I’m at the point where I don’t do anything AT ALL. it’s destroying my life and grades. How to beat chronic procrastination without therapy?

” What is wrong with me?“, that the question I asked myself 3 years ago as I was failing to be consistent at anything I did.

I was working but I wasn’t folliwng trough on relevant topics even when I had more than enough time.

I always felt busy with different ongoing projects, but I never had something to show for it.

I tried classic advice about time managmeent but It didn’t work .

I tried classic advice about tasks clarification but It didn’t work.

I was sick and tired of trying harder, failling more, and still continuing to read the same tips  blogs after blogs.

It went like this until I came to the big realization that my fundamental hypothesis was wrong: “I wasn’t wrong. The tools were not appropriate for people like me”

THere was a lack of effective tools designed to take in account how chronic procrastinators think.

Lesson 1: Stop tyrannising yourself

For years, fear of fear of hard work, judgement, rejection, guilt of underperforming, shame of failure, chronic procrastination impacted my life in invisible ways that I was not even aware of it .  I tried different techniques, but always fell back into old patterns.

Finally, I decided to take a different approach.  Instead of trying to fight against myself, I tried to synchronize with myself, looking for solutions in alignment with my identity and creativity.  After 2 years of reading, self-exploration, trial error and failed experiments, analysis and theorizing, things started looking up. I finally found tactics Icould implement, systems relying on only one strategy I could memorize, and habits that stick with less maintenance.

Lesson 2: Start by reducing your sensation of guilt at the scale of your life

If your symtoms looks like this : https://grillagemind.com/how-do-chronic-procrastinators-think/

THEn i suggest you consider starting this programm from a long term perspective: https://grillagemind.com/a-weird-journey-to-diminish-chronic-procrastination-from-a-long-term-perspective/

the key idea is the following;

When you exercise, you stop worrying about things you  found boring or daunting. you get them done easily without any planning upfront. It removes a huge burden from your shoulder.

That’s why your first first move should  be to build a strong running habit to indirectly perform well in other areas.

How to kickstart a  Sport habit for chronic procrastinators: https://grillagemind.com/how-to-make-any-difficult-routine-a-lifetime-habit/

Lesson 3: Have effective short term tactics for immediate deadlines

Now if you are looking for specific technics that can help you to get pass trough the inertia to start/ restart/ finish within hours or days , I suggest you give a try to these one:

Tactic 1 : Visualization to prevent and cure hard work when you fell unprepared

Visualise yourself in the process of doing stuff you don’t want to do at leat 1-2 day before taking action.

Tactic 2: Free writing and Explicit your emotions to Start

When you clearly write or talk about what you feel, it removes the destructive power theses emotions embeds. And ideas linked to this topic will start flowing in your mind.

The more you describe your feeling and state of consciousness, the more this method is effective. Use freewriting or free self-talk.

Tactic 3:  Conscious fear generation to when you struggle to restart

If you struggle to do something, instead of repeating to yourself ” I should do this you should do it”, take a pen and list all the worst consequences that might happen if you don’t act on it.

Then repeat writing or speaking up the consequences that make you feel uncomfortable .

This document explains well how they work in practice.

3 quick anti chronic procrastination techniques + 1 Bonus at the end

Heudou Tchihikou Aubin 

A master chronic procrastinator who chose to execute on his dreams because of frustration and self-criticism