How I Reduced Procrastination (A Personal Adaptive Challenge)
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In my coaching work we talk a lot about overcoming “adaptive challenges.” These are deep changes (to habits and default operating modes) that are super tough to actually make.
Clue: The way to really make them is not to just try harder. Self discipline won’t work. Or another way to look at this is: why didn’t I already make this change? Ah ha!
So how do you make a deep, adaptive change in your life? I’ll share my own story from last year as a case study for how the process works.
Step 1: Identify the Adaptive Goal
This is possibly the most important step. Think about what you want to change in your life and narrow it down to something in your control (remember the New Year’s Resolution tips).
For me, at the beginning of the year I was dealing with more work for more different clients/employers than ever before. I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious.
So my goal was NOT: feel less anxious.
Obviously, that was my real goal, but I didn’t really feel in control of that. So I focused on what I could change about my own behavior (not feelings) that would lead to that more relaxed life.
I settled on this:
I must finish my preparation work for clients/workshops/etc. much more in advance.
As vague as that still sounds, it was actually a great place for me to focus.
It isn’t as simple as “stop procrastinating” because I actually didn’t feel I was procrastinating. I also needed to phrase it in a way that shows what I must DO (rather than NOT do).
Step 2: Identify the Fear of Success
This is also possibly the most important step. Most times, when you set a goal for yourself, you spend most of your time thinking about how great it would be to accomplish it.
For me, I thought if I could finish prep work far in advance, I would:
Feel less anxious
Spend more quality time with my family
Do higher quality work
Those are no-brainers.
Here’s the brainer: when I imagine doing 100% of the things necessary to REALLY accomplish my goal (preparing more in advance), what are the worries and fears that creep up the back of my neck?
When I thought about it from that perspective, I realized I’m worried that by finishing my prep work earlier, I would:
Feel “locked in” to my preparation
Stifle creativity and ignore spontaneous (yet vaguely defined) “inspiration”
Become less responsive to the clients’/participants’ needs
Do lower quality work
Isn’t that remarkable? By accomplishing my goal, I believed I would end up doing LOWER quality work!
Those are the assumptions running the show, and I just shone a light on them!
Step 3: Test the Assumptions
(This might also be the most important step.)
Once I saw that list of assumptions, I designed a very simple test to see how true they were:
I will prepare 1 workshop far earlier than usual (7+ days) and see how many changes I go back in and make in the remaining days.
If the number of changes is 0, then maybe my assumptions are true
If the number of changes is 1 or more, then maybe I’m not really locking myself in, stifling creativity, and becoming less responsive, etc.
The result was very interesting. The day before the workshop, I went back in to review all the materials and made more than 10 changes.
What did the evidence tell me?
Those are 10+ changes I would not have had time to make if I’d done the exact same preparation too late.
I basically provided evidence to myself that early preparation has no negative effect on stifling creativity and responsiveness. Just the opposite: it gave me space to be more creative because I was more relaxed and had a “good enough” presentation ready that could go from “good to great” due to the advanced preparation.
Step 4: Rinse and Repeat
I was very happy with the result of my tiny experiment, and I found I just naturally started preparing more in advance than ever before. I wasn’t trying harder. I simply stopped standing on my own subconscious garden hose.
But I also noticed that there was still something blocking me. What other assumption might be lurking?
Now that I’d cleared the main one (making my preparation worse), the dust had cleared to show me another one.
I was afraid by preparing too early, I wouldn’t be as familiar with the material and my delivery would suffer.
This one actually did appear to be true. I already had data on this: the number of times I clicked to the next slide and was surprised to see “Oh yes! Before we move I, I wanted to mention…” or lost my place temporarily.
Ah ha! So I was right! Preparing too much in advance WAS a bad idea after all.
Not so fast there, buddy.
The benefits of super early preparation were too great to just chuck out because of a little delivery issue. In order to combat this new (and quite correct) assumption, I simply needed to change how I prepared.
Here’s how:
Actually use the off-screen speakers notes section (I never needed to before)
Bring to the delivery a printed overview of what we’re doing (again, didn’t need that before)
Review the presentation the day of (no matter how early I need to wake up to do that)
Those were all fairly minor tweaks and solved the delivery issues. And I could still keep preparing way in advance for things!
But without doing the deep dives into the assumptions and then the next level of assumptions, I would have just gone right back to last-minute preparation.
So Now…?
Now I’m easily managing the increased workload because I’m so far ahead of schedule I even have some margin built in for unforeseen emergencies.
In recent days I was able to take whole or half days off for (unplanned):
Getting sick
A family member’s illness
A visit from a friend before he moved away
Home equipment breaking and needing immediate repair/attention
A sunny day which required a family hike
Again, seeing that list alone wouldn’t have solved the problem. We all know why we should change.
The real adaptive breakthroughs come from addressing our subconscious reasons we shouldn’t change and asking the question: “Really? Yes, I know but… really, though?” And the only way to answer that is with data/evidence and a big bright flashlight on the real assumptions running the show.
Note: ADAPTIVE LEADERS coaches are all trained in the Immunity to Change tools from Minds at Work. We didn’t invent all this!
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