There are three different types of procrastination, two of which you’ve probably never even heard of, that are holding you back. If you don’t know these three types of procrastination, they’re going to rule your life.
I’m gonna share with you three distinct actionable strategies that you can use today to help you overcome each of these three types of procrastination.
Classic Procrastination
The first one is classic procrastination. Classic procrastination is the one that we all think of when we hear the term procrastination and it’s consciously delaying what we know we should be doing.
An example of classic procrastination is leaving your bills piled up on the counter even though you know that you need to pay them sooner or later.
So how do you get over classic procrastination?
You need to learn to leverage long-term vision, to endure short-term sacrifices.
Our discipline becomes dormant in the absence of a dream.
It’s not that you don’t have enough willpower or strength, it’s a lack of vision.
If you don’t have a clear vision of how this activity is gonna help you get to where you want to go, then what instead your brain defaults to going, “how can I avoid doing this thing that needs to be done?”
Creative Avoidance
The second type of procrastination is a new phrase I invented called creative avoidance.
Creative avoidance is different from classic procrastination because it’s unconscious. Creative avoidance is unconsciously creating things for yourself as a way of avoiding doing the things you really need to be doing.
It’s an incredibly sophisticated form of self-sabotage because we create trivial things so we can complete those things and feel productive.
Why do we do that?
If you struggle with this, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It means you have a perfectly healthy functioning human brain.
The problem is that the brain is not designed for success, the brain is designed for survival, and survival’s about conserving energy.
The brain, left to its own devices, will default to doing whatever is easiest and default away from the things that require discipline.
But that is what makes you survive, not what makes you thrive.
If you want to be an ultra-performer, you need to learn to think differently. You can’t be caught up in the escalator mentality world.
And there’s one tactical strategy to help you overcome “creative avoidance.”
Work offline.
Working offline means disconnecting from, not only the internet but from all possible distractions.
Close your shades, turn off all your notifications, and get to work on the task you have.
That is the most effective way you can get tasks done quickly and without having to deal with “creative avoidance.”
Priority Dilution
The third type of procrastination affects the people who you would think would never have to deal with procrastination.
These are the people who overcame classic procrastination and overcame creative avoidance to get to their position of leadership.
What happens with this category of individuals is something I like to call “priority dilution.”
What’s the difference between priority dilution from creative avoidance or classic procrastination? Priority dilution has nothing to do with being lazy or disengaged. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, it affects the mover and shaker.
A person who is affected by priority dilution leaves their desk, with their most significant tasks left incomplete. It’s not because they’re lazy, but it’s because they have allowed their attention to shift to less significant, but perhaps more urgent, tasks.
This person’s life is characterized as a constant state of interruption, always falling victim to whatever is latest.
So here’s how you can overcome priority dilution today. I want you to arrange your inbox by priority flag instead of by most recent.
So, what do I mean by that?
The way that most people have their inbox organized is the most recent email comes in at the top, but very often the most recent email is not the most significant.
If someone fires off a quick email saying, “Hey, can you send me this file?” It completely derails you from the significant work that must be done.
Ultraperformers, on the other hand, understand that success is not about the volume of tasks you complete, rather it’s about their significance.
That’s why if you want to be an ultraperformer you have to start organizing your emails and your to-do list by significance instead of by “most recent.”
Until you understand classic procrastination, creative avoidance, and priority dilution you’ll never be able to overcome them.
They’re ruling your life on a subconscious level, but if you put a few of these practices into play, I promise you’ll immediately start overcoming your procrastination.
