(ding)
Hey everybody, it's that time of year
when many of you have finals, or projects for work coming up,
and so today we're going to talk about
five ways to overcome procrastination.
*intro music*
And before we even get into
ways to overcome procrastination
I want you to kind of understand
where procrastination can come from.
And if any of you don't even know
what procrastination means,
it really just means
putting something off, or
waiting till the last minute
to complete a task.
And, they estimate that procrastination
can occur for many reasons.
One of which, is if we grew up
in a parenting style that was authoritative,
like "you have to do this,
you have to do it now," and
so we procrastinate as a form of rebellion.
Another, is fear of failure:
"Well, if I don't really even try,
then, you know, I really can't fail,
if I never put any effort in,
if it doesn't work out,
it's not my fault."
And the third reason could just be
lack of motivation overall,
or even knowing where we're even headed,
a lot of students that I work with
that struggle with procrastination, feel
like they don't really have goals, or
things that they know they're working towards,
therefore, they just put things off, cause
they're like, "I don't even know if this
is important to me, I don't even know
if I really care about this," and that can
leave us stuck, and I'll link an article
in the description because I read a really
interesting article in Psychology Today
about it, and that's what sparked the whole
idea for this video, but there are actually
three types of procrastinators.
And the first is "arousal type."
And that is someone who loves that
euphoric high and the rush of like adrenaline
and everything, pumping through our bodies
when we try to complete something up to
the very last second.
The second type is the "I'm not responsible
type," if I don't add it in my two-cents
or do anything, then I can't really be
responsible for the outcome.
The third type, is the one that we already
kind of talked about, and the fear
of failure.
That if I don't even put any effort in,
then, I didn't even really try, so you know,
it's not on me, if I really tried I totally
could've nailed it, I would've got 100%,
but because I didn't try, it doesn't matter.
(Brrrrrring) Ok, well now we know that we
procrastinate, so what do we do about it?
And here are the five tips to overcome it.
And the first is, figuring out what triggers
it. A lot of times we don't even know
why we're procrastinating, or what has
happened to make us want to keep
putting it off, so figure out what's going on
in your life, or things that have happened maybe
in the past, or currently occurring,
that are causing us to want to put all of
this work off.
The second way to overcome it
is not mixing areas. (ding) I've talked
about this when it comes to sleep,
but when we do work where we're supposed
to sleep, and we sleep where we're supposed to
do work, then it can be really hard for
our brain and our body to get into it,
snap into work mode when we usually take
naps here, or this is actually our bedroom
and where we sleep. So make sure you
designate areas for your studying, and for
working, and designate other areas for
eating, sleeping, etc.
The third thing is something that I
constantly am aware of is not making to-do
lists that are longer than seven items.
(ding) Also, breaking down larger items
into smaller, achievable tasks. If we put
"Finish Project" and that's our one item, that,
we're never gonna get past that, that's gonna
feel overwhelming and we may stop before
we even start.
The fourth tip is, take breaks every 45
minutes. (ding) For some, it might be even
30 minutes. We know statistically, that on
average people can only stay focused for
45 minutes, so make sure your working in break
time, and giving yourself at least a good 10,
15 minutes of downtime so that you can come back and
stay focused, because we find when we push through
past that 45 minute zone, we're actually
not as productive as we were previously,
so it actually pays, to take breaks.
The fifth and final way to overcome procrastnation
is reward progress. (ding) No matter how
small, we do best when we reward ourselves
for finishing a task and completing something.
Make sure that you're taking time to reward
all the things you got done today. Even if
it was only two items, those are two items
more than you would've done if you did
nothing at all.
(Brrrring!) If you find procrastination
taking over your life, and it's extremely
difficult for you to get anything done, we
find CBT to be the best possible therapy-
based treatment, but also structured
life-coaching has helped many of my clients
overcome the urge to procrastinate.
Procrastination is such a common issue,
so please share this video, especially
this time of year, when everything's
coming to an end whether we have tests or
projects at work, there are so many people
that are going to benefit from these tips.
So please share, please click the subscribe
if you haven't, if you're new to my channel,
I put out videos twice a week, and you don't
want to miss them, and I will see you next time.
BYE!