[Music]
hi everyone welcome back to lavendaire
it's aileen
today's video is on how to beat
procrastination and get your work done
so before i begin make sure you're
subscribed and you click that bell to
get notified of all my new videos
so first off if you want to learn how to
beat procrastination you have to see it
for what it is
resistance so resistance is something
that steven pressfield talks about in
the book
the war of art and it basically is a
word
that means the thing that keeps you from
doing your work there's always this
resistance
that you want to get this work done but
for some reason you avoid it at all
costs
for some reason you find yourself
deciding to do something else
checking instagram checking facebook
eating something out of your fridge
and that is because that work is
so important that you're scared to do it
so whether it's like an important school
project or a personal project that means
a lot to you
you're probably gonna feel some
resistance there that causes you to
procrastinate
for example i feel resistance when i
have to tackle like a big
long-term project like my artist of life
workbook
so my workbook is like something that
i've been thinking about the entire year
i've known that i had to redesign it
but it just took me so long to like sit
down
and be able to focus so many times i
tried to sit down and then i'd get
distracted
or i would procrastinate but these
couple weeks i really had to like lock
myself down and finish it because i set
this
due date for myself and i was like no i
must get it done by this time
so there are some pretty good techniques
that helped me buckle down and get my
work done
and i'm gonna share them today the short
and easy answer to
beating procrastination is to take
action and i know that's like super
simple and you're like
duh but it's incredibly difficult to
take action so
how do we do it my best advice on how to
get yourself
started on taking action is to look at
what you have to do
and ask yourself what is the smallest
easiest next step that i can take
towards this goal
so make it like so easy so
simple that it takes one second to do it
break it down as small as you can so for
example if your big project is to write
like
a huge research paper then maybe that
easy small step is to open up your word
document
or type the date type your name
type that first word like really break
it down
into like the easiest easiest task ever
and start there once you've like opened
the tab once you've
written your word ask yourself that same
question again okay
now what is the next easiest step that i
could take
towards this goal so you'll find that
once you've taken like a baby step
you can take the next baby step and the
next one and the next one
and if you keep doing that you'll build
momentum and then you're going to find
yourself in flow and you're going to be
working on the thing that you've been
procrastinating on
so i do realize that it can be pretty
painful and difficult
to take action even if it's just baby
steps so another strategy that's helped
me
is to set like a time deadline for
myself
meaning like i'll tell myself i'll only
work on this project for the next
30 minutes or the next hour and i'll
just look at the time if it's like eight
o'clock okay i'll be like
nine o'clock i'm done just do my best
take the baby steps and work on this
but you know do it for an hour and by
the time it's nine like i can let myself
go
so setting that time gives me like a
space to work
in and usually what happens is when i
get to the end of my time
i have built the momentum by taking
those baby steps and i'm like in flow
so i usually want to keep working and
that's something that is
really really useful so if you don't
feel like working on your project
just give yourself like a baby amount of
time like i'm only gonna work on this
for 15 minutes or 30 minutes
and if that's all you can do then then
that's it you know that's great but
usually most likely you're probably
gonna want to continue working longer so
the goal here is to be able to reach
your flow state your flow state is that
state where you are super focused super
in the zone
and you are like working at your optimal
capacity i don't know if you've ever had
that feeling where you're just like
so 100 in your work
you have momentum you're on a roll and
things are going great so that is the
goal
it's what some people call deep work and
that is like a state of intense focus
that is really really productive
so that's the goal of where you want to
be when you're trying to beat
procrastination is
i know you're feeling the resistance
first be aware that
it is procrastination and it is
resistance and then
you can take like the next small baby
steps and set that time deadline for
yourself
so that eventually you're gonna feel the
momentum
and you're gonna put yourself in flow
state so some other
strategies to help yourself get into
flow and get work done
is using music to set the mood so
my favorite favorite playlist to work to
are on spotify one of them is called
deep focus
the other one is called piano in the
background so i
really like deep focus that's like
intense atmospheric
not necessarily intense sometimes it's
like calming but it just
really puts me in the zone and then
piano in the background is because i
love piano that's more
softer so i'll listen to that when i'm
like
designing or doing something more like
free-flowing but when i want to like get
work done like writing and stuff then
i'll play deep
focus feel free to set the mood in your
space with whatever works for you
maybe you want to light a candle maybe
you want to clean up your desk so you
have like a clear working space
ask yourself like what is your ideal
space to work and
create that so that you have everything
that you need in order to get stuff done
an app that i love to help me get to
work and focus is called
forest so forest is an app that is based
on the idea of planting like a digital
tree
so when you set the timer for say like
25 minutes to work
you start planting that tree and
basically if you
leave the app to check anything else on
your phone
your tree starts to die and so you don't
want to kill your tree so
it kind of like motivates you to not
check instagram not check anything
so that for those 25 minutes you
are working and what's really cool about
forest is that
i think after you collect some coins it
actually plants real trees in real life
so
i really like that environmental aspect
of it the last strategies you can try
is to journal and or meditate before you
get to work
so sometimes we can't focus on our work
because our mind is so distracted we're
thinking about a million things at once
so sometimes it's helped me to like sit
down and journal for like two or three
pages
before i get to work usually in my
journal i write down all the things that
are on my mind
get them out of my mind and onto paper
and then i usually like
start giving myself a pep talk to
prepare myself
to get in the mindset to work so i will
literally like
visualize like okay eileen you're gonna
do this and you're gonna work and you're
gonna finish this today
you're going to do this so i'm like my
own motivator in my journal
and doing that really helps set the
intention
for getting to work and being productive
another thing
is you can meditate before you get to
work it has a similar effect where you
clear your mind
you calm yourself and you can also set
your intentions during meditation
to focus on whatever you want to focus
on so
either journaling and or meditation you
could do both or you could choose one or
the other
but i think both are really great to
like prime yourself to start being
productive and get to work
alright those are my tips on how to beat
procrastination i hoped it helped you
let me know if you have any tips of your
own that i missed post them in the
comments below so i can learn from you
as well because
i always need help on how to beat
resistance because
i think it's always going to be there
whenever there's an important
project that means a lot to you like
there's always going to be resistance
that's natural we're human so we are all
a work in progress
all right make sure to subscribe if you
haven't already love you all so much
have a beautiful day and i'll see you
next time
[Music]
bye
[Music]
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