M. Pia De Girolamo

 

Where are You? by M. Pia De Girolamo, Oil stick on paper, 2008©

Recently I had a bit of a tussle with procrastination around some heavy duty “administrative stuff”. In this case, it fell primarily to me to put a childhood family second home on the market, while living far away. I dreaded the work that had to be done: finding and interviewing realtors, paperwork etc.  It was anxiety-provoking on many levels and I kept putting it off. The longer I put it off of course, the more it ate at me. I found I was starting to avoid other things because of it, even getting into the studio to paint. If you look at the image above, that about sums up visually how I felt!

Since I just couldn’t seem to make myself just do the thing, I started to think of strategies or tricks to get myself motivated. I came up with a few that eventually helped. So the house is now on the market (who knows if it will sell—but that’s another story!!)

These strategies worked for me:

Take on the task first thing in the morning.  Set the intention up mentally the  night before. I happen to be a morning person; my energy is highest then.

Set up a reward for when you're finished. For me, it was to read a book for fun in the middle of the day. Because I usually save my reading for when all is done and I’m about to go to bed, this to me was extravagant.  This may sound like a pretty lame reward to you but you’re free to pick whatever you want!

If there are multiple unpleasant things to do (and there always are) prioritize and recognize that you may not be able to accomplish them all at once, or may not want to. For me, since there is only one “first thing in the morning”, I schedule the unpleasant tasks sequentially over a number of mornings.  Again, set the intention at night or write it down.

Recognize that the worst unpleasant task may be the one that's holding you back from tackling the rest.  Go for that one and the dam may break, allowing you to tackle the others more easily. 

Ask for help, if the task is amenable to it.  In the case of putting the house on the market, my sisters (even though they too live far away) were instrumental in getting some of the key tasks done.

If you have any strategies that work for you please share!

 

 

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