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Today let’s find out how to really get out of this endless cycle of repentance and demotivation and actually start to do the work and to get amazing results. This is one of the biggest problems people face in this decade. There is no scarcity of anything at all, in fact, there’s just too much of everything available at your fingertips. For the first time in the history of mankind, we have more food than we can eat, more videos than we can watch, more books that we can read, more opportunities than we can even imagine, more life expectancy than ever before, more and more of pretty much everything. The only problem people face is a lack of desire.
Why do we Procrastinate?
In order to beat procrastination, let’s first understand why you are procrastinating. Your brain is made up of two parts – essentially you have the “Thinking brain” and you have the “Feeling brain”. The “Feeling brain” is the part of your brain that wants instant gratification, instant pleasure, it wants to do the things that feel good at the moment right at this point of time. The “Thinking brain”, however, is the one that is analytical, the thinking brain is taking into account the pros and cons of doing any action and then it is deciding if this is in the best interest of you in the long term as well as in the short term, that is what the difference is between the “Thinking” and the “Feeling brain” and most of us are not able to defeat the “Feeling brain”. The “Feeling brain” is like that elephant and the “Thinking brain” is the person riding that elephant, yes it can try to guide it somewhat but honestly speaking, the elephant will go wherever it wants to go just like that. The “Thinking brain” is like that driver sitting in a car and the “Feeling brain” is like the person at the back of the car shouting where it wants to go. The “Thinking brain” is you deciding to watch a 5-hour long tutorial on web development because you know it is important for you to get started with your web development career, the “Feeling brain”, however, at the back of your mind is shouting and is telling you to close all of this, order a pizza, open the latest show on Netflix and start binging it right at this point, at this exact moment. There is a tug of war happening in your brain between the “Thinking brain” and the “Feeling brain”. The “Thinking brain” is clicking this article to learn how to beat procrastination and the feeling brain is the one urging you to stop this and go on to Instagram and swipe reels. There is no chance that you can actually defeat the “Feeling brain” as a “Thinking brain” person.
Today let’s find out how to really get out of this endless cycle of repentance and demotivation and actually start to do the work and to get amazing results. This is one of the biggest problems people face in this decade. There is no scarcity of anything at all, in fact, there’s just too much of everything available at your fingertips. For the first time in the history of mankind, we have more food than we can eat, more videos than we can watch, more books that we can read, more opportunities than we can even imagine, more life expectancy than ever before, more and more of pretty much everything. The only problem people face is a lack of desire.
Practical tips to begin with at this very moment
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Start Small to go Long:
In order to start, you need to try to balter with that feeling in your brain, start small, over 40% have already stopped reading this article, if you’re still reading till this far then pat yourself on the back because you have decided to take the advice of the “Thinking brain” and not the “Feeling brain” but moving on, start small. You need to think about how you can create a very small subset of the things that you want to achieve, let’s say, you want to read 54 books in a particular year that is going to be 1 book every single week. So start small, tell your “Feeling brain” let’s start with reading one paragraph every single day, just 4 or 5 lines of text every single day. You divide that habit and make it so easy to do that it almost feels criminal for you to not do it and as time goes on, increase it every single time and that is basically how you would be able to develop a great habit.
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Give yourself rewards:
This habit of procrastination is something that you will need to tackle, there is a habit loop that is created, there is a reward that they get. If you can also create a reward for the habit you’re trying to create then you would be able to create a habit and beat procrastination and get the thing that you wanted to get for example let’s say you want to learn to code for 2 hours every single day, you can create a habit in your mind to start with only 15 minutes gradually increase it and create a reward system in which every single time when you code for 15 minutes you get to eat a toffee or something like that to reward your brain. Do this because then the “Feeling brain” can align its decisions with the “Thinking brain” and that is when you will be able to beat procrastination. This is something that you should keep in mind.
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Creating the right environment:
Make sure that you are creating an environment for the work you want to do. You need to create an environment of people, of things that encourage you, that promote you to work on that particular habit. Create a space for yourself to work like, for example, I am right now here in my room and I have everything set up for me so that I can write this article. I have my bed over there, I will go to sleep, I will wake up again, do my work and go to sleep, this is a loop that I have created for myself so that it is really easy for me to get out, go and work. If you want to start the practice of going to the gym, start by creating that habit loop-start by just wearing the gym outfit when you go to sleep so that when you wake up, you already have the outfit, just put up your shoes and then you are good to go to the gym. If you notice people on Instagram, they are always trying to look their best. Why is it so? Because they have people around them that are judging them or that’s how they like to think so what you can do is you can create a group of people that are also interested in doing what you want to do and then do that together. Whenever you convert something that is a single-player to multiplayer that activity becomes a lot more interesting and you are a lot more likely to actually do it because you have other people looking at you, seeing if you’re doing it or not. This is how I am able to stay consistent. Break the habit of procrastination, assign yourself with processes, with environments, get people around you who are doing something similar and that is how you will be able to beat procrastination. Start following these steps right now!
Using Procrastination to your ADVANTAGE
One more thing that you should understand is that most of the time procrastination is not that bad. Procrastination can also be productive if you think about it like sometimes I would not be writing articles. Today I wrote only 1 article, yesterday I wrote 3 articles. Why is that the case? Was I procrastinating? Not really! I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, what I want to do, where do I want to go? Sometimes, this introspection can be productive but you have to make sure that you’re aligning yourself in that sense and not watching Instagram reels only. This is what you need to keep in mind and it is going to be in a wave, your creativity and procrastination are going to be in a wave that you get. Sometimes you will be really pumped up other times you will just be lazy, you will not want to do the work but it’s important to be more and more motivated to get the work done. In the end, if you will sincerely follow these practical tips then I guarantee that you will definitely become a better version of yourself and your future self will thank you for reading this today.
Also read: Assisting Online Students in their Success
FAQs:
Will creating a timetable help me beat procrastination?
Definitely, it will. There is absolutely no doubt in that but you need to avoid setting unrealistic goals as it is not at all feasible and if you fail to achieve them, you will lose your will to continue.
Is sleeping also procrastination?
Anything done excessively is never beneficial. Sleeping is a sign of laziness but what’s more important is to figure out what is causing it. If you are not diseased then most probably you feel bored with your work or studies and then you sleep, make those things interesting and follow the above tips.
