Five-Minute Procrastination Buster

Alison practices real estate law during the day, goes to graduate school at night, and raises young twins around the clock. At times she gets so overwhelmed with the many directions in which she’s pulled that she gets stuck deciding what to do first. In those moments, she finds herself procrastinating. Instead of doing something, she ends up doing nothing of value, like scrolling on her phone or worrying about missing a detail. When we met last week for her coaching session, she expressed her frustration with procrastination and asked if we could create a tool that will help her break through a procrastination “freeze” and move into action. Drawing on my training in mindfulness and nervous system regulation while tuning into Alison’s nervous system, I came up with the “procrastination buster” process below. When Alison and I walked through it, she said the six-step process “is a really quick and effective tool to become grounded, calm, and focused.”

I emailed Alison the day after her session to ask if I could share the procrastination buster process with Mindful Moment readers. She said, “Absolutely! I know people will find it to be useful! I've done it twice today already. :)”

Try This:

Answer these questions as slowly and as thoughtfully as you can. You can write down the answers, answer them quietly to yourself, or respond aloud. I find that saying them aloud helps keep the mind focused.

1. My name is _______________.

2. I am _______ years old.

3. Three sensations I can feel in my body right now are:
a.  _______________________
b.  _______________________
c.  _______________________

4.What I am making these sensations mean: ______________________.

5.What is one small thing that I can do right now to help myself out: _____________.

6.How do I feel now: _____________________.

Here’s an example of what this might sound like:

1. My name is I. M. Stressed.

2. I am 35 years old.

3. My neck is stiff. My chest is tight. My stomach is clenched.

4. I am making this mean that I am tense and stressed out about my work and life.

5. I can step away from my computer, go outside, and take five minutes to breathe deeply.

6. Now I feel more relaxed just thinking about taking a break and breathing.

As odd as these simple questions may seem, breaking down your world into small, micro- chunks can help you to get “oriented” in the simplest of ways. Getting oriented breaks the procrastination mindset by calming the mind and body and allows you to mobilize. Try it and see what happens for you. Feel free to change the first few questions every once in a while to keep it interesting. For example, “What is my favorite color?” or “What is my pet’s name?” You can also repeat steps five and six (what can I do now to help myself and how do I feel now) if you have time and it’s helping, or do the whole process a few times at once.

A big thank you to Alison for permitting me to share her personalized procrastination buster process with you!

Laura Mahr is a North Carolina and Oregon lawyer and the founder of Conscious Legal Minds LLC, providing well-being consulting, training, and resilience coaching for attorneys and law offices nationwide. Through the lens of neurobiology, Laura helps build strong leaders, happy lawyers, and effective teams. Her work is informed by 13 years of practice as a civil sexual assault attorney, 25 years as a teacher and student of mindfulness and yoga, and seven years studying neurobiology and neuropsychology with clinical pioneers. Find out more about Laura’s new course, “How to Rock Your World: Five Tools to Get Grounded When the World Feels Rocky” by contacting Laura at consciouslegalminds.com.

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