Hi everyone! Today’s post is about how to avoid procrastination and get the work done. First of all, if you want to get rid of procrastination, you must first face up to its essence. It is “a force of resistance.” In Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art”, he mentioned this force of resistance. If you don’t know about the psychology of procrastination you can read this helpful post.
Basically, this word represents a force that “stops you from doing what you have to do.” This resistance always exists, especially when you want to complete a certain job or task. For some reason, you start doing other chores: sliding Instagram, Facebook, and looking for something to eat in the refrigerator because important job/task that you are afraid to perform. Whether it is an important school topic or an important personal work plan, you may feel a certain resistance that urges you to delay again and again.
For example, when I have to deal with a complex long-term plan, I feel resistance. For example, when I was writing about something very important. It was a work that I spent a whole year thinking about planning. It took me a long time to sit down and focus on it. I tried many times. I wanted to sit at my desk but I would start to be distracted or procrastinate. But in the past few weeks, I really started to restrain myself to complete it. Because I set a deadline and I thought: “No, I must complete it within this time.”.
How To Avoid Procrastination Like A Pro?
There are some nice tips that can help you to get started and complete your work.
Start acting and define small steps to achieve:
The most direct and simple way is: “Start acting.” I know this is very basic. You may want to roll your eyes, but it’s really super difficult to start acting. What should we do? The best advice I can provide in this regard is to review what you are going to do, and then ask yourself: To achieve this goal, the tiniest and easiest next step. Simplify the steps, so simple that it only takes one second to achieve the best you can and cut things to the smallest pieces.
For example, if your plan is to write a long research report, then the simplest small step may be to open your ms word or lay down the date, and your name, and write down the first word. That’s really it. Disassemble your task until the smallest and easiest step, and then start from that step. Once you start to execute, start to write down the first word and ask yourself the same question again: “Ok, what is the next easiest step that will enable me to achieve my goal?”
You will find that when you complete the first small step, you can complete the next one and then the next step, and then the next step. If you continue to do this, you will build momentum, and then you will find that you are operating in the process. Unknowingly, you are already doing what you have been procrastinating, but I also fully understand that even if you just start from a small step, you will not be able to procrastinate.
Related: How To Increase Productivity While Working From Home
Set a deadline of 30 minutes to 1 hour:
It will still be painful and difficult to start acting, so another little trick that helps me is to set a deadline for myself. This means: “In the next period of time, 30 minutes or 1 hour, I will only focus on this matter.” I will see the time, assuming it is 8 o’clock, I will want to say: “Okay, I will finish it at 9 o’clock.” Just do my best to start with small steps and focus on implementing it for 1 hour. When the time reaches 9 o’clock,
When the time I set is up, I have already established the kinetic energy of work from the small steps. I am already in the state, and I usually want to continue to complete it. This is a really helpful technique. So if you don’t want to start work and execute the plan, you just need to give yourself a little time limit, such as: “I only need to spend 15 or 30 minutes to focus on doing this.” That’s great, but usually, you should want to keep doing it. The goal of setting time is actually to help you enter the state of continuous work.
“Working state” is the best state when you are extremely focused and very seriously engaged in work. I don’t know if you have ever felt that way. When you bet 100% on your work, you will feel kinetic energy pushing you forward, and your work will become much smoother. That is our goal. Some people will call it “deep work”. It is a state of extreme concentration that can help you increase productivity. So that’s the goal you have to achieve first when you start procrastinating. I know you feel that resistance, but first, you have to recognize that it is the resistance brought about by procrastination.
Then you can start planning small steps for yourself and set a time limit. In the end, you will feel the kinetic energy to help you enter a smooth state of work. Other tricks that can help you enter the state and complete the work, as using music to settle in your state of mind. I really love Deep Focus music. The music in that list is very atmospheric, and it’s not very compact. Sometimes it’s very stressful, but it just makes me very focused.
According to the type of work, settle down in your space. Organize your desk so that you can have a clean working space. Ask yourself: “What is your ideal working environment?” “Then turn the surroundings into the ideal look.
There is an app that I love to use that can help me get the job done. It’s called Forest. The concept of a Forest is basically to plant virtual trees. When you set the working time, for example, 25 minutes, you start planting trees. If you click off the app and use your phone to do other things, your tree will start to wither.
You don’t want to kill your tree, and this can motivate you not to go to Instagram or other things, just these 25 minutes, focus on working on Forest. The cool thing is that when you collect some coins, the app company will really help you plant a tree in real life. I really like this idea of caring about the environment.
Write a log or Meditate if you start feeling procrastination:
The last track is to write a log or meditate before work. Sometimes we can’t focus on work because our heads are very distracted. We think about a bunch of things at the same time. So sometimes we sit down and write a two or three-page log before work.
It’s very helpful to me. Usually, in my log, I will write down all the things in my mind, write them on paper, and exclude them from my mind. Then I usually start to speak with confidence in myself, prepare for work, and let my thoughts enter the state of work. I really start to imagine: “Ok shayan is going to start work, you will work hard and you will finish it today. You can do it.”
In the log, the person who motivates me is myself. Doing this can really help me build motivation for work and become more efficient. In addition, you can also meditate before work.
This has a similar effect. When you empty your mind, you will be calmer. You can also set goals during meditation to focus on what you want to focus on. So Whether it’s writing a log or meditating, you can do both or choose one, but I think both of these things can get you back to your original state and make you start to become productive and start working.
Okay, these are my ways to avoid procrastination. I hope this will help you. If you have any tips that I didn’t mention, please leave a comment below and let me know so that I can learn from you too. Because in improving procrastination, I have always needed help. After all, it’s really hard to cure it. Whenever you have something important to do, “resistance” always exists and it’s natural. Have a nice day. See you next time. bye!