- Welcome back to the procrastination series
that I have been intending to do for the past three years,
and yes, if you're wondering, this series
is self intervention for me.
So in yesterday's video,
we went deep into the science of procrastination.
There were lots of research studies,
lots of results, lots of insights,
and if you haven't seen that,
I'm gonna have it down in the description below,
but this video is gonna be a lot more actionable
because in this part two of our procrastination series,
we're gonna be talking about
how to stop procrastinating
in the moment when you notice yourself putting things off,
and to do that, we are gonna go through a process
of six steps starting with the step
that you might not have thought to do otherwise but
that science actually shows to be effective which
is to forgive yourself for any prior procrastination.
If you remember from yesterday's video,
we talked about a researcher named Timothy Pychyl
who's done quite a lot of research into the subject
of procrastination and one of the studies
that he did examined the role of guilt in procrastination
and the forgiveness of that guilt.
When he surveyed 119 college students,
he found that students who
took the time to deliberately
forgive themselves for procrastination
in preparation for a midterm exam were actually less
likely to procrastinate on future exams,
so before you get into any
of the other steps in this process,
if you are a chronic procrastinator,
if you've been kicking yourself for wasting tons of time,
first forgive yourself,
and it's also useful to realize that going forward,
there is never going to be a perfect moment to study,
there's never gonna be perfect time to do it,
and this is one of the stories we tell ourselves right?
We think that in the future,
things are going to be better,
the stars are going to be aligned
and we're gonna be in a much better position
to actually get to work
and what you have to do is tell yourself
that this moment right now,
it's imperfect, it's not exactly what you want it to be,
but it is passable, it's enough for you to get to work
and at least make some progress.
From there, it is time to move on
to step two in the process,
which is to redefine success
to fit your present circumstances.
If you are already late on a project or homework assignment
and you've put things off to the point
where now it's unrealistic
to finish things with the original due date,
then even if you try to work very very hard,
you're likely to fail, and as we talked about
in the first video in the series,
part of the temporal motivation theory
or the procrastination equation is expectancy.
When we don't have an expectation
that we can achieve the goal we set out to do,
we are much more likely to procrastinate on it
or to put it off, so clearly,
if you're sitting there
looking at the hand that you've now dealt yourself
and you realize that failure is likely option,
you're probably not gonna be very motivated to work,
so instead, sit down and define a new version
of what success looks like.
For example, if the original deadline is now unrealistic,
you may need to set a new deadline,
maybe you even need to email your teacher
or email your group members and ask them for an extension.
Or for an example that isn't based on time,
if you realize that you're not gonna get a 4.0 this semester
and that's what you wanted to do,
sit down and redefine your goal to be maybe 3.8.
That way, you can actually succeed from
where you are right now.
Of course, you do wanna make sure that this goal
is still fulfilling and challenging to you,
because if you make it too easy,
it's not gonna be motivating for different reasons,
and you're not gonna feel good about yourself even
if you do manage to achieve it.
All right, steps one and two are now out of the way,
those were kind of mental steps about kinda getting
your brain in the right place to get your work done,
and now we're moving to step three
which is the first really actionable tangible step
in the process and it's
to remove potential short-term distractions
from your environment.
For me, the first item of business here
is to clear my workspace,
close my tabs, close programs that are unrelated to my work,
clear my desk off, basically
try to get my space as optimized for the one task
I have decided to do and
if you can't get your workspace into the right configuration
for doing this, then you may want to change it.
If your dorm is a bad place to work for example,
then maybe go to the library or go to a coffee shop,
but you do wanna make sure
that you don't fall into the trap of finding a workspace
that is perfect, because no workspace is,
and if you get into that trap,
trying to find a place that
is the most optimized place for working,
then you're never actually going to start your work,
you're just gonna keep searching.
Secondly, it's probably a good idea
to have a list somewhere on your computer
or on a scrap of paper where you can write down errands
that come up or small tasks
that you think of doing, so you can do them later.
I'm not sure what you, but
one of my biggest procrastination triggers
is convincing myself that I just need to go check my email
or check up a few other things
or do some small tasks before I sit down
and do the thing that I really should be doing,
and I have had days go by,
even week sometimes where
I have filled my time with those small tasks
that really aren't all that important,
and I never actually get the real work done,
the real effective work that moves the needle in my business
or my work, so make sure that you have that list,
that you diligently write things down
when they come into your attention,
then later on, when you have some time,
you can probably batch all of those tasks at once.
Next, try to dedicate at least a little bit
of time to taking care of your biological needs.
If you're hungry, make sure you eat a snack,
maybe have a bottle of water
or some tea or coffee next to you on your desk,
go to the bathroom, and if you feeling tired or fatigued,
at least take five minutes
to go for a quick walk before you start working.
Once you have checked off
all those little biological boxes though,
you're gonna wanna make sure to one,
get comfortable, so if you're energetic,
maybe try to find a standing desk
or a counter you can work at.
Otherwise, just to make sure
that you are seated with good posture
and that you are wearing clothes
that make you comfortable within the temperature
of the room that you are in.
And lastly, and you knew this was coming,
ask yourself, do I need the Internet?
Do I need access to a lot of the tools that are kind of
like defaults in my life?
Do I need my phone?
Remember, when you are really close to the Internet,
when you're really close to the things
that could be potential distractions,
your impulsiveness is higher,
you are more likely to give into those distractions,
so maybe put those away
or maybe disconnect from
the Internet on your laptop altogether.
Step four in the process
is to break your task down into smaller,
more actionable subtasks.
So here's the thing.
When you're working on a project,
you're never actually working on that project as a whole.
You're only ever working on one specific task,
and then in retrospect,
all those add up to look like a big project.
But when you are looking forward
and you are telling yourself I have to do
that entire project, it looks a lot more difficult,
and as we talked about in the first video of this series,
expectancy, the belief that you can actually do the thing
that you set out to do is a huge factor in whether
or not you're going to procrastinate.
A good example of this is the Tough Mudder
that I decided to run a couple of months ago.
This was 10 miles with more than
20 obstacles and going into it,
I was pretty confident that I could do it
but it still seemed like a huge challenge,
so once the starting gun was fired
and we actually got to start running,
I didn't think of it as a 10 mile challenge.
I wasn't thinking about all the obstacles to come.
Instead, my goal at any given moment was just
to make it to the next obstacle,
and of course, I did eventually cross the finish line,
shivering and on the verge of hypothermia actually,
but I did finish it and it was a result
of finishing one little task at a time
and as those stacked up one after the other,
they formed a huge project,
but in the moment I was never thinking about the project
as a whole and this is exactly how you should think
of your project, think about it
in terms of the individual task that needs to be done next,
the next step, and speaking of next steps,
the next step in this process
is to reframe your task
as input based rather than output based.
What I mean by this is instead
of focusing on the thing you need to do,
even if it does feel small and actionable,
instead try asking yourself to simply work for 20 minutes
or work for 25 minutes in the case
of the Pomodoro Technique,
and this is something that I've talked about many times
in previous videos, I have made an entire video about it
but in case you haven't heard me talk about it before,
here is the 10 second version,
essentially the Pomodoro Technique
has you pick one task to work on.
You sit down, you set an actual physical timer
for 25 minutes and you only work on
that task during that time,
and what makes this technique so effective
and why I use it almost every single day
is that it reframes your task,
whatever the task is, no matter how difficult it is,
it reframes it and makes it just work for 25 minutes,
which is something that you know you can do.
Finally, for our sixth step in the process,
if you are starting a brand-new task,
then make that first Pomodoro session
or that first input based session simply be the act
of setting things up to do that task.
By this, I mean instead of actually diving in
and working on the parts of the task
that you know are difficult,
see what you can set up around it,
and I actually did that for this video series.
During the editing process,
instead of starting the edit right away,
which I know is difficult and frustrating sometimes,
I first set a timer and I set up the file structure for it.
I set up all the folders,
all the quick access links,
all the little things that I do for every single video
that just make the editing process more convenient,
and as often happens when I do these Pomodoro sessions,
I kind of got into the zone,
and once all that little setup work was done,
I actually spent about a full hour editing before I
took my first break, and even
if for some reason you don't find yourself in the flow state
after doing this, well,
you have at least put in about 20
or 25 minutes of work getting everything set up,
so when you come back for the next work section,
it's all kind of ready for ya.
Now, in the next and final video in the series,
we're gonna talk about some more high-level concepts
that can help you become less of a procrastinator overall,
and kind of shed that label
of chronic procrastinator if you identify with it,
but at least for now, with the process we've just outlined,
you now have the tools to stop procrastinating
in the moment on whatever it is you have been putting off.
Now, as I may have mentioned before,
there was a ton of research that went into this miniseries.
One of the most important
and useful sources that I consulted
was Barbara Oakley's book A Mind for Numbers,
which in addition to having several great
chapters on procrastination is also just
one of the best books that
I have ever come across for anyone wanting
to learn more effectively across the board,
and that is why if you have not already read this book,
I highly recommend that you pick it up
or potentially listen to it on Audible,
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I have been an Audible subscriber for years.
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Audible's library of audiobooks
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