Find a Procrastination coach
What is a procrastination coach?
You need a procrastination coach if you avoid items on your to-do list or delay tasks until the dying minute. A procrastination coach helps you understand why you procrastinate, recognize what motivates you to take action, and build new habits for permanently overcoming procrastination.
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What does a procrastination coach do?
Everyone procrastinates at some point, regardless of how disciplined or productive they may be. The culprit is not the task but our thoughts about it and the emotions we associate with the task (Musolino, Evanya 2007). To overcome this, a procrastination coach helps you to:
Understand why you procrastinate
Understanding why you procrastinate is the first step towards overcoming your struggle with delaying or postponing tasks, and your procrastination coach helps you with it. Reasons people procrastinate are lack of know-how, boredom with the subject/task, guilt, fear of success, fear of failure, etc.
Challenge thoughts and behaviors leading to procrastination
Your procrastination coach helps you to challenge the negative thoughts and emotions that induce procrastination. Your coach also encourages you to challenge regressive behaviors by replacing them with behaviors with positive outcomes.
For example, you may have to complete an article requiring extensive research. You may feel inexperienced and unworthy of such an article as a result. Your coach works with you to challenge these negative emotions by replacing them with positive thoughts.
“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.”
~ Greg S. Reid
Recognize factors motivating action
Once you’ve understood why you procrastinate and now challenge negative influences, it is crucial to recognize the factors motivating you to take action. Motivators may be a prize, promotion, or self-fulfillment at the end of the task. Focusing on these motivators inspires action and leads to continuous improvement while combatting procrastination (Grund 2018).
Reinforce new thought patterns and behaviors
The final step in the transformation process with a procrastination coach is reinforcing the new and positive thought and behavior patterns so they become habits.
“Indecisiveness and procrastination are the chosen ways of life for most people. They follow the course of least resistance, which is to do nothing. This provides a security blanket of never being wrong, never making mistakes, never being disappointed, and never failing. But they will also never succeed.”
~ David Peoples
Do I need a procrastination coach?
Unlike a lazy person who has no intention of completing the assigned task, a procrastinator intends to do the task but keeps postponing it to later. In some cases, the procrastinator ends up not completing the task at all.
“Oh, I’m too tired! I’ll do it tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry. There’s still time. I’ll get it done.”
“I’m too tired. I’ll go to the gym tomorrow.”
“It’s not so important. I’ll handle it later.”
Procrastinators will give any excuse possible to delay doing anything with which they associate negative emotions, believing their reasons are justified. When people procrastinate, they provide every reason under the sun why they aren’t doing what they should be doing, ranging from mundane to illogical.
Is there a silver lining to procrastinating? Dr. Frank Partnoy argues that procrastination isn’t always bad (Partnoy 2012). He states that procrastination could lead to making better decisions and living a happier life if you learn how to manage delay. Similarly, in the Art of Procrastination, Dr. John Perry of Stanford writes about structured procrastination, where you do some beneficial things while postponing the more important tasks (Perry 2012).
But even if procrastination has a silver lining, it can also have some serious detrimental effects. If procrastination is impacting your life for the worse and resulting in missed opportunities, you need a procrastination coach.
How can a procrastination coach help me?
I had a bad case of leaving everything until the last minute before taking action. At college, I hardly ever started working on papers or projects before the week they were due. Not starting my assignments on time put more pressure on me, and I became stressed, but I still didn’t learn. When I began my career, I continued to battle with procrastination and missed out on several lucrative opportunities. Procrastination got me.
Over time, though, I formed new and better habits. Although procrastination comes knocking sometimes, I’ve been able to recognize the causes and deal with them before they spiral into more significant issues. If procrastination affects any part of your life, a procrastination coach helps you by:
Assessing your procrastinating behavior
Your procrastination coach assesses the behaviors and thought patterns that push you into delaying tasks and activities to determine techniques for eliminating those patterns.
Creating an implementation plan
After assessing your behavior and thought patterns, your procrastination coach creates an action plan using proven anti-procrastination techniques for shifting your thinking and approach to work. Anti-procrastination techniques include:
- Chopping tasks into smaller easier-to-reach goals
- Setting time blocks for completing tasks
- Starting with the most challenging tasks
- Removing distractions
- Treating any underlying medical conditions which trigger procrastination
- Visualizing and focusing on the desired outcome rather than the task itself
- Placing reminders where you frequent, e.g., refrigerator door
- Taking regular breaks
Five great reasons to hire a procrastination coach
If you’re anything like me, you’d doubt the value a procrastination coach could add to your life. Fortunately, many satisfied people have attested that procrastination coaches are worth the time and money. The following are five great reasons to hire a procrastination coach:
- Develop self-discipline
If you’re anything like me, you’d doubt the value a procrastination coach could add to your life. Fortunately, many satisfied people have attested that procrastination coaches are worth the time and money. The following are five great reasons to hire a procrastination coach:
- Boost productivity
As I mentioned earlier, combatting procrastination with the help of a procrastination coach involves applying anti-procrastination techniques like breaking down your daily tasks into smaller easy-to-reach goals and creating time blocks for completing assignments. Employing these techniques boosts your productivity dramatically.
- Improve time-management skills
Setting up time blocks and removing distractions to avert procrastination significantly improves your time-management skills over a relatively short period. A procrastination coach helps you to reach this goal.
- Manage overwhelm
It can sometimes be overwhelming to complete a large project, and this can trigger procrastination. Your coach will help you to break down any large project into smaller digestible tasks which are easier to complete. To further simplify your day and reduce overwhelm, your coach also ensures that you have fewer goals to meet daily. A more straightforward day minimizes the probability of procrastination.
- Maximize career and revenue-generating opportunities
If procrastination affects your career or business performance, you need to hire a procrastination coach today. Procrastination robs you of career or business opportunities at which you may have excelled. Hiring a procrastination coach positions you for success in your career and business.
How much does a procrastination coach cost?
How much a procrastination coach costs depends on several factors, including the length and frequency of sessions and the period needed for the desired results.
Procrastination coaches at Life Coach Hub often charge up to $100 per hour a session. However, the coaches often offer package options, especially where your coaching sessions will last for at least a month for $500 – $1000 and can run up to 12 months.
If you’re anything like me, you’d doubt the value a procrastination coach could add to your life. Fortunately, many satisfied people have attested that procrastination coaches are worth the time and money.
Questions a procrastination coach might ask you
Anyone may get you to complete a task through various means, but simply completing the task does not overcome the negative behavior of procrastination.
A procrastination coach asks you open-ended questions, pushing you to confront the emotions and thoughts you associate with the task in question. Then, you gradually build positive thought patterns and behaviors around those tasks by digging deep to answer your coach’s questions.
A procrastination coach might ask:
- What makes you delay taking action?
- Why do you think it/they cause(s) such delays?
- Do you enjoy delaying taking action?
- Why do you think you enjoy delaying action?
- Is there anything you dislike about delaying action?
- What pushes you to take action?
- In the absence of these, how can you take action?
- What do you feel are the benefits of taking action?
- Do your wins influence your decision to take action or procrastinate?
- How would you like us to measure your progress as the sessions progress?
- Do you use reminders to help you avert procrastination?
- How and where do you place these reminders for practical and effective usage?
- Which form of help would you require to stop procrastinating?
Anti-procrastination Quiz
Anti-Procrastination Quiz Presentation by Life Coach Hub
It’s no surprise that your image coach will ask you several questions during your sessions. Questions are, after all, at the very core of any coaching.
You don’t have to feel pressured to answer. There are no wrong or right answers to these. They are simply there to make you realize and see certain things you weren’t aware of initially.
Some of these questions are the following:
It is important to assess your level of procrastination to understand how to approach tackling the problem. In the quiz below, select the most applicable answers.
1. How often do you think you procrastinate?
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
2. I begin new tasks or projects, but I don’t finish them.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
3. At the end of the day, I am stressed about the goals I did not accomplish that day.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
4. I delay work until the last minute, even when it has an important deadline.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
5. I make decisions quickly when I have adequate information.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
6. I get distracted easily.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
7. I usually finish my work ahead of the deadline.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
8. I leave tasks I don’t enjoy until later.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
9. If I find a task difficult, I avoid doing it.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
10. I am on time for appointments and meetings.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
11. I have to hurriedly complete assignments to meet deadlines.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
12. I postpone jobs I find boring.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
13. I prefer to work under pressure.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
14. When preparing for a trip, I do so well in advance.
- Very often
- Often
- Sometimes
- Rarely
- Never
Ready for the results?
Anti-Procrastination Quiz Results by Life Coach Hub
Scoring:
Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12
Give yourself:
- 5 points for Very often
- 4 points for Often
- 3 points for Sometimes
Questions 5, 7, 10, 13, 14
Give yourself:
- 5 points for Never
- 4 points for Often
Analysis:
50-70: Heads up! You are a major procrastinator. Procrastination is taking its toll on your ability to get things done and find balance. Take the time to book an appointment with a procrastination coach and you’ll reap the benefits.
35-49: You definitely have some procrastinating tendencies. It could be a great idea to talk to a procrastination coach to start finding ways to get on top of this bad habit.
Under 35: Amazing! You don’t procrastinate at all. Give yourself a pat on the back 🙂
Now what? How to find a procrastination coach near me
Time to stop procrastinating! Choose a procrastination coach from our selection of qualified coaches above or submit a coaching request for us to match you to your ideal coach. Time to get off the fence and take action!
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