does require retraining. It does require discipline, and I'll tell you this too. If procrastination doesn't stress you out, doesn't lower your quality or quantity of output, doesn't cause you to miss out on great opportunities, If procrastination doesn't frustrate you or doesn't frustrate the ones around you that you have to deal with, then maybe just do things the way you've been doing it. Right? Yeah. But the rest of us, it has negative effects. It does lead to stress filled, unhappy, less productive lives.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:31]:

That's where we do want to dig in and try to figure this out.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:36]:

Now you and I, we've talked about this procrastination thing because we both went to a church service at Northridge.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:43]:

Yes.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:44]:

And that's your church, and I went back there because I used to go there. And the guy, Pete Wilson, was bringing up this TED talk with the procrastination. And then what was it? The panic monster and the

Lanée Blaise [00:09:53]:

And the instant gratification monkey.

Sandy Kovach [00:09:56]:

So how did that go? You have your normal adult brain, which you shouldn't procrastinate. You know that if you do a plus b, you get c.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:03]:

But then you have this little monkey on your shoulder, the instant gratification monkey that is used to getting distracted, kind of like

Sandy Kovach [00:10:11]:

what

Lanée Blaise [00:10:11]:

you're saying with and is used to taking you out of your intelligent adult mind and taking you to la la land. It's like, oh my gosh. This little monkey

Sandy Kovach [00:10:21]:

And you were saying the other day that there should have

Lanée Blaise [00:10:23]:

been another monkey in this? I'm making this up, but the adrenaline monkey. Oh. Yeah. There there is something in me, and I bet it's in other procrastinators as well that's like a little adrenaline junkie monkey subconsciously pushing things to the last 11th hour and believing the lie that I actually work better when I'm under the gun. Like you're diffusing a bomb at the last second and there's this rush And my little adrenaline monkey just dances faster and faster as I race against time and trying to get my deadline done, But, Sandy, this is no way to live, and it's exhausting.

Sandy Kovach [00:11:01]:

Yeah. It's not like a movie where you do see things coming down at the last minute. It's always like tick, tick, tick the last second. Is he gonna diffuse the bomb? But our life doesn't have to be like that.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:10]:

No. Tom Cruise can do that, but I don't need to do that.

Sandy Kovach [00:11:15]:

And then the panic monster gets introduced after these monkeys, but it depends on whether you have

Lanée Blaise [00:11:20]:

a deadline. Right? The panic monster comes when you do have a deadline because, oh man, let me tell you, I had a panic monster. I've suffered from procrastination since the day I was born, but I really had it the worst in college because you always do have deadlines and you should keep up on your work and do a little bit each night and you don't have this problem. And Sandy, every weekend, I would do one of your p's which was pleasure. I'd have super fun all weekend knowing they had this big thing every time on Monday do. And on Sunday, I'd eat breakfast, wash my hair, do my laundry. I call everybody in the universe and just chit chat with them for hours and then at 9 o'clock on the dot, I'd have a meltdown. I would bust out crying and my roommate would look at me and she feels so bad for me.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:13]:

I cry. I say I'm gonna fail. There's no way I'm gonna finish. It's 9 o'clock at night and it's due Monday. And she used to feel sorry for me until she realized this chick does this every weekend. And one day, she finally just looked at me with no mercy. She's like, Lanee, I think you like this. You get off on this or something.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:34]:

Like, what is wrong with you? You do this every weekend now at 9 o'clock on the dot. That is crazy.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:39]:

So you

Lanée Blaise [00:12:40]:

probably wonder, like, so how did Lanee ever overcome this? I just graduated, and I never overcame it.

Sandy Kovach [00:12:45]:

You never overcame it. You and the panic monster graduated.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:48]:

The panic monster hit at 9 o'clock every Sunday night and I would literally sit up all night long, go to class on Monday, turn it in, get a decent grade. My back would hurt so bad from sitting up all night. I was so fuzzy all the rest of the day.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:05]:

But what did you tell yourself? Okay. Friday night, I get it. You're done with class.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:09]:

So you

Sandy Kovach [00:13:09]:

You go out with your friends. But on Saturday, why not on Saturday do a little bit? Or even earlier on Sunday.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:16]:

So it's something. That's the part with the discipline, and that's the part about not getting overwhelmed because I think I pushed it away because I was overwhelmed. If you do little tiny bite sized pieces along the way, it's not overwhelming. Just break it down, maybe map out 3 things. If I've done 3 little components of it on Saturday and 3 little components of it on Sunday morning and 3 little components on Sunday evening, I surely would have gotten it done. Yeah. Instead of staying up from 9 well, the meltdown was at 9 PM, so I'd cry from 9 PM to, like, 9:30. So then, you know, 9:30 until, like, 8 11 hours.

Sandy Kovach [00:13:56]:

Oh my gosh. So was the yeah. There was the instant gratification monkey like all the other things? Or

Lanée Blaise [00:14:00]:

The the instant gratification monkey was whatever I did on Friday Saturday.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:04]:

So if you wanna see the thing about the instant gratification monkey and the panic monster, Lanee made up the adrenaline monkey part, but the other monkeys and the panic monster are on this TED Talk, and you can Google it. I mean, you know, maybe we'll even put it on our website. It's pretty funny.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:20]:

One of the days when you're procrastinating anyway, take a look at the TED Talks. You know? Yeah. And really try to get a grasp on it. But the circle back where you said that when we were in the church sermon that if you don't have a particular deadline.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:33]:

Right. He was talking about when you don't have a deadline.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:36]:

Like something is not due for class where you're gonna get an f if you don't turn it in or your assignment for work, you're gonna get fired if you don't turn it in. This is the part where I believe we need to set a concrete deadline for ourselves and again, put that reward in place.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:54]:

Yeah. Like that phone call that you're putting off making to somebody you haven't spoken to in a while, a friend that you know you need to reconnect with or

Lanée Blaise [00:15:03]:

And maybe apologize to others.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:05]:

For something or those are those personal procrastinations. Or it could be something you're trying to get going, like a side hustle. Remember when we talked to Bianca Sloan? She is now a successful fiction author, but for the longest time, she had a regular day job, and she kinda had to push herself. Yeah. There's nobody hanging over you saying, okay. It's due tomorrow.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:29]:

Correct. Except yourself. And even Bianca said she would do a little bit of writing each day even after her full day of work. Yeah. So that she completed the task. Let's do a true imagine yourself moment. Alright. Let's close your eyes, unless you're driving or something right now, and just relax for a moment and pinpoint what is it that you know that you are supposed to get done, but you have been avoiding? What is it that you've been holding off doing? And I want you to now visualize yourself, imagine yourself, moving towards this task, actively and productively working on it little by little, think of 3 things that you can do today, not even tomorrow.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:20]:

How about we think of one thing?

Lanée Blaise [00:16:22]:

Okay. One thing for today. Because

Sandy Kovach [00:16:23]:

I don't wanna overwhelm people.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:24]:

Okay. So one thing one thing that you can do today towards that goal and build upon it each day, but I also want you to visualize yourself fully completing it. Okay. And imagine the joy that you have from getting it done and imagine the reward that you are going to give yourself after completing this thing.

Sandy Kovach [00:16:46]:

So for me, I know it's getting back into better shape. I have to imagine that I'm not the only one sitting here thinking or saying that. Right?

Lanée Blaise [00:16:56]:

What's one thing you can do today that is not overwhelming, that is doable, and that you can push through the pain of it

Sandy Kovach [00:17:04]:

to do to start? Well, I can make sure that I get a walk in

Lanée Blaise [00:17:09]:

today. Yes. Yes. Since it's beautiful out there.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:11]:

It's a beautiful day. And I love to walk. And I can listen to a podcast.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:15]:

So there you go. Mine is different. Mine is decluttering my home.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:23]:

Oh, Marie Kondo ing.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:25]:

How about this though? It feels overwhelming.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:28]:

Oh yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:29]:

But what if I start with one area, small area and fully declutter that chunk.

Sandy Kovach [00:17:37]:

Yeah. They say you can even start in like a junk drawer.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:40]:

Just somewhere. Because some sometimes I feel that when you take a tiny task and you pair it to a larger task, you get better results because you feel I feel like people still need to feel some sense of completion and some sense of accomplishment. So take the junk drawer with the whole house and and you know just take the tiny task, pair it with the larger task. Even if it took me 60 days to get this done, One junk drawer, one closet, one room at a time. Mhmm. It's doable, but I have to do it. Right.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:11]:

But you can't just sit there and think of your entire house. Nope. Because you will freak out.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:16]:

And totally don't do it. I'll just

Sandy Kovach [00:18:17]:

do anything else. Panic monster to tell

Lanée Blaise [00:18:19]:

you you gotta right. That's the problem. You know, sometimes when you're moving, you have to prepare. You have to pack

Sandy Kovach [00:18:28]:

Well, yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:28]:

And get rid of stuff, but that's not it either. So it has to be a self imposed deadline.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:33]:

Right. So because they say too, I've heard the expression, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. And that's I mean, that's part of our, again, procrastination in human nature, which we go back to. But what we're talking about here is that what if there's no last minute? Yeah. We would like to help everyone, including ourselves, get our tasks done that are actually due for work or whatever the case may be. Yeah. The practical non procrastination. But we wanna go a step beyond that to the things that don't have the panic monster, that don't have the last minute deadline to it.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:04]:

Which do you think is bigger? Do you think it's just the day to day tasks that distract from our quality of life that we procrastinate, or it's these bigger things?

Lanée Blaise [00:19:12]:

I think it's the bigger things. I think it's everything. I don't know. I'm just think it's everything. You're overwhelmed. Yes.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:20]:

You are preoccupied and distracted. No. Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:23]:

All of it. All of it. And guess what? How about even to say all this, I'm better than I was.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:28]:

You don't do what you did in college?

Lanée Blaise [00:19:30]:

I don't do that anymore. So I guess I did learn something. I still think it's all about retraining. Wouldn't it just be great to do things on your own terms, to make your own deadline and commit to that deadline instead of having to be squished to the last minute? It would be. But here's the problem. I think

Sandy Kovach [00:19:48]:

we need somebody else to make us accountable, though. An accountability partner. Yeah. Something like you and I could be accountability partners. I could be your clutter accountability. You could be my health accountability, like Sandy. You didn't have ice cream today, did you? You know?

Lanée Blaise [00:20:02]:

I like that idea, and I like it to I love customization, just so you know. I would want to do it in such a way that you don't feel like I'm nagging you or unless you want me to be. Text me every day. Yeah. Everybody because I don't like to be hit over the head with stuff, but I still like to do it.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:22]:

So how do you do that in a subtle way, or how would I do it? Do I just send you, like, links to Marie Kondo videos? Or

Lanée Blaise [00:20:30]:

yes. Stuff like that. And just kind of maybe even once a week, you just kind of mentioned Solanae. What'd you do this week?

Sandy Kovach [00:20:37]:

How's that closet?

Lanée Blaise [00:20:38]:

Yeah. Or what's your next strategy? What are you gonna hit next? Yeah. In an upbeat way instead of a downbeat way.

Sandy Kovach [00:20:45]:

Yeah. So when you're the accountability partner of someone, you're right. You do not want to cross the line. And I would not recommend a spouse for this.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:58]:

No. I think you might have that right because you live with that person.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:02]:

Okay. Lanee and I talk a few times a week and we see each other maybe once a week. So think of someone in your life like that.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:08]:

Yes. And that way, you have enough time to have gotten some things done, and the deadline is when you're gonna see the person the next time. Yeah. And don't start blowing them off.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:20]:

Like not answering their text. New phone, who it is? Exactly.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:24]:

Don't do that. Overall, it's about customization. Just like I feel like it. Now this is another one talking about fitness. Some people in a fitness setting, they want a trainer, like a physical trainer, to just beat them into shape and really be on top of them. They probably need that. It's not happening. But other people, that is not what works well for them.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:44]:

So I like and then you it's reciprocal. I'll do for you, you do for me, even though we have different goals that we're trying to go for.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:50]:

I think it's better that we have different goals.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:52]:

Yes.

Sandy Kovach [00:21:53]:

Well, it could or it could work the other

Lanée Blaise [00:21:55]:

way too. Because then it could be like Sandy before the maybe after the podcast, who'd be sweaty. But after each podcast, we're gonna go for a walk after. Then then we are doing the same goal. So you can do it that way too. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:06]:

So whatever it is.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:08]:

But I think the key is someone that you do not live with, that you do not have to be in their face every day because that could get ugly.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:15]:

So that is one of our little prescriptions here, which could be another p, but we'll just leave it at the 4 p's. For, an I like it. 5th p is partner. Partner. There you go. We just added 5 p's. Yeah. So maybe we need a separate group of p's to combat procrastination, and one of which can be partnership.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:36]:

Yes. And I don't know what the other ones will be.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:39]:

Praying. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So we have 4 things that are preventing you and 2 things that are helping you. Yep. And procrastination itself is a piece, so boom. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:50]:

So we got all the piece we need.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:51]:

One for the each day of the week.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:53]:

Alright. So where do we move on from here? We've got an idea for our big tasks. What about do you have any ideas for those day to day things that you dread? And you even you said your daughter talked about things, college assignments that she hates. Yeah. What about tasks at work that you just don't wanna do? Because I got no clue. I'm gonna go watch a cat video because that is my thing. My thing is distraction, preoccupation. I can be literally engrossed in editing audio or just doing something.

Sandy Kovach [00:23:24]:

I will get a text on my phone. I'll pick up my phone. Oh, here's my phone. I wonder what's going on on Facebook. Let me check Twitter for a minute. And then 20 freaking minutes later, I'm back to the audio that I'm editing. And then the panic monster says, you know what? That's due.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:41]:

Yeah. The only thing I can think of for that is setting a timer on your handy dandy phone that makes you stop, and and you will not push the timer to stop beeping until you stop doing the activity. And then it just kinda jolts you back into reality because there is really not much to stop us from acting like little kids or little puppies and just going off track. You know? We are

Sandy Kovach [00:24:08]:

smell something over here, mom.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:10]:

You know, it's it's all like the golden retriever there, you know, on a nice little walking squirrel. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So that is just a fact of nature. Humans, animals, we are going to do that, but if we can rein it in and time it or space it out just the right way or even give ourselves like little kids get bathroom breaks, You give yourself a little procrastination break that's timed and then you go back to work. I just little tiny things like that might make those shifts that really can help. Baby steps.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:40]:

Because the more you practice it, the better you'll get. And like I said, I have come a long way since college and I haven't gotten fired from any job. I haven't gotten kicked off of anything for my procrastination. So it's it is getting better, you know, and I I feel that a lot of us are like that.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:57]:

Oh, yeah. You're not the only one.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:59]:

But let me dig in and get serious for a minute. There are a couple of solid things that I have noticed that will absolutely help. Number 1. Humans have certain times of day and certain conditions that are more likely to yield high productivity. So use any burst of momentum to your advantage and use the environment that works best. So you strike when the iron is hot. You do your work. You start your project.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:26]:

And if you're a night owl, you do it at night. If you're a morning person, you do in the morning. After eating something, after showering, get all your conditions right. Just make sure you've got your timing so you can be productive and not a procrastinator. And also the timer is the human's greatest invention for a procrastinator.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:43]:

Like an old school timer or your phone timer?

Lanée Blaise [00:25:45]:

Old school timer.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:47]:

Timer thing?

Lanée Blaise [00:25:48]:

Not your phone timer either, by the way, Sandy, because I know you're gonna go and look at videos and get yourself all distracted. Use a egg timer. Use a mic. Use something.

Sandy Kovach [00:25:55]:

I have to go buy 1.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:57]:

Yeah. But look what I'm gonna have you do. Pick a specific day and a specific time and every month, let's say every Tuesday at 5 PM, you're gonna set your timer for 30 minutes or x minutes and only work on that thing on your to do list, like writing that novel, decluttering that closet, doing that fitness we talked about, taking that time to get that project done. Then every Tuesday, you do this, and you do your little happy dance after you finish.

Sandy Kovach [00:26:22]:

I think when you have something concrete like that in writing, in your mind, however you wanna put it down, and it's an appointment that you make with yourself, I think it's much more likely to happen than just going, oh, well, whatever. I get to it. Exactly.

Lanée Blaise [00:26:36]:

So what do we got with takeaways? I've got 2 tiny takeaways. First takeaway, grandparents are awesome. This episode made me think about my amazing grandfather, my Grandpa Jack. He was a character. He was a firecracker. But he definitely had a great takeaway, a model that he lived by for anyone who was willing to listen. He had lived several different places, but part of the places that he lived were Virginia, North Carolina and Miami. And those are all places that have to deal with hurricanes and hurricane season.

Lanée Blaise [00:27:09]:

Hurricanes never come up suddenly. They're not like tornadoes where you just hit and like, oh my gosh, we're smashed.

Sandy Kovach [00:27:15]:

You get the warnings.

Lanée Blaise [00:27:16]:

You get the warnings well in advance. You can evacuate. You can prepare. You could do all kinds of things. So Grandpa Jack's life motto, that he shoved down my throat, was the time to prepare for the storm is not when the hurricane is on. So he just wanted his family members to just do a few things here and there before you get to the crunch time. Gather your materials, do a little research and prep work on another day, do portions of the task on the next day, and by the time you add it all up, you will have it ready. You'll be prepared.

Lanée Blaise [00:27:56]:

Board up the windows one day, Get the sandbags one day. Then when the hurricane comes, you were already ready.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:01]:

Then you're not panicking at the last minute like the panic monster.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:05]:

Do little things so that you don't have to do it all at once, but if you go around thinking that myth that if I just don't deal with it that it's gonna go away, You are mistaken and you will be

Sandy Kovach [00:28:17]:

In the land of Oz.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:19]:

You sure will. You sure will.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:21]:

And then you can't click your heels 3 times because it turns out that doesn't work either.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:25]:

That is just a little tribute to him that I didn't get it when I was in high school and he was trying to tell me I didn't get it in college, but maybe now that I'm an adult.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:34]:

Now that you're grown up. Yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:35]:

I can really appreciate it.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:37]:

So we're gonna get rid of perfectionism, pain, pleasure, and preoccupation, the 4 p's that lead to procrastination, and we're gonna solve it with partnership, prayer, and grandpa jack. That doesn't start with a p, but still works. So we're gonna imagine ourselves.

Lanée Blaise [00:28:53]:

Imagine yourself successfully completing your tasks, going through with those conversations and those projects and those impending things on time.

Sandy Kovach [00:29:05]:

Thanks for joining us. We'd love your feedback at imagine yourself podcast.com, and we'll talk to you again in a couple weeks with a brand new of imagine yourself.

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