Ep. 54 Conquer Procrastination: Strategies for Women to Boost Confidence and Achieve Success

What if we told you that overcoming procrastination could transform your life, unlocking your true potential and boosting your confidence? Master the art of conquering procrastination with Smilie on the Smilie  Empowerment Podcast. This episode is packed with essential strategies to help women break free from the debilitating cycle of procrastination. Smilie explores its root causes, shares practical tips to develop healthier habits, and emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals to alleviate anxiety and improve mental well-being.

In this powerful discussion, we dive into the fifth type of procrastination linked to low self-efficacy and confidence. Discover how breaking tasks into manageable steps and addressing feelings of overwhelm can pave the way to success. Smilie provides relatable examples, such as the home-buying process, to illustrate how setting achievable goals and taking incremental actions can lead to significant accomplishments. The episode also highlights the crucial role of accountability and positive self-talk in maintaining focus and motivation.

Lastly, the episode touches upon the benefits of examining daily habits and leveraging support networks to identify and overcome procrastination patterns. Smilie emphasizes self-care practices like meditation and breath work to nurture mental health and reduce stress. Concluding with opportunities for personal growth through group and individual coaching, listeners are invited to take charge of their journeys, build their confidence, and step into leadership roles. Tune in for an episode full with insights and practical advice to empower you to become the best version of yourself.

Chapters

• 0:03 Empowering Women to Overcome Procrastination
• 18:46 Overcoming Procrastination With Realistic Goals
• 30:48 Building Accountability and Positive Self-Talk
• 36:50 Identifying Procrastination Patterns for Success
• 50:41 Group and Individual Coaching Opportunities

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hola, boss Chica. Welcome to the Smiley Empowerment Podcast. This is where we celebrate the strength, resilience and determination of Latina women and all women who are constantly on the go, pushing through challenges and achieving their goals. I like to call these women Boss Chica, like me. If you're a busy woman ready to be uplifted, inspired, empowered to take charge of your healing journey and be a Boss Chica, you've come to the right place. We can all agree, life can be hectic and overwhelming, but anything is possible with the right mindset, attitude, tools and support. Let me introduce myself. My name is Smiley Filomeno Rodriguez and I am a Latina life empowerment coach and a social worker. I started this podcast because I know what feeling alone and overwhelmed with past wounds and challenges feel like. I want to help you with self-discovery, self-love and self-empowerment so you can grow and thrive. Do you sometimes feel alone? Well, you're not alone. You have me, your coach, smiley. In each episode, I'll share personal stories of resilient healing tips, practical advice, strategies for managing your time and priorities for improving your relationship with yourself and others, and insights on cultivating a positive and fulfilling joyful life. So grab your earbuds and tea or coffee, take a deep breath and get ready to be inspired and encouraged. Let's begin this journey together and empower each other to become the best versions of our lives. Let's get started. You got this.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Hello, my beautiful people, today we are going to have a great podcast. We're going to talk about conquering our procrastination. We're going to talk about conquering procrastination, especially for women. I want to offer some top tips and strategies to help you conquer procrastination, and you know, many of us procrastinate and it's something that we do from time to time. It's a habit sometimes that we may be putting off things that we need to do, important tasks that we need to do. However, we find ourselves sometimes facing some negative consequences to us procrastinating, and it's something that I think that we can overcome and learn new ways, and I want to help you to do that. I want to help you to overcome and conquer the procrastination because you are not lazy. I know one of the big myths is that women are lazy or individuals could be lazy when they are showing signs of procrastination. If you're in college and you're putting off doing that paper and you find that you have more energy, more focus when you're doing it the day before or the night of, and that's the adrenaline kicks in and you get used to that, push right, that energy and it feels good, right To some degree when you overcome it, right? But I want to talk about the impacts, the negative impact that procrastination has, and it's so important for us to really take a look at why do we procrastinate?

Speaker 1: 3:56

And in doing the research, I found that there are five types of procrastinators. Right, there are five types of procrastination and I really didn't even know that there were so many different types and I want to take you down this line of looking at what and why we may procrastinate. So I want you to take a good listen to this. There's about five that I came across and researchers really believe that when you procrastinate and you do this over and over, oftentimes you increase your level of anxiety. Many times your mental wellness is affected as well, and to overcome procrastination, it takes a lot of focus and for you to be intentional, right, and have more understanding of what type of procrastination you fall into and it's not exclusive just to one right. So there are different types of procrastination and procrastination is when you're putting off right, you put off task and responsibility, things that you have to do. You put it off, and oftentimes, when we put off these procrastination and we procrastinate. It's really linked to us becoming, when it's long-term, we can be physically ill high levels of anxiety.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Studies have shown that there's definitely a connection between procrastination and our mental health, our mental wellness and our mental health, our mental wellness and people who procrastinate a lot, they may present difficulties in impulse control, right, having control. And many people, when they experience and you may be experiencing this when you procrastinate you find that you feel more stress. Right, you tend to be a little bit more anxious, and what we want to do is really work on that, and I want to help you today with offering you some tips. But before we get into the tips, it's important for you to understand, right, which level of procrastination, what type of procrastination are you often involved in? And it's very important to know that right, because, also, experts have shown and have said very clearly that procrastination is a self-defeating behavior. Right, that's where we maybe develop some patterns and we delay the short-term. Right. It might be short-term goals, long-term goals, but we delay it and there could be right, there could be some satisfaction, very, very small satisfaction, when we then get through the procrastination and complete the task, but many of us keep putting off the important tasks that we have to do and it creates in us this poor habit right To procrastinate, to leave things to the very last moment and then get that boost of energy and focus. And then we hyper focus. Right? And according to 2014 study on procrastination I'm reading and coping they say that 20 to 25% of adults worldwide listen close, worldwide are chronic procrastinators. The issue could be linked to depression, high levels of anxiety, low self-esteem, adhd and even poor study right, Poor habits in studying. So we want to make sure that we can reprogram ourselves, learn new strategies and overcome and conquer the procrastination. So let's get right into it.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Why do we procrastinate? So some of us may be labeled as lazy, and it's not being lazy necessarily right, you could be experiencing boredom. Sometimes, when we're bored, we tend to put off that activity because it's not pleasant to us, it could be unpleasant. You could feel boredom and you keep pushing it further, further out, until the very last moment when you have to do that, and that's a reason right. Another reason is you may have to do that and that's a reason right. Another reason is you may have fear and anxiety. You may be experiencing fear. Right, you might have fear of the unknown. Maybe it's a big test that you have to take and because you are afraid of the outcome, maybe you have poor self-esteem. You don't think you can pass. It also could be medical. You might be procrastinating getting a medical test done because you're afraid of the diagnosis and this makes you more anxious and you may experience this level of anxiety and not wanting to know. So you may procrastinate and put off until later getting that test. So fear and anxiety can be a significant reason for you to procrastinate. Also, you may have some social anxiety as well, right? So in social anxiety, if you find that you have anxiety when meeting up with friends, right and being in social settings, you may have fear of being judged. You may feel also embarrassed and therefore you may put off scheduling that date, scheduling that outing or meeting or even completing whatever you were working on due to a level of social anxiety.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Then we have perfectionism and I can relate to this because that is something that I've battled with and it's perfectionism, right, making sure that everything is perfect before you take the leap, before you start on the activity. You want to make sure that everything is right and perfectionism can really have a direct effect in you being a procrastinator. Right, procrastinating Because you possibly have tasks in hand that you have to do that while you do not feel that everything is perfect, then you dread right, you may dread the activity, you may dread having to. Let's say you're an influencer or you do content online, or you have to do a presentation in your workplace, but you struggle with perfectionism and until you don't feel that everything is perfect, you don't want to act on it. And perfectionism is another key component and plays a significant role in procrastination.

Speaker 1: 11:26

And there could also be distraction. You may feel that in the environment that you're in can maybe lend itself to you being distracted out of focus. You're not focused on the task at hand and many of us go through this right. Many of us can relate now with social media and different scenarios and social media as well as other tools that we have. We may have too many different tools where you are distracted by them and that can also contribute to you not moving forward. Right. And it could also be just as paying bills. I've heard and I've had not just heard, but I've worked with clients that they procrastinate to pay bills even though that they have the funds to do it. But they may start that they're going to go online to pay a bill and they end up clicking different apps and next thing you know the time's up. They kind of forgot to pay their bill.

Speaker 1: 12:37

So it's so important for us to really examine and look at what is it for us. What are those triggers for us in procrastination? Right? Is it a lack of belief in your own abilities? Right, you may be thinking that you are not capable of doing whatever the task that you have. Right, and that can be also an issue. And you may have this low self-esteem where you feel like I could never do this task self-esteem where you feel like I could never do this task. And the more you think about it, the more the tasks seem way bigger than what they really are and more difficult to see it through. So it's so important for you to identify for yourself what is the key component for you at this moment? Right? What is it? Is it a lack of belief in yourself? Is it boredom? Is it fear of failing? Is it fear of judgment? Right? Is it that you're a perfectionist, right? Or do you have so much distractions? So it's so important for us to really get to the root of it.

Speaker 1: 13:42

So I hope that me listing some of these causes of why maybe you are procrastinating. It's good for you to really identify, and you may have more than one, and in different scenarios, at different times in life, you may have another situation. So just be very clear on why are you procrastinating? What about the task at hand? Has you paralyzed? Okay, and especially women, right, I want to help you to overcome the procrastination and to have a better understanding of yourself and a better understanding of what are the strategies, tips, that can help you to overcome procrastination. Okay, and studies have shown that Men have, just by slight have, a higher tendency of procrastinating. However, women as well, and I want to focus in today's episode on helping women to overcome procrastination. However, these tips could also go for men, for, however you identify yourself across gender, no matter the gender, these tips can help you, okay, so first, let's talk about the types of procrastination. Right, let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 15:02

I mentioned at the top of the episode that there are five. So number one perfectionism. Right, that's what you know. I did the research and I did look at different studies and they all narrowed down to about these five, and perfectionism is at the top right, of possibly not meeting the expectation, not being able to complete the task right Until everything is perfect. So you may be the type that you suffer of perfectionism and that could be a driving force for you in procrastinating.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Number two avoidance right. Two, avoidance right. So avoidance can also be part of why you procrastinate. Right, and that's putting off right. You find yourself, if you're in avoidance, you find yourself putting off tasks that seem not pleasant. Right, that are not as fun. You may feel that you're bored with it. Right, you may feel that there's a big challenge. So what do you do? You avoid, and that's a type of procrastination.

Speaker 1: 16:19

The third type of procrastination is decision right. Being paralyzed with a decision that you have to make due to having a significant challenge, a struggle, if you may say, a difficulty with making decisions. With the choices that you have, you may not know what should I do, do I do A or B? And then you end up doing none and pushing the task further away. So in the third type, that's where you are indecisive, right, and you're having a hard time deciding and that feeling comes over you and you procrastinate and it paralyzes you. Right, type number four of procrastination could be overwhelmed of procrastination could be overwhelmed, right? You may say, listen, smiley, I am so overwhelmed.

Speaker 1: 17:24

So you then tend to induce the procrastination, right, because you postpone those activities that you have to do, those tasks that you have to do, because you feel very overwhelmed just by the thought of these tasks and responsibilities. And usually this is when someone is feeling completely overwhelmed with making the decision and feeling like they cannot perform right, and this will lead you to postpone that task because you're feeling so overwhelmed that you then go into not doing what you're supposed to do. So you go into this phase, sometimes even like a tunnel vision, and let me know, let me know in the comments, follow like right, subscribe. Let me know in the comments if any of this is resonating with you and if you identify with any of the five. It's so important to know, to get a better understanding of the different types of procrastinations and seeing if you right, if you can identify with any of these or more than one. And then I'm going to go into some strategies, because today we're going to help you. We're going to help you to get over this procrastination, at least to get better and better till you can completely conquer it Okay.

Speaker 1: 18:46

And then the fifth one is low self-efficacy, procrastination right, and that's when you delay you. You delay the task at hand because you have a lack of confidence right, and that's when you delay the task at hand because you have a lack of confidence right, you have a lack of confidence in what you're capable of and a lot of people, when you're suffering of low self-esteem, poor confidence, you then delay the task because you don't believe that you are capable, that you have the ability to do whatever that task and activity is at hand. So it's so important to really review these five types of procrastination and get a sense of where do you fall. Do you have all five? At times, do you have two? One, right, and it's important. But I want to give you some strategies for you to overcome the procrastination right. Whether you're a woman and I know I'm speaking to you, chica, I'm speaking to you, my boss, chica, my Chica right the girlies that are listening to me. But this can go also for children. This can go for your kids. These strategies can also help male, across gender, these strategies can help. However, I was very specific to offering these strategies to help women overcome and conquer procrastination.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Number one if you are experiencing procrastination, you must understand that you're not lazy. You have to give yourself grace. That's number one. Give yourself grace. Understand that you may be very overwhelmed. You may be experiencing a lot of turmoil in your life. You might be experiencing multiple of tasks. There might be tasks that you don't feel that the skills that you have are up to par, and you may feel a lack of confidence in your own abilities, right? So the first thing I would say is give yourself grace. That's the first thing I would say. Give yourself grace. That's the first thing I would say. Give yourself grace. It's so important to do that. Okay.

Speaker 1: 20:59

And number two I want you to give yourself an opportunity to break those steps. Identify the task and break them into doable steps. All right, I want you to manage the, the, the task, and break them into manageable steps, into baby steps. That will help you to combat number four that we talked about overwhelmed, right? So when you're overwhelmed, you have to take a step back and tell yourself okay, I have this job at hand. I have to do A, b and C. Let me break this down. You could do some breath work. Take some deep breaths, give yourself some positive affirmations as well meaning affirming statements that yes, I can do this. I've done difficult things before, I can do this and then look at the task and break them down into manageable steps. Break them down into steps that you can manage at a time.

Speaker 1: 22:03

So it's so important for you to do this because this will help you to reduce some of that anxiety. It will also help you to manage the steps better, right, when you break each of the tasks into smaller steps. That will give you this opportunity to be less overwhelmed and more focused, and you can also build confidence because you start conquering that procrastination by taking action, but doing it a little bit at a time. So you may want to break a task into five steps that are small and you may break it down into a space of time. You may have a project that you have to do where you say, okay, there's like five identified steps to this whole task. I'm going to do two of those steps in the morning, that I'm going to take a break and I'm going to do the next two steps, whether it's the next day or if it's that day, maybe within another hour. Give yourself room as much as you can, if it's feasible, to work with yourself and your energy.

Speaker 1: 23:15

Now, in step number three, I want you to really set some goals for yourself, but that are realistic, meaning I want you to speak to yourself and understand that, the task that you have at hand. I want you to look at it, examine it and be real with yourself. That means you need to be realistic. Can you do this on your own? Do you need someone else to help you? Do you need more instructions? Do you need more clarity? And are these goals doable for you? Are they realistic? I'm going to give you an example.

Speaker 1: 23:52

I was once working with a client that wanted to buy a first-time home, didn't have a lot of savings, the credit was still not up to par, but they wanted to buy a home and be like in the next three months, I want to buy a home. And what I said was like have you met with a financial counselor? Have you looked at your credit score lately? What is the amount of money for down payment that you have? And none of those questions they were able to answer, because they really didn't know, because they were procrastinating in getting their credit checked right. The last time that they checked it was many years ago. So in them procrastinating in finding out the status of their finances to see when can they possibly be approved to go for a loan and to pursue their dream. They were paralyzed because they were afraid of what they were going to be told and that's when I said okay, let's say is it realistic that you're going to buy a home in the next three months? You're putting it as a goal and you are beating yourself up because you want to get this home in three months but you have not yet checked if you have all the ducks in order for that to happen.

Speaker 1: 25:12

And even if you did, buying a home sometimes takes a little time, even if your credit is good, if you have the money, everything. Because sometimes you're going to go searching for a home, you have to be approved. You have to also look at the home, see if you like it. There's a whole process, even if you already are ready to buy. When we broke it down into steps and we were realistic, they came to terms themselves to say you know what? It's unrealistic that we're going to purchase a home in the next three months. What's more realistic is that we want to give ourselves a year or a year and a half to really work on our credit, on our saving, and start then exploring that. And that was more realistic. It was a more realistic goal.

Speaker 1: 25:58

So, in step three, that's what I want you to do. I want you to really look at the tasks that you have at hand. What are the goals that you have for yourself, whether it's professionally right If you have a goal professionally or if you are working on a project in the workplace, what's realistic? Sometimes you say yes to projects that maybe there's certain skills you don't have and you need to sharpen them up so you can complete the task or you need some help. So in step three, that's what I want you to do Look at the goals that are before you and see what is realistic, what is doable for you.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Okay, in step number four, I want you also to examine. I want you to examine what are you afraid? What is the fear? What's an underlying fear that you may have when it comes to whatever the goals that you've been procrastinating, if you've been waiting, let's say you say I want to buy a home but I keep procrastinating to get my credit check, keep procrastinating to sit with a professional to review if I'm ready, then what is the fear? Right. And for some of you, you may say you know, I fear failure, I fear rejection, right, because sometimes, when banks and other individuals in the financial industry may review your budget, review your status right, review your income, review your credit score, you may get a rejection which is just saying you're not ready. But let's help you to get ready, right, but it may not be in the timeframe that you want it. That's why we had to be very realistic and it's important to recognize, as well as get into, what those fears are and work them out.

Speaker 1: 27:55

Whatever the fear is, right, I want you to list out the fear. What are you fearing at the root? Right, and then what can you do about it? Right, some of these fears are unrealistic. Then there are other fears that make sense, but that you can really get help to work through some of the challenges that you may have when it comes to whatever. That goal is right. So I want you to really identify what is at the core of your fears and then let's address them. Right. Let's address them, let's find solutions for them, let's make them smaller, right. Sometimes our fear is in our head and it's way bigger than what it really is. So we want to work on the fear and work through them. Right.

Speaker 1: 28:52

I want you to do some compassion. I want you to really work on being self-compassion because you especially you as a woman you are very kind and loving and understanding with other individuals, but when it comes to yourself, you're very strict, you're very hard, you condemn yourself, you speak negative to yourself. You condemn yourself, you speak negative to yourself, you doubt yourself. So in step number five, I want you to develop some grace for yourself. Give yourself grace. Develop some self-compassion. Right, Be kind to yourself. Understand that if you've made poor decisions in the past, that now you're living the consequences right, maybe of the credit score, it could be something else in a relationship. Understand that those mistakes were done. You cannot go back and change the mistake, but you can learn the lessons from that mistake.

Speaker 1: 29:46

So in step five and it's all related to the procrastination I want you to have more grace and compassion with yourself in the process of working out whatever that goal is right, facing the fear but speaking to yourself in a way that it's not self-destructive, where you find yourself not only procrastinating but in the process really giving yourself a lot of grief and increasing your anxiety and also increasing the negative self-talk. We want to do the opposite. If you made a mistake, mistakes happen. Now you learn from it and what can you get focused in the what? What can I do to make this better? What can I do to move forward? Okay, so another step that I have for you strategy that I think it's very important is to get accountability right In step six.

Speaker 1: 30:48

I want you to really work on getting accountability. What I mean by that is maybe you have a trusted friend, maybe a therapist, a financial consultant, maybe somebody in the area of what you're trying to do to hold you accountable while you are going for this goal, so you may have them agree to a routine check-in, right when they're checking in. How is it going? If you're trying to buy a home, did you get to meet with that financial counselor? Then you can speak to them and say, yes, you don't have to tell them what your credit score was if you don't feel comfortable, and it's really not necessary, but you can have an accountability buddy right when someone that's going to ask you routinely right, they're going to check in. It's so important because when we procrastinate, we check out. I don't know about you, but we check out right.

Speaker 1: 31:41

We tend to put it to the back burner, not pay attention to it to the very last minute, and then we find ourselves upset when we don't achieve those goals, like right now, at the time of me recording this. We're five months that we're going to go into a new year and December 31st you may get upset with yourself and say, oh my God, a whole year went by and I'm still with the same goals, year through year. I said this was going to be different, but I didn't do it. But what happened? And that's why you still have time now, right, if we're thinking about the timeframe of the new year's kicking in, many of you have set some goals at the timeframe of, like, the new year's kicking in. Many of you have set some goals at the beginning of the year, in January. But we're already in July Actually today's July 1st when I'm recording this and we're thinking, okay, most of my goals, I haven't even looked at them, I have not even touched them or I have not been able to.

Speaker 1: 32:41

For what reasons? And you can have many legit reasons, but at the end of the day, did you procrastinate, right? Did you get into the habit of procrastinating? And what was at the core. What was that reason for that is so important?

Speaker 1: 32:58

And then, in step number seven, I want you to take some small, small steps. I want you to be intentional and committed to small steps. You can start building your confidence, your stress level can be reduced and you can start believing in yourself. And you need to have that inner dialogue with yourself, that inner talk that you can do this, that you will do it. That's in step number eight, that dialogue that I want you to have. But in step number seven, I want you to take these small steps. I want you to be committed. What are you committed to do? And it could be a few minutes a day, it could be right. It could be one hour a week, whatever it takes when you break it down into small steps. But in step number seven, I want you to take small baby steps in the direction of the bigger picture, right, I want you to do that commitment.

Speaker 1: 34:13

And in step number eight, I want you to really evaluate how do you speak to yourself and start developing supportive language. Okay, and that is language like. I can do this, I will. I've done difficult things before. I will do this and I get to do this. Right, because it's a blessing when you get to do the things that you want to do. Some people don't get to do it, whether they are chronically ill and they're bedridden, whether they have terminal illness or they're no longer here or they don't have the capacity to do what they need to do. But if you have the capacity, if you are mind, body, able to do what you need to do physically, mind and body then you get to do this. So, in step number eight, I want you to have this internal positive, supportive language to yourself. So I want you, chika, I want you to shift that language and start supporting yourself with the language that you need. That it's going to tell you that you will do this right.

Speaker 1: 35:28

But it's important because, if you notice your inner dialogue, oftentimes when we procrastinate it's very poor, because then you get upset at yourself. Right, there's a sense of relief. There's a short-term relief that you may feel when you procrastinate, but at the end, in the long-term right, there's the disappointment, the dissatisfaction. Right, you may compare yourself to others, which you should not do. Don't compare their journey to yours. Everybody's race. It could be. You know, somebody can be closer to the goal that you even want, but you don't know what it took for them to do to be there, because sometimes you don't to use supportive language and when you start getting thoughts that are negative, you can counteract them with that's not supportive. Nope what I'm thinking. And you reframe it and you say, no, I could do it, I will do it, I choose to do it and I get to. I'm blessed that I get to plan my whole finance to buy that home. I get to choose X, y and Z.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Okay, and then in step number nine, I want you to take a moment to look at your daily habits and look at your what do you do on a daily basis? Because I want you to build some momentum, I want you to build your confidence level right, and I want you to take notice on a daily basis your daily goals right. What are you doing towards that bigger goal? So, on step, I think I'm up to number 10. I want you to look at your daily goals right and look at what are you doing on a daily basis that's going to contribute to the bigger picture that's going to contribute to those goals, what type of behaviors, what type of decisions you're making. Okay, and that is in step number I think I'm up to 11. I hope that I'm that I'm correct. I think I did already 10 and 11. You're going to do that now in the last goal that I mean the last tip that I have for you I want you to also in step number 11, actually, yeah, the last goal.

Speaker 1: 38:05

I want you to look at who's in your circle of support, right, and do you need? I want you to assess all this procrastination that you're doing and the way you've been feeling your emotions. Have you been sad, have you been depressed? Because procrastination is linked with mental health issues that may come about. You might be feeling depressed for a long time. You might be feeling shame, fear. You might be feeling a high level of anxiety. So it's okay to get professional help, okay. So in the last step, I want you to, in this strategy, to evaluate yourself who are you surrounded with, who's in your support network, and if you need to add a professional like a therapist, a counselor, a coach like myself, right, reach out. Right, reach out and ask for help. It's so important. Now.

Speaker 1: 39:05

These strategies are for everyone as an individual, especially for women, but you can apply this to any individual. But you also have to give yourself grace and understand that every individual process procrastination in a different way and have different procrastination patterns, right? So I want you to keep a log, if you can, so you can track the tasks that you're doing, that you can also look at when do you pause, when is it that you do procrastinate? From month to month and from task to task, you may see that you procrastinate more at a certain time or dealing with a certain specific task at hand. So, when you log the procrastination, it's a good idea to do, because you can then look back and see, identify what were your triggers. When was those triggers? Right? What were some of the tasks that you were trying to achieve and that you?

Speaker 1: 40:06

These tasks are the ones that you mostly and most frequently postpone, and I want you to make take notice of that, right. And I want you to also identify in your journaling. These are some extra bonuses. I want you to reflect what was the underlying reason, what was the underlying reason that you feel that you delayed doing these tasks? Right? What were some common feelings that came up? What are some common patterns? Right?

Speaker 1: 40:42

And remember what we said right, there's five key types of procrastination. Done and remember we talked about if you're perfectionism right, if you have perfectionism avoidance right, if you have a delay in decision making, if you're feeling overwhelmed or if you're feeling low self-esteem. Those five, so I want you to take a look at those five reasons right as underlying reasons for you and see which one you it could be more than one that you say, whoa, that is me. I am afraid of you know, I'm fearful of failing or I'm feeling very overwhelmed. You know, these tasks came at a time where I have so many things going on for myself.

Speaker 1: 41:31

Or you may be someone that you have poor self-esteem, you don't believe that you can achieve what the goal is and you don't believe in yourself, right? So it's so important to also identify your triggers. It's good to identify triggers. Notice what are the people, places, situations, times of day, what month do you feel most anxious? More that you let go of everything and don't do any task, and maybe you have this paralysis. It's good to look at what are the things that you're good at, what are the things that you need more improvement. So what are your strengths and what are areas of improvement, recognizing that you may be experiencing a lot of procrastination, but you can get really into the nitty gritty and get into the habit of working reversely, right.

Speaker 1: 42:27

So what I mean by that is, if you feel that you're procrastinating because you're afraid of the doubt of failing, is really working on your belief system right and giving yourself some grace? And give yourself some small, achievable tasks so you can start building up the muscle of confidence? Okay, and make sure you get help professional help if you need to. Okay, and set some time for yourself to relax. So you may want to do some meditation, you may want to practice right, some breath work, doing some deep breath work.

Speaker 1: 43:07

Get that buddy that I said. Get an accountability buddy, because that helps. Don't get an accountability buddy with someone who's also struggling just as bad as you, because then it becomes more of a challenge. Okay, it becomes more of a challenge. Okay, it becomes more of a challenge. So I would say get with someone that is going to help you to be accountable and not help you to procrastinate. Okay, I've done it too. I've. I've gone with other friends that were both procrastinating to do certain things and then we end up just supporting that, as opposed to the opposite. Okay, so ask for feedback. Okay, before I close, I want to say that it's so important to ask for feedback with trusted friends, professionals, just to see where you are at. It's good to have someone to give you some constructive feedback. They could be observing some tendencies, some patterns that maybe you didn't pick up on and that can help you to really work on those patterns. Right, it's so important.

Speaker 1: 44:17

And remember, these myths are not true. Right, women do not procrastinate because they're lazy, because they're emotional. Right, they don't right, they're just lazy. That's a myth. Right, and I want you to understand that you can overcome the habit of procrastination when you really tackle what's at the core and you start working with that. Right, and understand that sometimes they say that women procrastinate because they work better under pressure. That's also a myth. I know that sometimes we say, oh, but I'm more laser focused when I'm under pressure, but that really is a myth.

Speaker 1: 44:58

I was reading the studies that showed that that really is a myth. I was reading the studies that showed that it's a self-deception. Right, they say here that, in reality, stress typically reduces the quality of the work for anyone, while you may think that you're working better under pressure and it's because you're so focused and maybe at that moment when you decide to go, you feel that you're so focused, the adrenaline kicks in and you feel good because you're like I'm doing it, I'm doing it. But in reality, the stress that that provokes in the whole procrastination what you start thinking about yourself in the process it does have a negative impact on the quality of the work and this is for everyone, it's not just women, and there is a myth going that also goes around, that women that procrastinate that means that they are too intelligent, because they're too intelligent and in reality they show that they've done studies and research and it shows that there's no connection between the intelligence and procrastination. So that's a myth also that that is used often and they say that we use this to stroke our ego. But it's not because.

Speaker 1: 46:08

Oh, I'm very, you know, I'm so intelligent that I wait to the very last minute, because then I bang it out, and I've been one that in my college years I used to do that all the time. That's when I felt the most laser focus was when I was like the night before doing and cramming. But in reality what you have in exchange for that, even though that you do get the goal, your anxiety goes up. Your self-esteem is not helped with that right. It's just the level of anxiety and stress just goes sky high because you're working against the clock and now you are at the last minute doing and, to be honest with you, you may think that the best results.

Speaker 1: 46:50

Maybe you feel like, oh, I did the best because I was so focused, but had you had more time and you paced yourself, many times you could have done even better. You may think not, but if you look at it, you could have been more at ease and you could have been better prepared and maybe even given something given that goal, more attention in smaller increments of time, and you would have given a result that was much more quality, much more quality. So just be mindful of that. It's not due to lack of motivation. That's another myth that they say that women procrastinate due to a lack of motivation and motivation also. Motivation can play a part in procrastinating, but it's not really the all end, all right. So procrastination due to lack of motivation is not true. You can actually be motivated to do something and still have that fear right and have some patterns there and behaviors of avoiding whatever you are fearful about, and it's not that you were not motivated.

Speaker 1: 48:01

Okay, and I hope that these tips do help you. I hope that you can focus and work on the goals that you have. More than anything, your mental health your mental wellness is key and important and get into the habit, in a positive way, of starting projects earlier right, if you have more time, it's even better and break down the steps of the task. Break them down. Break them down into doable steps, and I hope that this helped. If this episode was helpful and you found it helpful, share it with others. If you're watching or listening. I do appreciate your time and effort to come and listen to my episodes. You can also binge download a few other episodes on different topics or related topics. I have more topics that you can look at. I have a boutique of topics that you can really look at. You can share it with friends and family, because you never know who's struggling with something that you may give them an introduction to the Smiley Empowerment Podcast and they can make use of it.

Speaker 1: 49:19

So take good care of yourself. Continue to work on yourself. Make sure that you are taking care of your mental wellness, your physical, your spiritual practice. Some meditation it's just taking some time to put your mind at ease and still and just work on yourself, on slowing down a bit and then, little by little, going for your goals one step at a time. It's so important. So review the tips, make sure that you get to the core of what the real issue is at hand, of why you're procrastinating, and understand that you can change, you can relearn right Some new strategies, some new strategies to develop some healthier patterns, as opposed to procrastination. Okay, so I hope that this helped. I'll catch you in the next one. Take good care of yourself and of each other.

Speaker 1: 50:13

Don't forget to subscribe, to follow, to like to leave comments, let me know. Also, in the top of the episode on the podcast, you could send me a text. I always love to hear from you. You can also email me. Let me know what other topics you would like to hear. And I want to give a big shout out to all of you, my beautiful listeners across the world, because I know I have people in India and Africa and the Philippines, in Puerto Rico, in Canada, all over the States, the United States.

Speaker 1: 50:41

Thank you so much for your support. Thank you for listening and following, and if you want to work with me one-on-one or you're also interested in some group coaching, I have some availability to do a group of like about five individuals, and when I have five individuals that are interested in working on right, working on their self-esteem, on their confidence, working on their leadership skills to get better at work, if you're interested in that, send me a message. When I have five I will offer a group coaching, which is in a more feasible possibly for you financially. So if you're interested in group coaching, let me know. If you're interested in one-on-one as well, let me know. So thank you so much for listening. Take good care. Besitos,