How I Beat Procrastination

A few months ago I made a poll in the community tab of my YouTube channel asking that is the biggest obstacle you face as a student? Out of the options - procrastination, money, staying healthy, relationships and other, with 13,000 votes in 14 hours, the most common answer by far was…procrastination with a massive 76%.?

I want to address the single most common problem that you guys are facing – and by the end of this article, you should have a far better chance at SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCING how much you procrastinate throughout the day.?

We all have this incredible mental tool that we've been honing for years, the tool of self-deception. So when we’re procrastinating on YouTube – for example, we’ll say to ourselves, “just one more video”, or if we’re playing games on our phone, “just 5 more minutes”, right? How many times have you told yourself that??

Because when we’re doing something we like doing such as procrastinating on our phone, we’re getting those little hits of dopamine that keep us addicted. And going from getting those dopamine hits – to then going to study – it seems like such a big deal.?

We then use this tool of self-deception that we’ve been honing for years. So instead of saying “just 5 more minutes” when you’re procrastinating, you turn it around and say, “just 5 minutes of studying”, and suddenly your studying doesn’t seem as daunting.??

This is the concept of the minimum viable action. We often procrastinate because we build up fears and friction relating to our perception of how difficulty an activity will be. But all we have to do is commit the smallest possible action, and that will get the ball rolling.?

For example, if I have to write a 3000-word article, it can feel quite intimidating at first, but then I’d say to myself, “I’ll just write 100 words – that’s it – just 100 words”, and naturally once I had written those 100 words, I’d have already stepped into a flow of writing so then I would just continue writing.??

In fact, I just recently used this trick about 6 weeks ago. I’m in Vietnam right now and this whole Corona situation here is getting worse. So a few weeks ago, there was a government lockdown meaning that all the non-essential shops are closed, gyms, bars, restaurants – they’ve all been closed.??

I go to the gym at least 5 days a week – I’ve built it into a strong habit – I don’t skip gym days – I’m pretty good with it. But since the gyms closed, that habit was somewhat thrown out of the window because instead of going to the gym, I had to work out at home – which I’ll be honest – I don’t particularly like working out at home. So I used the concept of the minimum viable action to push me into making that first step.?

I said to myself, “okay, just 10 press ups. That’s it”. And 10 press ups are easy, it only takes 15 seconds, but once I did those 10 press ups, then I suddenly didn’t find exercising at home that bad, so I continued for another 30 minutes or so.?

This trick is particularly useful for when you’re in the process of building up new habits. So that was a few weeks ago, I was really unmotivated when it came to working out, but now I’ve been exercising at home every day for the last 30 days and I’ve not skipped a single day. It just took that initial push at the beginning to build up momentum – and now that the habit is formed, it’s relatively easy.?

I remember reading there was a research study that tried to look at procrastination and how it manifests in people's brains – so how procrastination affects the brains activity and feelings. The study showed that the level of anxiety is really high at the stage where – in your mind – you’re debating whether or not you should continue to procrastinate, or whether you should get to work. But then once the participants made that decision to STOP procrastinating and start working, their anxiety levels dropped significantly to the point where it almost completely disappeared.?

So using the concept of minimum viable action is one of the main methods I use to overcome procrastination. But now, let’s go over six other actionable steps to train yourself to fight against procrastination.?

Step 1: Be aware of WHEN you’re procrastinating?

This is super important. In order to fix a problem, you first need to realise that you have a problem in the first place, right? It’s easy for us to procrastinate for a long time without even realising that we’re procrastinating because we’re so preoccupied in the activity that we’re procrastinating with. So as soon as you realise that you’re procrastinating, you need to take a clear actionable step and stand up from your desk for a minute or two to break the cycle and jolt you out of this mental state of procrastination.?

Step 2: Be aware of your emotions?

Try to look at your feelings like you’re observing yourself from the outside. It’s interesting because, what you’ll realise with procrastination is that it’s basically just a fear, and procrastination comes as a result of your body triggering a fight or flight response.?

Over millions of years our brain has programmed to avoid potential danger and ensure survival. It still thinks we live in tribes where being good enough to be part of the tribe was essential for survival.?

Furthermore, our brain doesn’t distinguish between what’s REAL danger, and what’s UNREALISTIC danger. It’s why many of us have phobias of spiders – even spiders that are completely harmless, or many of us have a fear of flying even though travelling by plane is the safest form or transport.?

They’re – in many ways – irrational fears because our brain is still programmed for survival. We have the same fears when it comes to procrastination. If we feel we are going to do a bad job with a complex task, it triggers a fight or flight response, because our brain is trying to keep us safe.?

So if you’re facing a task that you are dreading, for example writing a 5000-word assignment or revising for an upcoming exam, subconsciously you might fear the task is too difficult and that you might fail. This triggers the emotional response of fight or flight, in which your brain naturally chooses flight, which by law of survival means you try to avoid it at all costs. This results in procrastination. So you really need to be aware of this whole process and the emotions that you’re feeling at the very point that you’re procrastinating.?

Step 3: Be aware of your inner dialogue?

Start to pay attention to the excuses you give yourself when you need to study but you’re trying to find reasons in your mind to keep procrastinating. Our brain is really good at tricking us and manipulating us into doing something that will benefit us in the very short-term, but that is very damaging in the long-term.?

For example, when your alarm goes off, but you don’t want to wake up yet, so you hit the snooze button. Before you hit that snooze button, you weigh up the pros and cons in your head. And even though – deep down – we KNOW we should wake up straight away, somehow our brain tricks us into thinking it’s a good idea to go back to sleep. We need to be aware of this and realise that the excuses that we’re telling ourselves are exactly that – just excuses.?

Step 4: Remember that procrastination is a choice?

Just because your brain is telling you to procrastinate, it doesn’t mean you have to. Being able to override what you’re thinking is an incredibly powerful thing to be able to do. When your brain is telling you to do one thing, but you know it’s not the right thing to do, so you don’t do it. It’s incredibly liberating.?

It’s why having ultra-cold showers in the morning is so popular in the personal development space. Because it trains your body to override what your brain is telling it. Your brain is telling you not to have a cold shower, it’s saying that you should turn the hot water on and be comfortable, but your body overrides those thoughts and you do it anyway.?

Step 5: Break the task down?

Break up the task that you need to do into smaller steps to make it less overwhelming. So like I mentioned earlier, taking advantage of the concept of minimum viable action takes away a lot of that fear and anxiety that is often the underlying cause of procrastination.?

Instead of saying, “I need to write a 5000-word assignment”, you can break it down into “I need to write 500 words a day for 10 days”. It’s very likely that on the first day that you write your 500 words, you’ll catch that momentum and you’ll continue writing a lot more than that. Your main goal here should be to make it as easy as possible to get started so the task doesn’t feel as intimidating anymore.?

Step 6: Start and keep going?

The hardest part to breaking the cycle of procrastination is to start the task that you need to do, right? Once you’ve started that task, it suddenly won’t feel as overwhelming. So once you’ve started, you need to keep going. There are multiple ways you can do this.?

Firstly – now this is fairly obviously – remove all distractions around you. Turn your phone off or put it in another room or use your phone productivity by downloading an app like FocusToDo that will lock your phone so you can’t procrastinate on it. Set yourself a rigid study plan so you know exactly what needs to be done each day or set yourself 2 or 3 goals that you need to achieve.?

Being able to beat procrastination is an incredibly liberating feeling. When you have the power and control of your state of mind, so you’re no longer slaves to the destructive habits that are damaging you long-term – it’s an incredibly empowering mindset to have.?