Beat Procrastination and Get Stuff Done.

1. Introduction to the Course: We all know we have to exercise, but we don't all know. We have duty for 30 minutes everyday, but we still don't. We all know we should spend time with our loved ones, but we still don't. Sometimes we even put off simple tasks like organizing a bed of closet just to simply walk drop. So is it okay to say that you are lazy? I would say it's not. This isn't laziness or bad time management. This is procrastination. To make it simpler. Constellation is the habit of avoiding urgent things despite negative consequences. When people procrastinate, they often delay priorities and instead focus on less important and more enjoy with simple tasks that we all have procrastinated on some or the other occasions. But doing it too often comes with its cost. If you add a row in it, then you've probably asked yourself this question at some point of time. Why do I procrastinate so much? Or why do I keep real fascinating, even though I know that it's bad for me and my future. These are important questions. Understanding why you procrastinate is crucial. If you want to go ahead and figured out how to stop doing. Hi, I'm sure exactly. I'm considering engineer inequality x squared. But more than that, I'm a productivity nerd and my passion is teaching. I'm a creator of ordinal 50-plus online courses on various topics, but my favorite topics or quality and productivity. And I love helping my students to get the best out of your productive time. In this fast-paced course, we will not only tried to answer all your questions, why you procrastinate, but we will also understand the mechanism behind procrastination and see a comprehensive list of reasons why people procrastinate based on decades of research on the topic. Furthermore, you will learn how this information can help you figure out why you procrastinate and how you can use it in order to successfully work on this bad habit of procrastination. And the best part is every lecture comes with an individual exercise. So when you do that exercise, to get a better understanding of the concept that you've just learned. And at the end of the lecture series, you will have your own action plan ready. Research shows that procrastination is tied to being easily distracted, impulsive, and having low self belief in our ability to follow through on what you set out to do. But there are steps that you can take based on science and overcome procrastination. I get closer to live the life that you've always wanted to live. In a big lift, your dream like, we shall learn all of them much more in this course. I'm super excited to see you inside the course. So let's get started. 2. Why Do We Procrastinate Part 1: So let us kick off by first of all, understanding what is procrastination? Procrastination is an act of dealing or putting off task until the last minute, or sometimes even pause dead deadlines. So in other words, it is a force that prevents you from following through on what you set out to do. Now the main psychological mechanism behind procrastination is as follows. When we need to get something done, we rely primarily on our self-control in order to bring ourselves to do it. Self-control often received support from our motivation, which helps us to get things done in a timely manner. Now in some cases, we experience certain demotivating factors such as anxiety or fear of failure, which have an opposite effect than giving us motivation. And in addition to that, we sometimes even experienced certain hindering factors such as exhaustion or outcomes that are far in the future. Now, this interferes with our self-control and motivation when de-motivating and hindering factors outweigh or self-control and motivation. We end up procrastinating either indefinitely until we reach a point in time when the balance between them shifts in our favor. Now when it comes to specific reasons why people procrastinate in terms of de-motivating and hindering factors. There are a lot of things and some of the things that lead to procrastination or negative feelings such as boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, and self-doubt. This is especially true when we have task aversion. Maybe it's too boring or too complex, which stresses us out. So naturally we do everything in our power to avoid doing it. To make things worse. We are under distress. The rational part of the brain completely shut down. And the part of the brain that moderates or fear response, the task as a genuine threat to our self-esteem or mental satisfaction. Too many distractions. We give into too many distractions for instant gratification. Now, this is what makes procrastination cycle especially vicious. The fundamental concept in behaviorism is that when we are rewarded for something, we tend to do it. Again. Putting off a task provides us relief in the immediate present. As such, we keep delaying task until it turns out to be a chronic habit, trying to control everything. Now, if you put things off, they can't go wrong. Am I right? Now unfortunately, you can't put off things forever. My procrastination, you hold the most control over whatever task you're working on. However, this also means obviously that the particular task isn't being done. While you may originally feel like you have more power through procrastination, this often dissolves into a lack of control as your time constraints begun restricting your ability to make good decisions, failing to jump down a project. Now, imagine your boss gives you a task of completing a two hour presentation for a client. Now if you look at this task as one big task, then you are bound to feel overwhelmed. And that is a very high chance that you will either try to avoid this task altogether. You will say, okay, let me do it later. Now, instead of looking at this task as one huge task, you could have broken it down into smaller parts. Maybe something like researching on the topic of the presentation, deciding how many slides you're going to incorporate in your presentation. Do some slides right now. I'm do some later on. You can add the graphics and pictures at the end. Also, what you can do is you can complete your presentation in steps. And in the end, you can go ahead and proofread and polish it. Now, this is just one example and this can apply to a number of situations. By breaking things down into parts, you will find that the task is much more doable. And this will also produce less stress and aversion to work. Obsession with perfectionism. Now sometimes being perfectionist works in your favor. However, it can be tempting to put things off or delete completing a task simply because you're worried about the outcome being less than perfect. Now perfection doesn't exist in first place. I would say it's a myth. Whatever you do today, you can always make it better tomorrow. Now, simply put in your best effort and realize that's all you can do. This will help you stop asking, Why do I procrastinate? Remember, a completed Albert? Imperfect task is better than an uncompleted task. The fear of failure. Now, people often procrastinate because they are afraid of failing at a task that they need to complete. Now, this fear of failure can promote procrastination in various ways, such as by causing people to avoid finishing a task, or by causing them to our getting started on the task in first place. For example, someone might be so worried that their business idea will fail, that they end up continuing to work on it indefinitely without ever making it available to the public. Lack of self-control. Not there are definitely varying levels of self-control. Everyone is different. However, there is a point in which your self-control can get in the way of your productivity. People sometimes procrastinate because they feel incapable of controlling the outcomes of the events in their life. For example, a person might delay getting started on an assignment at work. If you feel that your boss will criticize them, regardless of the quality of the work that they perform. This perceived lack of control can play a role in specific or isolated cases. Some people are more predisposed Feeling a general lack of control than others. Now, this issue is operationalized through the concept of locus of control, which is the degree to which people believe that they have control over events in their life. So these are just some of the reasons why people actually tend to procrastinate. In our next lecture, we will look at some more reasons why people tend to postpone their task and procrastinate in general. 3. Why Do We Procrastinate Part 2: Now in a previous lecture, we saw some of the reasons why people tend to procrastinate and push their task for it tomorrow. Now let's look at some more reasons why people procrastinate. Failing to make a to-do list. Procrastination can come as a result of something falling through the cracks. If you put something off and then forget to write down that you need to do it later. It's possible that you could completely forget about that task in future. Lack of priority. Now if you're asking, why do I procrastinate? It may be that you either have too many tasks or you don't truly acknowledge the differing importance of each task. And as there is getting nothing done, your time is spent switching constantly from one task to another, or spending too much time deciding what to do. This often happens to people who like to multitask or have variety of things to do all the time. Things can get mixed up. And prioritization can become a major issue. Feeling overwhelmed. This is one of the most common answers to questions. Why do I procrastinate? The sheer overwhelms of a daunting task. The complexity of a task can cause the brain to lose its motivation and avoid doing it altogether. Choosing instead to stay in your comfort zone. The search then starts for a more enjoyable task, and the harder tasks are usually put off. This can cause stress and dread when the task invariably comes up to be computed. Indecisiveness. Now, people sometimes procrastinate because they are unable to make decisions in a timely manner. Now this can be an issue in various ways, such as when a person can't decide which course of action to engage in, or when a person needs to make a certain decision before they can move ahead with the agenda plan of action. For example, a person might delay starting to die because they can't decide which diet plan to follow. Similarly, a person might delay getting started on the research paper just because they cannot decide which topic to write about. Lack of motivation. People often procrastinate because they are not motivated enough to work on a given task. For example, a student might just procrastinate when it comes to studying for a test in a subject that isn't relevant to their major because they really don't care about getting good grade on it. Furthermore, there can be various reasons why people can be unmotivated to work on a task. For example, in some cases, people are unmotivated because they really don't value the reward for performing the task, or because they experience at disconnect between the tasks that they need to perform and the reward that is associated with relying on external pressure. Now procrastinating a task does not always equate to worst work. Some people work very well under pressure situation and can really produced very good work, while others are simply lucky. However, some people don't do this on purpose. Even when procrastination does generally go well for them. Eventually, there will come a time when procrastination doesn't work if it isn't being done on purpose. So be mindful of the quality of your work and make sure that your last minute rush doesn't show up and just being lazy. Now, this is one of the most common reason for procrastination. We just don't feel like doing whatever it is we're putting off. This could be translated as a lack of motivation as well. Being lazy doesn't always have to be a bad thing. It's totally okay for you to lounge around and watch TV rather than mow the lawn sometimes. But just don't let this behavior becomes habitual. Because in the long run, that is a lot that you will lose. Other than the reasons that we have mentioned here. There are many more other reasons why people can procrastinate. Let's take a quick glimpse at some of the other reasons why people would usually put their task for tomorrow. Not knowing what needs to be done, not knowing how to do something, not wanting to do something, not getting if it gets done, on not not getting when something gets done, not feeling in the mood to do it, being in the habit of waiting until the last minute, believing that you work better under pressure, thinking that you can finish it at the last minute. Lacking the initiative to get started, forgetting the task completely. Blaming sickness or poor health, waiting for the right moment, needing time to think about the task and dealing one task in favor of working for another. Now the negative effects of procrastination can range from simply missing a deadline on an important task to something more long term, such as missing an opportunity that kills a dream. Some of us might be lucky enough to identify our tendency to procrastinate in time and still do something about it. While for others, it can have a long-lasting effect that resonates throughout their life. Yet are some of the common effects of procrastination that can destroy not only a productivity, but also your long-term dreams. Higher level of stress and illness. The increased burden placed on social relationships, resentment from friends, family, coworkers and fellow students. And last but not the least, low self-esteem and damage to your own reputation. 4. Eat That Frog: Rule number one. Eat that frog. Eat the frog strategy is a prioritization and productivity method used to help people identify difficult task. The idea that you identify one challenging task, that is the frog, and complete the task first thing in the morning by eating it. Now the analogy of eating frogs gum from Mark Twain, who says that if you can start your morning by eating a live frog, you'd have tackled the worst thing that can happen that day. Your frog is your most crucial task. What you're most likely to differ yet can create a biggest impact on all your outcomes throughout the day. Take the first step and the motivation follows. At the heart of procrastination is the thinking that tomorrow we will like it more. But studies show that we are very bad at predicting how we will fill in the future. You know how it is. Decide to give up caffeine, for example. But before you do this, you treat yourself one last time. And right after you had your fixed, you think that it wouldn't be so hard to stick to your plan. But as soon as the temptation hits, you're back to where you started. Knowing that we are unable to predict or anticipate our emotion, makes it easier to act now because it can allow you to start on a task even though you're not motivated. And ironically, when you start to do this, that is also when the momentum starts building up. And when momentum builds, the seed of motivation begins to sprout. Erroneously think that they need to feel like it or be motivated before doing something. But it's the opposite. Motivation always follows the action. Now finished the task. You have been postponing for a long time a sure-fire way to overcome procrastination and become more motivated is to do it really by, you might feel paralyzed to start working on something because you think that it needs to be done perfectly. Or that you can't begin because you're not capable enough to do it. So you keep on delaying the task instead of waiting until you're better prepared or feel like it, just dive right into it. Pick up the task that you have been postponing for a really long time. Just because you thought that it was a tough task. Completing the most difficult task not only gives you a great sense of achievement and an initial boost to do more. But doing it badly allows you to act and make it much easier to follow through. And you can always refine it later. If you use this moto, you'll start to notice that the aversion that you're feeling towards stars changes into excitement and ease. And last but not the least, declutter your mind. If you have a bunch of things on your mind, you're bound to get over as the clutter of all these tasks pile over each other, collectively look like one giant and achievable task. And therefore, it helps to get them on a paper and off your mind. This is one of the essential habits in the Zen philosophy of mindfulness. Writing down your task and ideas. This keeps your head from being filled with everything you need to do and keep on remembering it. It also helps you to organize the tasks in order of their priority and get them done based on the relevance and importance. Now is the time for making an action plan. Pick up a tough task that you have been postponing for a long time, start working on the task for at least ten minutes. You will notice that once you start, you will feel motivated to complete the task. Maintain that motivation, and try to complete that task in one go. Make a list of all your pending tasks, and start assigning a tough timeline to each one of them. 5. Know Your Whys: Step number two. No, yo Wise recognize the early symptoms of procrastination. Now overall, we procrastinate because our self-control and motivation, which might be hindered by factors such as exhaustion and rewards that are far in the future are outweighed by demotivating factors such as anxiety and fear of failure. Now, before we start working on a procrastination, It's important that we first realized that we are procrastinating. One needs to recognize the early symptoms. Start taking corrective action before it becomes. Second nature. You might be putting off a task because you probably had to re-prioritize your workload. If you are briefly delaying an important task for a genuinely good reason, then you aren't really procrastinating. However, if you start to put things off indefinitely or switch focus because you want to avoid doing something completely, then you probably are procrastinating. You may be procrastinating, if you will, your day with low priority task, you leave an item on your to-do list for a long time. Even though it is important, you read emails several times ever without deciding on what to do with them. You start a high priority task and then go off to make a coffee. You fill your time with unimportant task that people asked you to do, instead of getting on with important tasks which are already on your list. Weight to be in the right mood, or weight to be in the right time to tackle the task. Once you recognize the symptoms that you are on the verge of building procrastination as your second nature. Understand the reason behind it. You need to understand the reason why you are procrastinating before you even tackle it. Specifically, there are three main factors that you should consider when accessing the nature of your procrastination. When do you procrastinate? Now, this involves asking yourself, in what situations do you procrastinate? For example, do you tend to procrastinate more when you're working from home compared to when you're working in a public library. Do you struggle to finish task after you started them? Or do you struggle to get started in first place? Second, you should understand how you procrastinate. Now this involves asking yourself, what do you do when you're procrastinating? For example, do you browse social media? You play video games, you watch TV shows, you go out with friends, or find small and unimportant task to complete. And last but not the least, ask yourself, why do you procrastinate? Now, this involves asking yourself, what is exactly causing you to procrastinate. For example, do you constantly find yourself being distracted? Or do you feel so over that you don't know how to even get started. For instance, if you are avoiding a particular task because you find it boring or unpleasant. If so, it takes steps to get out of the way quickly so that you can focus on the aspect of your job that you enjoy more. Whatever maybe the reason that comes out as a good reason for your procrastination. You need to sit down with a pen and paper and then self analyze your good reason to postpone your task. Only when you understand the good reasons. You can come up with an action plan that makes us situation vector in future. Now that you have been able to recognize the symptoms and also understand the core reason for your procrastination. Let's build an action plan to tackle it. Pick up any top three important tasks that you have procrastinated in the last few months or years. Next to each task, write down all the possible reasons you believe you procrastinated. You can use the list in the first chapter or think of any other possible reasons that come to your mind. But just be totally honest with them. Now next to each reason, give it a rating on a scale of one to ten, where one means the least impact and ten means the highest impact. The one with the highest score is the core reason for your procrastination. Something that you need to nip in the body. 6. Chunk it Down: Rule number three, junk and dumb. People are more likely to procrastinate when their goals are vague or abstract compared to when their goals are concrete and clearly defined. For example, goals such as getWidth or start exercising, or relatively vague, and therefore are likely to lead to procrastination. Comparatively, a goal such as go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after work, and spend at least 45 minutes on the treadmill. Running at the highest speed is a concrete, and therefore more likely to lead you to act. Furthermore, note that in addition to lack of clear definition, there are other factors that can make a goal field abstract. For example, according to a construal level theory, goals that are perceived as highly improbable are also perceived as relatively abstract. This means that if a person finds it unlikely that they will attain a certain goal, this can cause them to view that goal as abstract, which in turn can increase the likelihood that they will procrastinate on it. You see even a small task, one big project. Now people sometimes procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed with regard to the task that they need to handle. A feeling of overwhelm can occur due to variety of reasons, such as having a single task that feeds huge in terms of scope, or having a large number of small tasks that add up to one big task. When this happens, a person might simply decide to avoid the task in question, or they might attempt to handle them, but then end up feeling paralyzed before they even complete that task. For example, if you need to clean up your entire house, the fact that the task will take so long and involved so many parts cause you to feel overwhelmed, in which case, you might avoid getting started on it in first place. So the best way to approach a task is by breaking a large and overwhelming task into small and actionable pieces. For example, if your goal is to write a paper for a class, you can go ahead and break down this large task of writing the paper into ordered list of subtask. You can go ahead and list those sub-tasks, something like deciding on a topic. Follow back on. Collect the list of relevant resources. Start working with PowerPoint slides. Beside the number of slides, proofread and polish your content and so on and so forth. When using this technique, there are few things that you should keep in mind. You can break the task apart as much as you want. A good rule of thumb is to create sub-tasks that take no more than a single session to complete. Meaning that you can finish them before you even need to go ahead and take a break. If it helps, start with the small task post. Some people find that it helps to start with the small task force in order to make it easier for yourself. Get over the initial hurdle of even actually getting started. And then you don't have to outline the entire project from the start. For example, if you're dealing with a big project, you don't need to start by outlining all its upcoming steps. And doing so can even be counter productive. Instead, it's often preferable to start by figuring out only the next few steps that you need to handle, and then keep on adding the new ones later once you've made sufficient progress, Let's move to our action plan. Make a list of all the pending and upcoming tasks in your list. Break down your task into smaller parts. Set a start time and end time for each task and subtask. Next to every task, write down the consequences of completing or not completing the task. And last but not the least, visualize the outcome of the real cost of procrastination. Visualizing outcomes that you want can definitely increase your confidence. Seeing yourself succeed helps you believe that it can and will happen. Visualization helps you practice success. When you imagine every step of an event or activity going well, you get your mind and body ready to go ahead and take on those steps in real life. 7. Environment Matters : Rule number four, the environment matters. Declutter your environment and keep it free from non distractions. Different environments have different impact on productivity. Look at your work desk. Do they make you want to work or do they make you want to snuggle and sleep? If it's the latter, then you should look into changing your workspace. One thing to note is that an environment that makes us feel inspired before may lose its effect after a period of time. And if that's the case, then it's time to go ahead and change things around. For instance, if you can't work in public places because of the constant movement and noise, then find a quiet place to sit down and focus to avoid procrastinating and focus on what your decided to focus on. Try to remove every possible distraction from your work environment, both physical and digital. For example, you can take your iPhone, put it on do not disturb mode, and then put it in a drawer that requires you to physically get up in order to check it. Disabled the notifications and alerts on your devices to basically unplug before you plug in and focus. Understand your body and your mind. Now, different people have different cycles of productivity, which means that for different people, they are productive during different types of delete. For example, some people might work better in the morning, while others might be more productive in the night. Similarly, some people might be the most productive after they eat, while others might be more productive when they are hungry. A good way to reduce your tendency to procrastinate. Identify your peak times, which other times of the day when you're most productive, and then plan your schedule so that most of your work is scheduled for those time periods. Finally, when accounting for your productivity cycles, keep in mind that you might be able to handle different types of tasks better during different times of the day. For example, you might be able to handle creative tasks better when it's still early in the day. And menial tasks better when it's relatively late. Using this logic, list, all the tasks from when you wake up to get to the office, to when you go to sleep, then prioritize them based on how much effort you put into completing them, the time that they take, and how crucial they are. Finally, you will have a list of high, medium, and low priority tasks that you perform during the day. High productivity hours should be reserved for client work or important task. Medium productivity hours can be used for important tasks with comparatively low priority. And low-productivity hours can be used for tasks that take minimal effort, like conducting a meeting or reading emails. Let's work out an action plan now. Let's go ahead and clean up the space. You usually perform your most important tasks. Keep all your distractions, such as your phone, TV remote, or any other gadgets at a distance. So they are not easily accessible. And last but not the least, know which part of the day you are at your peak energy levels. Schedule your most important tasks during that period. 8. Gain Clarity: Rule number five, gain clarity. Oftentimes, the only reason we procrastinate is that we lacked clarity. It is book Atomic Habits. James Clear has mentioned, many people think they lack motivation. When what they really lacked is just clarity. You see many people procrastinate not because they lacked motivation, but because they don't know crystal clear what to work on and in which direction to go in life. This lack of clarity leads to inaction. Or the other hand, when you have clear goals and clear vision for your life, motivation tends to follow as a natural byproduct on this mental clarity. Just like when going on a holiday, you have to know your end destination. So you can plan and follow the correct route to get there. If you don't know where you're heading, you will just wandering around in circles. Nevertheless, it's incredibly useful to at least some sort of vision of what you want to do in your life in the coming three to five years. Anything beyond that might be uncertain, but you can likely make a good prediction of what you want to do B and achieve in the next few years. The clearer you get on this bigger vision, the more you can structure your days and weeks around making this vision a reality. This level of clarity provides a huge boost in daily inspiration, motivation, and productivity. It's one of the strongest antidote to inaction and procrastination. May 1 procrastinate for any of the following reasons. I don't know why I should complete the task. I don't know what the end results will look like. I don't know the skills needed to approach the task. To help you clarify your bigger life vision, I recommend you ask yourself the following questions. Why should I achieve what I aim to achieve? What would the perfect average day look like for me in the future? What projects would I be working on? And what do I do outside of work? Where would I want to live and what would I want my house to look like? What parts, habits, and actions would be my standards of few years from now? What skills and knowledge would I love to master? And last but not the least, what goals would I love to have achieved three to five years from now? These questions will help you shine a light on the things you desire in life. This will give you your bigger vision. You can put this vision on a paper to make it more tangible so you can review it every day. Yet is an example of a bigger vision written out. I want to earn at least six figures a year writing and be able to write from anywhere in the world. I want to be incredibly fit, healthy, and energize. So I feel confident I can enjoy the life to the fullest. And on top of that, I want to build a loving, supporting relationship together with my family and want to buy my dream house on the beach in Miami. Writing your bigger region this way will always be one of the reason that will get you out of the bed every morning. And yet is the action plan that we will build for a future in order to avoid procrastination and rush towards our goods. Pick up the task you have been postponing for lack of clarity for months and years. Answer the following questions. Why completing this task is important to me? Do I know what my final outcome will look like? If not, how can I research to find out the answer? Do I understand all the steps involved in reaching my goal? If not, can I seek guidance from someone? Is there anything else I should know to get a better outcome? And last but not the least, ask all the questions on the previous slide and create your big vision. 9. Overcome Fear of Failure: Rule number six, overcome your fear of failure. Now, people often procrastinate because they are afraid of failing at the task that they need to complete. This fear of failure can promote procrastination in various ways, such as causing people to our finishing a task, or by causing them to our getting started on the task in first place. For example, someone might be so worried that their business idea will feel that they end up continuing to work on it indefinitely without even making it available to the public anytime in future. Furthermore, certain personality traits, such as low self-esteem and low self confidence, are associated with increased fear of failure, which makes people who have these traits are more likely to procrastinate. Moreover, fear of failure is an especially serious issue among those who suffer from high level of self-doubt. And particularly among those who are prone to having negative, irrational beliefs about their abilities. But nevertheless, failure is an integral part of success. Success is nothing but going from one failure to the next without giving up until you succeed. If you wanted to succeed faster, you have to fail more. And you have to learn to love feeling and constantly learn from it. Let's build an action plan to go ahead and overcome our failures. Sit and analyze all the fears that have kept you from achieving your goals. The best way to do that is write it down on a piece of paper. Now, accept your fears and understand that they only exist in your mind and not in reality. Write down all the things that you can accomplish in future if you do what you need to do, regardless of how you feel, right down, all the things you will miss in the future if you stay in your comfort zone. Evaluate both the list and now gauge which one is more important to you right now. Doing what you need to do, or just being in your comfort zone. Accept that failures are part and parcel of the process. And see yourself as a lifelong learner. And always remember this mantra. That is no failure. That is either success or a less than. So just keep moving. 10. Build a Routine and Consistency: Rule number seven, build a routine and maintain consistency. Now one reason it is so easy to slip back into procrastination time after time is because we don't have a clear system for deciding what is important and what we should work on first, most of us tend to turn up R knows that the word routine, because we think routines equal to boring. Now I'm convinced that when you put your daily routine into place and try it out, you will see how much freedom it gives you. You'll see how much easier than lighter your days when you no longer have to spend so much time thinking about what is important, what to do next, when to do it, and how long should you go ahead and do that? You see how exhausting it is to have to do that every single day. Now the fact that the routine brings freedom might sound like somewhat of a contradiction to you. But here is what creating a routine will offer you. First of all, decide a place and time for your routine. Know exactly what you will be doing. Start and keep working without distractions. Duluth finished the task. Keep it simple to be consistent. I want you to know that there is no right routine or a perfect schedule. If you're a morning person, don't force yourself to be productive in the night, and vice versa. Don't schedule your to-dos that require a lot from you in the morning. If you're a night person, when you find that you do your best in certain times of the day, schedule your most important tasks that time. For example, if you find that you do your best work somewhere between 122 PM, then what you can do is you can schedule a lunch break earlier and then start working from three to two. Books and programs try to make you believe that there is only one right way to do things. That is, if you make better use of your mornings, then you will be more productive. Now personally, I don't buy that. I believe that every human being on this planet is different and each person on this planet has different priorities, different personalities, different talents, different ways of doing things, and different lives. And that means that there is no one, right? Perfect. One size fits all kind of routine. I want you to build your strength to create your own routine for yourself. And having said that, now, it's time to start building an intentional daily routine for yourself. Write down the five most important things that you need to accomplish tomorrow. Not, do not write more than five. And if possible, try to write down one big task and for small task if possible. However, there is no hard rule for that. You can go ahead and divide the task as per your priorities and your preference. Prioritize these five items in order of their true importance. Now when you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Now work until the first task is finished. Before you move on to the second task, approach, the rest of your list in the same fashion. And at the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of fighters for the following day. Repeat this process every single day. And you will soon realize how much change a routine can bring to your everyday life. 11. Maintain Energy and Reward Yourself: Rule number eight, manager energies and Bill bought plan. Now if you don't have high level of energy, it is very normal to procrastinate. A lack of energy may be caused by overworking by now or even temporary exhaustion. But it can also be caused by unhealthy lifestyle. If you have a really poor diet with no exercise, small changes can have big benefits on your productivity. One can make small changes in their life to have more productivity throughout the day. Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past. Studies show that self forgiveness can help you feel more positive about yourself and reduce the likelihood of procrastination in future. Get enough sleep, at least seven to eight hours and make sure it's a quality sleep, eat healthy and stay hydrated and give yourself a break. Don't be too hard on yourself if you're having a tough time beating procrastination. Remember, you are a human being and we all love to sit and stew in our own uncompleted mess of work. Sometimes just work hard and make an attempt to get out of it. And since we are plugged into the digital world, we constantly had music or sound on. It can be overwhelming and stressful, causing us to tune out of work and life. So give yourself at least 15 minutes of quiet time every day to refocus and be with yourself. Have selective but inspiring company. Now I'm pretty sure that if you just spend ten minutes talking to somebody like Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, you'll be more inspired to act if you spend ten minutes doing nothing. The people we are with influences our behavior. Of course, spending time with Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos everyday is probably not a feasible method. But the same principle applies to identify the people friends or colleagues could trigger you. Most likely the go-getters and the hard workers, and then hang out with them more often. Soon, you will inculcate the air dry and spirit to ask someone to check up on, you know, peer pressure works. This is a principle behind self-help groups. Now if you don't have anyone to ask, then there are lots of online tools that can help you to self-monitor your daily routine. Having a companion makes the whole process much more fun. Ideally, your body should be someone who has his own set of goals. Both of you will hold each other accountable for your goals and plans. While it's not necessary that both of you should have same goods, but it will be even better. That really happens so that both of you can learn from each other. They tell others about your goals. Tell all your friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and family about your projects. Now, whenever you see them, they are bound to ask you about your status on those projects. Seek guidance from someone who has already achieved the outcome. What is it that you want to accomplish? And who are the people who have accomplished it already? Go seek them out and connect with them. Seeing living proof that your goals are very well achievable if your act is one of the best triggers for action, and never forget to reward yourself. People often procrastinate because important tasks that are rewarding for them in the long term are less appealing than the beneficial behaviors that feel more rewarding in the short term. As such, you can reduce the likelihood that you will procrastinate by associating the rewards that are pleasant in the short-term with actions that are good for you in the long term. For example, you can decide to take a short break and watch some TV for every chapter that you read in preparation of your exam, you could eat a small piece of chocolate as a reward for every task that you compete on your to-do list. Similarly, you can also make your accomplishment more rewarding. Doing simple things, such as writing down every task that you complete throughout the day and then going over them at night to see how much you managed to achieve. Note that you can reward yourself either for getting started on the task, for completing it, or for working on it. In January. Rewards should be given for behaviors that are meaningful enough that they allow you to make progress, but that are also accessible enough that they motivate you in the short term. Look at all that you have accomplished. Rather than punishing yourself for not having done enough. Take the more positive approach of examining all that you have done. It is the same theory. Is the glass half empty or half full? Celebrate the completion of your tasks. Have a specific reward in mind for when you finish your project. Go out for a dinner, go to a movie, take a weekend to have a body. The celebration should be equal to the magnitude of the task you just completed. Reward yourself when you accomplish a small good. Rather than procrastinating a whole afternoon by calling friends, girlfriend only when you have written a page of the report as a way to reward yourself. Now you have to understand that procrastination is prevalent at a serious problem that can negatively affect your life in various ways. But research has shown that people can learn how to overcome it successfully. Procrastination can restrict your potential and even undermine your career. It can disrupt your teamwork. It can reduce your model and even lead to depression and job loss. So it's critical to take proactive steps to prevent it. The first step to overcoming procrastination is to recognize you're doing it. Then identify the reasons behind your behavior and use appropriate strategies to manage and overcome it. Remember, procrastination is a tough problem to solve, but you are always more tougher. And if you're willing to follow the necessary steps in order to create a good plan of action. Then if you're willing to go ahead and put all your effort in following up on your plan of action. You have a very great chance at being able to overcome your procrastination.