How to FINALLY Beat Procrastination | Jim Kwik

In this lesson, I wanna share with you 6 tips on how to smash procrastination. And when I say that word, does it make you cringe? Is there an area of your life, something that you know you should do, but you're having trouble getting yourself to do it? Getting yourself to study, getting yourself to class, getting yourself to write that report or do that research paper. Is there some area of your school, of your learning, where you're procrastinating. You're putting it off even though you know you should not do it, but you still do it. Maybe if it's not in school, it's in your personal life. You're putting off working out or having your brainpower smoothie. But imagine, I want you to think about one thing that if you did it, it would make your life better. Like you need to do it, but you're putting it off. And I'm gonna give you these 6 things. And I want you to take one of these ideas and apply it towards this thing, 'cause I wanna make it very, very practical and very, very relevant, okay? So here are the 6 ways of overcoming procrastination. One way of overcoming procrastination is putting it off. Procrastinate procrastinating. If you're so good at procrastinating, then procrastinate procrastinating and do it now. And it's kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke, but really, Use your great skill at putting things off to put off putting things off and do it now. Because I believe that if you can't get yourself to do action, then life doesn't change. You see my shirt here, knowledge by itself is not power, but knowledge times action gives you so much power. The power to make things better. So do the things that are hard and then life gets easier. If you just do the easy things, which are procrastinate, then life gets very, very hard. So first, put it off. Second tip on smashing procrastination is something called the Zeigarnik effect. Zeigarnik effect. Dr. Zeigarnik was a psychologist and she was going to a cafe in Europe and she would notice that the waitstaff would remember everyone's order at this cafe until the order was delivered. As soon as the order was delivered, the waitstaff would forget that order. And she calls it the Zeigarnik effect, named after her. But the effect specifically is the brain, the human mind, does not like open loops. Open loops. It's just like when you see a trailer or the ending of your favorite TV show, you can't wait the next week till the next episode comes out, and it makes you watch it or you binge-watch it all online because your brain doesn't like that open loop at the end, and it needs to keep going to close that loop. Just like with this waitstaff, It has an open loop and it gets closed. And once that closure has happened, the order is delivered, then you could forget it and it's done. And this is how you employ it. It means start somewhere, but anywhere. The Zeigarnik effect says if you're gonna start something, you're much more likely to finish it. And the good thing about it, because the mind really craves that closure, so start somewhere, start anywhere, but just be The 3rd tip for smashing procrastination is make micro-commitments. My friend, Dr. BJ Fogg, head of the behavioral psychology lab at Stanford University, talks about tiny habits. That if you want to, let's say, floss your teeth, and you haven't been able to get yourself to do it, you procrastinate it, you know, you've seen the research that flossing your teeth can help you live longer, but you're still not doing it. What he talks about are tiny habits, starting with just forget about trying to floss all your teeth, just commit to flossing one tooth. One tooth. What's the smallest amount of behavior you could do right now to get that result? The smallest, smallest part. Because if you floss one tooth, what's gonna happen? You're not gonna stop there. You're gonna go to the second, third, and all of a sudden you're done. When we teach people how to read faster, we have our 21-day program called Kwik Reading on how to triple your reading speed, your focus, your memory, your comprehension, your enjoyment. But we don't tell people to study just 30 minutes a day and read for 30 minutes a day, even though you have 30 minutes of reading to do already. I just talk about one sentence. Read one sentence to practice these new techniques. And if you read one sentence, what's gonna happen? You're gonna read the second and the third. So breaking it down to tiny micro-commitments, it's like if you wanna work out, what's the smallest behavior you could do to build momentum? Maybe you're not going to do a big workout. Maybe you just put on your running shoes. Maybe you just get yourself to the gym because getting to the gym, from there, gets a lot easier. You just need to create momentum. So that's the third tip, tiny steps. The fourth tip is to do it. The 4th tip for smashing procrastination is be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself. Studies done in self-compassion reveal that when you are hard on yourself, meaning you beat yourself up when you don't get something done, it's actually a deterrent to getting the work done. That actually what makes it easier is to be kind to yourself. When you have self-love and self-compassion, you are kind with yourself, you're more likely to follow through. Mm-hmm. When you say to yourself, hey, I'm human, I've had a long day, I'm not gonna be able to work out today, but it's gonna be okay, I'll do it tomorrow, you're more likely to follow through. And number 5 and number 6, you already know, but I'm gonna remind you because repetition is very important when it comes to human memory. Number 5 is find your why. Remember the second power question? The first question was, how can I use this? The second question is, why must I use this? One of my favorite books, as I mentioned, is by Simon Sinek, Start with Why. Head, heart, hands. If you have a goal in mind, but you're procrastinating with your hands, check in with the second H, which is your— Heart. Heart. Get back to the emotions because we do things not always logically, but emotionally because we're not logical all the time, but we're always biological. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins. We're this chemical soup of feelings and emotions. Tap into that reservoir of energy. You can't steer a parked car. You need fuel and energy. So find your why. What are all the benefits that could— I'll have if I do this thing? How good will I feel on the other side of this once this thing is done? Or if it's not positive emotions, use those negative emotions to propel you forward. What's gonna happen if I don't do this? Who am I disappointing if I don't get this done? Who's watching me right now that's counting on me to be successful and to show up today? Use positive or negative emotions to propel you forward. That's number 5, is to find your why. And then finally, number 6, which we've talked about, it's the 3rd question in this series. It's when will I do this? When will I do this? Because if it's not in your calendar, it's not gonna get done. So number 6, you gotta schedule it. If you schedule it, it's more likely to happen and you won't put it off and you won't procrastinate. A lot of people will put off their things that they need to do, studying, preparing for a class, writing their report, doing their research, or their personal development goals. This is when I'm gonna meditate. This is when I'm gonna move and exercise. This is when I'm gonna study. This is when I'm gonna take my brain break. Put it in your calendar because again, your calendar on your phone or in analog on a calendar, print calendar, is your most powerful productivity performance tool you have. So there you have it, the 6 keys for smashing procrastination. Number 1, procrastinate, procrastinate. Number 2, the Zeigarnik effect. Start somewhere, start anywhere, but start now. Number 3, Tiny habits. Break it down to the smallest behavior to get some momentum. Number 4, be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Number 5, start with why. Find out why you need to do this and really feel it. And number 6, schedule it, because if it's not on your calendar, it won't get done. But if it is, you won't procrastinate it anymore. Remember this when we're talking about procrastination, that the treasure you seek is hidden in the work you're avoiding. The treasure you seek is hidden in the work that you're not doing. The important work that you know you have to do and you should do, but you're putting it off, which makes it worse. So remember these 6 tips. Let me know in the comments one thing that you've put off and what you're gonna do about it. One thing that you've been putting off. Maybe it's studying, maybe it's that phone call, maybe it's that meeting with one of your professors. Whatever it is, Write that down in the comment, and what are you gonna do to make that happen? That's what you're gonna do in the comments, and that's what you're gonna do today. Take action immediately, because knowledge times action is power.