126. How to Stop Doing Things Last Minute: 5 Tips to Take Control
Are you tired of the stress and anxiety that comes with procrastination? In this episode, I'm sharing five powerful tips to help you break free from the cycle of last-minute work and take control of your time.
As interior designers, we often juggle multiple projects and deadlines, making it easy to fall into the trap of putting things off until the eleventh hour. But this habit can lead to unnecessary stress, careless mistakes, and even damage to our professional reputation. It's time to make a change.
Join me as I dive into the mindset shifts and practical strategies you need to stop doing things last minute. From dropping the self-judgment to finding intrinsic motivation, these tips will help you become more proactive, efficient, and calm in your work. Get ready to transform your relationship with deadlines and experience the freedom of getting things done in advance.
If you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching waitlist! Click here to learn more about Design to Thrive and secure your spot to be the first to know when availability opens up.
Don't miss out on the Midwest Design Retreat from May 5th to May 7th, 2025! We're diving into key topics like pricing for profitability, vendor relationships, client experience, and much more—plus, I'll be sharing insights on the mental and emotional side of running your design business. Click here for all the details, and feel free to reach out with any questions.
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
Why self-compassion is key to overcoming procrastination and last-minute work.
How to review your week and month ahead to stay on top of upcoming tasks and deadlines.
The power of breaking down tasks into mini results and working backward on your calendar.
Why finding intrinsic motivation is crucial for consistent action and progress.
How to address the part of you that enjoys the feeling of last-minute pressure.
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122. 3 Game-Changing Routines Every Interior Design CEO Needs
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey, designer, you're listening to episode 126. And this one I'm talking all about how to stop doing things at the last minute, which is also another way of saying how to stop procrastinating. It's a common challenge for the designers I work with. And it's also something you can definitely overcome if this is you.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place. I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to be here with you as always. It's finally a sunny day and I'm so excited. And I also get to leave soon after I record this podcast to go meet up with Jennifer Davis. She is an incredible designer that I've gotten to know here in the Twin Cities. And she's also the founder of the Midwest Design Retreat, a three day in-person design retreat that is happening this spring, early May at the Hewing Hotel, which is this really beautiful place downtown, it's in a cool neighborhood, and I'm gonna be a part of it along with Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors, Kate O'Hara of O'Hara Interiors and Katie Kath of Jkath Build, all of which who have made a big mark in the design industry for the design work that their firms are putting out, but are also smart, intelligent business women who are really so generous with the knowledge they've gained over their years in the industry.
So this Midwest design retreat, I want to make sure it's on your radar. We're going to be talking about so many great topics, pricing for profitability, creating and maintaining vendor and trade relationships, client experience, PR and marketing, efficient systems and processes, brand strategy, and of course, with yours truly, we're also gonna be talking about the mental and emotional component of running your interior design business.
If this is something that is piquing your interest, I want you to head over to https://midwestdesignretreat.com and you can get all of the details on this event. And of course, if you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out to me. And if you forget the Midwest Design Retreat URL, you can always go to https://desicresswell.com/resources. If you're ever wondering where something is that I mentioned on the show, go over to the website, it'll be either in the show notes for the podcast or otherwise on that resource tab.
Today, what I want to talk to you about is how to stop doing things last minute. We're going to talk about five things specifically you can do to get on top of those things that always get done at the final hour. And I think number five is especially important. It is a game changer. And I don't think I've ever heard anyone else talk about it this way or address it. And so I wanna make sure that you stay on for number five specifically.
I think we can really all relate to the struggle of at some point in our lives, maybe it's right now, maybe it's been for years of doing things last minute. I know this used to be a huge struggle of mine. It was probably one of the main reasons I lived off Venti Starbucks and Diet Mountain Dew, and often both of them in the same day when I was earning my design degree. But unhealthy habits aside, it is something that I want you to know is something that you can definitely overcome. Just because you're in the habit of doing things last minute, you do not need to do that all the time or forever. You can make that change.
And the reason why I'm bringing this topic in particular today is because it was brought to me by one of my private clients. This particular client was talking about planning his week and how to stop doing the planning last minute. Mapping out the week, scheduling the major to-dos and deadlines. Really, that is all in a place now where it's pretty dialed in, it's working really well for him, except, and this is what he brought to our call, he wanted to do the planning more in advance of what he had been doing it.
What was happening was he was pushing off the planning of his week until about Tuesday at some point during the day Tuesday, it would happen. So he was still making the plan, the plan was supporting him from Tuesday onward. And he recognized that it would be more helpful for him to do this planning on a Friday, or by the end of the day, Sunday, somewhere in that time range.
I'll return to this example. But before we dive in, I want to have you do a quick check on what's coming up for you when you think about doing things last minute. It's always important to ask, is it actually a problem if this thing is last minute?
Last minute really has an air of judgment to it, but really all that last minute is, is it's just you doing something at the latest possible time before it's due or the event, or you have to turn it in. We don't want to make something a problem if it's not actually an issue. I can think of things that I do last minute and it's not causing any issue for me. And last minute isn't even how I think about it. It's just like, well, this is just when I do it. And it's close to when the time comes where it has to be done. But it's not a problem for me. So check in with yourself. If you're judging yourself for something that isn't actually needing to be a problem.
Last minute could be reframed as on time. It didn't need to get done until now, and now I'm doing it, no problem. Now, my guess is that if you're listening to this, some aspect of taking action at the last moment possible is causing you some troubles. Whether that's your emotional experience with stress, frustration, anxiety, and or there's a tangible negative outcome as a result of this last minute pattern. Maybe you're making careless mistakes, you're late on deadlines, clients aren't sure what they can expect from you, so on and so on.
And in the case where I was talking about my client earlier, this last minute piece was definitely causing a bit of a problem. Now, his week starts to go significantly better, and he's more productive and more focused once the plan is done. So it's amazing progress that the plan is happening, and it's supporting him from Tuesday onward. And he could recognize, and I can see too, of course, that if the plan isn't done until the end of the day Tuesday or even just Tuesday morning, there's a certain amount of the week that has been a little haphazard or kind of winging it. Not ideal. So it makes sense to work on creating this change.
One other note that I want to make before we dive into those five ways to stop doing things at the last minute is that you do need to check your capacity and commitments. If you're overextended, meaning that you have more that you're committed to doing than you actually have time for based on your work hours, you're overcapacity.
And if that is true, you're just inevitably going to be doing things at the final hour, simply because you're probably rushing and scrambling and frantic. And solving for being over committed and over capacity really is that first priority to solve for. I did an entire episode way back at the start of the podcast. If you go to episode four, it's titled Client Capacity. And I talk a little bit more about that concept there. And that could be a great place to start.
What I want to focus on today is more when you're consistently finding yourself pushing things off to the point where you've pushed it off as far as you can. It's like pushing and inching closer to the ledge and then you actually have to do the thing. So we're gonna be addressing how do you stop putting things off until the last minute and get things done in advance so that you can reduce your stress because last-minute work creates unnecessary stress. Calmly approach your workday and stop working on nights and weekends because often when we're pushing off tasks repeatedly they fall into the overflow which tends to be your nights and weekends, and that is no fun.
For you, putting things off to the last minute might fall in the bucket of planning. Like my client was describing, it might be sending out invoices. For another client I've coached on this, it was signing off on final design packages. It might be presentations you're putting together or even just leaving the office at the last minute for an appointment you have to drive to. Think of some examples for yourself so that you have them in mind as we dive into how to move up your timeline so that you can stop doing things last minute and start being more proactive and getting things done in advance.
When it comes to this topic, and maybe this is always with how I approach things. It's very much a combination of mindset and emotional tools paired with practical time management strategies. And that is where I'll be coming from as we go into these five things. The very first thing you have to do is drop the judgment about doing things last minute. Something is due or you want it to be completed at a certain date and time. That is it. You complete the task at a date and time. That is it. Keep it factual and bland when you are talking about these things, especially as you are in the process of changing this behavior.
There's actually a lot of research on how self-compassion supports your productivity and self-judgment hinders it. Our behaviors are always there for a reason. I wanna remind you of that. Even if on the surface level, it might seem that putting off a task until the last minute is like clearly not a good idea, there's always a reason that you're doing it. And so often it's a coping mechanism for perfectionism, right, because when it's last minute, you're forced to just do it, perfect or not. Or maybe you're feeling really burned out and need some rest that you haven't allowed yourself to take so you're trying to cope by giving yourself this faux rest of putting things off but not really taking off.
Think about for a minute why you might be putting things off to the last minute. Like what's below the, oh I just don't feel like doing it or I'm busy? What's below that? And have some compassion for yourself and the wish, the need, the desire that you're trying to fulfill in a way that's not necessarily useful, but your brain thinks is helpful.
I really wanna remind you as we move into these various steps that when there's something you wanna change, you do not need to do it from a place of shame, blame and judgment. Because when we have those emotions around whatever it is that we're doing and want to change, we often want to hide from the problem, even more because of the negative emotions we pile on top. And if you're hiding from the problem, you can't understand the root issue and solve for it permanently.
That's number one, you're working on dropping the judgment and understanding yourself and having kindness towards yourself and the misguided intentions behind the behavior.
The second thing that's gonna support you in not doing things last minute is simply to review your week ahead or your month ahead, likely both. If you haven't listened to episode 122, 3 Game-Changing CEO Routines. I dive into this a little bit more, but this one is pretty self-explanatory. Look ahead, see what's coming up. Sometimes things end up being last minute simply because they weren't on your radar. You were so heads down in what you were doing that day or even still caught up in last week and what didn't get done that you haven't thought to look ahead.
When you review what's to come on a consistent basis, you will find things that you just forgot about, or maybe something has changed, and now a priority needs to be shifted, and you just hadn't had the time or intentionality behind making those shifts. And then once you spot those things that you forgot about, you can put them on your calendar. You have to plan for what you want to be done. You can't hope it's going to get done, guess that it'll get done in the future. If you want to stop doing things last minute, you have to make a plan.
I love to put things that are important to me on my calendar so that I have that visual reminder and also just a cue to myself. Oh yeah, that's happening. I personally have a very difficult time holding things in my head. I think a lot of us do. And I don't recommend that you use your brain as a post-it note or some kind of calendar. Just put it on the calendar and you can even set yourself some reminders if you need to. But decide what's a realistic timeframe and deadline for yourself. You want to set yourself up to succeed.
So often last minute things happen because of wishful planning or perfectionistic planning of well, If this goes exactly this way, and in this order, and this happens, and this happens, and this happens, then I'll be able to get to that at that time. So no, you want to be realistic, because realistic planning is going to help you right size your capacity, which is going to help you do things on time and in advance.
The third thing you can do to stop doing things last minute is break down your tasks into many results and work your calendar backward. Right? So the second tip that I gave you was looking ahead. And now what we're going to do is we're going to work backwards. Often when I see clients putting things off into the last minute, it is because the thing that they're saying they have to do feels really big. It feels hard. It feels like it's going to take forever, it feels vague in terms of they're not exactly sure what the thing is even or where they need to get started. And so our brains get overwhelmed and shut down and figure out, I'll just deal with that later, right? Because our brains are designed to be efficient and expend as little energy as possible.
So if you give it something that is undefined or very big that there's no way it could be possibly done in one go. It's just going to dismiss it, and it's going to get pushed off repeatedly. It's going to reject anything that feels too hard, like too much time or not possible. And that's when you delay. This is why starting small and breaking down those bigger objectives into the tiny mini results is how you can get in front of yourself.
You want to figure out what are all the small steps, those mini results, And you're going to want to also look at when do I want to have this done? That's another roadblock around last minute is we often don't even set the deadline for ourselves or aren't very concrete with when we want it to be done. And so then it does get done last minute because we didn't even know what the deadline is.
So break it down and then figure out the date that you want it to be done, or you want to do the thing, and then work backwards on your calendar. And you can start to map out those small individual mini results, putting them on your calendar so that you can incrementally make progress.
I love to do it this way because it's a method for giving yourself a circumstance, both with the overall timeline and the individual tasks where it's easier to believe I can do this and this is doable. Of course, when you believe I can do this, this is doable, it's easier to get started and you're less likely to put it off.
Let's move on to number four. This is really important. You have to do number four. If you're doing all the planning things, you've tried putting it on your calendar, giving yourself a false deadline, giving yourself a real deadline, da da da da da, whatever, right, and you haven't done number four and you're still doing it last minute, this is why.
You have to find the intrinsic motivation versus the extrinsic motivation. So often I hear from clients, I'll do it if it's for someone else. That someone else is often a client and being accountable to someone else is an extrinsic motivator. You're doing the thing on time. You're doing it for a reward doled out by someone else.
That might be money, praise, accolades, or to avoid punishment or unwanted outcomes like the clients mad and tells all their friends or you're gonna feel shame if you don't deliver and nobody likes to feel shame. Now extrinsic motivation can work right? It's why a lot of people have trainers at the gym. They know they're going to go work out because there's somebody that they've paid to be there at a certain day and time and they will show up for them instead of making it about showing up for themselves.
I'm not completely against having somebody else hold you accountable. But that strategy definitely will fall short. And if you only rely on extrinsic motivation, and if you believe that you can only do something in advance or not put it off. If there's someone else involved, you're going to stay in the pattern of last minute action.
There is so much that you must do as an interior design business CEO that nobody is checking on for you. There's no one giving you an A for doing it or a gold star. There's no one saying, hey, you didn't do that, what happened? You're in trouble. So you have to develop intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is when we're doing something for our own reward. It's a feeling that we create for ourselves. We're doing it because it matters to us, because it's important to us, because it's pleasurable, enjoyable. It serves our goals.
Often when you're putting things off into the last minute, it's because it's something you don't want to do. You find it boring, you think it's tedious or difficult. And at this point in the game, your brain has forgotten why you thought it was a good idea in the first place. You've forgotten why you do want to do the thing for your own benefit.
So this is twofold. It's like, why do I even want to do this thing I said would be helpful for my business? And then also, why do I want to do it in advance and give myself plenty of time. Choosing to do something in advance because it serves you and your goals is a very different energy than doing something when you're pressed against the wall, wanting to avoid the consequences.
And that is really the difference between the intrinsic motivation that I'm suggesting you work on developing versus the extrinsic motivation, which is just simply relying on other people to hold you accountable. As the designer CEO, it is your job to actively remind yourself of why you want to do the thing, why it's important to you, to you, why you want to do it now, not later, and really develop the ability to amplify that voice that is encouraging you to do the thing in the timeline that would not cause unnecessary stress over that whiny part of your brain that's telling you to drag your feet and put it off to the last minute.
You can talk to yourself. Tell yourself how doing the thing early and in advance helps you get more of what you want. Ask yourself what is enjoyable about this process and think about how good it will feel when it's done. Picture your future self and imagine the pride, the accomplishment, the forward momentum that you will have created once this thing is done and it'll help you get in action sooner. If you want to hear more on motivation, check out episode 16 titled How to Stay Motivated.
Here's number five. Like I said, this is one that is so overlooked and also so impactful. If this is the case for you. The fifth way you can stop doing things at the last minute is to get to know the part of yourself who enjoys the feeling of last minute.
Now you might be thinking, "No no no Desi, I hate feeling rushed and frantic. What are you talking about that I enjoy the feeling of last minute?" Now I'm not going to lay an absolute here. It could be true that maybe you really, really, truly do not like that feeling and there's no part of you that does. But it could also be true that there's a part of you who likes the urgency, the excitement and the heroism of swooping in at the final hour. And we want to get to know this part.
Going all the way back to number one, no judgment here. And just get honest with yourself about this. You can look at yourself with fascination because if there is a piece of you that enjoys the internal intensity of last minute work or a part of you that believes that you work well under pressure, which is never true. You must get to know this part and address it.
This is also an opportunity to check in with yourself and see, am I just more comfortable with stress and pressure because it's what is familiar, whether that's because of past life circumstances where things were often in survival mode, or you've just gotten used to working that way. And so in that way, you enjoy the feeling of last minute, right? We enjoy what feels comfortable.
And once you're clear on, oh yeah, there is this part of me that really actually does kind of get into that or get some kind of high off this. Then we need to look at how you actually don't like it. We need to retrain your brain.
As I was thinking about this, one of the analogies that came to mind was around like eating your favorite decadent dessert, or maybe like your favorite snack foods, maybe cookies or chips or cake. And in the moment, right, your taste buds are like more, more, more. I want all of it. I want all of it. I want all of it. I don't want to stop." And in that moment, you're falsely having pleasure, right?
The cookies or the chips or whatever it is, they do taste really good for those first few bites, but then the taste really starts to diminish, but your brain keeps telling you it's something amazing. And even though your brain's telling you that, like if you actually stop to tune in with your body, you might start to notice, yeah, this doesn't taste very good. I don't want any more. My stomach is feeling kind of bloated and uncomfortable.
Your brain sending out false signals of pleasure, but it's a false reward. And the same thing is true here of, oh yeah, that excitement or that rush of doing something last minute can feel like this, ooh, this pump of adrenaline and I kind of want more of it. And we unintentionally create it for ourselves.
But if we slow down and we take a step back, we can see, oh yeah, like there is that heightened emotional state, but we're mistaking that for something we enjoy and we actually don't really enjoy it. And we need to show ourselves that we need to show ourselves that disconnect in order to start to break it.
You can also ask yourself some great questions around this as well. Like how is doing things last minute actually really not serving me?
This is a great question if you're one of those people who thinks you work well under pressure. You can also reflect on how this really hasn't been a good thing in the past. What have been my past experience and outcomes of doing things last minute that I don't want to repeat?
I've got a bonus tip here for you, but let me just recap the ones we've already gone over. So number one is drop the judgment. Number two, review the week and month ahead. Number three, break down your tasks into mini results and work backward on your calendar. Number four, find the intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation. Number five, get in touch with the part of you who actually enjoys the feeling of last minute.
Now here's the bonus one. Celebrate along the way as you're making this change. This is a habit you're shifting and these are probably patterns you practice for a very long time. And so it might take some time, actually, I would bet it's gonna take some time to unwind and set a new direction, a new way of being.
So one of the ways that you can help yourself start doing things more in advance is to notice and celebrate every time you do it ahead of schedule. Even if you still delay, maybe you delayed less. And that is something to congratulate yourself for. That is progress. Tell yourself good job and remind yourself you're learning and on your way to making this change.
When you get in the routine of no longer putting things off to the last minute, you just feel so much more organized and settled and on top of things. Your days feel more calm. And if you have a team, this last minuteness is definitely affecting them. And so it's going to impact your team dynamic as well. And if you're becoming the bottleneck because of the last minuteness, that is going to be a huge win.
It's also gonna allow you to stick to those designated work hours, and you're gonna be more efficient and profitable because you're not dilly-dallying around with those non-essentials you're using as an avoidance tactic. The benefits really are endless when you start to be proactive with your work instead of procrastinating and waiting until the last minute. I know you like know that, but you might not really know it if you catch what I'm saying. There's a difference. And so I want you to start practicing what I've shared today so that you can start to really embody this and start to feel the benefit for yourself.
I'd love to know what you're taking away from this episode, which of the steps you're gonna try out this week. And before we sign off, I want to encourage you to leave a rating and review for the podcast or share your favorite episode with a friend. This really is the top way that you can help me spread the word about the podcast and get these concepts in front of more interior designers so that we can shift the way that designers are working in their business into a more sustainable, fulfilling, and profitable approach.
The other thing I'll leave you with is if you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching wait list. You can head over to https://desicreswell.com/coaching. That's where you can learn all about Design to Thrive, private coaching partnerships, and get your name on the wait list so that you're the first to know when a spot becomes available.
I'll be back next Wednesday with a brand new episode and until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week’s episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit www.desicreswell.com where you'll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you're hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I'll talk to you next week.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place. I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to be here with you as always. It's finally a sunny day and I'm so excited. And I also get to leave soon after I record this podcast to go meet up with Jennifer Davis. She is an incredible designer that I've gotten to know here in the Twin Cities. And she's also the founder of the Midwest Design Retreat, a three day in-person design retreat that is happening this spring, early May at the Hewing Hotel, which is this really beautiful place downtown, it's in a cool neighborhood, and I'm gonna be a part of it along with Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors, Kate O'Hara of O'Hara Interiors and Katie Kath of Jkath Build, all of which who have made a big mark in the design industry for the design work that their firms are putting out, but are also smart, intelligent business women who are really so generous with the knowledge they've gained over their years in the industry.
So this Midwest design retreat, I want to make sure it's on your radar. We're going to be talking about so many great topics, pricing for profitability, creating and maintaining vendor and trade relationships, client experience, PR and marketing, efficient systems and processes, brand strategy, and of course, with yours truly, we're also gonna be talking about the mental and emotional component of running your interior design business.
If this is something that is piquing your interest, I want you to head over to https://midwestdesignretreat.com and you can get all of the details on this event. And of course, if you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out to me. And if you forget the Midwest Design Retreat URL, you can always go to https://desicresswell.com/resources. If you're ever wondering where something is that I mentioned on the show, go over to the website, it'll be either in the show notes for the podcast or otherwise on that resource tab.
Today, what I want to talk to you about is how to stop doing things last minute. We're going to talk about five things specifically you can do to get on top of those things that always get done at the final hour. And I think number five is especially important. It is a game changer. And I don't think I've ever heard anyone else talk about it this way or address it. And so I wanna make sure that you stay on for number five specifically.
I think we can really all relate to the struggle of at some point in our lives, maybe it's right now, maybe it's been for years of doing things last minute. I know this used to be a huge struggle of mine. It was probably one of the main reasons I lived off Venti Starbucks and Diet Mountain Dew, and often both of them in the same day when I was earning my design degree. But unhealthy habits aside, it is something that I want you to know is something that you can definitely overcome. Just because you're in the habit of doing things last minute, you do not need to do that all the time or forever. You can make that change.
And the reason why I'm bringing this topic in particular today is because it was brought to me by one of my private clients. This particular client was talking about planning his week and how to stop doing the planning last minute. Mapping out the week, scheduling the major to-dos and deadlines. Really, that is all in a place now where it's pretty dialed in, it's working really well for him, except, and this is what he brought to our call, he wanted to do the planning more in advance of what he had been doing it.
What was happening was he was pushing off the planning of his week until about Tuesday at some point during the day Tuesday, it would happen. So he was still making the plan, the plan was supporting him from Tuesday onward. And he recognized that it would be more helpful for him to do this planning on a Friday, or by the end of the day, Sunday, somewhere in that time range.
I'll return to this example. But before we dive in, I want to have you do a quick check on what's coming up for you when you think about doing things last minute. It's always important to ask, is it actually a problem if this thing is last minute?
Last minute really has an air of judgment to it, but really all that last minute is, is it's just you doing something at the latest possible time before it's due or the event, or you have to turn it in. We don't want to make something a problem if it's not actually an issue. I can think of things that I do last minute and it's not causing any issue for me. And last minute isn't even how I think about it. It's just like, well, this is just when I do it. And it's close to when the time comes where it has to be done. But it's not a problem for me. So check in with yourself. If you're judging yourself for something that isn't actually needing to be a problem.
Last minute could be reframed as on time. It didn't need to get done until now, and now I'm doing it, no problem. Now, my guess is that if you're listening to this, some aspect of taking action at the last moment possible is causing you some troubles. Whether that's your emotional experience with stress, frustration, anxiety, and or there's a tangible negative outcome as a result of this last minute pattern. Maybe you're making careless mistakes, you're late on deadlines, clients aren't sure what they can expect from you, so on and so on.
And in the case where I was talking about my client earlier, this last minute piece was definitely causing a bit of a problem. Now, his week starts to go significantly better, and he's more productive and more focused once the plan is done. So it's amazing progress that the plan is happening, and it's supporting him from Tuesday onward. And he could recognize, and I can see too, of course, that if the plan isn't done until the end of the day Tuesday or even just Tuesday morning, there's a certain amount of the week that has been a little haphazard or kind of winging it. Not ideal. So it makes sense to work on creating this change.
One other note that I want to make before we dive into those five ways to stop doing things at the last minute is that you do need to check your capacity and commitments. If you're overextended, meaning that you have more that you're committed to doing than you actually have time for based on your work hours, you're overcapacity.
And if that is true, you're just inevitably going to be doing things at the final hour, simply because you're probably rushing and scrambling and frantic. And solving for being over committed and over capacity really is that first priority to solve for. I did an entire episode way back at the start of the podcast. If you go to episode four, it's titled Client Capacity. And I talk a little bit more about that concept there. And that could be a great place to start.
What I want to focus on today is more when you're consistently finding yourself pushing things off to the point where you've pushed it off as far as you can. It's like pushing and inching closer to the ledge and then you actually have to do the thing. So we're gonna be addressing how do you stop putting things off until the last minute and get things done in advance so that you can reduce your stress because last-minute work creates unnecessary stress. Calmly approach your workday and stop working on nights and weekends because often when we're pushing off tasks repeatedly they fall into the overflow which tends to be your nights and weekends, and that is no fun.
For you, putting things off to the last minute might fall in the bucket of planning. Like my client was describing, it might be sending out invoices. For another client I've coached on this, it was signing off on final design packages. It might be presentations you're putting together or even just leaving the office at the last minute for an appointment you have to drive to. Think of some examples for yourself so that you have them in mind as we dive into how to move up your timeline so that you can stop doing things last minute and start being more proactive and getting things done in advance.
When it comes to this topic, and maybe this is always with how I approach things. It's very much a combination of mindset and emotional tools paired with practical time management strategies. And that is where I'll be coming from as we go into these five things. The very first thing you have to do is drop the judgment about doing things last minute. Something is due or you want it to be completed at a certain date and time. That is it. You complete the task at a date and time. That is it. Keep it factual and bland when you are talking about these things, especially as you are in the process of changing this behavior.
There's actually a lot of research on how self-compassion supports your productivity and self-judgment hinders it. Our behaviors are always there for a reason. I wanna remind you of that. Even if on the surface level, it might seem that putting off a task until the last minute is like clearly not a good idea, there's always a reason that you're doing it. And so often it's a coping mechanism for perfectionism, right, because when it's last minute, you're forced to just do it, perfect or not. Or maybe you're feeling really burned out and need some rest that you haven't allowed yourself to take so you're trying to cope by giving yourself this faux rest of putting things off but not really taking off.
Think about for a minute why you might be putting things off to the last minute. Like what's below the, oh I just don't feel like doing it or I'm busy? What's below that? And have some compassion for yourself and the wish, the need, the desire that you're trying to fulfill in a way that's not necessarily useful, but your brain thinks is helpful.
I really wanna remind you as we move into these various steps that when there's something you wanna change, you do not need to do it from a place of shame, blame and judgment. Because when we have those emotions around whatever it is that we're doing and want to change, we often want to hide from the problem, even more because of the negative emotions we pile on top. And if you're hiding from the problem, you can't understand the root issue and solve for it permanently.
That's number one, you're working on dropping the judgment and understanding yourself and having kindness towards yourself and the misguided intentions behind the behavior.
The second thing that's gonna support you in not doing things last minute is simply to review your week ahead or your month ahead, likely both. If you haven't listened to episode 122, 3 Game-Changing CEO Routines. I dive into this a little bit more, but this one is pretty self-explanatory. Look ahead, see what's coming up. Sometimes things end up being last minute simply because they weren't on your radar. You were so heads down in what you were doing that day or even still caught up in last week and what didn't get done that you haven't thought to look ahead.
When you review what's to come on a consistent basis, you will find things that you just forgot about, or maybe something has changed, and now a priority needs to be shifted, and you just hadn't had the time or intentionality behind making those shifts. And then once you spot those things that you forgot about, you can put them on your calendar. You have to plan for what you want to be done. You can't hope it's going to get done, guess that it'll get done in the future. If you want to stop doing things last minute, you have to make a plan.
I love to put things that are important to me on my calendar so that I have that visual reminder and also just a cue to myself. Oh yeah, that's happening. I personally have a very difficult time holding things in my head. I think a lot of us do. And I don't recommend that you use your brain as a post-it note or some kind of calendar. Just put it on the calendar and you can even set yourself some reminders if you need to. But decide what's a realistic timeframe and deadline for yourself. You want to set yourself up to succeed.
So often last minute things happen because of wishful planning or perfectionistic planning of well, If this goes exactly this way, and in this order, and this happens, and this happens, and this happens, then I'll be able to get to that at that time. So no, you want to be realistic, because realistic planning is going to help you right size your capacity, which is going to help you do things on time and in advance.
The third thing you can do to stop doing things last minute is break down your tasks into many results and work your calendar backward. Right? So the second tip that I gave you was looking ahead. And now what we're going to do is we're going to work backwards. Often when I see clients putting things off into the last minute, it is because the thing that they're saying they have to do feels really big. It feels hard. It feels like it's going to take forever, it feels vague in terms of they're not exactly sure what the thing is even or where they need to get started. And so our brains get overwhelmed and shut down and figure out, I'll just deal with that later, right? Because our brains are designed to be efficient and expend as little energy as possible.
So if you give it something that is undefined or very big that there's no way it could be possibly done in one go. It's just going to dismiss it, and it's going to get pushed off repeatedly. It's going to reject anything that feels too hard, like too much time or not possible. And that's when you delay. This is why starting small and breaking down those bigger objectives into the tiny mini results is how you can get in front of yourself.
You want to figure out what are all the small steps, those mini results, And you're going to want to also look at when do I want to have this done? That's another roadblock around last minute is we often don't even set the deadline for ourselves or aren't very concrete with when we want it to be done. And so then it does get done last minute because we didn't even know what the deadline is.
So break it down and then figure out the date that you want it to be done, or you want to do the thing, and then work backwards on your calendar. And you can start to map out those small individual mini results, putting them on your calendar so that you can incrementally make progress.
I love to do it this way because it's a method for giving yourself a circumstance, both with the overall timeline and the individual tasks where it's easier to believe I can do this and this is doable. Of course, when you believe I can do this, this is doable, it's easier to get started and you're less likely to put it off.
Let's move on to number four. This is really important. You have to do number four. If you're doing all the planning things, you've tried putting it on your calendar, giving yourself a false deadline, giving yourself a real deadline, da da da da da, whatever, right, and you haven't done number four and you're still doing it last minute, this is why.
You have to find the intrinsic motivation versus the extrinsic motivation. So often I hear from clients, I'll do it if it's for someone else. That someone else is often a client and being accountable to someone else is an extrinsic motivator. You're doing the thing on time. You're doing it for a reward doled out by someone else.
That might be money, praise, accolades, or to avoid punishment or unwanted outcomes like the clients mad and tells all their friends or you're gonna feel shame if you don't deliver and nobody likes to feel shame. Now extrinsic motivation can work right? It's why a lot of people have trainers at the gym. They know they're going to go work out because there's somebody that they've paid to be there at a certain day and time and they will show up for them instead of making it about showing up for themselves.
I'm not completely against having somebody else hold you accountable. But that strategy definitely will fall short. And if you only rely on extrinsic motivation, and if you believe that you can only do something in advance or not put it off. If there's someone else involved, you're going to stay in the pattern of last minute action.
There is so much that you must do as an interior design business CEO that nobody is checking on for you. There's no one giving you an A for doing it or a gold star. There's no one saying, hey, you didn't do that, what happened? You're in trouble. So you have to develop intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is when we're doing something for our own reward. It's a feeling that we create for ourselves. We're doing it because it matters to us, because it's important to us, because it's pleasurable, enjoyable. It serves our goals.
Often when you're putting things off into the last minute, it's because it's something you don't want to do. You find it boring, you think it's tedious or difficult. And at this point in the game, your brain has forgotten why you thought it was a good idea in the first place. You've forgotten why you do want to do the thing for your own benefit.
So this is twofold. It's like, why do I even want to do this thing I said would be helpful for my business? And then also, why do I want to do it in advance and give myself plenty of time. Choosing to do something in advance because it serves you and your goals is a very different energy than doing something when you're pressed against the wall, wanting to avoid the consequences.
And that is really the difference between the intrinsic motivation that I'm suggesting you work on developing versus the extrinsic motivation, which is just simply relying on other people to hold you accountable. As the designer CEO, it is your job to actively remind yourself of why you want to do the thing, why it's important to you, to you, why you want to do it now, not later, and really develop the ability to amplify that voice that is encouraging you to do the thing in the timeline that would not cause unnecessary stress over that whiny part of your brain that's telling you to drag your feet and put it off to the last minute.
You can talk to yourself. Tell yourself how doing the thing early and in advance helps you get more of what you want. Ask yourself what is enjoyable about this process and think about how good it will feel when it's done. Picture your future self and imagine the pride, the accomplishment, the forward momentum that you will have created once this thing is done and it'll help you get in action sooner. If you want to hear more on motivation, check out episode 16 titled How to Stay Motivated.
Here's number five. Like I said, this is one that is so overlooked and also so impactful. If this is the case for you. The fifth way you can stop doing things at the last minute is to get to know the part of yourself who enjoys the feeling of last minute.
Now you might be thinking, "No no no Desi, I hate feeling rushed and frantic. What are you talking about that I enjoy the feeling of last minute?" Now I'm not going to lay an absolute here. It could be true that maybe you really, really, truly do not like that feeling and there's no part of you that does. But it could also be true that there's a part of you who likes the urgency, the excitement and the heroism of swooping in at the final hour. And we want to get to know this part.
Going all the way back to number one, no judgment here. And just get honest with yourself about this. You can look at yourself with fascination because if there is a piece of you that enjoys the internal intensity of last minute work or a part of you that believes that you work well under pressure, which is never true. You must get to know this part and address it.
This is also an opportunity to check in with yourself and see, am I just more comfortable with stress and pressure because it's what is familiar, whether that's because of past life circumstances where things were often in survival mode, or you've just gotten used to working that way. And so in that way, you enjoy the feeling of last minute, right? We enjoy what feels comfortable.
And once you're clear on, oh yeah, there is this part of me that really actually does kind of get into that or get some kind of high off this. Then we need to look at how you actually don't like it. We need to retrain your brain.
As I was thinking about this, one of the analogies that came to mind was around like eating your favorite decadent dessert, or maybe like your favorite snack foods, maybe cookies or chips or cake. And in the moment, right, your taste buds are like more, more, more. I want all of it. I want all of it. I want all of it. I don't want to stop." And in that moment, you're falsely having pleasure, right?
The cookies or the chips or whatever it is, they do taste really good for those first few bites, but then the taste really starts to diminish, but your brain keeps telling you it's something amazing. And even though your brain's telling you that, like if you actually stop to tune in with your body, you might start to notice, yeah, this doesn't taste very good. I don't want any more. My stomach is feeling kind of bloated and uncomfortable.
Your brain sending out false signals of pleasure, but it's a false reward. And the same thing is true here of, oh yeah, that excitement or that rush of doing something last minute can feel like this, ooh, this pump of adrenaline and I kind of want more of it. And we unintentionally create it for ourselves.
But if we slow down and we take a step back, we can see, oh yeah, like there is that heightened emotional state, but we're mistaking that for something we enjoy and we actually don't really enjoy it. And we need to show ourselves that we need to show ourselves that disconnect in order to start to break it.
You can also ask yourself some great questions around this as well. Like how is doing things last minute actually really not serving me?
This is a great question if you're one of those people who thinks you work well under pressure. You can also reflect on how this really hasn't been a good thing in the past. What have been my past experience and outcomes of doing things last minute that I don't want to repeat?
I've got a bonus tip here for you, but let me just recap the ones we've already gone over. So number one is drop the judgment. Number two, review the week and month ahead. Number three, break down your tasks into mini results and work backward on your calendar. Number four, find the intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation. Number five, get in touch with the part of you who actually enjoys the feeling of last minute.
Now here's the bonus one. Celebrate along the way as you're making this change. This is a habit you're shifting and these are probably patterns you practice for a very long time. And so it might take some time, actually, I would bet it's gonna take some time to unwind and set a new direction, a new way of being.
So one of the ways that you can help yourself start doing things more in advance is to notice and celebrate every time you do it ahead of schedule. Even if you still delay, maybe you delayed less. And that is something to congratulate yourself for. That is progress. Tell yourself good job and remind yourself you're learning and on your way to making this change.
When you get in the routine of no longer putting things off to the last minute, you just feel so much more organized and settled and on top of things. Your days feel more calm. And if you have a team, this last minuteness is definitely affecting them. And so it's going to impact your team dynamic as well. And if you're becoming the bottleneck because of the last minuteness, that is going to be a huge win.
It's also gonna allow you to stick to those designated work hours, and you're gonna be more efficient and profitable because you're not dilly-dallying around with those non-essentials you're using as an avoidance tactic. The benefits really are endless when you start to be proactive with your work instead of procrastinating and waiting until the last minute. I know you like know that, but you might not really know it if you catch what I'm saying. There's a difference. And so I want you to start practicing what I've shared today so that you can start to really embody this and start to feel the benefit for yourself.
I'd love to know what you're taking away from this episode, which of the steps you're gonna try out this week. And before we sign off, I want to encourage you to leave a rating and review for the podcast or share your favorite episode with a friend. This really is the top way that you can help me spread the word about the podcast and get these concepts in front of more interior designers so that we can shift the way that designers are working in their business into a more sustainable, fulfilling, and profitable approach.
The other thing I'll leave you with is if you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching wait list. You can head over to https://desicreswell.com/coaching. That's where you can learn all about Design to Thrive, private coaching partnerships, and get your name on the wait list so that you're the first to know when a spot becomes available.
I'll be back next Wednesday with a brand new episode and until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week’s episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit www.desicreswell.com where you'll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you're hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I'll talk to you next week.
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