I help chronic procrastinators design their own way out.
I'm Sam Watson, a procrastination coach in Sydney.
I'm a former industrial designer and chronic procrastinator. For 20 years I thought I was lazy. Now I happily work 7 days a week doing things I love.
Where it started
I procrastinated impressively at my very first opportunity. I was 8, and our first ever homework was an "About Me" poster. I was really excited about it, because I quite liked myself and I loved arts and crafts. I liked myself somewhat less when I was the last one to turn mine in, days late.
Then came nine years of never doing my maths homework, and lying to the teacher about it.
After I graduated, I spent months with no job, running from job and PhD applications, until it got so overwhelming I was having panic attacks.
The turning point
I had always thought I was lazy. Then I realised there were heaps of things in my life I'd worked really hard on. There must be some other explanation.
Procrastination is the strategy of using distraction to escape pain. When that clicked, I stopped blaming myself, and the biggest pain I wanted to avoid, my own shame about laziness, disappeared as well.
Design is what I know, so I designed a system for dealing with procrastination (so I'm barely even a life coach). From there it was test and iterate, over and over.
What I do now
Along the way, I accidentally ended up as a procrastination coach. I help people who struggle so much to get things done that it's become a huge problem in their day-to-day lives. It was my problem too, for a very long time.
My goal for every client is to walk with them until they get to the place where they're excited to wake up in the morning.
What I believe
Procrastination isn't laziness. It's a signpost. It isn't a moral issue, it isn't a question of worth, it really just isn't that deep.
Design works on the human mind too. By going back to a problem over and over, adjusting how we approach it each time, our response to it becomes more and more effective.
You're the expert on your own procrastination. If you approach it like a scientist, curious and unjudgmental, you will definitely overcome it.
You never lack motivation. Motivation is always there. The only question is where it's pointing.
Where to start
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Want help with your own procrastination?
Start Journey Want to hear from people I've worked with? Read their stories.
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For organisers and teams
Sam Watson is a procrastination coach in Sydney. With a background in industrial design and a lifelong procrastination problem, he turned design back on himself to find a way out. Through coaching and social media, he now helps others do the same, challenging common understandings of motivation along the way.