[00:00:00] Kristy: Procrastination is pretty sneaky the problem when you consistently procrastinate is that you eventually stop trusting yourself. I've mentioned on the podcast before the importance of doing what you say you're going to do. In order to continue to believe and back yourself. The thing about procrastination is it's something that every business owner encounters from time to time.

[00:00:29] The reality is as a business owner, there is nobody telling you what your deliverables are, when you need to do what you need to do, what you need to do. You are responsible for figuring out what needs to be done in your business and then making that happen. what can happen is that you can get stuck in procrastination and there are three main reasons for why business owners procrastinate.

[00:00:54] Of course, there are more, but I'm going to unpack the three main reasons in this episode, as well as what to do if you find yourself in that position, I want you to start to understand. the reasons you're procrastinating and to help you to figure out how to stop procrastinating so that you can move forward and start to regain that faith in yourself and that joy in your business. All that coming up in this episode. Are you ready? Let's go.

[00:01:26] Hello, boss, and welcome back to the run your business like a boss podcast. Procrastination is something that I think we all encounter from time to time. But if it's something that just keeps coming up for you, then maybe something's going on underneath the surface that you need to address in your business.

[00:02:17] So in this episode, I'm going to explore three reasons why business owners procrastinate and where you can start to figure out what's going on and what you can do to overcome procrastination. So the first area that I want to explore is that you procrastinate on client work. If you find yourself constantly putting off client work and delaying the things that are needed in order to deliver your services to your clients. You need to understand why you keep doing that. Is it that you are a little bit bored with what it is that you're delivering? So it could be that you've been offering the same thing for some time now, and you've lost that connection to why you do what you do.

[00:03:12] When you lose that connection to your purpose or the reasons that you're offering these services in the first place for your clients, it can leave you feeling a little bit bored or disinterested and it can feel kind of hard to get the work done. It can also leave you feeling like this isn't exciting anymore or maybe it's that you are no longer challenged in your business because you've been doing the same thing for a while.

[00:03:41] So getting a good understanding of whether it's that you have maybe outgrown your services or is it that you are needing a little bit more excitement in your business and or variety in your business so that these daily tasks or these weekly tasks that you need to do for your clients, you're no longer stuck on because you have other exciting things in your business.

[00:04:05] Maybe when it comes to procrastinating on client work, it is not that you're disinterested or you're bored with your offers. Maybe you really love your offers and you really love your clients and there's actually nothing wrong with it and it really is just an organisational problem.

[00:04:24] Maybe you need to look at how you're setting your calendar up and making sure that you've blocked out the appropriate times and what you need to do in each of those times in order to be able to deliver on your services. So in this space, it would be getting really organised with your calendar and making sure that you're bundling in certain tasks together.

[00:04:45] It could be that you need to employ some time blocking. It could be that you need to be just more structured around your workflows and so forth. Or maybe it's that you've hit a bit of a plateau in your business. And I sort of touched on this in the first point is that you've achieved all your goals, everything that you ever wanted in your business you've achieved, you're earning all the money that you want to earn, but maybe you just need something extra to really sink your teeth into.

[00:05:16] So it's not that you don't want to be offering the services that you've been offering or that you're bored with it. It's just that you need something new and exciting and challenging in your business. Now, I want to normalise the importance of stabilisation. Sometimes we can get bored when we're in a stabilisation period.

[00:05:36] So maybe this is where you've caught up with the challenges in your business and you're no longer pushing and striving as hard and perhaps it was that you were addicted to the adrenal fatigue or the tight deadlines or all the things, and it feels uncomfortable when things are just really stable and really certain in your business.

[00:06:00] This can also cause you to procrastinate. The key here is to get really curious with yourself and also your business to understand the driver or the reason that you're procrastinating on your client work.  What you want to avoid is causing chaos in your business and disrupting your business when it really doesn't need that it really just needs you to recalibrate your mindset and get things back on track rather than blowing it all up and throwing it all out and disrupting everything just because you need a little challenge in your business.

[00:06:40] your actions, if this is your experience, where you're delaying on your client work is to conduct a full audit and review of your business to understand why you're procrastinating and to really figure out, what is the driver behind your procrastination? Until you understand that problem, you are not going to be able to fix procrastination.

[00:07:04] It's just going to keep rearing its head. You may be able to overcome it short term, but in the long term, it's going to keep on coming back so you need to understand that. The second thing is, let's just imagine that you are actually really happy with your business. And it's simply that you need to optimise your calendar.

[00:07:21] You need to get more structured and organised with your workflows, what you're doing and when. Therefore, it's just the case of getting started with the actions and it's not that you're procrastinating because you're bored or you're simply outgrowing your business, but rather that you just need to figure out those first few steps.

[00:07:40] So, it might be that you need to go and look at your calendar and set your calendar up properly. The last thing that you can do in this space is to reconnect with your vision and your mission. And this is tying back to the deeper purpose of your business. So the vision of your business is where you're taking your business long term.

[00:08:02] Sometimes we can get stuck in the day to day grind of our business that we lose sight of that bigger picture. Where are you taking your business long term and how does that support the life that you wish to live? And then also revisit the mission of your business. Now, the mission is why your business exists for your client, and this is the purpose of your business for your client. So what kind of impact are you creating for others through the work that you do? I have a really great episode, episode number 80, which is add power to your purpose, a why process you've never heard before. And in this episode, I break down three really powerful components to making up your purpose for your business.

[00:08:48] I definitely encourage you if you're feeling a little bit lost and you think that you're procrastinating on your client work, because you're not really connected to your bigger purpose in your business, go and check out that episode. I'll tag the link in the show notes. The second way you might be procrastinating is in your business is because you have so many ideas. As a business owner and an entrepreneur, my guess is that you are not short of ideas. In fact, more often than not, business owners have Too many ideas. We are inundated with advice and things that we should be doing and so much content, right?

[00:09:26] My husband made a joke the other day about my daughter. She was scrolling on YouTube shorts and it was just so bisarre to see her doing this. And he made a joke that she was trying to find the end of the internet and it got me thinking about us as business owners. Sometimes we can find ourselves in that situation where we're scrolling We're looking for the answer, but you're never going to find the answer anywhere but within.

[00:09:51] Really taking a step back and figuring out, okay, I have all these ideas, but what is it that I actually want to act on and what is it that fits inside my business and the vision of my business and what is it that I'm going to roll out first? Now, it's not that you aren't going to roll out all of those things.

[00:10:15] Maybe you will, maybe you won't. You can't roll them all out all together. That's not possible. Firstly, it's going to take you a lot of time and also it's going to dilute your focus. So if you can really distill all of those ideas down to the thing that you're actually going to execute on, make that decision and then take action on that thing.

[00:10:40] That's going to reduce the procrastination of moving forward because you're stuck in ideas mode. So the action on this item is that pick one idea to focus on. One thing that you're going to roll out. Stop thinking about all of the things and instead think about the one thing.

[00:11:01] Once you are clear on what that one thing is, then you can start to take action, build momentum, have energy and clarity, deliver the thing and then you're more likely to deliver the next thing, but if you're sitting in this place where all the ideas are marinating and you're trying to figure out what you want to do and when you're going to do it and what fits where, then you're never going to move forward.

[00:11:25] And you're constantly going to be procrastinating on taking action on the next step in your business. Now, I want to acknowledge this can be easier said than done. If you are struggling to make a decision or you're not really sure comes first, then you may need to get some outside support.

[00:11:44] And I recommend going into the show notes, clicking on the 90 minute coaching call. Check that out as an option for you. My job as a coach is to look at your business objectively on your ideas and to help you to figure out what is the most important thing to take action on and then develop a simple plan for you to be able to execute and move forward on having someone else look directly at your business is so powerful because we don't get stuck in your business in the same way as what you do because you're holding on to it.

[00:12:21] All of your business in your mind, you're holding all of your business ideas together. Our job is to ask clear, powerful questions to help you get clarity so that you can move forward, deliver the thing, and then move on to the next thing. Perhaps maybe it's that you keep procrastinating on the goal.

[00:12:42] Maybe you're clear on what the goal is and for whatever reason, you've been sitting on this goal for six months and you're feeling guilt and you're feeling frustration that even though you might've had some spare capacity or time to work on the goal, you still haven't. This is a really tough place to be.

[00:13:03] I want to acknowledge that.

[00:13:04] The key here is to really understand why. Why are you not taking action? Is it that your goal is not actually relevant and important? Maybe you set that goal based on other people's expectations of what you think you should be doing in your business, and you're not really connected to that goal. And you don't really believe in that goal.

[00:13:34] And that's the reason why you're procrastinating. Or maybe it's that that goal feels so scary. You're worried that you're going to fail. You're worried that you're going to get it wrong. You're worried about what other people will think. You're worried about the impact of that on your business. And that's the reason why you're not taking action.

[00:13:57] Or maybe it's that you Haven't created time in your business to work on your goals. I talk a lot about this on the podcast in the messy middle that often you have so much client work that it's kind of hard to create space, but there is a way to do it. And most of that is geared around organisation as well as having a clear purpose for why your goal exists.

[00:14:25] So if you find yourself in this situation where you know what you want to achieve and you're procrastinating on taking action, this is your steps forward. Firstly, get clear on what is holding you back. Why are you not taking action? You need to be radically honest with yourself here. Is it that it's too hard?

[00:14:46] Is it that you're afraid? is it that you're nervous that you'll fail? Is it that you don't know what to do? Is it that you're overwhelmed? Is it that you're stressed out? Is it that you're not making time in your calendar? Why are you not taking action? The second step is you have to be accountable.

[00:15:03] You have to be accountable to moving forward. And if you don't have that internal accountability, then. Invest in getting that accountability. This is where a coach as well can come in really handy, or maybe it's that you just need to tell a friend, okay, this is what I'm doing. This is where I'm going. or maybe it's that you need to put it out in the universe, soft launch it, get it ready to go and tell other people that this is what you're doing in some ways when other people in the world know your goal, you will have a different type of accountability and you will move forward because you won't want to let other people down. So get accountability.

[00:15:45] The third step in the process or the third action to take is to get really clear on the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal.

[00:15:53] So many people don't make a plan and I know I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but be honest with yourself. Do you have a clear step by step process for how you're going to achieve your goal? Or is it that that's the goal and you think that you'll be able to figure out the steps as you go. When you have taken time to map out those steps, it's so much easier to take action because when you're sitting at your desk, it's like, okay, I need to do step one, two, and three today, or I need to do step one and that involves this, this, and this.

[00:16:24] if that even feels too hard, maybe break the goal into mini goals. So if you don't want to have the full step by step process, then break it down even further into like actionable goals that you can take on each week. And then have that fluidity of, you know, what steps to take within those mini micro goals.

[00:16:44] But you need to break your goals down, especially if it's something big. Once you have a road map for how you're going to achieve your goals, then it's really important that you set aside time to work on your goals clear parameters around.

[00:16:58] What actions you're going to take within each designated time. Essentially, this is time blocking. It's like, I've got one hour here and these are the things that I need to achieve in this one hour. It prevents you from having to get stuck in that overwhelm of what actions do I need to take and how much time do I need to do?

[00:17:16] And then taking your time getting started and tasks taking too long. Time blocking is incredibly powerful and isn't only to be used in BAU, it it can also be used in project work, breaking down those big goals into actionable time slots is going to really help you to stop procrastinating.

[00:17:37] So there's three areas that you could be procrastinating on in your business. The other thing is, is that maybe you need to have a coach in your corner. Sometimes it's hard to do this work on your own. When you are running your business, you have all the things that you need to manage and handle.

[00:17:56] And then on top of that, you've got to figure out what the goal is and what you're working on and when you're working on it and what you need to achieve and all the things. Having a coach in your corner will help you to take the heat out of the situation to simplify the steps to help you to move forward and of course, provide you with accountability as you take action.

[00:18:16] It's hard when things go wrong, especially if you have little energy left over beyond your BAU to be working on your business, to keep moving forward and feel like you're constantly coming up against it. That's where a coach is so powerful for you. I know there is a cost with coaching. I totally get that. But what are the costs to you? What are the costs to your business? What are the costs to your growth and achieving that next level if you are stuck in procrastination, if you are not moving forward?

[00:18:49] Procrastination is such a hard place to be, and as I said in the beginning of the episode, when you do it repeatedly, you will lose trust in yourself. And when you lose trust in yourself, you will no longer go for bigger things in your business. That is what's going to keep you in a plateau. I hope this episode has given you some really clear steps, some really clear actions to take in order to understand why you're procrastinating in different areas of your business and what to do to move through it.

[00:19:20] Boss, I hope this episode has been helpful and that this will give you the energy to unblock and to move forward with greater ease. Thank you for listening. As always, I look forward to chatting with you next week.