How to Stop Procrastinating
Procrastination is a problem for you, right? I'm sure that it is because procrastination is a problem for everyone.
Luckily, the causes of procrastination are no mystery and there are actionable steps that you can take to reduce procrastination.
Hint: the solution to procrastination is never shaming yourself or beating yourself up. In fact, you're MUCH more productive if you feel good.
According to Ali Abdaal, author of Feel-Good Productivity, there are generally three “blockers” to progress:
1. Uncertainty (lack of definition)
2. Fear (lack of confidence)
3. Inertia (lack of momentum)
Here is what Abdaal has to say about each "blocker" and his research-based solution.
Uncertainty
"When there is a lack of information we tend to overestimate the risk, ignore safety cues, and become avoidant. This leads to a cycle of shame and procrastination."
The solution to this is to answer two questions whenever you have a task or project to work on.
- What is the desired outcome?
- What is the very next step I can take towards that outcome?
For example: Give a 15 minute presentation on Friday for Social Psychology. My next step is to read the assignment criteria and spend 10 minutes researching what topic I want to present.
Fear
When we are leaving our comfort zone, starting something new, or a facing looming deadline, our brain (the amygdala) views that task as a threat.
Even if we know it will be worse in the future to procrastinate, the amygdala is so powerful and is SO concerned with the immediate threat that it pushes us towards a fight or flight response (or most common, freeze).
Fear happens when you lack confidence and feel that the task requires more than you're capable of.
Instead of magically growing confidence overnight, make any lack of confidence a non-issue. You can do this by asking yourself these two questions:
- How confident do I actually need to feel to just get started with this?
- Could I just get started even though I’m feeling unconfident?
Plus, pausing to ask yourself these questions will get your brain out of functioning in the amygdala and into functioning in the frontal lobe.
Inertia
"As Newton recognised, it takes way more energy to get started than it does to keep going. When you're doing nothing, it's easy to carry on doing nothing. And when you're working, it's much easier to carry on working."
The solution to this is to use the 5-Minute Rule.
To use the 5-Minute Rule: you decide something to work on (anything, it doesn't have to be the BEST option for where to start), you set a timer for 5 minutes, and you commit to doing that thing until the timer goes off. When the time is up, you have full permission to stop working.
Then, you might either keep working or you'll come back for another 5 minutes after taking a break.
Snowball those small wins until you have enough momentum to keep going!
You're capable of making change <3
