Various friends around me, some people only procrastination in one area, and they are fine in other areas. Some people procrastination in all aspects of life, and this is a serious procrastination situation.
I used to have perfectionism-induced procrastination, always trying to do everything flawlessly. A lot of times when you get a new task, you can’t start to act, and you always stay in the “thinking” stage.
The consequence of this is that a lot of time is wasted without results. And once I can’t get the results, the whole person will become anxious, and then I will doubt myself, the execution will further decline, and I will fall into a vicious circle.
Against this background, I started to think systematically about what to do to stop procrastination. In the process of continuous practice, I have identified 4 entry points to stop procrastination, 15 specific methods, and 180 sets of time management practice self-discipline templates.
This set of methods helped me get rid of procrastination completely and greatly improved my execution ability. Go to bed early and get up early every day, work and rest regularly, keep exercising, work diligently, and be able to “do what you say” in the face of difficult problems, and continue to optimize and improve in the process of implementation.
To systematically stop procrastination, you can start with the following four aspects.
Method 1 to Stop Procrastination: Environmental Factors
1. Find a high-efficiency environment
In the process of fighting procrastination, you need to subconsciously move towards people who are better and more self-disciplined than you. In that high-efficiency and demanding atmosphere, you will unconsciously follow along and work hard to run.
Among some of my friends, there are doctors, lawyers, and university teachers. They themselves are highly self-disciplined people, and coupled with mutual infection, it is easy to enter a positive feedback loop.
In the same way, I suggest paying attention to details in your work process. If you manage every detail well, your chances of stopping procrastination and success will be greatly improved.
For example, self-study in the classroom is better than in the bedroom, and reading in the library is better than at home. Many lazy environments, such as sofas, TVs, and beds, I never work on a sofa or bed, and an environment that is too comfortable can easily become an incentive for inefficiency.
2. learn to be alone
I have always agreed with this point of view in my heart: it is easy to turn around when the car is small, and things that can be done by one person, not two people together
“Partnership” is definitely the key to procrastination. To be honest, there will be a lot of space for one person to be alone. In many respects, the cost of doing things for two people must be more than that of one person.
I have also learned to be alone to a large extent, and now I can do it without hesitation in the face of difficulties. For example, in the time management education I do, if you encounter a problem in the project that you can’t solve, you can pull other people, and the problem will be solved.
Your mind must be sober, you must know how to do the project and how to overcome difficulties, so that the whole project can run through. If you leave the problems you can’t solve to others, others will have no clue about the project.
Another example is about travel. I’ve heard a lot of people tell me where to travel, but couldn’t make it because of delays from friends and partners. A person is a lot more flexible, and he can really go wherever he wants to go.
Method 2 to stop procrastination: Awareness level
1. trust yourself
A person’s energy will definitely exceed your imagination
When I was in college when I was climbing mountains, I told myself that I would definitely be able to climb to the top of the mountain, and I really did.
I never doubt my ability to do anything, I believe I can do it well. For example, when I was in school, I was doing time management, I was working, and from the first day I did it, I believed in my choice and never thought of changing directions. And this kind of trust in myself gives me a natural “relaxation“. And this sense of ease is the source of motivation that keeps me going. so that my spirit is not exhausted.
2. Be wary of addictive stuff
You have to be on high alert for anything that makes you addicted
I am a very tenacious person, but I also deeply believe in the flaws of being a person. I think that good time management must conform to human nature to tap the maximum value of time, rather than go against human nature and make it difficult for oneself. Take advantage of the trend, avoid weaknesses, make the best of what you are good at, and output the greatest value.
There are many things that can be addictive, social, novel, drama, games, gambling, alcohol, and so on. I will keep a distance of these and will not touch them easily. Especially the games that are closest to life and most people around them are playing.
For example, the games that many people like to play, I haven’t touched in more than ten years. The less you touch it, the less it has to do with your life. I don’t need games, games have no value other than burning time in vain.
3. Prima's Law
Prima is a method proposed by psychologists to quickly correct inertia and stop procrastination by observing human inertia behavior and based on the principle of psychological operant emission. It is divided into 4 steps:
①. Rank behaviors
You can use a week to sort all the tasks in your life, work, study, life, exercise, read, all dimensions.
Optimize this list, and don’t do meaningless things, such as playing games and being in a daze.
②. Interest ranking
There are a dozen or so things left in the optimized list, sort the list according to your preferences, put the least favorite first, and so on
③. Execute checklist
After the first task is completely completed, go to the second task, and so on, until you do what you like best.
In fact, this method is to start doing things when your brain is most energetic, and then keep doing things you like more, continuously reducing the startup cost of your brain, and quickly enter the state of completing the work in one go. You’ll find that doing things this way makes things easier the more you do it!
Method 3 to stop procrastination: Habit Management
When I first started working, I wasted a lot of time swiping my phone and tweeting to cause procrastination, and then I started managing these unconscious habits to stop procrastination. I have used 3 methods:
1. Habit management
①. Gradually reduce time
This is very understandable. I will subconsciously stipulate how much time I can only spend on these “meaningless events” every day this week. For example, I can only spend 3 hours a day on this this week, and 2 hours a day from next week.
For another example, I had two friends who would waste 5 hours a day on an APP, and the procrastination became more and more serious. Later, they followed me to do time management, and gradually the time wasted less and less every day, and the symptoms of procrastination also became has been effectively improved.
Time may not be completely controlled and precise, but there will be a subconscious reduction of wasted time. My understanding of self-discipline is the pursuit of probability, constantly challenging and surpassing myself. It appears repeatedly, but it must be a steady upward process.
②. habit substitution
I will gradually transform the original “entertainment” approach into something that I think is more useful but much less entertaining.
Replacing the previous pure entertainment with a useful but little entertainment
This is not to cultivate these habits later, but you will find that before you can play until midnight, you may be sleepy at 10 o’clock this way.
2. Delayed gratification
The theory of delayed gratification originated from a psychological study of children. The strength of the ability to “delay gratification” is critical to an adult’s achievement.
For example, you are halfway through self-study in the library, and you accidentally lose your mind. You remember that the drama you were watching was updated yesterday, and the more you think about it, the more you want to go back to the dormitory to watch it.
If you think about it, you can no longer read the current book, and you pack your things and go back to the bedroom, then your ability to delay gratification still needs to be strengthened.
And if you can follow the original plan, complete the task time for today’s self-study, and then go back to watch it, then you have a better ability to delay gratification.
This kind of psychology is generally applicable to various procrastination scenarios. You will be interrupted by many things from the outside world, your attention will be diverted, and you will procrastination.
If you can improve your ability to “delay gratification”, it will make you improve procrastination, or even stop procrastination altogether.
3. Target split
Occasionally, when people get bloody under certain specific opportunities, they will gear up and prepare to make a change. At this time, they will make up their minds, such as: I want to be promoted as a leader, I want to gain muscle, I want to ride the world, etc. Wait. For example, many of my friends like to make a list of goals.
These goals are often very rough, and often only a beginning is made, and there is no specific content after that. Over time, these goals are slowly forgotten.
When many friends first asked me, they were vague about their plans or even had no plans. They only thought that I wanted to change, that I could not procrastination, and that I should become more self-disciplined. But without a concrete and feasible plan, it is not realistic at all.
If you want to go abroad, you have to buy a plane ticket first. Coarse goals make it easier for you to procrastination. You can only help you achieve self-discipline and stay away from procrastination if you make each goal precise and realistic.
You need to split your goals, turn big goals into small goals, and make long-term goals specific to visual short-term goals.
Method 4 to stop procrastination: positive feedback
This is easy to understand. It means to constantly give yourself some positive incentives, and through these timely feedback of positive energy, support yourself to complete every difficult thing.
People are inherently lazy, and only by constantly motivating themselves in the process can they support themselves to walk towards their goals and finally achieve them.
· Why do you feel happy when you are playing games, watching dramas, reading novels, and eating and drinking?
· Why do you find it hard to persevere when you are doing meaningful things, such as exercising, reading, studying?
The best way is to manage daily tasks with gamification ideas, and each of your KRs is your customs clearance task. Every time you complete a task, you can successfully pass the level, get the corresponding gold coin reward, design your system, and visualize each time block, each time gold coin, and each task reward each time, which can be seen and touched.
So how to establish this kind of timely positive feedback is also a core of our time management and stop procrastination.
How to solve this problem? There are 3 ways:
1. Actively create
That is, no matter what you do, and you get a small achievement, you have to give yourself a positive feedback.
For example: Say when you study for 2 hours, or exercise for an hour, you can reward yourself with a 15-minute break. For example, you have achieved significant results in a certain project at work, and the boss has not given you any rewards. You can completely reward yourself, such as eating a big meal, going to the mall, and so on.
I often reward myself. For example, I have a big innovation in my work. I will reward myself for a day to go out and play without restraint. I don’t think about anything about work during this time.
2. Try to feel these good habits
For example, swimming:
Many people like swimming, and of course they know that swimming has many benefits, but why are there only a few who persevere? The core reason is the lack of positive feedback
You use the list-based thinking we talked about earlier to list the benefits of the exercise you do. For example swimming:
· Can shape and lose weight
· Can keep you young
· Can prevent disease
· Strengthen your muscles
· Decompression and relaxation
List these benefits clearly.
After each swim, you try to let your body feel the benefits and keep them in your mind. Not every time, not every benefit you can feel, but try to feel it.
Then stick to it for a week and reflect on your changes during this time. For example, shaping and losing weight, what effect did you achieve? Your weight used to be 75kg, and after two weeks of swimming it reached 73kg. Then by continually increasing the intensity, continuing to train, you feel it.
3. try to communicate with people
To communicate with people, you can learn all aspects of the group through various forms, including some communities, or some reading clubs. Then offline, you can also participate in some party activities.
Why do this kind of offline and online communication, because it has many benefits.
It’s very topical. You can chat about the topic of positive feedback mentioned above, and then communicate with these friends who have common interests with you, which will strengthen the memory of positive feedback again.
You can gather more positive feedback by communicating. Maybe in your cognition, swimming has 1 to 10 benefits, but there may be more positive feedback from other friends’ feelings. For example, for the benefits of points 11 to 15, you can increase your positive feedback. It turns out that swimming can also bring me these benefits.
The core is to find a group of people who resonate with you on the same frequency.
What would your life be like without procrastination?
Likely, you’d be happier, wealthier, and healthier. It’s time to act.
When you procrastinate, you waste time that could be invested into something meaningful, instead. If you can overcome this fierce enemy, you will accomplish more personally and professionally. Get the best out of your life. Don’t procrastinate on happiness, leadership or sales skills, or even your ability to think critically.
"Stop procrastination and stop mental internal friction"
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In fact, many people have been slow to start doing things because of perfectionism.
I want to include getting up early into the category of procrastination, being too indulgent with myself and wasting a lot of time every day.
I am a typical procrastinator, doing things regardless of priority.
Got a solution and can start doing it.
I bought an online class and look forward to going online soon. I really made up my mind to start this time.