Researchers estimate we only use around two to ten per cent of our brainpower each day.
This means that much of the mental processing power you’ve got is rusting away, unused. This is literally true, because when your brain cells die they aren’t replaced. If you could find ways to access more of your fantastic brainpower, what could you achieve? Could you double or triple your current income?
The first article on your GPS (Goal Positioning System) outlined how you use it. Here’s the process in a nutshell: you set clear, time-limited goals, you visualize yourself successfully completing tasks and achieving your goals every day, you use your intuition, you write ABOUT what you want, and why you want it, and you create and use a daily task list.
The key to accessing more of your brainpower lies in the tasks that you procrastinate on. When you resist something, the resistance uses up more energy than completing the task. Your resistance also leads to feelings of guilt and unworthiness, and these feelings lower your overall effectiveness, which means you use even less of your total brainpower.
Here’s how to use your GPS to tackle your procrastination:
Write down where you are, exactly what you want to do, and how you want to feel while you’re doing it
“But I already know what I want to do,” you protest.
Yes, that’s true. But part of you is weaseling out. Your left brain might want to complete the task, but if you’re procrastinating, it’s a sign that your right brain and your unconscious mind have other ideas. For whatever reason, they want no part of the task and will do their best to ensure that you don’t do it.
Procrastination’s insidious. If you’re procrastinating, you’ll find any number of super-logical reasons NOT to do the task. You’ll suddenly remember those phone calls you have to make. Or that you haven’t called your mother all week. Or that you really need to check on how your online auctions are doing.
Let’s imagine a scenario. Let’s say you’re procrastinating on mowing the lawn. The grass is almost to your knees and your house-proud neighbors are so peeved that they turn away when they see you.
Take out a pen and paper and write down where you are, what you want to do, and how you want to feel while you’re doing it.
You’ll find that as you’re writing, the other parts of your brain will start to kick in. As you write: “It’s Tuesday, almost 4pm, and I’m sitting in the kitchen having a cup of coffee. I want to go and check the mower, and mow the lawn. It will only take me half an hour, and I’ll feel energetic and pleased with myself while I’m doing it. The lawn will look great.”
Mowing the lawn is a simple enough task, and once you’ve written it down, chances are that you’ll march right out and do it, because the unconscious resistance you have to the task just melted away. I have no real idea why writing things down — where you are, what you want to do, and how you want to feel while you’re doing it — works so well in combating procrastination, but it does. Try it.
On the other hand, you may get real feelings of conflict when you write down what you want to do. If that happens, keep writing. Ask yourself (in writing) what the problem is. Maybe you’ll write: “I haven’t got time to mow the lawn. I should be working on that presentation I’m giving next week.”
Aha! Now you’re getting to the nitty-gritty. Your procrastination about the lawn-mowing and subsequent frustration with yourself is masking your real problem, which is anxiety about your upcoming presentation.
You can deal with that, now you know what it is. You could write: “I will mow the lawn and feel great while I’m doing it, and then I will work on the presentation for an hour. I will feel relaxed and calm and confident while I work on the presentation.”
You’ll be amazed that once you’ve written down the real problem, it’s no longer such a big deal.
Keep writing, until you feel an emotional shift. You’ll soon get ideas on how to solve the problem, and then you’ll hustle right out and get your lawn mowed. And oddly enough, you will also work on your presentation, and you’ll enjoy it.
Trick yourself
Nine times out of ten, the above process will work like the proverbial charm.
But what happens if you can’t even force yourself to write? This happens because when you procrastinate, you procrastinate for a reason. If that reason is powerful enough to stop you doing the task, and it may also be powerful enough to prevent you using this simple writing process.
All is not lost. Trick yourself. Tell yourself that you’re going to list ten places you could go on vacation. Or that you’re going to write a shopping list. Begin writing your list, and after you’ve written a couple of items, start using the GPS process.
Write about where you are, exactly what you want to do, and how you want to feel while you’re doing it. You’ll be amazed and pleased that you’ve conquered your procrastinaton.
A benefit of this process is that once you’ve used it a couple of times, because you know you can eliminate your procrastination anytime you want to, you’ll procrastinate less.
If procrastination is a problem for you, use your GPS. The process works.
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