it's 2021 but the coronavirus is still here and is stopping many from achieving their
goals and it's not just because you can't travel it's all about procrastination i'm
not here to blame you for wasting time it's perfectly normal these are challenging times
and it's perfectly normal to get distracted and take your mind off the serious stuff for a while
but it's been a long time since it's all started and it's time to move on it's getting pretty
frustrating actually even procrastinating becomes boring after a while there are so many things that
you can start doing today to improve yourself and i'm not necessarily talking about money i'm
talking about a better version of your body and your mind instead you're on the sofa eating chips
and scrolling through useless instagram posts now here's the thing that most people won't tell
you strategies to help you end procrastination exist but there's no magical formula that will
make of you the most effective person alive so now let's look into some of these strategies
1. willpower the first thing you need to do is train your willpower the reason you can't seem
to start doing what you're supposed to be doing is you don't have enough willpower it's basically a
little fight between you and yourself who's going to win the productive side of you or the lazy one
every time the productive side wins you increase your willpower with time it will become easier and
easier to get yourself out of bed and start doing useful stuff so how do you improve your willpower
by doing things you don't want to do duh but instead of starting with a huge five hour task
you should start small the weaker the willpower the harder it will be to commit to big tasks if
your willpower isn't trained you should start with small missions for example instead of committing
to 5 hours of work commit to 10 minutes just tell yourself right i'll put my phone in that cookie
jar and for the next minutes i'm going to work after 10 minutes i can return to my instagram
if after 10 minutes you don't feel like working anymore you can stop
but you've achieved a little task well done so the next time you do this make it 15 minutes
then 20 then 30 then one hour with a 5 minute break after every 20 or 15 minutes and so on
see where i'm going with this there are other ways to train your willpower
for example you can use food if you eat a lot of useless things like cookies cake sweets and fast
food just stop that for one day just don't eat bad things for one day and boom willpower improved
one of the best ways to improve your willpower is to do extremely uncomfortable things
like a cold shower actually let's talk about cold showers two cold showers cold showers
are well known in the self-help world but very few people actually take them why because they're the
worst waking up in the morning and having to take an ice cold shower doesn't seem very attractive
but it's totally worth it cold showers have both physical and psychological benefits
this video is on procrastination so let's focus on psychological benefits cold showers refresh
your mind you have a lot of stuff on your mind and sometimes you feel stressed taking a cold
shower will take your mind off anything trust me you'll focus on the temperature once you step
under the cold water once that's done you'll feel fresh woken up and ready for anything
they improve your confidence you know what gives you a huge amount of confidence
success that's why having small successes on a daily basis can help you improve motivation and
confidence self-esteem can help you challenge the world every day taking a cold shower first
thing in the morning is a little success that will motivate you for the whole day don't believe me
try it from a procrastinating point of view it will help you dramatically with willpower and
motivation it's like when your pc doesn't work so you turn it off and on again and that's what
happens to your mind basically but how do you find the willpower to step under the cold water
well you count to three and you're in i'm going to explain why this works in a minute
first i have a little piece of advice for you many think that they can just gradually
decrease the temperature of the water but that's not as effective also when you're
about to go under the ice cold water breathe in very deep and brace yourself for a little shock
the three second rule there's a woman named mel robbins she's a motivational speaker and she
wrote the book the five second rule it's a very effective rule but i would like you to think of it
as a three second rule it's proven more effective for me and i think it will be the same for you
here's how it works whenever you have to do something you don't really think about it
you just do it you count to three and it's already too late to talk yourself out of it because you're
already doing it in the case of cold showers if you sit there and think about it your brain
will go oh well don't worry about it you can do it tomorrow you don't have to start today it's just
too much and there you go you're definitely not gonna do it because you're coming up with excuses
just take your clothes off count to three and get to it one two three you're in no worries
don't even think just one two three you're already under the cold water apply this to
your daily activities and after a while it will become such an effective tool that you'll even be
afraid to use it because you know that it will just work the reason why this works is simple
our brain is made to keep us all comfy it wants to avoid all risk all kinds of pain and work it
just wants to consume content relax all day and chill you know what i'm talking about
if you rationalize all your tasks you'll come up with excuses our brain is really really good
at coming up with them so trust me don't trust your brain 4. forgive yourself and start over
i'm actually surprised almost no one talks about how important this is if you feel sorry
for yourself and blame yourself for being lazy all the time you'll be in a negative state of
mind this will kill your motivation and ruin your productivity the first step is to recognize that
you are procrastinating don't be a child about it just acknowledge that you've been wasting
your time and move on say this to yourself oh i'm procrastinating right now i should probably stop
then you need to forgive yourself for all the time you've wasted it's in the past don't let it ruin
your future don't ignore your mistakes but use them to fuel your motivation start over a fresh
start is always a huge motivation combine this with cold showers and it's like rebooting your
life now a huge disclaimer don't let forgiving yourself become a reason to keep procrastinating
that's a consequence of using this irresponsibly if you do that it'll lose effectiveness and you'll
be even more stuck in the rut than you are now so be careful there 5. eliminate your distractions
like disease distractions are like disease they take over your life they might even act from
behind the curtains and while you think you're being productive you're actually just being busy
anything that isn't taking you closer to your goals is a waste of time and a distraction
i want you to think about this in a more strategic way it's easy to classify anything as productive
if you think like this well here's the thing i'm scrolling through social media and that's a waste
of time for most people but not for me because i occasionally find posts on business mindset so it
has to be useful see where i'm going with this so to avoid the issue you're not just going to take
action you're going to take massive action only these are the hardest activities that you really
don't want to do but that are taking you closer to your goal faster than all the others anything
that is not massive action is to be delegated or completely eliminated from your life delegating is
also a skill actually if you don't have money to delegate activities here's an alternative
six the seven day activity check for the next week starting with monday or sunday i want you to keep
an alarm every 30 minutes all the time except when you're sleeping obviously keep a notebook or use
your smartphone to take notes on this every 30 minutes write down what you've been doing
doesn't matter if you're in school eating working out you must do this after seven days you'll have
a huge list of activities and you have to take the time to go over all of them add up the time
and see how much time you spent doing what maybe you've spent 40 hours working 5 hours working out
50 hours sleeping and so on after you have all the activities you need to categorize them into three
buckets productive activities that are taking you closer to your goals if you don't have goals watch
our video on goal setting unproductive taking you away from your goal neutral things that
waste your time but aren't taking you closer or further away from the goals all unproductive and
neutral activities need to be eliminated if there are things that you just have to do like commuting
and eating turn them into something positive maybe you can listen to an audiobook while driving
reading a book while commuting by train instead of using your phone and so on 7.
burn all boats if you can't procrastinate you won't for example if you're a student and you
live with your parents move out if you're on your own and they aren't paying for your stuff
you have no choice but to work if you don't you'll have to live on the streets or live through the
humiliation of going back to your parents house conclusion all these strategies are highly
effective and they will help you if you actually apply them but here's a reminder you and only you
are the master of your time there's no magic trick to make things happen you really need to
understand that if you won't do something about it it will likely be like this forever there's never
an easy time to make a hard decision if working is difficult now it will also be difficult tomorrow
next week next month and next year nothing will magically fix your procrastination except for
discipline and practicing willpower thank you guys so much i hope you enjoyed this video
if you're new to the channel welcome and make sure you subscribe so you never miss
out on any of our videos with that said have a great day and i'll see you all in the next one