Hello and welcome to another video. By the end of this video,
you will learn how to stop procrastinating once for all.
if you're watching this video there was something else
you're supposed to do but then you decided to spend five minutes
On Facebook or YouTube and somehow you ended up watching this video.
It has been probably an hour or two since you have decided to spend only five minutes.
I wonder what kind of five minutes are there. Of course you are not planning to waste two hours of your time,
but then you wanted to know who liked a recent picture on Instagram or Facebook or maybe you wanted to know if I have uploaded
a new video and that's how it all started. In fact, it always starts like that
and then you end up wasting your whole day doing nothing. In short, we just procrastinate in this video.
We'll see how procrastination works
and I will show you a practical way to defeat that and
please please for God's sake don't procrastinate on watching this video till the end, otherwise
I won't be able to help you, just be patient for the next few minutes
and I promise you that this is the only video you will ever need to watch about how to end procrastination
because you will find whatever you are looking for.
Before we move on, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and the bell besides it to never miss another video.
Let's first understand how
procrastination works in the first place
Look, your brain always wants to relax. It tries to avoid anything that will force him to work by
promising you that you will get a better opportunity in the future, for example if someone would give you a hundred bucks now or two
hundred bucks after a year.
What would you choose? Of course, a hundred bucks now because your brain starts telling you?
Imagine all the great things you can do with this money right now, and if you live until next year
you will make more than that you can take that money now and
invest it, whatever.
If you could get this money now, you will certainly get it next year as well. Your brain will always choose
short-term gains over the long-term gains even if they are hundred times more.
The same thing happens in every other situation that you are procrastinating.
But this time it's not about the hundred bucks,
but it's about your time or your life because each time you procrastinate you waste your time
When you want to start going to the gym you always decide to do it tomorrow
because today you're tired, you don't feel like exercising...
You will find thousands of reasons where it's better to do it tomorrow
because that's what your brain wants. Your brain will give you a short-term
solution but in the long run you are messed up.
Let's say you want to start working. Your brain realises that you're about to put some energy,
so it starts looking for things you enjoyed the most and starts reminding
you about them over and over until you do that.
So if your brain realizes that you enjoy spending your time on Instagram,
it will tell you why don't you check who liked your recent picture on Instagram?
And then you will start working. If it's Youtube,
why don't you watch a video to free up your mind and you will be able to focus better on your work?
Or why don't you get first a cup of coffee?
It will certainly keep you awake, or why don't you take a nap?
It will make you feel fresh and you will work faster.
Your brain will always give you reasons why it's better to do it in the future,
so the idea is not to let your brain to trick you.
I love coffee myself and every now and then my brain is trying to
convince me to make a cup of coffee as I'm working on this video, although that I had
one an hour ago.
But luckily, I know a practical way
how not to let my brain to trick me which I will be sharing with you in this video right now
The first step is to break up the task into small pieces. Remember that your brain is trying to avoid a lot of work,
so when the task looks so big that it literally needs a lot of work
and you don't even know where to start,
your brain will automatically start coming with every reason to avoid it.
So you have to trick your brain and let him know that
you're not going to do anything tough you're simply going to do a simple task
that requires 15 to 20 minutes maybe.
You're not going to spend a lot of energy or time there.
That's when you break up the task and focus only a small piece of it your brain isn't going to bother about it.
The same thing happens when you try to wake up in the morning. Your brain is constantly telling you
the day is going to be too long and tiring,
you have to take shower, drive to your job, work for hours, attend meetings...
Another five minutes of sleep isn't going to make a difference.
So you'll hit that snooze button.
Now imagine if you focus only on a small piece of it. Just talk to yourself forget everything
I'm going to take a shower
and if I feel sleepy after that I'll get back to sleep and you will find it much easier to get up because
your brain isn't going to come up with another excuse.
It's like when you wake up the middle of night, and you want to go to the bathroom?
It's pretty simple to wake up at that time because you know you'll get back to sleep after that.
So once you're done with the shower,
pick up the next problem and so on and so forth.
When I feel lazy to go to the gym,
I just talk to myself that I'm only going to exercise for ten minutes, and I really mean it.
But once I go there,
and I am done with the ten minutes of training, it gets much easier to stay for another twenty minutes.
So if you have a test tomorrow
and you're procrastinating to study, instead of focusing on studying the entire textbook
just break it into little chapters. Focus on one part at a time and
forget all other chapters like you don't even have to study there.
Just make sure that you break them into little small pieces that you brain
won't feel that you two need a lot of hard work there.
And that drives me to the second step, which is: Create time blocks
Remember the example if you would choose a 100 bucks now or 200 bucks after a year?
What if it's handed back now or 200 bucks after 30 minutes? Of course you will choose
200 bucks after 30 minutes because another 100 bucks is a good reward for waiting 30 minutes.
The same thing you can do with other things. Just decide to study or work
for 30 minutes regardless of whether it's enough or not and then reward yourself
with five minutes of break and then you can check your Instagram, Facebook, watch a video, whatever.
Set your timer and start working. Remember that within these 30 minutes
you cannot do anything other than working, whether it is checking your phone, talking to someone else.
Once you learn to stay focused for 30 minutes, upgrade it to 45 minutes and eventually to an hour or more.
And lastly, write down your distractions.
Your brain is a master at reminding you of all the things you have to do once you start working.
I mean, you could not even think about them,
and now suddenly, the moment you start working, you remember
everything you had to do for the past week:
you had to send that email, supposed to call Sam and ask him about the
finals, you promised your mom to give her a visit. What about the clothes you wanted to wash yesterday?
You start remembering things that you would not otherwise.
Some of them are really important, and you have to do them,
but a lot of them are just there to distract you.
Regardless of what is said, your brain keeps thinking about it until you get it done
and you will procrastinate again on your work.
Here is a simple way to deal with this. Have a pencil and a piece of paper in front of you
and write down everything that comes to your mind. Once you're done with your 30 minutes,
you can send that email or make that call.
Writing it down will help you to stop thinking about it because
you know you will deal with it in 15 or 20 minutes.
So remember, step number one: break up the task into small pieces and focus only on one small part of it.
Step number two: work for 30 minutes and then reward yourself with five minutes of break
and step number three: write down your distractions.
I can give you my word that, with these three simple steps,
you will stop procrastinating as long as you practice them.
And now I would love to know your opinion. How do you deal with procrastination?
Do you know any secret recipe?
Let me know in the comments below and if you have found this video helpful, then
consider subscribing to see more of these videos, and I will see you in the next one.