How to Turn Procrastination Into a Powerful Productivity Tool

During their recent episode, Taylor, Carlisle, and Anne-Laure Le Cunff discussed How to Turn Procrastination Into a Powerful Productivity Tool. Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

Tobias: I have some questions from our listeners. I’m going to ask this first one. Tyler. I’m going to ask you a second one first. “Can you elaborate on turning procrastination into a useful tool?”

Anne-Laure: Yes. Absolutely. So, I want to just go back to how we treat procrastination with our natural reaction to procrastination. Procrastination is, I think, across the board in most societies considered bad. Actually, in the book, I have quotes that are from ancient Greece, where they’re already saying that procrastination is really bad thing and it’s going to waste your life and ruin your life. And so, we don’t really like procrastination. If you go on google and you search for solutions, it’s going to tell you how to beat procrastination. It’s pretty violent.

So, the first step is to just stop doing that. Stop seeing it as something negative, something you need to squash, something you need to destroy. And instead, treating it as a signal. Procrastination is just information.

So, when you notice that you’re procrastinating, instead of trying to push through and use your willpower, and very often in the process, for most of us, blame yourself for not being able to do the work that you said that you were going to do, you can pause and just observe that procrastination and ask, “Okay. Hello, friend. You’re back. You have some information that you want to share with me what is it?”

In the book, I share a little tool that I personally find so helpful. I use it all the time when I’m procrastinating. So, you look at your procrastination again. No self-blame. What are you trying to tell me, is the problem coming from the head, from the heart or from the hand? If it’s coming from the head, it means that at a rational level, you might not be convinced that this is the right task to work on, or maybe you’re not the right person to work on it or maybe it’s designed in a way that makes no sense.

You’ve just been trying to do it because maybe you agreed to do it in this way with your team, but there’s something at a subconscious level that tells you that, this doesn’t feel right. So, when it’s coming from the head, you can maybe go back to your team or go back to your notes or to the strategy that you have in place and just try and figure out, is that the right approach here? Then if the head says “Okay. Actually, no, this is the right thing to do, why am I procrastinating?” Maybe the problem is coming from the heart. That means that even though at a rational level you’re convinced that it’s okay, at a practical level– Sorry, at a– Can you still see me? or–

Tobias: No. We’ve lost your vision.

Anne-Laure: You lost me. Again, let me try and reconnect the camera. One second. Technology.

Tobias: Just while we’re waiting for Anne-Laure. Tyler, yeah, I’ve understood your first question. Okay. Combat mimetic thinking to make your goals more personal. Okay. Lotto. “Can you expand a little bit on the semantic decoding and the meta paper?” I’ll ask it. — Do you think that Anne-Laure will know the answer to this?

Anne-Laure: I can still hear you. I’m just fiddling with my camera. If that doesn’t work, I think we can just finish with my MacBook grainy camera instead. Looks like I’m back.

Tobias: No problem.

Anne-Laure: Okay. So, I’ll just finish quickly on the procrastination where I was saying, if at a rational level you’re convinced, maybe at an emotional level, you’re not convinced. That means that you think this task is not going to be fun or enjoyable. So, in that case, just make it fun and enjoyable. Grab a friend, a colleague, go to your favorite coffee shop. If at a rational and emotional level you’re convinced, but you’re still procrastinating, then it might be coming from the hand, which means that at a practical level, you feel like you don’t have the right tools, skills or resources in order to be to do the task.

In that case, just raise that hand, literally tell people around you, your colleagues or whoever could help that, “I’m struggling, I’m stuck with this thing. Can you help?” That could also seeking be mentorship, coaching, online courses, tutorials, installing a new tool. Asking AI also works really well if the problem comes from the hand. And so, what’s great about this is, is that all of a sudden, you’ve shifted your approach from, “Oh, why am I procrastinating? I’m such a bad person, I’m not productive,” to “Okay, interesting information from my brain, let’s listen to it and let’s make an informed decision based on that.”

Tobias: And the heart?

Anne-Laure: The heart is just making it fun, making it enjoyable.

Tobias: Ah, making fun. That’s right.

Anne-Laure: So, you know you want to do it, you have the tools and resources, but you’re still procrastinating. It’s probably just– Yeah, maybe a bit boring, repetitive. There are things like this that you know you should be doing. And so, yeah, go do it with a friend, do it on the walk, go to a coffee shop.

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