Even though we can laugh about our tendency to procrastination, when we are under a deadline procrastination doesn’t feel like a joke.

Procrastination is one time management challenge that really gets in the way of living an organized life, and in this episode we talk about two ways we can outsmart it.

In the “dark playground” of procrastination, our brain tries to convince us that a deep dive through YouTube or rummaging through the pantry is more fun than taking action, but consider what you really want. When “fun” is laced with worry, anxiety, dread, and avoidance, is it really fun? Take some time to recognize that while your brain likes the idea of avoiding a task, procrastination may not be something you actually enjoy. Notice the “fog” of fake fun rolling in, and let that alert you to the need of some quick action before procrastination takes over.

Because your brain doesn’t want to work hard, it will head straight to the “dark playground” when it feels overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start. If you can scale your next action down to it’s simplest step, and it’s something the brain can easily do, you’ll find much more motivation to get started.

As I share in my sticky label tool, there are many approaches to procrastination and this is just two of them. For some fun and entertaining more insights on procrastination, see the Brian Reagan and Tim Urban links below.