Stop Procrastination Now

John P.

John P.

System Buster
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Jan 19, 2015
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Now since is the orientation room and all the newbies hang around in here for a while i just wanted to put this out for all the newbies/pro's cause we all have procrastination problems :smile:
And we all know how bad that is so i just wanted to share some things with you guys to stop you from procrastination.So here we go :

Maybe you are afraid of working hard, or of saying no to distractions. Your lizard brain told you that you’ll be more comfortable by not doing the tasks you should be doing.
But instead, you’ve been feeling guilty day. You weren’t able to enjoy the other things you’ve been doing instead of work.

Knowing how to defeat procrastination is really important, for both getting more stuff done, and being present and enjoying the non-work activities.
Un-procrastinating is more fun than you think. You just have to learn how to take 1-step out of your comfort zone. It’s a 1 tiny, super easy, step.

Let’s say you have to do an important task now, here’s how to do it, immediately:

1) Clear distractions: Shut down all the other browser tabs, put your phone on silent mode, etc.

2) Prepare the tools you need to get started. For example, if you’re writing a blogpost, login to WordPress and open the “Add New Post” page. If you’re studying, just open the book.

3) Decide to do just the first little part of it. Even if it’s a 30-seconds process. Just start!

4) The rest will flow.

Now just go ahead and try it. These are just some notes i have saved on my PC. I do have lots of those so everytime i feel i fuck around and don't do shit i just open one of these notes and get my ass motivated.

Hope you guys like it
 
First!

If you're reading my post, you failed. You're still procrastinating. Get back to work.
 
John P. said:
You weren’t able to enjoy the other things you’ve been doing instead of work.
Click to expand...

This is really reason enough to not procrastinate, for me. If I don't do what I'm supposed to do, I can't even relax when that's what I'm trying to do instead of work.

The concept of "Hurdle Help," which means to help someone get past the initial task of getting started, works for ourselves too. If you can muster up enough will power to start the first step, no matter how small, it tends to keep flowing after that.

Time-boxing is great too, as we all know with Pomodoro's. Anything can be done for just... 15 mins, 25 mins. 10 mins.
 
Procrastination happens when you cannot link the short term downsides with the long term benefits. It's 100% a mental issue. If you are in bitch-mode about it, just work for 2 minutes minimum over and over again. It'll get you started.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Time-boxing is great too, as we all know with Pomodoro's. Anything can be done for just... 15 mins, 25 mins. 10 mins.
Click to expand...

I really need to get into the Pomodoro's thing :smile: I heard about it a few years back and now i seem to pop into it everywhere i go.I guess its time to give it a go then.
 
One of the biggest mistakes people make with procrastination is assuming it's an issue of pure willpower. I mean this in the sense that people believe you either have the willpower to do something or you don't, and nothing can change it if you don't. This is insidious in the sense that people who have trouble with procrastination will use it to form a worldview along the lines of "well I just don't have the willpower to do X, Y and Z, so I have to be a loser."

In reality, procrastination is largely about tactical and strategic considerations that maximize your chances of success instead of just relying on the willpower perspective. Most people start with a tactical, "trick-based" approach that typically focuses on the short-term. Examples:
  • Leaving your house to work at a coffee shop or other location
  • Having a friend or significant other bitch at you if you don't have X done by Y time
  • Setting your alarm clock across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off
  • Making sure that you have the things in front of you that you need to get started (eg: have your to-do list automatically run on your computer each morning at a certain time before you get up)
You can think of these tactics as an external solution. While they can be effective, they're largely about giving yourself a short-term boost. This is where most people start (and stop) with trying to actively manage their procrastination.

The problem with something like this is that it relies completely on external factors. If you get snowed in and can't leave the house that day, then you can't rely on going somewhere else to work. If your friend or significant other doesn't bitch at you, then that won't work. If your to-do list doesn't run for some reason, then it won't do you much good. This isn't to say that you shouldn't use these types of things or that they can't be extremely helpful, but it shouldn't be the only way that you work on changing your procrastination.

This is why we should also use a more strategic, long-term approach that is about building habits and changing how our thought processes work. This will put us in a situation where we can do the things our rational mind wants us to do without needing some huge abundance of willpower because doing these tasks will seem effortless even when we're grinding. I've found that a lot of people develop useful habits by accident, but purposefully designing and creating these changes seems to be some pretty powerful stuff.

When I've tried to design these systems to create change in myself automatically, I've found a few thematic pitfalls that have screwed me up until I realized what was happening. I'll give a few of these potential pitfalls here, and to give it some context, I'll use the example of someone wanting to do push-ups when they wake up each morning. Here's the basic process I follow:
  1. When and where? It has to happen right after I wake up. Since I take a shower each morning, I'd probably decide that doing them in the bathroom before hopping in the shower would be good for location. It's a pretty big deal to start off by figuring out a time and place that makes sense so that you minimize resistance and maximize the chances of forming an actual habit.
  2. Reminding Myself - I need something to remind myself to do the push-ups so that I don't legitimately forget about it. From step 1, I already know that this reminder should be in the bathroom. This could be as easy as printing out a piece of paper that says, "Do the damn push-ups." Note that sometimes your reminder system might force you to go back and change the time and/or place. For example, if you live with other people who might think a piece of paper taped to the bathroom wall is weird, then you'd need to do them in your bedroom with a reminder taped on the wall instead.
  3. Automating the Reminder - A key component of the reminder is that you want to be able to "set it and forget it" for the long run. The piece of paper in the bathroom is a good example of something like that, but there are plenty of other ways to go about this. It's really important though because one of my biggest pitfalls in putting together this type of system has been my reminder not reminding me and me simply forgetting about what it was I wanted to do (eg: forgetting to do the push-ups in the morning before I shower).
  4. Recording Progress - You want to record your progress somewhere so that you have accountability and motivation to continue with building your habit. I also think that this helps with the habit-building process in general because it has you thinking more about the task at hand and building more neural pathways, etc. You also want to be able to look back and see that you really are making an effective change. With the push-ups example, we could have a calendar with the date on it hanging with our reminder (or combined with the reminder). Then we could write in the number of push-ups we did each day. For the push-ups example, we might even decide to do a couple more push-ups each week (10/day on week one, 12/day on week two, 14/day on week three) or whatever, but that kind of growth is outside of the scope of what I'm talking about here.
Anyway, that ended up being a bit more long-winded than I intended.
 
I think procrastination is somewhat inevitable for everyone. It's chronic procrastination that's the problem... When you let things get so out of control that you start to feel helpless. I'm technically procrastinating right now by typing this message, but I know that at the end of the night I'd have gotten all the important shit done. It's important to be able to recognize when enough is enough.
 
For me it`s sometimes hard to make difference when I procrastinate and when not.

For example, some while ago I decided to make a content writing day. Writing 5-6 high quality article in one day to schedule it for a month instead of writing 1 piece of content whenever needed and post immediately like I have done before. After 3 articles I was bit overwhelmed and I felt like quality was dropping with each next article. So I decided to do other tasks for the rest of the day and resume writing article other day when my mind is "fresh" again.

The question is was the article quality really dropping or was it just my mind trying to talk me out of the hard work.

It is quite difficult to get a clear view on some aspects because my mind often acts as distraction and tells me stories that seem to mislead from actually accomplishing goals and tasks. Half the time I don´t even notice it, but I seem to be getting better at it day-by-day.
 
Procrastination is usually anxiety related. You don't know what to do next or the next step is something you think will be really hard for you to do. You know the drill.

According to a study from 2011 same neurons fire for physical and mental pain. Very recent study indicates that over-the-counter medication can also help with mental pain. So basically any pain killer like aspirin, tylenol etc. will help you to overcome mental pain. The subjects who had very hard math problem in front of them did way better if they took aspirin before trying to solve the problem.

So one could say that next time you find yourself procrastinating, try to take some aspirin and see if it helps.

Please note that I'm not a doctor and I just happen to know these things because a doctor friend of mine told me about this a while ago.
 
The pomodoro technique really helped me to stay focused. However, I still lack discipline to execute on it :/
 
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