How to Break Procrastination

There’s probably something you’ve been putting off. It might be a difficult conversation, starting a project, sorting out your finances, getting back to the gym, applying for a new job, or simply dealing with an annoying task that has somehow been sitting on your list for three weeks.

You know you need to do it, and you may genuinely want to do it, but for some reason you keep not doing it. The longer you leave it, the bigger it seems to become.

When this happens, our usual response is to assume we need to try harder. We tell ourselves to stop being lazy, have more discipline or just get on with it. Sometimes that little push is enough, but often it isn’t. Telling yourself to “just do it” doesn’t help you understand why you’re not doing it in the first place.

At Accountability Club, we’ve developed a simple tool to use when you notice yourself falling into this pattern. We call it the N.F.E. Technique: Name It, Feel It, Make It Executable.

It isn’t intended to explain every reason why people procrastinate. It’s a practical tool you can apply in the moment, when you catch yourself repeatedly putting something off. Instead of fighting with yourself, you work through three areas to see where the gap might be.

Procrastination isn’t always about motivation

One of the problems with procrastination is how quickly we turn it into a judgement about ourselves. If I’ve been putting something off for a week, I must lack discipline. If I really wanted it badly enough, surely I’d have done it already.

Research suggests procrastination is more complicated than that. Psychologist Piers Steel’s large meta-analysis of procrastination research found several factors associated with procrastination, including how unpleasant we find a task, how far away the reward is, our confidence in our ability to complete it and our susceptibility to distraction.

This doesn’t mean there’s always some deep psychological reason behind putting off the washing-up. Sometimes we really do just need to get on with something. But when you notice the same task or goal repeatedly being pushed into tomorrow, it’s worth getting curious about what’s happening rather than immediately reaching for more willpower.

That’s what N.F.E. is designed to help you do.

Name It: What am I actually putting off?

The first part sounds almost too simple: What am I actually putting off?

Imagine you’ve had “sort out my finances” sitting on your list for the last month. You know what that means in a general sense, but what are you actually procrastinating over? Do you need to review your spending, cancel subscriptions, create a budget, call your accountant, pay a bill, or finally open the letter that’s been sitting on the kitchen counter?

“Sort out my finances” describes a problem, but it doesn’t necessarily name the thing you’re avoiding.

We see the same thing with goals all the time. People tell us they need to work on their business, get healthier, sort out the house or find a new job. These statements feel specific because we know roughly what we mean by them, but they can hide the actual thing we’re procrastinating over.

Take “I need to find a new job”. Perhaps the thing you’ve actually been putting off is updating your CV. But maybe you’ve already done that. When you think about it properly, you realise the thing you’ve been avoiding is sending your CV to the recruiter you spoke to last week.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

This is something we see repeatedly in our workshops and Accountability Pods. Vague goals tend to produce vague actions, and vague actions are incredibly easy to push into tomorrow.

So when you catch yourself procrastinating, don’t ask yourself what you should be working on. Ask yourself, what, specifically, am I putting off?

Feel It: What do I actually want to experience?

Once you’ve named what you’re putting off, the second part of N.F.E. asks a different kind of question: What do I actually want to feel or experience as a result of doing this?

This isn’t simply asking why the goal matters. It’s about connecting the thing you’re avoiding with the experience you’re hoping to create.

Let’s go back to the finances example. The obvious outcome might be having a budget or knowing where your money is going. But what do you actually want from that? Perhaps you want to feel in control. Maybe you want security, calm, or simply to be able to look at your bank account without feeling a knot in your stomach.

The same applies to health. You might say you want to lose weight, but perhaps what you really want is to feel strong, energetic and capable. You might want to run around with your children without getting exhausted or feel comfortable in your clothes again.

At work or in business, you might be procrastinating over launching something. The thing you really want could be momentum, confidence, freedom or relief.

There isn’t a correct answer. What matters is reconnecting the action you’re avoiding with an experience that actually matters to you.

Sometimes it’s also helpful to look in the opposite direction and ask what you’re ready to move away from. It could be stress, uncertainty, embarrassment, feeling stuck, or simply having the same unfinished task hanging over you every day.

When something has been sitting on a to-do list for long enough, it’s easy for it to become detached from the reason we wanted to do it in the first place. All we see is the effort involved. Feel It is about restoring that connection.

Make It Executable: Can I actually do the next step?

The final part is where we get very practical. You’ve named what you’re putting off and you’ve reconnected with what you want to experience. Now ask yourself: What’s the next action I’m genuinely ready and able to take?

The important word here is action.

“Work on my website” isn’t really an action. Neither is “get healthier”. Even something that sounds more practical, such as “research gyms”, might still leave you sitting in front of your computer wondering exactly what you’re supposed to do.

So we test the next step.

First, is it actually an action? Second, do you have what you need to do it? Third, do you know how to begin? Then there’s another question I particularly like: What happens when I imagine beginning?

Don’t imagine completing the goal. Imagine physically starting the action. You open the laptop, pick up the phone or walk towards whatever you need to do. What happens?

You might suddenly realise, “I don’t know where that document is”, or “I need to speak to Sarah first”. Maybe you don’t actually know how to do the task, you need some figures from last month, or you haven’t made a decision that needs to happen before you can proceed.

That’s useful information. The thing you thought was your next action wasn’t actually your next action at all. Something needs to happen first.

So make that the next action.

This idea also has some interesting support in behavioural research. Research on what psychologists call implementation intentions has found that people are more likely to translate intentions into action when they make the intended behaviour more concrete, particularly by specifying when, where or how they will act. You don’t need to turn your life into a complicated productivity system, but reducing the distance between “I need to do this” and a clear action you can actually start can make a meaningful difference.

Putting N.F.E. into practice

Imagine you’ve been saying for two weeks, “I need to finish my presentation”, but every day you find something else to do instead.

Start with Name It. What are you actually putting off? Perhaps it’s not finishing the presentation at all. You haven’t even created the first draft yet, so that’s what you’re really avoiding.

Then Feel It. What do you want to experience as a result of getting this done? You might want to feel prepared for the meeting, confident about what you’re going to say and relieved that the presentation is finally underway.

Finally, Make It Executable. What’s the next action you’re genuinely ready and able to take? Your first answer might be “create the presentation”, but when you imagine actually beginning, you realise you don’t know how you want to structure it.

So perhaps the real next action is much smaller: open a blank document and write down the five things you want the audience to remember.

That is something you can execute.

And that’s really what we’re looking for with N.F.E. We’re not trying to find a clever way to force ourselves through every task. We’re looking for the gap.

Sometimes the gap is in Name It. You thought you knew what you needed to do, but what you had was still too vague.

Sometimes it’s Feel It. You’ve been telling yourself you should do something, but you’ve become completely disconnected from why you care about it.

And sometimes it’s Make It Executable. You want the outcome and you know exactly what you’re putting off, but the next action isn’t actually ready to happen. You’re missing information, need to make a decision, need something from somebody else, or the action is simply still too big.

Try it on something you’ve been putting off

Think about something you’re currently procrastinating over. Not something you vaguely hope to do one day, but something you know you’ve been actively avoiding.

Start by asking, what am I actually putting off? Keep going until you’ve named something specific.

Then ask, what do I actually want to feel or experience as a result of doing this? Think about what you’re moving towards and, if it’s useful, what you’re ready to move away from.

Finally ask, what’s the next action I’m genuinely ready and able to take? Check that it’s actually an action, that you have what you need and that you know how to begin. Imagine yourself starting it. If you immediately discover that something else needs to happen first, you’ve probably just found your real next step.

Then there’s one final part that matters: decide when your next realistic opportunity is to do it.

Not the perfect time. Not “sometime this week”. Your next realistic opportunity.

Procrastination can easily become a battle with ourselves. We put something off, feel bad about putting it off, promise ourselves we’ll definitely do it tomorrow, then repeat the whole process when tomorrow arrives.

The next time you notice that happening, try something different.

Name It. Feel It. Make It Executable.

Instead of asking yourself why you can’t just get on with it, get curious about where the gap is. You don’t need to solve the entire goal today. You just need to get clear enough to take the next step.

And sometimes that’s all it takes to break the procrastination pattern.

The N.F.E. Technique was developed by Accountability Club as a practical tool for breaking procrastination patterns.