A Procrastinator's Guide To Getting Sh*t Done

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you know just how frustrating it can be to simultaneously want to achieve your goals but constantly put things off.

On today’s episode, we’re sharing our top tips to help you overcome procrastination and start getting sh*t done.

We're joined by mental health advocate & founder of YANA CLUB, Georgia Mascarenhas.

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Fill My Cup is a podcast by Mamamia. Listen to more Mamamia podcasts here.

CREDITS:

Host: Allira Potter

Guest: Georgia Mascarenhas

Producer: Cassie Merritt

Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Do you ever know that you need to clean the
house and do the washing, but choose to go out
with friends instead? Maybe you got a parking fine about
two weeks ago and just can't bring yourself to pay it.
That is me. We all love procrastinating. I know I
do it all the time. My favourite things to procrastinate
is work.

(00:43):
Always. I know that I will have deadlines, but I
will choose to go and watch Netflix or go out
for coffee with my friends. So I am the worst
procrastinator ever. But also I think it's a really good
trade of mine that I get things done by, like,
deadline as well, too, because I'm stressing probably not the best,
but I'm the queen of procrastination. Overcoming procrastination takes a

(01:06):
lot of mental work, and starting is usually the hardest part.
I mean, how many times have you gone to do
a task only to scroll tiktok or watch TV or
just take a nap? If that sounds like you today,
I wanted to bring on a fellow procrastinator and mental
health advocate Georgia Mascara to chat through how we can

(01:28):
break through the cycle of procrastination Georgia from Yana Club,
you are back, which I'm so excited
to talk about procrastination. I'm laughing because I am the
queen of it. So welcome back to fill my cup.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thank you very much for having me and I am
laughing as well because I am another queen of procrastination.
But I do have some tips that I am very
keen to share.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I'm keen for the tips. My first question is why
do we love to procrastinate?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
We are all procrastinators. I think I've never met anyone
who doesn't procrastinate.
I think it's because there is so much happening around us, right?
We have like social media. We have what's happening in
the world. We have work, we have family, We have
relationships just so much stimuli. So I think when we
go to do a task or a chore or whatever

(02:19):
it is, our mind is just so occupied by all
these other things and it just wants to be somewhere
else all the time. It's just
kind of struggling to be present and to being in
the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I asked you to bring five tips for overcoming procrastination,
and I will try and share a couple, too. But
let's get straight into those five tips.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
So number one, which we just touched on before, was
just trying to be present, which is so much easier
said than done. And yeah, it sounds ridiculous to even
say out loud, but trying to just bring your awareness
to what you're doing
and just actually just be there for whatever time you've
allowed yourself and just be there to complete whatever task
it is Number two, which is actually very practical and

(03:02):
something I found very helpful, which is just setting a
timer if I've got a chore to do, even if
it's like cleaning the house or folding the laundry, or
if it's to, I don't know, write an email or something.
I'll set a timer for whatever it is like five minutes,
10 minutes, 30 minutes and just know that I've got
that amount of time to get that task done.
If I get to the end of that time and yeah,

(03:24):
I've only just done five minutes at least I've done
five minutes more than what I would have without the timer.
Most of the time, though, I get started on a
task and then I keep going after the time is done,
because then I'm on a roll. Number three is if
it takes less than one minute, do it now, which
has been very important, whether it's like putting something away

(03:46):
or writing that text back to the friend.
If it takes less than a minute, then try to
do it in the moment. And then at least you
just don't have all this other stuff building up behind you.
Number four is being realistic with what you're going to do,
because I often set myself very unrealistic, I guess goals
or tasks for my day and nothing gets done because

(04:08):
I just look at it and it's too overwhelming.
So I'm trying to be more realistic with what I
set for myself and being realistic with where and when
I'll need a break or when I when I go
and have like, leisure time and watch something or whatever
and that's been super helpful and Number five is say
it's for work related stuff, more so I try to
designate a different space to go and do it so

(04:30):
I might go to a cafe or I go to
the library
and just get out of my home environment because I
find that I just don't get anything done at home.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
These are really good tips. I literally have my notepad
out on my iPhone and I'm like, OK, number one present,
number two, timing three. If it's less than one minute,
do it. Four. Be realistic and five designate different
faces. These are amazing and honestly, really, really simple as well,

Speaker 2 (04:57):
too. They are simple. I still struggle with these and
I don't want it to seem like I just do
these and I'm now like I'm not a procrastinator. I
still very much struggle and these don't work all the time,
But they can work and they do work occasionally, and
I think that's better than not working at all.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I want to share maybe a couple of mines. I
think I'm going through these phases at the moment where
I'm testing what works for me and what doesn't. So
at the moment, and a lot of people are just
gonna roll their eyes at this. But I've been waking
up at 5. 30 AM to try and get work
done for two hours before nine AM. So then I

(05:41):
can go to the gym, have a bit of a
morning to myself. So it's almost like
a little bit of discipline to be like, Do your
work early. So then you can enjoy that midmorning coffee
Break your gym, et cetera, et cetera. I really am
a big one on that designate different spaces. So I
will tend to be like, OK, I'm gonna go to

(06:02):
a friend's house and work. Or I might go down
to my local cafe because I feel the buzz, the
energy I'm gonna to get work done. So it's all
about the energy for me. You get to

Speaker 2 (06:11):
just enjoy life and actually
enjoy the things that you want to enjoy while also
getting everything else done.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, it's like my favourite time of the day. I
know it sounds so random waking up at 5 30
but I get to go down to the beach, watch
the sun rise, and I'll come back, do like an
hour of work and then just get on with the day.
So
that's my little hot

Speaker 2 (06:30):
tip. I love that so much and you feel so wholesome,
don't you? And just so content, I

Speaker 1 (06:34):
feel like one of those tiktok wholesome girlies when I
do it in the morning,

Speaker 2 (06:39):
don't you? When you feel like such a boss and
then you're like, OK, I can do

Speaker 1 (06:41):
this exactly right. Well, Georgia, thank you so much
for coming on to fill my cup yet again. Hopefully
everyone takes away some of these tips and maybe implements
them into their daily routine. If they're finding that they
are procrastinating,

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yes. I can't wait to hear how everyone goes with it.
And don't worry about being a procrastinator, because we all are.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
If you love the podcast, why not follow us in
your favourite podcast app? This episode was produced by Cassie Merritt.
Our audio producer is Rhiannon Mooney. Mamma Mia's purpose is
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(07:24):
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