[Music]
what is up guys karma medic here and
welcome back to another dose in this
video i want to talk about how and why i
never procrastinate if you're new to the
channel then hi my name is nasser and
i'm now a final year medical student
studying at king's college london and
here are my best tips to help you stop
procrastinating now being a medical
student there is a lot of content for me
to go through and study so being able to
stop procrastinating is really important
to keeping me on track with my work it's
also important for me to not
procrastinate on my work because if i
did i wouldn't have time to do all the
other things that i actually want to get
done in my life for example film videos
for this youtube channel hang out with
my friends have a good social life play
video games etc these are also things
that i need to do to stop myself from
burning out and being able to go back to
the studying and the work that needs to
get done for me to graduate and be a
doctor in the near future being
intentional with your time is so
important to stop procrastination
planning my activities allows me to be
intentional with my time and gives me a
pretty good idea of how i'm gonna be
spending my day before it even starts i
generally work in four hour blocks and
i'll make sure i'm blocking out set time
for breaks snacks time to chill and go
out and have fun with my friends now
because i know that these breaks are
coming later up in my schedule i know
exactly how much time is allocated to
those breaks and how much time is
allocated to the tasks i need to get
done for the day i'm much more likely to
stick to my plan if i know i have plans
to go out at 7 pm then i try really hard
to make sure i get all my work done
before then i'll have a clear mind i'll
feel good about the day and i can just
enjoy myself and relax when i'm actually
out time blocking your day gives you
this great sort of bird's eye view of
what you are going to be doing and
importantly it is predetermined which
means you don't have to actually make
decisions throughout your day about what
you should do next because you just look
at your schedule and you've already told
yourself what you're going to do earlier
that day or earlier on in the week being
intentional with my time both for when
i'm going to be studying or being
productive and for when i'm going to be
relaxing and having fun makes it easy
for me to separate these two activities
in my head and so when i'm studying i
just don't feel the need to be
distracted and have fun and when i'm
having fun i don't feel guilty about not
studying because i know i've dedicated
time to both of those things this keeps
my distractions to a minimum and keeps
me focused on what i'm trying to do at
that time
so this is a good one if you're going to
be procrastinating anyway you might as
well be using it to your advantage you
can use the things that you don't want
to do instead of your work as a
motivator to keep you going let me
explain spending five minutes on your
phone at the end of a 30 minute study
block can really motivate you to keep
going and push you through until that
reward in my previous video about
procrastination that you can watch
somewhere up over here i talk about
using these incentives and rewards to
keep me motivated to study i still do
this and i still find it to be one of
the most important things that i do to
help stop procrastination for example if
i know that i'm going to have a
five-minute study break at the end of a
one-hour long studying session then that
just pushes me through and keeps me more
focused and motivated to actually study
and get things done right now because i
know i'm going to take that time off and
i'm going to relax in just a little bit
more an entire day of studying can seem
really daunting but i know that if i
have these regular breaks snacks time to
chill call my friends etc then it
becomes so much more manageable one of
the main reasons that people
procrastinate is often fear of failure
of the task itself which makes them feel
like there's no point in even getting
started so they just procrastinate but
breaking the task down into these
smaller and more manageable chunks and
adding incentives or rewards means that
you're less overwhelmed and less likely
to have it in your head that you might
fail
okay so this tip is for all of you
seasoned procrastinators knowing the
difference between whether you are an
active procrastinator or a passive
procrastinator is crucial you need to
know what type of procrastinator you are
so that you're able to change the way
that you work in the most effective way
so active procrastinators will put off
one task by doing another task that they
still need to do it's like putting off
doing the really long essay you need to
write by doing a slightly more pleasant
task or chore first like feeding your
dog you can allow yourself to get all of
the other tasks you're procrastinating
with out of the way and leave yourself
enough time to finish that final
probably more unpleasant task at the end
of the day this way you're leaving
yourself pretty much no choice because
you know that task has to get done and
the day is going to finish sooner or
later so you need to do it right now on
top of that you've also got nothing left
to procrastinate with another way that i
love using active procrastination is by
introducing relaxing or chilling time
into my schedule let's say i have an
assignment that i need to do but i'm
just not really feeling like doing it
right now i tell myself okay nasr no
problem for the next 30 minutes sit down
and watch this episode of the office or
scroll through your phone on tick tock
call a friend whatever and then after
those 30 minutes i'll be rested i'll be
relaxed and i can start the actual
assignment now personally i don't see
this as procrastinating the assignment i
see it as actively rescheduling that
assignment and doing something in the
meantime like relaxing that's going to
put me in a better position to complete
the task that i actually need to do
later on now on the other end of the
spectrum we have passive procrastinators
these types of procrastinators avoid
tasks by doing things they don't really
need to be doing like watching netflix
going on social media or laying on the
sofa for an undetermined amount of time
without any goal or intention in mind
passive procrastinators will move from
one thing to the next just to fill the
time and push away that daunting task
that they don't want to do if this is
you then hopefully bringing together all
the tips from this video is going to be
your best defense against
procrastinating
all right so being realistic you have
got to be realistic about your time and
the constraints that you are working
within it's unrealistic to think that
you're going to be able to study an
entire topic in a single day whilst you
have loads of distractions around you
you need to set yourself up for success
by splitting your studying into
manageable chunks and padding out your
time properly if you think that writing
an essay is going to take you two hours
then please just schedule in three hours
or four hours for writing that essay
this isn't a sign of weakness it's not
anything negative it's just literally
building into your projects a margin of
safety so that if your schedule doesn't
go 100 as planned you're still going to
be okay and you're still going to manage
to do everything that you needed and
wanted to get done in that day one of
the worst feelings that i have in
university and in life generally is when
i plan to do a bunch of things in my day
and everything takes a little bit longer
than expected so my schedule is falling
further and further behind and that
stress and anxiety just builds up
throughout the day because i can't
complete all the tasks that i wanted and
told myself i was going to do so being
realistic and having this margin of
safety allows you to get back on track
should anything go wrong and if you do
actually finish on time or finish early
then great you've magically unlocked a
whole bunch of extra time in your day
which you can use to either move on to
the next task or relax and rest before
moving on something really powerful that
you can do is change the factors that
you are in control of if i know for
example that my house is going to get
really noisy and hectic in the evenings
when friends or family are around then
it might make sense for me to go to a
coffee shop or to go to a library or
study earlier in the day when those
types of distractions aren't around if i
think about all of these factors before
i actually start studying for example do
i have all of the coffee and snacks that
i need do i have all the resources that
i need am i in the house am i in the
library is it gonna be loud is it gonna
be quiet am i gonna have my phone on
silent or not there's tons of factors
surrounding the work that can elevate or
impede your ability to actually get
things done have a think about what some
of those are and how you might be able
to change them
sometimes it's so easy for us to punish
ourselves for not working every minute
of the day or not studying every
possible thing right before an upcoming
exam as someone who tries to balance
medical school with this youtube channel
a really active social life and still
finds time to exercise this is something
that i often struggle with myself what i
keep trying to remind myself is that
downtime and relaxing and taking time
off is not procrastination we all need
that down time so that we can recharge
and be ready for the things that we want
to do like for me studying medicine and
becoming a doctor as long as you're not
actively avoiding doing something else
you're not procrastinating by having
down time one way to make sure that you
don't fall into the trap of avoiding
work because you need down time is by
understanding why and how often you need
to take a break it's so important to
know yourself and to not overwork
yourself or overbook your schedule this
is probably one of the easiest ways to
lead to burnout and something that we
definitely want to avoid so be sure to
build down time into your schedule
regularly and remember that it's not
procrastination it's definitely needed
and in fact it'll help you even more
when you sit down to do the task that
you actually want to get done
if you are a procrastinator then don't
punish yourself for it instead just sit
down and think about you know what are
the barriers that are preventing you
from starting work what are the things
that are more likely to make you start
procrastinating and how can you maybe
change your environment or other things
around you to help set yourself up for
success if you can understand why you
might be tempted to procrastinate then
you can focus on eliminating that issue
and eventually become more focused for
example making sure the work you're
doing is for some wider goal of yours
something that you really want can
really help you combat that feeling of
not wanting to do something and
procrastinating and that is it for me
guys hopefully the tips in this video
will be able to help you stop
procrastinating so you can do the things
that have to get done so you can then
have enough time to work on the things
that you really want to get done if you
did enjoy this video please don't forget
to leave a like on it and also subscribe
to my channel to see more content like
this from me in the future and that is
it i'll catch you in the next one peace
being intentional with my time both for
when i'm gonna be studying and for when
i'm gonna be right
a little bit allowing yourself to rest
and recharge before going to do it
a
i find i find i find that taking
sometimes it's so easy for us to punish
ourselves over not working every minute
of the day and not studying every
possible thing that exists before