70. How Your Emotions Can Keep You Stuck In Procrastination and Are Damaging To Your Career

Procrastination is probably the number one reason that is holding academic physicians back. The root cause of procrastination can be multiplefold. One less common reason discussed is our emotional state.

In this episode of the Academic Revolution podcast, we will discuss how your emotions can keep you stuck in procrastination and are damaging to your career

Procrastination, often related to a mental block, can negatively affect productivity and goal attainment. Dr. Hofmann emphasizes the importance of recognizing and separating unrelated emotional responses from set tasks and implores her listeners to practice this mental discipline for the sake of their productivity and professional success.

00:10 Introduction to Procrastination in Academic Physicians

01:23 Understanding the Three Pillars of Physician Success

03:06 The Impact of Emotions on Procrastination

04:55 Personal Experiences with Procrastination

11:08 The Cycle of Emotional Triggers and Procrastination

12:58 Strategies to Overcome Procrastination

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode #60: How You Can Use a Simple Mind Trick To Overcome Procrastination

Episode #63: Is Procrastination Hurting Your Career and How to Overcome It

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Transcript

0:01

Procrastination. That's probably the number one reason that is holding academic physicians back. And often those can be rooted in our emotions. And I want to talk about that today because nobody ever talks about this and I think it can be really helpful to you. So stay tuned for after the music and we will be right back. Well, what come back to another episode of the academic revolution podcast. I'm your host Inca Hoffman. And today we're going to bow back and dive deep into some topics related to pillar. Number three of my academic physician success. DNA method. And that is really focused on mental mastery. We have talked recently a lot about performance habits, which is pillar number one, but I felt it is time to go work back on our mental mastery. To balance it out a little bit, because really we need all three of those pillars for our economic success. By the way, if you have no idea what I'm talking about about these three pillars of their physician success, DNA method. Then I encourage you to go back to the first few episodes way. Outline them in detail. So if you're new to me and this is a new language to heal. Number one. First of all. Thank you for tuning in. I'm so excited and glad that you are here. Go back and listen to some of these earlier episodes. The first few episodes of the academic revolution podcast. Way I explain. What these three pillows are, which are a number one performance habits, the things we do, a daily, the practical tips that get you crashing on your goals. Number two. Leadership identity, which is all about leadership, personal leadership, as well as that. Roll the leadership roles you might be playing in your organization and number three, mental mastery, which other things that often hold us back in our head, we might be knowing all the things to do, but have a hard time actually implementing because mental mindset is holding us back. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So in today's episode, I want to talk about how emotions keep us stuck in a mode of procrastination and can be really damaging to our career. As mentioned in the intro. It don't progress to nation is probably the number one reason why I hear. Academic physicians are having. Problems with productivity. In fact, that was probably the number one reason for me over the years. When I was feeling I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It was usually rooted in procrastination and the other. Common thing that I'm seeing perfectionism. And I've talked about that in the past. We both pop up, but he talk about it again in the future, but let's talk about progress to nation today. Now there is an early episode episode, I think number 63, where I talk a little bit about procrastination, but I'm taking it from a different angle and give perhaps more of an overview overview. Today. I really want to focus on procrastination and the emotional side that is attached to it. Procrastination can have really many causes. There's often a root cause of fear of some sword, fear of failure. Fear of am I good enough feed off? What other people think. Perhaps the task is too overwhelming and that's why we are procrastinating, but the less often talked about issue is. Eh, issue or a root of emotions. What do I mean by that? It is often emotional shifts that are happening as we are getting ready to do something that is then leading to procrastination. So, let me give you a little bit of a personal example to illustrate this. Because I think it's really going to help you to understand it. And also, I think you will find yourself in that story. Because honestly, I've heard this from so many of my coaching clients. That they were set out to do something. And the mind fog kind of got in the way. This happened to me. Oh, been over and over again. And it was really amazing when our realized that pattern, because now I know what to do about it. So in the past, Very frequently. I might be all gun-ho to do something right. Something I have been procrastinating and important project. It could be manuscript writing, grant writing. It could be. Just a project. I was working on what a task I needed to complete for the administration. And then you. It was important, but man, I just kept on procrastinating but let's say you overcame all that. You're very intentional and to say, okay, I'm going to do this today. I scheduled it. It is on my calendar. The time is blocked. I'm ready to do it. And do you have, or perhaps even all motivated to do it. I'm sitting there. I'm ready to get started. I'm like today I'm going to crush this goal. I have been procrastinating on it. I'm going to move forward with it. And I get it done. And then very interestingly, something happens that sets me off and my emotion. Very frequently. For me personally, I would say that my children often played a big part in this meaning. Something happened in my interaction with either my children. I'll perhaps my husband. Or sometimes even, maybe Related. And I got emotionally involved in something completely unrelated to the task, had nothing to do with it. But maybe I got upset with my children because they were, I don't know, messy, or they didn't clean up after themselves. And I threw myself down this emotional track and got emotionally involved in these type of things. And then guess what my mindset that was actually set on doing the task for that day now shifted its intention. And. Direction. To an emotional response to just regular life, right? Messy children. I feel like, oh my, I have to clean up after everybody. Or the kitchen is a mess. Why can not anybody ever clean up after themselves, those type of things that show up in your daily life. Right. Very trivial things that can get us into emotional tizzy fit. And what happens in those moments is that. Suddenly my emotion shifts from, Hey, I was doing fine. I'm having a good day. I'm set up to be productive today. Two 70. Get dragged into this mental drama. And leading to a emotional shift. Wait. I suddenly don't feel so good about myself. Maybe I actually got in a fight with my children. Maybe I snapped at them and now I feel bad. And now my mental state shifted from, Hey, I'm going to do this task to. Feel really lousy. And it can be such a mental fog. I don't know if you ever experienced this. But it happened to me a lot and it really took some. Very careful awareness. So, you know, coaching and me being constantly aware of how am I responding to the world? That I realized, oh, this is happening. This is actually something so silly that triggered me, that gave me an emotional response to. Now feeling. Kind of defeated feeling, blah, feeling unmotivated, feeling, oh, this is just another lousy day. That emotional state led them to a mental block. And that prohibited me then for moving forward with the goals in the task I set for the day. And that led to, to progress to nation. And guess what, then you already do basically on the state of like, oh gosh, Now I don't feel like doing those things anymore. Of the day is kind of blah, it kind of went sideways and now I don't feel like doing any of the things anymore. See what happened to you. Something you had set yourself a goal. Or do certain things that particular day. You've got an emotional distraction. Something completely unrelated can be a personal life. Can be something at work. And now you're on an emotional fund and in a, in a brain fog. And you kind of feel shut down. And that leads to basically lack of creativity, lack of focus, lack of motivation. And that leads to procrastination. And isn't that interesting. Those things usually show up. When we really are. Ready to get something done, often, something big. Because sometimes those emotional distractions might be very welcome to our mind that really doesn't want to get involved in this task. So I found this really incredible, helpful when I realized this, I was like, oh, I got to watch out. Today, I'm set out to do this. Let me watch out that they are no emotional triggers coming my way. That prevent me from doing the work as set out to, to. And when that happens, though, when I do get distracted, guess what the secondary effect is because now we S daughter to procrastinate because we didn't feel up to the task. We felt distracted. We felt maybe don't. And now what happens. We feel guilty that we yet, again, wasted another day. Where we actually wanted to do something productive. And guess what? That leads to another emotional spiral. I hope this makes sense. So what I'm here to tell you is that those emotional shifts, can very quickly lead to procrastination. And occupy our Headspace and then leading to mental blocks. And this is sweetie ambitious cycle. So it might be. Like this in a simple sort of stepwise fashion. There are some soda of you all starting good with your day. You're set to do your goals. They have some sort of trigger. That's coming your way in relationship often, plus somebody else, or maybe an email you're getting. That we're up to you the wrong way, whatever it might be. There's usually a trigger that leads to an emotional response of feeling. Whatever that might mean feeling upset, depressed. Maybe. Feeding. Not happy about yourself or that interaction. And that emotional response then leads to mental block. To mental fog to progress to nation. And then that alone. Gets you a new emotional trigger that procrastination feeding further down. And via the leading you brown, the spiral off the day goes down in a wash. And if you don't capture yourself, if you don't get a hold in that moment of yourself. Then. Yeah, you can waste a whole day and say, oh gosh, the state just went down the drain. Has that ever happened to you? I hope has, has I hope I'm not the only person. I think probably I'm not the only person I can tell for my coaching clients. This happens all the time. This happens to me quite often. I'm now much better equipped to catch myself when that happens. So now your question is well great. And go, yes, that sounds familiar, but what am I actually going to do about it? The first thing I would encourage you. Recognize it just as you go about your days. I recognize when you are procrastinating and really analyze and take a quick pause and say, Hey, what's actually going on here. Why am I not doing this? I was fine a few minutes ago. And suddenly I feel like I have a block. Chance of saw, there might be a mental, emotional block related to what I just described. So just recognize it, is always key, right? Because then you can actually do something about it. So pause and recognize it and then really stop yourself. And realize that. The goals you set out to do for yourself that day, the things on your priority list. And the emotional response to something else. A completely unrelated items. Usually, usually it has nothing to do with each other, but we apply that emotion that we felt. That is usually not positive. Otherwise I will be motivating. To the task at hand. And we really have to understand. That no. Event X has nothing to do with action. I was planning for Y. And recognize that and then say, okay, let me take those two. But part, they are unrelated and I'm not willing to sacrifice. My priorities. Over a minor emotional response. And I just should pass here and make it very clear that I'm not talking about serious life events that are happening. You know, illness, death, and family, a serious patient issue. That's really giving you a hard time emotionally. I'm not talking about those type of things. I'm talking about daily interactions. Where we easily get sidetracked by our emotions. Once you recognize that and you realize that, okay, I'm stopping right here, I'm pausing and recognizing these two are unrelated. You might have to give yourself then a quick break. To be the kind of hit the reset button. So that might be. Just taking moment for yourself. Grab a cup of coffee, go to the bathroom. I don't know. Do anything. To get yourself out of that moment. Then maybe take a walk outside for five minutes, something duel, something that gives you a break. And be able to hit the pause button. Between your emotional trigger and your emotional response. Back to the action item that you were setting out to do. And then get back into action. And I can tell you, depending on how long that emotional state has been going on, wasn't maybe just a few minutes, maybe it wasn't already few hours, then it might be hard at first to say, okay. I'm going to get back on task and on my focus. And it might feel very unnatural. That's the whole thing. Yes. It will feel unnatural because your mind wants to keep you trapped. And that emotional state. So just realize that it will feel awkward, perhaps that it will be challenging in the beginning that it will need some time and you just practice that. And what I found helpful is just keep on pressing in, keep on proceeding with a task, an action item that is productive that I wanted to do. And eventually I got back on the flow pretty quickly. And I think the longer I've done this, the less time it takes to get out of the emotional funk and back into action. It takes practice. And the other tip I found really helpful, and I mentioned this in episode number 60, this is sort of related. That sometimes we can then trick our praying back into action. What do I mean by that? We kind of just say, okay, I'm not an emotional state right now, but I'm doing this baby step on this task and get back into the flow. So you can listen to episode number 60 as well. I will mention those in the show notes. So hopefully this was helpful. Number one, realize that. Emotional states can really impact our productivity at often leads to procrastination. I recognize when that is happening for you personally. There might be some recurring patterns for me that was often especially in the day where we were working from home a lot and was often related to triggers with my children. I got frustrated about something totally stupid. Almost got myself into. A little, a tizzy fit or a little. Argument I got myself in a situation that then got me involved emotionally involved and got me out of doing the actual work that I needed to do. This happens to all of us, just recognize it. Pause reflect, hit the reset button and then get back into action. I, now this sounds a lot easier. Then it's actually done, but I'm telling you from personal experience. Once you, we, the press and push-in. And recognize it and just go with the flow and. Focus back on the task. You won't be surprised that it's actually easier than you think in your head to get back into focus. So I hope this blessed you today. If you have any questions, just. Nice comments on the podcast. Leave them on my social media at Ingar Hoffman, MD, thriving academic physicians on Facebook. Yeah, and just let me know how it goes. And I wish you a wonderful week and talk to you next week. Bye.