I found the cure for procrastination

It's a little bit weird to create a YouTube video about not procrastinating, because I know that by creating this and having you watch it, it's actually a form of procrastination for you to not go do the thing that you should be doing. But it's going to be worth it because by the end of this video, you're going to not procrastinate. You're going to actually be doing the thing that you wanted to do. And the reason I'm so confident about that is because I was procrastinating, making this video right here, and I was researching all these different ways to overcome procrastination. I actually found five really good things that really helped me, obviously, because now I'm making the video and you're watching it, so it works for me. Maybe they'll work for you. Before I share the five things, I want you to actually follow along with this video. A lot of times you'll get productivity advice, and you're learning the advice instead of putting into action. So as you watch the video, follow along. If you're not going to do that, don't even bother watching the video. Step number one is to forgive yourself. The more you procrastinate, the worse you feel about yourself. And it just makes you want to procrastinate even more. It's sort of like deciding you're going to go on a diet and. And then you eat one cupcake, you cheat, and then you feel bad about yourself. So to make yourself feel better, you have another cupcake. It ends up being this shame spiral. So the first step to stop procrastinating is to forgive yourself, and that helps you reset. I know this is counterproductive because we're often taught to use willpower to manipulate our behavior and get things done. But I actually found a study that showed that students who forgave themselves for not studying for an exam until the last minute, the ones who forgave themselves were actually more likely to study for their next exam. So they. So instead of saying, I've been procrastinating, I suck. I'm a terrible person, just say, look, I've been procrastinating. It's normal. It happens to everyone. Take a deep breath right now. Accept that you've been procrastinating. Give yourself a blank slate. Procrastination doesn't mean you're a failure. It just means that you're a human being and actually your procrastination might be trying to tell you something. So that takes us to step two, which is to figure out what you've really been avoiding. Sometimes you avoid things because they're not in alignment with who you are. For for example, maybe you're avoiding a certain marketing tactic that you were told is effective, but it doesn't feel right to you. It feels pushy or manipulative. If you know this, you can find a different strategy that's also effective, but it feels good for you or you enjoy it. Sometimes you're avoiding things because you're actually burnt out and your body's telling you, I need a break. This is usually the case if you're someone who's really naturally motivated. You usually don't procrastinate. So when you do procrastinate, it means that your tank is empty. Or. Or maybe you really do want to do the task and you do have energy for it, but you're avoiding a certain feeling that you're associating with the task. My client, Grace Broder, she's a procrastination coach, and she says that we don't avoid tasks, we avoid feelings. So sometimes the thing you're avoiding is just boring or it's annoying, like doing your taxes. And the message there is like, you shouldn't be doing this. You should go hire an accountant to do it for you. Or maybe it's something you do want to do yourself or you do have to do yourself, but you're scared of failing or of getting rejected. You're scared that if you actually put in the work on this thing, it's not going to end up being good enough. Basically, there's all this pressure around the task that's stopping you from getting started. For me, with this video, what I was avoiding was putting in all this effort, all this work, and then not having the video be successful. And I'd feel like, oh, I wasted all that effort. It's better to just not start. And I wasn't thinking that consciously until I took a second to say, why is this so hard for me to get done? So then I thought, okay, what really makes a piece of content successful? Because if what makes it successful is views or likes or some sort of outside validation. But what if the market success was me learning, learning something or me understanding a topic better just for myself? That's something I have control over, and so that's more motivating. Okay, so pause this video and figure out, why am I avoiding this thing. Go do that now, and it's going to give you more information. Okay, Number three is to identify the next small, tiny step. A really common Piece of productivity advice is to break down big tasks into a bunch of small steps. But that's actually not what I mean here. That can be counterproductive because the more you break apart the whole task, the more intimidating it becomes, in a way, because you see, oh, here's all the little steps that are involved in getting this thing done. So instead of looking at a map and trying to figure out what's the entire route, it's more like following a gps. What's the one next turn I need to take? The key is to get super specific here. If it feels too intimidating, you need to chunk it down and make a smaller next step. For example, a client of mine had gotten in the habit of procrastinating on preparing for speaking gigs that she was hired for. She loved actually giving the talks, but she hated that feeling of anticipation as she approached the deadline and still hadn't gotten the prep done. And the reason for this is that preparing for a talk, that task, having it on your to do list, is actually not something you can probably do in one sitting. It's a big task. There's a lot involved, and so for that reason, it feels threatening. So I had my client figure out what is the first step? What's the first step in preparing for a talk? And she said, oh, it's just deciding on the one main idea that I want to share. And that felt much more manageable to her. So pause this video and write down the next small step you need to take. And if you want to, you can even put it in the comments to keep yourself accountable. Accountable. It shouldn't be an outcome you're trying to achieve. It should be an action that you can take that you're actually in control of. So it should be something like email. John. Okay, go do that. Now pause the video. Okay. Step number four is to eliminate all distractions. In a minute, we're going to actually get started on that task that you committed to. But before we do, I want you to eliminate all the distractions. So take your phone, turn it onto airplane mode, or turn notifications off. Shut it off. Get notifications off of your computer. You can use an app called Freedom if you want to block distracting weather websites. If you need to get out of the house. If you need to go to a coffee shop because your family's bothering you, go get in a space where you won't be distracted for the next 20 minutes. Boredom is your friend here. The goal is to make it harder to procrastinate than it is to not procrastinate so apps, distractions, things like that. It makes it easy to procrastinate. The novelist Raymond Chandler had a quote about writing. He said, I only have two rules. Rule number one is you don't have to write, but rule number two is you can't do anything else. So pause the video, go get rid of any distractions, and come back when you're ready. Okay, step number five is the final step, and this is what we're going to set. 20 minutes on the clock. I'm going to actually do it for you in this video, and we're going to start on the task. At this point, you know the next small step you're going to take, and you've eliminated all your distractions. So we're just going to spend 20 minutes on this thing. That's it. You don't have to spend any more if you want to keep going. Obviously you can keep going. The problem with getting things done, especially bigger projects or more uncertain projects, is that we technically don't have to do them right now. You're usually, we don't have a clear deadline and we kind of keep putting it off and putting it off. So your brain knows I don't have to technically get started on this right away. But by setting a timer, you create a little mini deadline for yourself to get started and build momentum. I like to say I'll feel better about myself after I do this thing. You don't have to feel motivated. Motivation actually comes from taking action. Okay, I'm starting a timer right now, so hide this window or put it in the background while you're working on the task that you want to work on. Go do the thing now. Don't click on another suggested video. Go do it now and come back when the timer goes off. Okay, you did it. If this video worked for you and you actually got some work done, I'd love to see you leave a comment below like this video. Subscribe, maybe even bookmark this video so you can use it again in the future if you want to learn to rely less on willpower to get things done. I have another video I think you'll like, and it's called Laziness is actually the key to Self Discipline. So go watch that video now, and I'll see you in the next one.