If you keep procrastinating, try this instead

January and February are supposed to be the planning months.
The months when things finally click. Where you set the direction and start moving.

For me, they’re often the opposite.

These are the months when I procrastinate the most. Not because I’m lazy, but because I’m overwhelmed by everything I’ve already decided I should be doing. The plans are clear. The intentions are there. And still, I find myself avoiding the very things I said mattered.

For a long time, I told myself this was a motivation problem. That I just needed to push harder, be more disciplined, stop making excuses. But the more honest I am with myself, the clearer it becomes: if I keep struggling in the same places every year, the problem isn’t effort.

It’s the way I’ve set things up.

So instead of asking myself why I’m not following through, I’ve started asking a different question: what about my current setup makes finishing hard and avoiding easy?

That’s what I’ve been working on this month.

I’ve realised something uncomfortable about myself.

When I keep procrastinating the same things, it’s usually not because I don’t care. It’s because I care too much and don’t know where to start, so I avoid it instead.

I sit there knowing exactly what I planned to do. I’ve written the list. I’ve made the decision. And still, nothing moves.

That’s when I finally stopped asking myself why I was being lazy or undisciplined.

And started admitting the truth:
The way I’ve set things up makes starting feel heavy.

If something feels hard to begin every single time, it’s not a personal flaw. It’s a signal that the system around it needs changing.

That’s the shift I’m making right now.

What finally clicked for me is that the week isn’t the time to be deciding what to do.
If I’m still deciding during the week, I’m already making things harder than they need to be.

So this is how I’m setting things up now.

1. I time-block the week once, on Sunday, and that’s it.
On Sunday, I sit down and plan the week ahead. Not perfectly and not optimistically. I look at the week I actually have, school runs, work, energy dips, real life, and I decide what fits and when.

Once it’s in the calendar, the decision is made. During the week, I’m not planning again. I’m not reshuffling unless something genuinely urgent comes up. This alone removes a lot of resistance, because I’m not asking myself what I should be doing every day.

2. Every block has a clear outcome, not a vague intention.
I’ve noticed that anything vague gets avoided.

So instead of writing “work on X,” I write something that ends in a finish. An email sent. A draft completed. A specific task wrapped up. That way, when the block arrives, I’m not thinking about where to start. I already know what “done” looks like.

3. During the week, I don’t renegotiate with myself.
This has been a big shift.

If I start asking myself whether I feel like doing something, or whether I should move it, nothing gets done. So unless there’s a real reason, I stick to what Sunday-me decided. Sunday-me was calm and clear. Midweek-me is often tired. I trust the version of me who planned the week more than the version of me who wants to avoid it.

4. If something keeps getting pushed, I treat it as information.
When the same task gets moved more than once, I don’t force it anymore.

I stop and ask why. Usually, it’s because the task is too big, badly timed, or not actually a priority right now. I adjust the task or the timing instead of adding pressure or guilt.

5. On Friday, I do a short check-in.
Nothing formal. No long review.

I just ask myself three things: what did I finish, what kept getting pushed, and what made things easier than usual. I don’t fix anything on Friday. I just take notes for Sunday, so the system gets a little better each week.

That’s it.

I’m not trying to eliminate procrastination or become more disciplined.
I’m just trying to make finishing feel normal.

This is what’s helping me right now, and I hope it helps you too. 🙂

A few weeks ago, I shared a short book about my weight loss and health journey, and the identity shift that made it possible.

Not the routines or the rules, but the internal changes that had to happen for me to stop cycling and start moving forward. I’m mentioning it here for anyone new, or anyone who wants to understand the deeper work behind sustainable change.

I’ve been writing these pieces in the quiet, between school runs, work, and late-night thinking, but I’ve started sharing more of the journey in real time too. The reflections, the systems, the messier parts of reinvention that never make it into the newsletter.

If you want to follow along, you’ll find me here:

LinkedIn
Instagram
Website: orgesameli.com

Come say hi. It’s less about followers, more about finding the others who are doing the invisible work too.

If something in this email made you pause, think, or feel seen, send it to a friend who’s been quietly trying to make a change, too.
You never know what might land at the right moment. Link here.