I’ve fixed my procrastination by reframing my mindset about money.
TLDR: I overprioritized saving money and overlooked my spending habits, leading to me not making progress and wasting time. I’ve solved the issue once I challenged those beliefs.
As much as people expect me to work perfectly fine without any procrastination. I do procrastinate…a lot. And I thought this is a good opportunity for me to share my reflection with you.
I’d been telling people how I set out to rework my website since it was already three years since I first made it. My perspective about coaching had changed. I got several new testimonials that I’d like to include, and the most important thing was I wanted it to be genuine and authentic to who I was. There were a lot of changes I could see improving.
Yet… I did nothing.
I was ashamed of myself. I knew and understood science behind procrastination. I helped many people tackle the very same challenge yet I struggled with it real bad. I had a hard time focusing on my own business (irony, isn’t it XD).
I’d been keeping it to myself, believing I could figure it out. I could overcome procrastination by myself. I was a coach after all. (Spoilers: I couldn’t.)
After six months of internal struggle, I decided to put my ego aside and asked one of my colleagues to coach me about this situation.
The conversation turned out to be almost 3 hours long (I felt a bit guilty taking him so much time, but I did treat him to a fancy cup of Thai tea, so I considered that even lol). It was one of the most fruitful conversations I had in such a long time, and here is one of my takeaways:
I have to be more intentional with my relationship with money.
When we talk about being intentional about spending, we usually talk about how we should spend only on things that matter to us, right? You know, all those buy things that make you happy and not about trying to fit the community.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
However, I also learned that I have to be aware of where and how I save my money.
Let me explain, I’m very stingy (yep, that is the best word that captures my behavior). For example,
Instead of taking a cab, I usually take public transport to get to a place I want to go. This means an additional hour of transportation, and I spend $2 instead of $4. That’s 50% off.
I also take a refillable water bottle with me when I dine out. I don’t order water because restaurants would charge me $2-3. By drinking my own water, I save this amount, and the numbers add up fast.
This logic also applies to my working habit. I’d work in my apartment to save money I’d need to pay in coffee shops which usually cost me $5+ each time.
All of these habits seem like rational and smart choices.
Until I had a realization in front of my friend that…
I’ve spent $15 on food delivery because I was too lazy to cook. And this happened A LOT.
This realization hit me like a truck. I’d been thinking I was smart with my money, but didn’t even think about my poor habit that leaked all my savings all this time. Combine this with the reality that I barely got any work done because my apartment was way too cozy for me to work. Instead, I just spent most of my time doomscrolling. So to put it simply:
I’ve been saving a small amount of money by wasting time at my apartment, making no career progress, and then spending all of that money on food delivery.
Gosh, type this down still stings a little XD
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So I decided to try something new, I took myself out to coffee shops. And to my surprise, I worked my ass off for 3 hours straight. No phone, no games, just deep work. The change of environment worked wonders for me. Suddenly, buying a cup of tea didn’t bother me at all.
Getting three hours of deep work done for the cost of $5 is a very good deal for me. So, I’ll try to find more places to go from now on (since I don’t want to sit in the same place every day lol).
I think this story gives us a good example of how our mind can trick us sometimes and why it’s important to practice self-awareness with what we believe.
I’ll excuse myself for now. I’ll have to check a new coffee shop that’s selling a very tempting chocolate croissant XD
See you next week
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If you’re suspicious that some of your beliefs have been holding you back, and you want to explore this. I offer a free full 60-minute session for people who’re interested in working with me. Just schedule a call, and I’ll be there :)
