Rachel’s Room🛋️: Stop Procrastinating

Happy Wednesday, Cadre crew. I am so happy to see you today. It is a dark and cloudy, rainy day in Seattle. Wherever you are, I hope that you are having a day, whatever kind of a day that is. And if you're new here, I'm Rachel Havocost. I'm a mental health advocate and writer. I also have a master's in psychology. I have been in therapy for 19 years for a variety of things for my mental health. And my. My goal online is just to help one person feel less alone and destigmatize topics that are sometimes hard to talk about.

So in my lives, I like to share with you things that I'm working on, whether things I'm working on in therapy or things I'm presently struggling with and kind of share with you how I'm navigating these things. So today we're gonna talk about procrastination. Your girl is a master procrastinator, and I've really looked at in therapy. Hi. Hi. Dopajoy. I like your username. I have really. Hi, Rachel. I have really worked on ways to understand my procrastination and get to the root of why it is I'm procrastinating.

And I've also learned that sometimes just knowing why is is helpful. And also we need skills to navigate the how. So I'm gonna kind of share with you three things that help me move through procrastination so that I can procrastinate less and accomplish the things that I want to. That I want to accomplish with less anxiety and less stress, and also less shame. Because oftentimes I experience shame for my procrastination. It makes me feel like there's something wrong with me or that I'm not able to do the things I want to do.

Hi, Maria. So these are three things that I do to help with procrastination. So, the first one might seem really simple, and sometimes the simplest things are what is the most effective. So make a plan. So, for example, if I have something that I know needs to be done by next week, rather than thinking about the entire thing I have to accomplish, I break it down into small, digestible, bite sized things. So I look at the next seven days, and I ask myself, all right, if my task needs to be completed by the 7th day, I go backwards and I say, on the 6th day, where would I like to be?

So let's say I'm giving a five minute talk at a workshop in seven days. On the 6th day, I would like to feel like I could give the talk on that day. So that tells me, okay, I want to be memorized, prepared, and confident by day six. So where would I want to be on day five? I would probably want to, like, be in a space where I'm. I had everything written, and I've rehearsed it, and I'm starting to learn it. Okay, so maybe my goal by day five is to have a memorized piece on the day four. Then, you know, my focus might be to have the piece completely finished and I've started memorizing.

So I go back backwards from when the last. The last day of the task being done is and try and break it down into small digestible tasks. And that way, I can go, okay, today, my only goal is to write an outline of this five minute talk, and that way I can focus just on that and not on where I have to be in seven days, which can start to create overwhelm and stress. Rachel says, is it my connection, or are you freezing? Hmm. I don't know. I can't tell if I'm freezing or not. Is anyone else experiencing freezing, or is it just Rachel?

It's hard for me to know because on my end, I can't tell. Sorry, Rachel. I hope it unfreezes and I'm. And it'll get. This will get recorded. So hopefully the recording will be completely smooth. If it's not smooth on your end. So my second tip for procrastination is to counter negative thoughts. So, a lot of times, procrastination comes along with some negative beliefs or core beliefs about ourselves. For me, personally, it's that I'm not capable. It's that I'm not smart enough. It's that I'm not good enough.

It's that I can't do hard things. And so I will look at those thoughts that kind of get in the way, and, oh, Luke says, I think it's Rachel. Shoot. I'm sorry, you guys. Is it still choppy? Hi. Speak. Wonder. I hope it smooths out because my connection is good. So, I don't know. Sorry. Hopefully the replay will be. Will be smooth. So. So, yeah, countering those negative beliefs. So, writing down the beliefs that you start to have when you approach the task that you're procrastinating on. Milo's having a field day in the background and asking my.

And I asked myself, what are the thoughts I'm having that's getting in the way of me doing this? Right. So making a list of those thoughts that are getting in the way of me sitting down and doing the task you're fine, Rachel. Don't worry. You don't have to apologize. You're not distracting. You're contributing. So. And then countering those, right? So writing down, literally, affirmations that say, I'm capable, I'm smart, I'm good enough people want me to do this in writing down, writing down, countering thoughts and then repeating those to myself daily.

And also repeating them to myself right before I sit down to do whatever that task is of the day to lead me towards my end goal. And then the last one, the third tip I have is have an accountability buddy, right? Cause a lot of times for me, procrastination is like, well, no one else is seeing me do it, so if I don't do it, no one's gonna know, right? And so bringing in an accountability buddy. So I like to tell a friend, hey, I'm preparing for this thing, and I'm really anxious, and I need some accountability.

So can I text you, you know, when I've done my. Or when I'm sitting down to work on whatever it is, and can you just give me, like, a go reach or, hey, can I call you and talk through this block that's coming up? You know, I'm working on this thing, and so I'm wondering if you can help me work through this so I can sit down and accomplish this. So it's having someone that can be accountable, but also kind of having someone to support you along the way so that you don't feel like you're doing it alone.

Oftentimes, I find my procrastination happens more when I'm doing tasks or goals by myself because I'm the only person I can let down. But if I'm going to let down somebody else, I'm less likely to procrastinate because there's somebody else involved. Having an accountability buddy can kind of enhance our ability to accomplish something and feel also more motivated because it feels like someone's on our team and rooting for us. So speakwater says accountability helps me. Yeah, for sure. Jopa Joy says, jason, one will know.

Wait, is Jason. I don't know who that is. Is that someone who knows a lot about accountability? Buddies with procrastination. Yeah, the accountability partner thing is really, really helpful. So these are good reminders for me as I approach a season of certain tasks that I might procrastinate on. I hope this was helpful. And as always, please let me know in the comments if there's anything you would like me to talk about in my lives. Ooh, we got a little peep of Milo. Milo, come say hi. This is if you haven't met my puppy, Milo.

This is Milo, the love of my life. He's my little mini goldendoodle. I actually got him on Valentine's Day last year, so our being together anniversary is coming up, so. All right, my loves, so good to speak with you today. m.. PST. And we'll see what we're talking about next week. Have a great one.