Million Dollar Secrets to Overcome Procrastination!

Million Dollar Secrets to Overcome Procrastination

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Do you also put away work? Do you also tag yourself as a procrastinator? PROCRASTINATION IS NOT LAZINESS! DO NOT read the article further, unless you have been able to understand whether you are a lazy person or a procrastinator.

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A lazy person is someone, who is in general disinterested in doing anything radical, s/he is always bored, inactive, doesn’t intend to work and is looking forward to constant stimulation for working. A procrastinator on the other hand is the one that intends to work but is delaying the task, perhaps because of lack of vision or being unorganised. Now that you have found out, which one you are, read further…

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Why do we procrastinate?

The moment a poem comes to my mind, I write it down immediately. If a song is playing in my imagination, I either start singing it on karaoke or playing it on Youtube. There is always some work that you really enjoy doing, and you will surely not put away or postpone that work, right? So, one thing is clear that we procrastinate works that we don’t “enjoy” doing.

In reality, procrastination happens for two reasons:

a. you are incubating the idea, so in absence of clarity you are not taking action or

b. the work involves you to confront someone or some situation/ emotion which is liable to make you uncomfortable.

While in the first case, you need to delve into depths to achieve clarity, which may require more time, reflection, meditation, and efforts, the second cause needs immediate reflection. You need to ask yourself, as to why are you avoiding it. The answers will probably take you back in time. If you want to start up a new business or coaching and are procrastinating, either you are still incubating the initiating ideas or the reason may be rooted in lacking trust in yourself. Why don’t you have trust in yourself? Because, in childhood, your classmates bullied you, or your teacher punished you, or your parents tagged you as a “loser” or “good for nothing” and you in return accepted the tag humbly and allowed it to become a part of your personality till date. The reptilian brain is very good at keeping you safe and comfortable by reminding you of past hurts and misadventures, so that you don’t try again. However, the good news is that those comments, tags and ill-treatments are not a permanent aboard in your mind. You can throw them out any day you want! What are those beliefs?

I am not good at reading.

I am not hard-working.

I can never be successful because I have never been a topper.

I cannot answer back people.

I am shy.

I can’t speak in public.

The list can be endless.

Write that belief down on a lose sheet with black pen and tear off the sheet. Burn it and flush the ash. “Vaaman kriya’ it is called in ancient Hindu practices. Paint your mental canvas anew, with positive thoughts: I am confident. I am beautiful. I don’t listen to disrespectful people, and so on. Some of the best ways to counteract procrastination are as follows:

·?????? List down your strengths: As foolish or useless it seems for beating procrastination, this can be a real game-changer. Write down a list of all your achievements, starting with academics, to sports, to co-curriculars, to all those situations when you stayed strong despite problems. Stick that list with your smartest and most elegant photograph opposite your work-desk.

·?????? 5-minute rule: Tell your mind that I will just do the work for 5 minutes only. The actual problem is not the work but starting the work. Haha. I know! Then use as many “Just 5 minutes more” prompts as manageable. You got to trick your brain.

·?????? 2-minute rule: If the work can get completed in 2 minutes or less, do it first and get over!

·?????? Switch off SOCIAL MEDIA NOTIFICATIONS and allot only some fixed time in a day for it. We all know how we went to see one comment and lost 2 hours on social media.

·?????? Start small: I dislike cleaning kitchen or cupboard or home altogether, so I have allotted 20 minutes everyday to do this boring task. It is like, I can do what I want to, once I am done with what I need to. Eventually, a clean house on a regular basis, inspires me to do some creativity around housekeeping as well. Read for five minutes on the first few days, you will eventually not want to leave the book, required you like the subject.

·?????? SPICE IT UP: I started eating salads by making them look beautiful and sharing reels to get encouragements. I found out the healthiest ways to keep salads tasty as well. I do my housekeeping activities, cooking, when required and all other boring stuff with peppy music from Bollywood 1990s songs on speaker and making a few dance moves in between as well. Yes, truly! Find out how can you make the task interesting. Even for reading a book or doing maths, you can use “focus music” to keep going.

·?????? Take breaks: It is advisable to take a 5 minutes break, after every 25 minutes and 15 minutes break after every 2 hours. What to do in the breaks? Drink water, make body movements, do breathwork, closing your eyes, laugh and look outside at the world. Especially, when your work involves screen-timing, follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 metres away for 20 seconds. You are not AI, so don’t try to become one.

·?????? Right way to do goal setting: Have one big monthly goal. Divide it into 4 small parts for every week. Before the week starts, plan how will you achieve the same in 7 days, break it down further. This will ensure that the work doesn’t look overwhelming and hence you don’t procrastinate.

·?????? Track progress: You can’t see the progress unless you track it. For tracking, you need to quantify!

§? Am I sleeping well? How many hours did I sleep on Sunday, Monday…

§? Why can’t I lose weight? Presently, I am 90 kg. What is my ideal weight? How many months do I need to lose weight? How should I do it?

§? How to earn more? What is my present income? How much income would make my life comfortable? How to do it and in how many months? Track where your time goes as well as money, to avoid some of the other causes of tension, hence procrastination as well.

·?????? Most Important work: Find out the most important work of the day and however long, boring and tedious it maybe, do it first!

·?????? Divide the Right-Brain and Left-Brain activities: It is well-known that flipping from right-brain to left-brain is not immediate. Right-brain activities are creative activities which require you to be in a flow and surrender, writing an article as this one, making a presentation, singing practice and so on. Left-brained activities involve research, focussed efforts, step-by-step work, organisation, such as cleaning your cupboard, reading, solving maths and the like. While I researched the best techniques of beating procrastination in the morning, I am finally writing the article in the afternoon. Researching is left-brained activity and writing is right-brained. It is always advisable to do logical (left-brained) activities and creative (right-brained) activities at different times, maybe morning-afternoon or on different days itself. The work thus will not look unattractive, and you will be able to reach the finish line.

·?????? DON’T MULTITASK: Even though it may seem contradictory to getting more task done, when I ask you not to multi-task, the reality is that your mind gets tired with multi-tasking very easily. You will not only be more focussed, but your mind will also develop more focus for the longer run when you do one thing at a time. Avoid multi-tasking unless necessary.

·?????? Daily habits: Procrastination is a short-term mood repair, which comes from the urge of managing negative emotions erupting at the moment. It is very important to address the issue at hand, which can easily be done by building up right routines for the body through “atomic” habits. The most important point worth noting here is the need to start the day slow and not in a rush. Wake up much before and have time for exercise/ yoga/ Zumba/ dance as well as meditation. This will set the day right. You must sleep 6-8 hours a day. The money you earn in youth will go to the medicines and hospital bills in your later age if you will not take charge of your health and habits today.

Last but not least, you must know that even though we look for motivation to take action, the reverse is the truth. You must first take the action to motivate yourself in future. The pictures of my college, when I won the students election or my maksheets, when I topped, are till date my biggest inspirations. I had taken those actions, without expectations and without external motivation as well. Only you can motivate yourself, so take action! If all the above seems heavy use my last trick: say 3,2,1 and do the work. You can also use 3,2,1 to like, comment and share my post! Thank you! :-)

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P.S: Some of the strategies cited above have been born in my mind and I have used them for long and some I have found in great books and podcasts. The major motivators, I am thankful to are: Jay Shetty Ankur Warikoo Daniel Pink @David Allen James Clear Some Buddhist texts, Ali Abdaal Mel Robbins

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