The 5 Step Trick That Makes Procrastination Impossible | Clutterbug Episode #345

Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast

Host Cass sits down with author Dana K. White to discuss a revolutionary five-step method for overcoming procrastination. Drawing from her s

Key takeaways

• Procrastination is often driven by emotional exhaustion and the fear of making too many decisions rather than laziness.
• Step one is 'purposeful looking,' which involves observing a situation without any commitment to take action.

Main topics

• Anti-procrastination 5-step process
• Overcoming decision fatigue

Notable quotes

You're not lazy, you just organize differently.

Conclusion

The episode offers a practical psychological toolkit for anyone feelin

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) Have you ever met someone and not Speaker 4 (0:02) liked them or judged them and Speaker 5 (0:05) then found out how very wrong you were? This is Crazy Pants. Today on the podcast, we are talking to literally one of my bestest friends who, when I first met her, was not a fan. In fact, I thought she was full of baloney. And I said so in nicer words to... her face. Because the first time I met this person, I flew to where she lived and we rented an Airbnb. And I was just like, well, I guess now we're working together, except I don't believe in anything you're saying. So Speaker 4 (0:45) you better convince me. And Speaker 5 (0:47) convince Speaker 4 (0:47) me she did. Speaker 3 (0:49) Today we are talking Speaker 5 (0:49) to the incredible Dana K. White. She is the author of many bestselling books, including Decluttering at the Speed of Life, which is like absolutely life-changing. She also is the co-host of Take Your House Back with me and Dawn from The Minimal Mom. We created a community. based on Dana's no mess decluttering method that helps hundreds of thousands, literally hundreds of thousands of people all over the world take back their home. And it's all because we follow Dana's method. Was I skeptical at first? Yep. Did she yell at me for cussing? Abso-frickin-lutely. We were not best friends. We were not even really liking each other. the first time we met. But now I'd take a bullet for that woman. So buckle up before we get started. Just like always, just like always, you're not allowed to just listen or watch. I want you to make yourself so proud and to celebrate Dana and her awesomeness. What I really want you to do is something so ridiculously easy, just so you can check it off. That could be throwing out the leftovers that are nasty and full of mold from your fridge without having to clean your entire fridge. That could be emptying your garbage cans around your home without having to clean the entire room. It could be literally putting away a load of laundry without Speaker 4 (2:20) having to fold it first. Like Speaker 5 (2:23) take some shortcuts, give yourself a break, do the easy stuff while you're listening and make progress and only. progress. Are you ready to learn something amazing about something we all struggle with, which is procrastination? Because Dana has found a system, created a system that can once and for all break you free of the procrastination cycle. So let's chat with Dana Speaker 4 (2:53) K. White. Speaker 5 (2:54) Welcome, Dana K. White, to the Clutterbug Podcast. Welcome back. Hi. Speaker 3 (2:58) Hi. Thanks for having me on again. This is really fun. Speaker 5 (3:01) Dana, you and I met like, what, seven years ago? Was it that long? Speaker 3 (3:06) Yes, I think it's almost exactly seven years ago. Speaker 5 (3:10) And Dawn from The Minimal Mom reached out to me and she said, I would love to do a course with you and Dana K. White. Will you like, we'll all fly. I think we went to Texas and filmed this together. And I didn't really even know what we were going to do. And I was like, sure, yeah, this sounds great. And then we got together and. Dawn was like, we're basing this on Dana's no mess method. And I went, well, that's never going to work because you're no mess method. I'm going to get distracted and I'm going to leave the, that doesn't work for me. I can't leave the room. I have ADHD and I've worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients and I've never done it this way. And I thought you were full of BS and, Speaker 2 (3:53) uh, sorry Speaker 5 (3:54) about that. Sorry, not sorry. I was like, this system sucks and I don't want to be part of it. But I flew to freaking Texas and here I am. And so I was skeptical. And I said to you that I was skeptical. Oh, yeah. And you were like, I'm just going to show you. And you took me in the other room in an Airbnb. And I pretended and we picked some random stuff. And we did your five-step no-mess method in real time. Speaker 5 (4:26) And I couldn't dispute it. Yeah. I Speaker 4 (4:29) was like, oh, Speaker 5 (4:31) this works. Still, Dana, I'm going to admit, still a little skeptical. And then I saw it work with literally hundreds of thousands of people. Stop the overwhelm. People who were hoarders. People who had lived their whole life in clutter to the ceiling followed your no mess method, which means there's no overwhelm. That's what you do that's so different. You never make a bigger mess. You're never feeling stressed. It's just... It's follow the steps. Stop overthinking. We Speaker 3 (5:08) count every bit of progress as success. Speaker 5 (5:12) And it works. And I now am a Dana K. White believer. So when you tell me, I've drank the Kool-Aid, girl. So when you tell me that you've came up with a five-step method for overcoming procrastination, I don't even have to hear it to know Speaker 3 (5:31) that Speaker 5 (5:31) it works. Speaker 3 (5:32) Well, it's based on the same concepts. It's based on counting every progress I can do anything and I will have made. progress. And Cass, I mean, I'm just so thankful for you because you Speaker 3 (5:50) It makes sense to me that the method would make sense to you because your heart and your gift is to see how unique we all are and how we need to be honored in how our brain works. This just happens to be how my brain works. I get easily overwhelmed at big stuff. And so your ability to say, hey. Like I love when you tell people you're not lazy, you just organize differently. Like that is such a gift that you give to people. And so I'm always very thankful for that. And that's why I feel very at ease talking with you because I know that your heart is to genuinely meet people where they actually are and to truly help them. Speaker 5 (6:33) I'm so excited to talk about your book because while I love talking with you, we've been working together, helping people declutter for years and years and years. But your new book, Procrastinators Get Stuff Done, it feels almost Speaker 4 (6:47) like a club. Speaker 5 (6:48) Like I love the title so much because I am such Speaker 4 (6:53) a procrastinator still Speaker 5 (6:54) even to this day. Do you identify as a procrastinator? I Speaker 3 (6:59) absolutely do. I do. That is the perspective this book is written from. The same way that I write everything I write. Like I don't know how to write something where I'm great at it and everybody else. needs to listen to me. I'm like, Hey, this is my struggle. This is what I've learned. And this is what actually works. Speaker 5 (7:20) Yeah. And you know what works when it comes to decluttering, because you took something that felt so overwhelming and you turned it into actual steps, like tangible steps that stop the overwhelm. And we have seen this work, you and your own business, but together with take your house back. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people are like, this is what works for me. And now you're doing the same thing with procrastination. Speaker 3 (7:48) Yeah. Yeah. I basically, I've been teaching decluttering probably 14 years. I started doing what I'm doing 17 years ago, but I didn't teach anything in the beginning. I was just trying to figure it out. And I took what I learned and in decluttering the speed of life, I made a process, a five-step process. I took all the things that I had learned about decluttering, put them into steps. And I saw, oh, there's so much power in having a step-by-step process that takes me from completely stuck to, okay, I'm done now. And I started to learn I started to see that the things I was doing in my decluttering process were changing how I thought about all sorts of situations, even non clutter situations. And so I was taking. the, the, the things that I knew worked and applying it elsewhere. And I started hearing from a lot of people who would tell me, Oh, I also have learned things through your decluttering process that I am now applying to other situations. So that's why I'm talking about procrastination. I've created a new five-step process that takes us from that so that you don't have to like, take the decluttering process and then like figure out how that applies. No, I've already done that, right? Like I've, I've said, this is how to approach any situation where you feel completely overwhelmed and stuck, how to get started, how to keep going and how to get all the way to the finish line. Speaker 5 (9:18) Okay. Is this going to work for, obviously this, you, you've going to nail it for like the decluttering and the mess, which my listeners will listen to. But what about the really hard stuff or. Or even the fun stuff. Like sometimes I feel like we procrastinate, not just things that are hard, but dreams. We procrastinate like even having fun. Why? Why? Have you really looked into or identified some of these root causes? Because as a procrastinator, I always told myself it was laziness, but I don't think that's true. Speaker 3 (9:58) I believe it's emotional exhaustion. I believe we are exhausted by the idea of making decisions because we've already got so many decisions that we have to make that it feels like. Speaker 3 (10:16) I want to do this thing or I have to do this thing, but it's going to be so many decisions. And so we don't do it. We don't get started because we think I need to know better what I'm doing first, or I need to learn more before I can ever get to that point. I need to figure this out first. Like you and I do very similar things. So you probably have received the emails that I completely relate to. From so many people who say, I want to, you know, tell me exactly how this is going to end. Tell me exactly how long this is going to take. And also for people who will tell me I have made a plan. Maybe they've watched every single video of both of ours and they have listened to every single podcast and they have read every single book and they are trying to write out a plan before they ever actually take action. Speaker 5 (11:13) And all of that Speaker 3 (11:15) is based on not really knowing because they haven't gotten in there and experienced anything. And so step four of my five-step anti-procrastination process is make a plan. Step four. Where it feels like it's supposed to be step one. Everybody does it step one. Yes. And yet. Speaker 3 (11:37) There are a lot of things that I can do that don't require any decisions whatsoever that will actually get me started. And if I, so my first three steps are decision-free steps, just like in my decluttering process. Okay. But the experience that I gain from those steps and the, the. I can chip away a lot of this overwhelming project that I've been looking at from way over here. And this just grows and grows and grows. And I think I don't know how to get from there to there. So instead, I chip away at that. And by doing the decision-free steps, I can get to about right here. Now I understand what I'm dealing with. Now the project itself is so much smaller because I've already done a lot of things. without making a single decision. And by the time I make a plan, I'm ready. Like I know how to make this plan because I am in it. I'm not just looking at it as this thing down the road that continues to grow and grow and grow more overwhelming. Speaker 5 (12:44) You've already taken some steps which feel like success. Oh, this is a good day now. Okay, before we get into the steps, and I'm really hoping you share them with us. Absolutely. I want to talk. I really want my listeners to think about their own life because we all procrastinate things that suck. Okay. But I feel like there's also procrastination that sometimes can be even more devastating. Yes. Putting off the dishes is going to make it harder to clean tomorrow. It's putting off decluttering is going to make it harder. But I'm thinking about my mom who has a handle on her home. She's doing really well, but. Every time I talk to her, she tells me about her dream that she's been going to do someday. She wants to travel the world. When I was really little, she would say, oh, we're going to go on a family vacation. I want to travel. Maybe when you're done elementary school. And then it was maybe, you know, when you once you start high school and then it turned into maybe one day when I'm done the home renovations or maybe after I retire. And then even after she retired, it's. When the yard work's done, when I'm done, it's always, and yet, this is like her life dream, she'll be 73 and has not yet traveled the world. what is going on? And more importantly, what's a step that someone can take when they're feeling stuck, no matter what they're procrastinating? Are you saying these steps work, no matter if it's a dream, or the yard work? Absolutely. Or the pile? It does. It Speaker 3 (14:22) does. So I give, I teach the five step process, and then I apply it to three different situations. One of them is refinancing your mortgage, right? Like this is something that I know I should do. But also, I don't know how to do that. And it's overwhelming and it feels put off a bowl, but then I'm also regretting that I've put it off because what if the break, you know, all these different things. One of them is starting a small business. One of Speaker 2 (14:47) them is making a friend. Speaker 3 (14:51) So we're talking about something that's aspirational, starting a small business, something that I really have to do the, you know, refinancing my house, but then also something that's highly emotional. of making a friend because loneliness is a real thing and it can be such a daunting thing. Like you see the friendship that I want down the road. This is the ideal that I have right now. Speaker 2 (15:22) I'm so lonely. Speaker 3 (15:26) that this going from here to here, I don't know how to get there. So instead we have the process. So step one of my five-step anti-procrastination process is going to sound familiar to you because it's based on what I learned decluttering and teaching people to declutter and dealing with every roadblock that people face. Okay. And that is step one is look non-committal. looking with no attachment of action. It's actually an action to look, to purposefully look at not research, okay, not gather more information. Instead, look at your situation. So like in your mom's situation, what would that mean? That would mean that going and finding her passport and finding out when it expires. is a legitimate step that she has taken. Now she knows because as long as you're thinking, this is my dream. You think, do I have a passport? Is it expired? How long did those last? I don't know. How do you get a passport? I've heard it's a big deal. I like all of these things. Do I, do I even know where my birth certificate is that, you know, all these things. I think this is what's involved. I don't know how much it costs. I don't know how much time is worth it. Like, are we