I believe we only get one shot at life, and as humans and as humanity, we have a destiny to live up to our greatest potential. Using first principles thinking, we can optimize biology, our psychology, and how we interact with one another to rise up to that potential. In this post, you'll learn 10 ways to overcome procrastination.
I've been a procrastinator nearly all of my life. There were many late nights finishing research papers, or completing assignments, or finishing client projects.
There was a point where it really took a tool on my life. More than just little annoyances, like having to stay up working an extra hour or two. I procrastinated so hard, I found myself homeless in NYC.
I turned that around, which I'll get to in later posts, but I later discovered something not very surprising.
EVERYBODY PROCRASTINATES!
Shocking right?
So, WTF? What's going on? Why, as amazingly put together as we are, do human beings have a seemingly natural pentent for procrastination?
It comes down to two basic things. #1 is the physiology of stress, which I'll cover in another post later this month.
And #2 is how we think about ourselves.
The Procrastination Cure
Procrastination doesn't come from being lazy (Although that might be part of it). It comes from how we're motivated.
Much of our motivation comes from how we feel about something. Our feelings don't come from conscious thought. We have plenty of times when we don't know WHY we feel a certain way about something, or we struggle to communicate our feelings. BUT it's our feelings that drive our reaction.
Our feelings originate in an old part of the brain which is sometimes called the Lizard brain. This part of our brain is obsessed with survival and self preservation.
But this part of our mind has it's own view of "Self". The lizard brain doesn't view your future self as "YOU". It views your future self as if it was another person.
"But I do things for other people all the time"
Ah yes, but why? Probably because you have social expectations, or empathy for the other people.
In a lecture on procrastination by Tim Pychyl[2], he says that the reason we procrastinate is not because we're lazy, but because we don't have enough empathy for our future selves.
So, the real question isn't "How do we stop procrastinating?". The question you should ask yourself when you begin to procrastinate is "How can I motivate myself to help my future self?"
#1 - Just WOOP It
In a study by Gabriella Oettingen[1], participants were able to increase their motivations by as much as 400% over an alternative means of motivation, positive thinking.
The process is simple. Just ask and visualize the answer to these 4 questions
Wish - What do you want?
Outcome - Why do you want that?
Obstacle - How will you prevent yourself from reaching your wish?
Plan - How will you overcome that obstacle?
#2 - Relax
Stress increases anxiety. While you experience anxiety, you're 800% more likely to procrastinate.
Simply trying to relax for a finite amount of time (Such as 5 minutes) can be enough to overcome procrastination
#3 - Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a superpower if you do it right.
Most of us have a habit loop we run. We open a new tab in our browser, and type in Steemit.com and then find ourselves scrolling through posts and procrastinating before we realize what's going on.
By practicing a little mindfulness, such as focusing on how the tips of your fingers feel while you're typing, it inserts a small gap in our decision making process. This small gap gives us the choice to do something else
#4 - Micro Tasks
Ever wanted to do a 100 of pushups every morning? Try doing just 1.
In psychology, there is a concept known as "Activation Energy". Think of it like the effort to push a rock and get it going down hill. Pushing a boulder (Doing 100 pushups) is much more difficult than pushing a snowball (1 pushup).
Committing to doing just one pushup (AND giving yourself full permission to stop any time) is like pushing that snowball down a hill. It grows and collects more mass and momentum. You begin doing 1 pushup, but end up doing 20. Eventually doing just 1 is a habit, and doing 100 is now possible.
#5 - Extreme Mindfulness (One Step At A Time)
I've used this to help people stuck deep begin tasks that they've been struggling with for months.
When I was walking across the USA, I wanted to see how far I could push myself, but was procrastinating on getting started that day. My legs were really sore from months of walking 20 miles every day, and I had to cross a rickety old bridge that was really dangerous.
I decided what I'd do is just focus on taking the very next step. The smallest part that I could do.
I got across the bridge, but kept my focus on just taking that very next step. By the time I finished that day, I had been walking from 23 hours, and I had covered 52 miles, or about 2 marathons.
When I need to get writing, I'll focus on just taking things one step at at time. Write a headline. Write a bullet point, then the next one, until the outline is finished. Then add in the sentences one by one.
#6 - Pomodoros
Pomodoro is a technique where you focus intensely for a certain amount of time, then stop your work adn relax for a few minutes before returning to intensely foucsed work.
This can be leveraged to use a small commitment of "I'll do one Pomodoro on my paper". One helps get the momentum going, or helps build the habit.
#7 - The Dickens Exercise
The Dickens Exercise is something I picked up from Tools Of Titans by Tim Ferriss (Which he learned from Tony Robbins).
It goes like this:
Think about the change you want to make in your life (Works best with habits I've found).
How has NOT making that change NEGATIVELY impacted your life in the past?
What pain is it causing in your life right now because you're not changing?
How much more pain will you go through in 1,2,3, 10, 20 years if you don't make this change RIGHT NOW?
How is your life going to improve if you make this change right now?
It takes a couple minutes, but for me the results usually last for a week or two (Then I'll repeat the exercise for an extra boost).
#8 - Listen to Brain.fm, FocusAtWill, or White noise
Listening to background music (Especially that which doesn't have lyrics) is a great focus aide. Specially designed background music, like BrainFM or FoucsAtWill work wonders. White noise and bi-neural beats can help as well.
#9 - Disconnect
Distraction is the greatest aide to procrastination. Disconnecting the internet, logging off of facebook, and turning off your phone can create an invaluable session of distraction free work.
#10 - Breathe a little slower
Slowing down your breathing for a few minutes has been shown to dramatically increase your willpower, thus increasing the size of task you can easily get yourself to do.
In her book Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal[3] discussed her research on breathing and willpower. Simply breathing in for 10 seconds and out for 10 seconds for a few minutes can dramatically increase your willpower.
Breathing in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds has also been shown to change your experience of stress, making things less fearful.
Each day, over the next 30 days, I'll use first principles and scientific thinking to come up with at least 10 ideas on how to solve a problem related to human potential.
What problems will I be trying to solve? That's going to be up to you. Leave a comment with the problem you want me to take a crack at in my next post.
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[1] WOOPmylife.org