Get out of Procrastination using the Say/Do Ratio

How many times have you wanted to, or told yourself you were going to start something, and just kept putting it off? How many things on your to do list have been pushed down the list or put off for quite some time now? What is it about these items that you can’t or won’t just do?

Do you tend to procrastinate, or overthink your way out of things you have to or want to do? Or just keep delaying or putting things off until the last minute? And – oh dear God – do you then justify it by saying you work well under pressure?! However, we justify this practice to ourselves it is just draining your time, energy and motivation.

And there are so many practices out there that will apparently stop your procrastination – the 321-GO method, the 60 second rule (if the task will take 60 seconds or less just do it straight away), eat the frog – do the biggest or hardest task first, and on and on…. And some of these do work – in the moment for a particular task, but what if we looked at why we procrastinate and why we do this with some tasks more than others.

For this let’s look at the tasks you have procrastinated over for the past month? What are those tasks? How would you categorize them – a task that takes a long time, a task that you think will be difficult, a task for your own well-being, a task for a particular person, a task that you just don’t like doing? Then, for each task look at how long you have thought about the doing of the task and realistically how long the task would actually take to complete – have you thought about it for longer than it would take to complete? Most importantly, and this might be an easy answer if the task has been put off for quite some time – do you actually need to do the thing?

From these questions are there now only important tasks, for you, on your list and can you set yourself a realistic timeframe to get them done – that aligns with your life, for example if it’s a thinking task and you think best in the morning time, can you set aside a morning to get it done?

This works in line with the prioritizing discussion we have had before. Try this exercise and see what tasks you can just get rid of from your list, what you can just bang out and get done and what tasks can be scheduled and achieved (and if you need the motivation for these you can re-read the discussion on using the great feeling you will have after it is done to motivate in the now to get it started).

The say-do ratio:

This ratio is basically a measure of trust – you do what you say you are going to do. In my world, as perhaps in yours, I think of this as integrity. If you say you will do something, I like to think you will act with integrity and do that thing. Reliability and trust also factor in here. For the A-types among you, yes the ideal ratio here is 1:1 – for every one thing you say you will do, you do that one thing. But we do all know that person that says they will do all of the things for all of the people and they do nothing – perhaps they even take the praise and thanks for doing the thing before they do it and then they don’t do it – ugh that can get old quick, huh?!

But how about we apply this to our integrity in our promises to ourselves. Whatever the reason that you tell yourself you will do something that you know will be good for you but end up not doing it, it can leave you in a deficit of self care, or even putting yourself and your needs first. Prioritizing yourself can be hard for many of us for many reasons.

Look at your say-do ratio over the past week for example. What have you told yourself you will do, something for yourself, and have not done. What tasks on your list keep getting pushed down your to-do list, perhaps in favor of doing things for others. And then really think about the why of that – did you really not have the time, or are you avoiding allowing yourself to do the thing that will make you feel good? Do you not have the energy and are then not able to make the time? Why is that?

Try this and see how it decreases or eliminates your procrastination or excuses as to why you put yourself into a time crunch for every task for leaving it until the last minute and perhaps labeling it procrastination. Just a thought…

Be well, Real Well,
Tracey