3 Tips for Tackling Procrastination

Do you need help tackling procrastination?

Procrastination is an umbrella term that really doesn’t tell you anything except what your behavior is. It does not tell you the cause of why you’re procrastinating.

The most important thing you can do at the moment that you notice that you’re not doing what you should to be doing is to take an internal read to see what you’re feeling right now and what emotions you’re experiencing.

• It could be fear that you’re not going to get paid for the time that you’re going to be putting in.
• It could be aversion because you’ve been working at this so hard you’re feeling cross-eyed and you just can’t stand the thought of putting in another hour right now.
• It could be guilt because you procrastinated yesterday or you didn’t get to it yesterday because of something else and you know that you’re going to have to do it in a rush, and that could make you not want to do it.
• It can even be just doubt that you’re worried about making it perfect.

Start tackling procrastination by figuring out why you are doing it.

Any of those negative feelings could cause you to have a reluctance to face the task, but depending on which one it is it’s a completely different solution. One of the most important things that you need to know about procrastination is that the fact that you are procrastinating. That identification helps you almost know you need to take the additional step to ask yourself, “What am I feeling and why do I feel it?”

It’s your feelings about the task, about the reasons why you don’t want to do it or you’re not doing it that is actually going to help you problem solve to get you back on track.

I spoke recently with an LNC who was procrastinating. I suggested that she contact attorneys that she had worked for in the past and remind them of her existence and her services and to rekindle those relationships. She was having such difficulty getting started.

I asked her, “What do you feel when you think about picking up the phone?” She said she did not know what to say to them or had some fear that she might be rejected.

Create a Script

It’s uncomfortable for many legal nurse consultants to do cold calls. These were actually not cold calls in the classic sense. They were more warm calls because she had worked for the attorneys in the past. She’s somewhat introverted and shy. It’s hard for her to come forward and assert herself.

This LNC’s reason for not making those calls was she didn’t know what to say. We discussed a script to work out what would she would say. I asked her to practice it so that she could feel comfortable saying it. If the script feels completely unnatural she was not going to do it in real life and she would avoid tackling procrastination.

Tackle Fear Head On

The solution to not knowing what to say is to create and rehearse a scropt. There is a different solution for dealing with fear of rejection. She needed to deal with the emotional obstacle. We talked about what was the worst thing that could happen when she made the calls. She admitted that it might be the attorney did not return the call or did not give her work. She agreed it was unlikely the attorney would be rude to her. And she acknowledged that these were minor risks.

You can overcome a fear of rejection. I learned how to get effective at tackling procrastination in the sales process when before I became a legal nurse consultant I was involved in a multi-level marketing company. I had a lot of sales training to sell cleaning solutions. One of the pieces of advice that stuck with me was “Every time somebody tells you ‘no’ it brings you closer to the next ‘yes’”.

This legal nurse consultant began making calls and got a case.

The first step in tackling procrastination is to identify what you are feeling and work out a rehearsed way to tackle the job. The point is that there is no one size fits all solution for procrastination except for the first step.

Get more tips on tackling procrastination by listening to Jean Moroney share her expertise in LNP 36: How to Overcome the Evil Traps of Perfectionism and Procrastination. Listen to it at this link.