I’ve battled procrastination for years. Nothing worked. I used to read books about it, make plans of goals, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly schedules, alerts, reminders, therapy, everything.
You know when you’re trying to lose weight and they tell you all these good advises what you should do like: develop good eating habits, eat less, eat healthy, exercise, take some pills, drink some special tea, go to the gym, don’t eat late, don’t drink alcohol…The list of good practices is endless. Btw. if you don’t know, you’re probably one of those lucky bastards who nicked all the good genes or you’re always depressed (assuming that you don’t eat when you stress out).
I had no idea that the whole thing is a lot easier than I thought it would be. And I’ve heard about it before, I’ve read about it in those smart books, just I’ve never bothered to try because of how simple it seemed to me. For some reason we tend to think that solutions that sound obvious can’t work. And the most simple and usually the first thing that you come up with is the best one. Just like with eating (given that you’re a healthy guy): the first thought is the best one (given that your IQ is over 19). What always works is changing your eating habits. Well, I’ve never had a problem with my body but I did have a problem with procrastination and I did find a way to overcome it.
One day I was sitting in my room and I came up with an idea. I was going to try it out and see if it works. Btw. trying things out to see if they work is another revelation that I discovered to work every time. You don’t wonder if some things work, you try them out and see for yourself – simple and cool, right?
So here it is.
Think about something you want to accomplish and decide to do one thing that will help you to achieve it every single day!
One thing every single day, without planning, overthinking, analyzing, consulting! No matter what it is, no matter how small, irrelevant, stupid you think it is, if you honestly believe that it has something to do with your project, do it.
Don’t cheat because if you do, you fool yourself!
Don’t think too much! Thinking doesn’t get things done! Actions do.
Make a decision – let yourself own it!
Make a habit – if you do this 2 weeks in a row it will become a habit!
And finally, don’t judge, just try it out! You’ll see for yourself!
You’ll be surprised where you'll be in a month! I was.