Overview
Welcome to episode 12 of Mind and Machine AI for Personal Growth and Development. I’m Jenna, and today we’re going to talk about procrastination.
While we’re exploring procrastination, I’ll provide you with two amazing prompts you can put into ChatGPT to help you understand and get on top of procrastination so you can gain the momentum you’re looking for toward your goals.
For me, the topic of procrastination brings a certain phrase to mind: why do we do what we do when we know what we know? It’s the idea that we can have all the knowledge we need, yet still struggle to take steps in the right direction. About five or six years ago, when I was first starting out on my personal development journey, procrastination came up a lot in my YouTube searches and podcasts. It was something I could really relate to.
This often led me to time management tools, productivity strategies, or techniques like the Pomodoro method, affirmations, or even sticking motivational quotes on my bathroom mirror. I tried repeating positive phrases while driving to work. I was experimenting with all these tips and tricks, but I felt like I was going in circles—trying different things and not seeing real results.
What I’ve learned since is that procrastination has very little to do with time management or productivity tools and everything to do with deeper factors like our nervous system, thoughts, beliefs, and habits.
Let’s take a closer look at procrastination and how ChatGPT can help if you’re struggling with it. To make it easier to understand, I think of procrastination in two categories: low-priority tasks and high-priority tasks.
Procrastination for Low-Priority Tasks
Low-priority tasks are things we feel we have to get done but don’t necessarily move us closer to our goals or vision—like doing the dishes, making the bed, or scheduling appointments. The reason we procrastinate on these tasks often comes down to avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. We’ll do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure, especially when the pleasure is far off in the future.
To tackle procrastination on these tasks, we can reframe our perspective. By recognizing how completing even boring tasks can make us feel better or reduce stress later, we can shift our focus toward the long-term benefit. I created a ChatGPT prompt to help with this:
- “Your role is to act as a supportive coach, helping me overcome surface-level resistance to completing a task I’m procrastinating on. First, ask me simple, focused questions to clarify what the task is and why I might be putting it off (e.g., it feels boring, overwhelming, or unimportant). Once you’ve gathered enough information, help me reframe the task in a way that feels more manageable or appealing. If you need more information to carry out the task effectively, ask follow-up questions. Then, provide practical strategies to help me take the first step, using a tone that is light, positive, and encouraging.”
Procrastination for High-Priority Tasks
High-priority tasks are those that truly move us toward our goals and visions. But even knowing their importance, we still procrastinate. There are three key reasons this might happen:
Misaligned Goals:
Sometimes, the goals we think we want aren’t deeply aligned with what we truly desire. If this resonates with you, check out episode 6, where I share prompts to help you clarify what you really want—not what you think you “should” want.Lack of Skills or Confidence:
We might avoid a task because we don’t yet have the skills or confidence to execute it. For this, you can explore episode 7, where I walk through prompts to help ChatGPT design a personalized curriculum for your learning style.Limiting Beliefs:
Subconscious beliefs can hold us back. Thoughts like “I’m too old to start,” or “What if I fail?” can feel like facts, but they’re just habits of thought. Bringing these beliefs to the surface is key to moving past them.
For high-priority tasks, I created another ChatGPT prompt:
“Your role is to act as a reflective guide, helping me explore the deeper emotional and psychological barriers behind a task I’m avoiding. Walk me through the following steps:
- Ask me to identify the reason I tell myself for why I’m not doing the task.
- Ask me what scares me about having the task completed.
- Ask me what traits I might subconsciously assign to people who do this task or achieve the goal I’m avoiding.
- Ask me what I fear I might become if I complete the task.
- Ask me what I believe I might lose by completing the task.
Once we’ve explored these questions, analyze the patterns in my answers and summarize the key insights. Then, guide the user to create and argue a case in defense of completing the task, helping them build a logical and emotional rationale for why it’s in my best interest to take action.
Before creating a motivational sentence, ask me about my personal values or a long-term goal related to this task. Use this information to craft a deeply meaningful and empowering quote that I can use as a reminder when procrastination strikes—something that resonates with the insights we’ve uncovered and encourages me to move forward.
Keep your tone empathetic, empowering, and encouraging throughout. If I seem stuck or hesitant, offer additional clarifying questions or break the process into smaller steps. Let me know it’s okay to revisit this process if procrastination returns.”
Having a motivational sentence that resonates deeply with you can be a game-changer. You can keep it visible—on your phone, desktop, or a sticky note—so it becomes a constant reminder of your goal.
I hope these prompts help you understand and overcome procrastination, whether it’s on low-priority or high-priority tasks. If you’d find it helpful to have all my prompts in one place, let me know in the comments or reach out to me.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this content, please like and subscribe. Let me know if there are topics you’d like me to cover or if there’s someone in your life who might benefit from this content—feel free to share it with them. Thanks for watching, and see you next time!