Transcripts
1. Introduction: You procrastinate,
I procrastinate. Everyone procrastinates. Unfortunately,
procrastination is known to be the killer of dreams. So why do we procrastinate? Actually, there are
things that happen behind the scenes which actually
cause you to procrastinate, and you are not
the one to blame. There are strategies to
overcome procrastination. There are techniques to overcome procrastination to drive and
increase your motivation. And this is what I'm going to be teaching you in
this current class. As an engineer and an
educator and teacher, I'm going to be sharing with you this exclusive,
powerful knowledge which is drawn from
practical insights, research and evidence to help you move forward with
your day to day tasks, day to day activities,
minimizing procrastination, increasing your motivation, and helping you reach
your goals easier. And not just that. I'm going
to be sharing with you an exclusive template
that you can just simply download to use to
help you plan your day, plan your activities, and that template has been
designed to include some productivity elements
to keep you moving forward. All of these things,
we're going to be covering them in
this current class.
2. Your Project : Your project for the
class revolves around applying the key
drivers of motivation and how to avoid procrastination to our timetable and planner. Make sure that you
download the planner provided to you and
this project segment. That way, you're
able to use it to build your tasks list,
to prioritize them, and to incorporate the
elements of motivation, the elements of
productivity that we have covered in
this current class. After which you're
going to be sharing your own timetable with the rest of the
community for feedback.
3. Causes Of Procrastination: Now, procrastination always
gets in the way of tasks. Everyone is susceptible
to it, including myself. It's part of human nature, but it's important to
understand why are we procrastinating
the tasks that we need to do and that we
know should be done? Most probably, you have
multiple examples or you have multiple incidents
where you have noticed that you know that
you need to do something, yet you're not able to
get yourself to do it. And this is a very
important area in our lives that we
need to navigate, because if we're not able
to beat procrastination, we are going to remain in
a certain state over and over again until we are
going to be forced to act, which is often based
on inconvenience. So if you have something to do, the first thing that you
need to think about is do it when you can based on your own luxury of time rather than being
forced to do it. Based on stress and the external
push or pressure that's going to force you to
get the job done most probably in an
inconvenient fashion. So this is a basic analogy when we are taking a look
at procrastination, right? However, it's important to understand what are
the root causes of procrastination and
how procrastination operates. Let's take
a look at this. One of the key drivers to procrastination is
the fear of failure. If we take a look
at it over here, avoiding tasks due
to self doubt, often procrastination and doubt are known as the
killers of dreams. So if you have a certain
task in front of you, most probably you find the
task to be either challenging or uncomfortable and focus
on the word uncomfortable. Why? Because our brains, by default, we see comfort. If you are comfortable
in your current state, your brain will do its best
to keep you in that state. So that's why you
feel some sort of resistance as you
are trying to do something else because that initiates discomfort.
That's one. Two, if the task is a bit
challenging and complicated, it adds another layer of
complexity to your brain, which often is reflected as self doubt or fear in that case, being afraid of the task or you doubt your abilities
to do the tasks. And by default, your brain will give you a
better alternative, which is stay in your
current comfortable state. So by default, subconsciously, this will lead to
procrastination. That's one. Two overwhelm. Maybe you're not doubting your skills about the task or you're not
afraid of the task. However, the task
seems complicated. It has many levels. It has many layers,
many moving parts. And once again, your brain will interpret this as a
source of discomfort. So whenever you
take your actions to a source of
discomfort by default, it's an innate buildup. You're going to find some
sort of a resistance. Right? Think about it this way. You have a huge river
in front of you and you should swim across the
river in order to reach, let's say, the jackpot,
a pot of gold. There is a clear
reward over there. You might be tempted to swim, but you will find some
sort of a resistance. Why? Because your brain understands that this
is a complex task. It's something which is risky, inconvenient, combining
fear, self doubt, based on your abilities, leading you to being
overwhelmed and to procrastinate or to avoid the whole task in the
first place, right? However, if you are an expert swimmer, or
you have, let's say, a jet ski and you have an easy way to get to that
jackpot or that pot of gold, you'll breeze right through it because that's comfortable. That's easy to be done. So we're going to
be dealing with this in the upcoming lessons, how to actually, let's say, trick your brain to assume that a task is not that complicated,
reducing overwhelm, giving you the upper hand as someone who's
going to do a task, which is easy and
I'm able to do it, and I will get it done. That way, you'll face
less resistance. Hence you'll be tempted to do the task instead of
procrastinate the task. So the causes of procrastination, like we
have mentioned so far, stem from fear of failure, not being able to deliver two, being overwhelmed
by the complexity. And third, which
is perfectionism. This is crucial.
Sometimes you don't have fear of the task. You're not overwhelmed
by the task. You're not doubting your
skills of the task. And as you go about
doing the tasks, you understand that it will take a lot of effort to get
it up to your standards. And that's a problem with
being a perfectionist, in which you delay stuff until the conditions
are simply perfect. Like if you're trying
to do something, you wait for the
optimal conditions to push you to do stuff, right? Optimal environmental
circumstances, work related conditions. Whatever task that
you're dealing with, you need something to be
aligned in a certain way, based on your own mindset
in order for you to act. And that's quite inconvenient. Why? Because perfection
does not exist in life. There are no perfect conditions for you to act or do something. You create these conditions. You have developed
these expectations of certain conditions
to do a certain act. You will not send an email unless you get a cup of coffee, you have breakfast,
you go to the gym, and then you do
everything else to get the right conditions in place before you actually
send that email. So all of these layers of delays are based on your own perception
of the task, right? Perfect conditions. That's one. The other phase of
perfectionism is trying to do something in the best way
possible beyond reason. And what do I mean
by beyond reason? Obviously, you need
to do your best, but there's a certain
limit your capabilities. So if your level of
performance is here, you're able to deliver up to
here. Good job. That's it. Get it over with. Move on. But if your skill set
is here and you want to deliver more than what
you're able to do, based on your
perfectionist mindset, you will often face, doubt, fear, and overwhelm, which leads you
to procrastinate. So if you notice the root cause of procrastination
in the first place, stems from either fear of failing being overwhelmed
by the tasks, you got a lot of stuff
to do, too many layers, too many steps to be done, or you have a
perfectionist mindset where you need to do everything
perfectly by default. This perfectionism
stresses your brain as it tries to figure out all of
the moving parts of the task. So these are three root
causes of procrastination, which often you either know or you are quite
oblivious about. So at this current lesson, I would like you
to take a pause. Think about your own behavior. If you're faced with a task, what is the first thing
that pops to mind? Do you notice that you start to doubt yourself
about the task, or you think it's overwhelming, or you have the ability
to do the task. It's not overwhelming. You do not doubt your abilities, yet you would like everything to be perfect before you
get the job done. It takes a moment of
reflection to understand the root cause before
moving forward in order to know about the cycle of procrastination and
how to navigate or alter our behaviors in a way to overcome
procrastination. And do not get me wrong.
You will face a challenge. You will face a resistance because whenever you
reach a level of comfort, your brain tries to cling
to that level unless faced by different levels
of motivation which are intrinsic and extrinsic that we're going
to be discussing, by the way, to help
you better understand your own driving
force and how to channel it in a way to
overcome procrastination.
4. The Procrastination Cycle: Now let's take a look at the cycle of
procrastination in order to develop that awareness to understand our behaviors better. You will be surprised
even myself. Sometimes we do stuff on
autopilot that we have no idea that we're doing a certain behavior based on a certain pattern
over and over again, it becomes habitual,
especially procrastination. Let's take a look
at this. So this is the procrastination cycle. If we start from here, this is the task
that we need to do. With a simple logic, we need
to do something, right? Then, the first thing that
comes along is the sense of discomfort because right now, you're feeling comfortable. So for your brain, it
doesn't make sense. Why should I leave
comfort to discomfort? So by default, that's
a logical barrier. So your brain tries to
negotiate with you right? You start to overthink it. And by default,
the more time you spend on overthinking it, the less likely you're
going to do it. This decline in the
tendency to get the job done is because you
are using logic in that case to find the best ways to stay comfortable because your brain seeks comfort in that case. So you'll always find
resistance along the way unless you do a couple of things that
I'm going to show you, which will help you switch that resistance to become
push, driving force. So we have a task.
We face discomfort. Then what do we do? Obviously? We avoid the task or
procrastinate the task. We'll do it later, or we
just simply forget about it because we are
going to be facing discomfort and we do not want to be discomfortable at
this current stage. So if you notice, in order for you to overcome
procrastination, you need to resolve that
issue of discomfort, where a task is no longer
considered to be uncomfortable. And you will be surprised. There are things that you do. You might go leaps and beyond leaps in order
for you to get it done, which could be really
uncomfortable to someone else. Think about your own
hobbies, for example. If you like basketball, most probably you enjoy going to the courts and
playing basketball. But even if the basketball is like 20 minutes away
from your residence, and you need to get
your attire on, you need to get
the water bottle. You need to play in a team, you need to go and drive. All of these, by the way,
if you think about them, these are uncomfortable steps for someone who's not
interested in basketball. But because you
enjoy the outcome, you enjoy the task. By default, your mind focuses on the enjoyment
that you have, where it makes every step along the way. None considerable. And this is we need to achieve, we need to focus on in order to help us overcome
procrastination. How could we make
something quite enjoyable? How could we make
something, let's say, relatable in a way,
which we enjoy doing? Imagine if you wake up every day and you look forward
going to work. Well, often, this
is not the case. But if you are working in
a great work environment, everything is great in
terms of the ambience, your task that you're
doing, you're growing. Every day, you got a
promotion, for example. Well, it sounds
like fairy tales, but you get the idea. You are more likely
to go, right? Because it's no longer viewed
as something uncomfortable. It's viewed as something
which is joyful. So by default,
discomfort fades away. You look forward
to doing the task, and you're no longer inclined to procrastinate or
to avoid the task. So while we need to focus
on like I've mentioned, how could you as a person
watching this Lesson why now? What are the areas which usually make you
uncomfortable about getting a job done and think about
ways that you could actually twist them a bit
to make them a bit comfortable for you or joyful. Like going to work and you
get a cafe next to it. While I get to work, I'm going to have a cup of
coffee along the way. You find that you're
more inclined to go easily without
the resistance. Actually, looking forward
to that cup of coffee. Small things matter
when it comes to this. Then once we avoid the
task and we procrastinate, what do we feel?
Temporary good feelings. So you feel good by staying comfortable
and avoiding the task. So your brain gushes a bit
of hormones to make you feel that you've
achieved something where I avoided an
uncomfortable task. So what do you do by
that? Distractions. You watch TV, you grab a snack, you go on the phone,
social media. So once you reach that
level of avoidance, you feel good temporarily that
you have avoided the task, then you do something else. And then if you repeat the
cycle over and over again, those tasks that should be done are going to
have consequences, either direct or
indirect consequences, whether it affects
your own ambitions and goals or it's going to have some sort of direct
impact on your own well being, your own career, whatever
area in your life, which you tend to
procrastinate a lot of tasks which are important to the development of
that specific area. So if you do notice, once
we take a look at this, it sheds important light
light on an important topic, which is the cycle
of procrastination. And once I'm taking a
look at this right now, you realize there is
a pattern, right? For every area that we are procrastinating in in our lives, we got a task uncomfortable. We avoid it, we feel
good about avoiding it. Then we seek a distraction, and then we have long term consequences where we need to do stuff last minute or we do
it wrong the list goes on. So if you view it as a cycle, it helps you to understand
your own behaviors. So whenever you are
faced with a task right now, take a look at this. It seems uncomfortable. So by default, you're going to
trigger that cycle. So you're not going to blame yourself for
procrastinating. You have to understand
it's part of a human nature to
a certain point, where we seek comfort
rather than discomfort. And often the tendency is, we need to be pushed in
order to do something because we are stuck between
two levels of discomfort. Either you're going to be facing the discomfort of
doing the task by yourself, or you're going to be
facing the discomfort of the email that you'll be receiving from your boss telling you didn't
get the job done. So when your brain compares two levels of
discomfort, obviously, it's going to go
for the one which is less uncomfortable
in that sense. So you get the logic behind. But how could we win if
we go from discomfort? How about we go to comfort? Is there a way to some sort
of trick our brains to view every task that we need to do as a source of comfort, source of joy, something that we enjoy doing rather than something
that we have to do. Actually, there is, but
let me be very clear. It's not as easy as it sounds, because you are going to train yourself and you are dealing
with your own brain. So that by itself, requires your own understanding
about your own habits, how you navigate life
on a day to day basis. So it's not something
that you get from the first time because you are training yourself the
same way you go to the gym. You go for a day,
two, three, and four, and then you start to
see those results, but you are acting
with an intent. You have the intent
to do something and you are trying to do now, you focus on doing something. Forget about the results. Do not focus on the results. Focus on the act with the
intent of getting the results. There's a lot of
difference in that sense. That way, when you
have a clear intent that I would like to focus on avoiding procrastination
and every step that I'm taking is
in that direction. You will get a form
of the result. You do not expect to get everything that you want in
the way that you want it, because this is not how
things work out in life. You're going to act
with an intent, and then you'll be getting
a form of the result. But the whole point of what
I'm saying is always act. Do not spend time
contemplating and thinking the task and navigating the perfect way to
go about the task. Simply act with an intent
to accomplish the task. And one way or another,
you will get it done, helping you beat that
cycle of procrastination.
5. Techniques to Beat Procrastination: Welcome back. So we've learned about the procrastination cycle. The things, how do
they operate when it terms of delaying what
we need to do, right? This is what we call as
the procrastination cycle that we have covered in
the previous lesson. However, once we are inclined to
procrastinate, then what? How do we beat
procrastination or increase our chances of
actually getting things done? This is where we
need to equip equip ourselves with techniques
that we could use. Think about it like a tools box that you could use instead of trying to think and contemplate
how to go about a task, keeping in mind,
the more you think, the more inclined for
you to delay the task. This is very important.
So as you go about a certain task, and you find yourself you are
willing to procrastinate. Use these tools to help you
overcome procrastination. First of all,
number one, we have the Pomodoro technique
where you work for 25 minutes and take
a five minute break. The whole purpose of this is to make work less overwhelming. Often when we are
trying to do a task, you tend to associate
four to 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours with. Break it down to small
work time blocks, where you go for 25 minutes
of focused attention, and then you take
5 minutes break. Then you sit back for 25 minutes and take 5 minutes break. Keeping in mind, as
you go about this, try to focus on the
important tasks first. Use your energy levels
at their peak and then transition to the
easier ones or let's say, the less important tasks. Keeping in mind when you
go for Pomodoro technique, me personally, I
don't like to go for 25 minutes. You
can go for longer. You can go for shorter. It
depends on you as a person. For example, 25
minutes, in my case, I think it's quite too short
for me to focus on the work, focus on the task,
and to get things done before jumping to
a five minute break. As you switch between a
work mode to break mode, switching back
could be demanding. So Pomodor technique works, but you have to tweak it up a bit based on your own cycle. How do you find
yourself normally? Do you just simply
get onto the task and you get it done
as soon as possible? Or it takes you a while to actually figure out the
ropes and how to go about conducting the task and
actually beginning the task and getting things done in a way
which you're moving forward, and then you go onto the break. So do not hold 25 minutes with five minute break as the cornerstone that
you have to stick to. And if you don't, then you feel discouraged and you go
back to procrastination. No, the whole purpose is work for a certain
period of time, have a break, and
repeat the cycle. Now, this is one of my favorite which is
the two minute rule. When we are trying to get
things done as humans, we would like to win. We would like to
accomplish a task. If a task seems too
complicated and overwhelming, what happens is your brain
will drift to the comfort, which is for crastination. We've talked about this
in the previous lessons, feel take a look at them. So if we have a certain task, which is easily done,
it's a quick win. Our brain goes through the logical loop where analyzes
that this is a quick win. We need to get this done.
This is very important. So let's go about doing this and it doesn't
take a lot of time. So you'll find yourself
inclined to do it because it's an important task and
you're able to do it easily helping you get
more comfortable, right? So the two minute rule is, start tasks that take 2
minutes or less immediately. So as you go about your day, take a look at the tasks which
do not take a lot of time, but they are on your daily to
do list or daily task list. What's the point of this
is for you to build that cycle to pick up some momentum for the day as you are going
through the tasks, and when you accomplish a task, which takes 2 minutes, and
you simply tick it off. Your brain releases
a gush of dopamine, which is a hormone,
the reward hormone, at the motivation hormone. So when you crush a certain
task, all of a sudden, what happens is, you
will feel empowered. And then you are
willing to go for the second task and the
third and the fourth. And even if the
task gets bigger, you are more willing
to confront that task. However, if you switch this, if you begin your day with
the most complicated task, most demanding
task, even though, by the way, from a
productivity perspective, some individuals advocate
for beginning your day. Since you have the
highest amount of energy, you have the highest focus with the biggest task, eating
the whole elephant. Now, my own point of view, and based on my own experience, I think it's the
other way around. Why? When you go about your day and you do
have a lot of energy, and you are confronted with
a huge demanding task, often you are going to deal with the task and utilize the
majority of your energy, right? But all of these
two minute tasks which are easy to
get out of the way, are going to be left till later. And if you do not fulfill the first task, what happens is, those two minute tasks
are going to become overwhelming because
you expended all of your energy
on the major task. You didn't get it done,
and now you have to deal with these minor tasks
and you are exhausted. So what happens is you'll procrastinate even
the small ones. So how do we navigate this?
Start the other way around. Test it out. This is based on
my own personal experience, and I'm telling you it works. Go for the tasks which
are really small. You're able to win them. And even if a task is big, try to break it to
small minute tasks where you are considering
this as a win. If you are trying to, let's say, create a video as a content
creator, for example, or you are trying to
write a blog post, or you are trying to come up
with an essay for students, or you are a business
owner trying to come up with a business
plan, whatever it is. Instead of taking the whole
task as one big bulk, break it down to small segments
segments, write a line. Shoot a part of the video. Write a piece of the essay, which is a paragraph,
for example. And you will notice that
this is quite easy to do. It will not take
you time. And once you are done with your
first paragraph or your first draft or your
first couple of minutes of shooting or your first segment
of your business plan, whatever it is that you're involved with because
this applies to everyone. You will notice once you
crush that small task, you feel empowered
and you're encouraged to get more tasks done
because guess what? You are doing it,
and you are winning. So your brain's logical barrier
has been overcome, right? And then once you surpass
that logical barrier, it's being done. We are winning. So let's do more of this. Then you'll be inclined
to beat procrastination. So every single time you're
dealing with a lot of tasks, and you don't feel yourself,
you know, motivated. And by the way,
motivation, it fades. We need to have discipline
beyond after a certain point. But you're more inclined
to procrastinate. So how do we get this
gush of motivation? Go with the small ones. And
get them out of the way, and you will realize that as you go about doing
the small tasks, why not address the big ones? So you could apply a combination of the two minute rule where small tasks get done
out of the way and the Pomodor technique where you allocate a certain
period of time, and then you have a
break afterwards. So when you are
dealing with this, keep at the back of your mind, every single task could be
broken down to smaller tasks. Often we try to bite more than we could chew.
Everyone does it. I do this. When you have a certain project
that you're working on, you would like to do
everything on the same day. Unfortunately, our ego is not in line with
our capabilities, physically, mentally,
whatever it is. This is the human nature.
This is quite the case. Your ego expects a lot
of stuff to be done. However, our capabilities
are less than this. So it's good to be realistic. It's important to be
quite, let's say, humble in that sense and
know that we have limits. So be patient with yourself. Do not push yourself too
hard to the point where you actually fail from the beginning and you go back into
procrastination. So you need to break
down the tasks, the big ones into
manageable steps. And once you do so, by default, we fall into the
two minute rule. By default, default through
the Pomodor technique. That way, you're
working for 25 minutes, tackling tasks which
are 2 minutes long, get out of the way, and then you have
5 minutes breaks, and then you go back on. And if you have a big
project or a big task, break it down to smaller tasks and repeat this day
in and day out, and you notice you're
able to get things done without the whole hassle or that mental block that we have a huge
obstacle ahead of us, and we try to push
ourselves to do it.
6. Building Focus: Now in this lesson, I'm
going to share with you some steps to help
you build focus. So you are going through
your tasks, right? You're not procrastinating, but that's part of the battle. When you are doing a task, we are more inclined to get distracted than to actually
focus on the task. So how do we go about
building focus as we eliminate
procrastination and then we're able to get things done? Let's take a look
at these steps. They could apply to you. You could apply some of them,
but they will help you out. First of all, organize
your workstation. This works wonders. If you have a
cluttered workspace, you will be distracted. You will be demotivated. We are more susceptible
to our environment. Let's say about 90%. Our environment has
a direct influence about our level of motivation, the lighting, the
ambience, the sounds, the persons or the individuals
within your workspace, your colleagues, your office, your accessories,
whatever it is. That you could add your workstation to help you
feel rejuvenated, do it. Whatever you could eliminate out of your workstation,
eliminate this. Then create an hourly work plan. This is where you build
up your schedule. Like I mentioned, we
do have a planner that you can just
simply download. That way, you're not
sitting and thinking, because the more you
think about doing a task, the less likely you're
going to skip the task. So plan it out ahead of
then use time management, which is part of the whole cycle of avoiding procrastination, where you tackle with
the too many tasks, Pomodoro techniques, stick to your schedule as
you go through it. And as you do so, you'll notice that you're
getting in the flow, where you are just simply
working without overthinking the tasks or making
things quite complicated, you're actually
getting things done. And do not forget to
take some breaks. Do not want to be
burnt out or exhausted because we're trying to build habits to make
us move forward. So it should be easy. It
should be quite convenient. We are trying to sort
of trick our brain to accept those new tasks rather
than to challenge them, which leads us to
stopping procrastination, apply the techniques that
we have learned previously. Then take up one
thing at a time. This is very, very important. I made this mistake at the beginning of my career,
and let me tell you. It's a very important thing. Often we tend to multitask. You try to do many
things at the same time, write an email,
respond to a call. All of these things, these are false signals of productivity. You need to focus on one task at a time before moving
to the next task. Now, at one point in time, I had equated an analysis on this like a mathematical
analysis which proves that if you work on two projects or three projects or four projects
at the same time, compared to focusing on one project at a
time in sequence, you are more on track to get
things done, to succeed, to accomplish more when you focus on one project at a time, instead of doing multi tasking. Because multitasking,
first of all, is taxing to your brain. When you switch from one task to the other, there's
some sort of a gap. Your brain tries to
analyze and understand and pick up the ropes
of the new task, which is a waste of time. But if you're focusing
on a certain project, day in and day out
till you get it done, you are in the flow. You understand everything. Your brain is building up the levels to get the task done. And once you are done with this, you move on to the
next. And guess what? As you do so, you're able
to actually consider that you have completed a project before going
to the other one. But if you work on four tasks or four projects at the same
time and you move the needle, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, and none of them is completed. Let me break it to you.
Even if you are 90% done, if it's not done, it's not
done. It's not completed. So if the project is
not 100% completed, it's considered
unfinished business or unfinished work.
So it's pointless. So if someone started
a project and finished 0% and someone started a
project and finished 50%, both of them, in my opinion, they did not
complete the project unless they finish the project. So keep that mindset as
you go about tackling a task that focus on
one task at a time. Now, always keep your phone away in your drawer,
put it on site, whatever it is, not
within eyesight, line of sight because
you will be distracted. Once you get
distracted by emails, notifications, you are
more likely to respond. And once you respond,
you're off track. You're more likely
to procrastinate. Organize your mailbox. We're all susceptible to this. You do have a lot of
emails from colleagues, companies, work, whatever it is. If it's not delete this. Make sure that everything is de cluttered because
we're trying to send signals to our brain
that the task that we're doing is something
okay to deal with. It's not challenging.
It's not uncomfortable to the point we need to
escape that task. This is how our brain operates. So try to learn its
strengths and weaknesses. You could use some
background music, if you'd like, as you work.
That's perfectly fine. It could help you just simply zone out as you are working. You could use apps to
train your brain to focus. So games like
Sudoku, for example, you could use chess,
wherever game which is like requires mental effort. You could do that to help
you train your focus, because unfortunately, I've read a statistic which says the current focus
span for individuals, adults nowadays, it's about three to 5 seconds,
which is really short, which is as long as a goldfish, clearly, as long as a goldfish. So if we have such
a short focus span, it will be challenging
to get things done. So we need to help
ourselves out, and everyone is susceptible to this, including me as well. Continuous learning
opportunities. This is where you have
some buffer period. Do not assume that your
plan is 100% foolproof. Every single minute will work. You'll have days which you
are really productive, you're going to have low days. That's part of human
nature. Accept it. Tweak it and move on.
Delegate non essential tasks. When you are working
on something, if it's not important, it doesn't move the needle forward. You could delegate
this to someone else or eliminate the whole task from the beginning if
it's not necessary. Mindful breathing exercises. Why? This will help
you stay centered. This is part of mindfulness,
wellness, self care. Our brains consume
a lot of oxygen. Every single cell in our body
consumes a lot of oxygen. So when you wake up in the morning and you
just simply go about breathing exercises to just simply fill up your
lungs with oxygen, you are by default, helping your brain focus. And let me share a very
important piece of information. If you focus on your breathing, your brain has no ability
to focus on anything else. Try it out by yourself.
If you are inhaling and exhaling and you are focusing on the motion of inhaling
and exhaling, you will find out that you are not thinking
about the future. You are not planning
a certain task. Your mind is not occupied
by clutter or noise. You are just simply focusing
on the current moment, which is part of building focus. So these are a bit of techniques to help you along the way, to give you the push that you need to actually build focus. So we have learned about
procrastination cycle, how to navigate procrastination, what techniques
that we could use, how to build focus as we go about our day
to day activities. In the upcoming lecture, I'm
going to show you a very, very important strategy which helps you to make this a habit. And once this becomes a habit, you are on the right
track to tackle.
7. Motivation and Accountability: Order to beat procrastination, we need to understand
motivation. Now, I'm going to
walk you through some important details in
the best way possible, that way, you understand
yourself better, how to deal with motivation, how to be accountable, and how to turn this into a productivity
habit where you're able to get things done
over and over again, not just simply one of those
days where you are really motivated and then motivated
motivation fades away. So how do we go about this?
First of all, as an educator, as an engineer, as a licensed
and certified teacher, we've taught adult
learners, high school, middle school students,
working professionals, corporate training, let
me tell you something. When it comes to motivation, there are two different
root causes, right? Two different root causes. We call them the
intrinsic motivation and the extrinsic motivation. So intrinsic is you. What's happening within
you as a person? What are the key drivers
that push you to do stuff? This is what we call as
the intrinsic motivation. First of all, something was challenging. You
enjoy a challenge. Let's say a competition, you're part of
playing a video game, for example, this is
something that drives you. You like a challenge.
You're curious. For example, if I
give you a box, and that box has a big
question mark on it, and you are motivated to actually learn what's
inside the box. This is curiosity, which part of human nature to explore things, which is part of
intrinsic motivation. Control. When
things are all over the place and you
are trying to put some order to them to
make your life easier, for example, control is considered to be an
intrinsic motivator, because if things
are out of control, it's not good for your
own well being, right? So when you try to put
control, you are acting. So you're driven by the intrinsic motivator,
which is control. Or enjoyment. Something
is fun to do. It's a hobby. Let's
say you and you are playing basketball,
you're playing soccer, you're playing a video
game, whatever it is, which makes you feel that uplifting sensation that
it's something good. You're enjoying it. Right?
For example, food, let's say, when you have a meal, you feel that sense of joy, this is part of a motivation,
intrinsic motivation. Purpose when you are trying to do something because
it's related to your own values and the
things that you would like to do to make
your life better based on your own analysis of the important concepts which are really important
to you as a person, specifically your own values. The purpose, for example,
if you're a doctor, your purpose is to help people. So every single day, you're motivated to
help more people. So when we are dealing
with intrinsic motivation, it could be either one of them. It could be all of them
or a combination of them. So it's very important
that you take some time to understand
your own patterns. What are the stuff in your life that you do and you
find them easy to do? And think about the
intrinsic motivation. What is driving you to do them? Challenge, curiosity, enjoyment, control,
purpose, for example. This is within you as a person. You could use that
to help you build up your motivation or
avoid procrastination. However, there are sources
for extrinsic motivation, and this is something
that we have on the outside extends beyond
you as a person. For example, rewards. You go within a competition
and you have a huge reward. Let's say you want
a car. You are motivated to go
through the tasks, go through the challenges
to get things done. Punishment. Let's say
you are a student. You're sitting for an exam, and if you don't really
get really good grades, you're going to be
punished by the school. You're going to be
punished by your parents. You're going to be punished by the university
that you're at, whatever source of punishment, this is considered to be
an extrinsic motivation. Something that if you do, you're going to be punished for. So you're not going to do it. This is a punishment,
motivation, motivator. Power. When you are trying
to take a certain role, take a certain position because
it gives you more power. It gives you more empowerment. This is part of an
extrinsic drive for you. If you are within a
career, let's say, you want to jump
the career ladder, you're going up the ranks
in your corporate world. So you're aspiring to have more power for
a certain position. This is an extransic motivator. It's not intrinsic,
because that power is granted to you by that post,
not from within, right? Now, praise where someone
gives you a good word. Let's say you're trying to do something because let's
say your parents, your colleagues, your
friends are going to appreciate this and going to give you a really
good word for it. Like, good job. Great work. You'll be recognized. This is considered to be
an extrinsic motivator. And finally, you
have competition. When you are challenging
other individuals, let's say, in a competition, for example, you got a
track, you got a marathon. Competition by itself is not
internal. It's external. You do have a lot
of individuals with you and you are trying
to compete with them. This part of human nature. So competition is considered to be an extrinsic motivator. And once again, for
extrinsic motivation, it could be either one
of them or all of them. And this is the important point. You need to know how to combine intrinsic motivation and
extrinsic motivation for a powerful drive
to your motivation, where you understand
the important things that drive you as a person, whether challenge, curiosity,
control, enjoyment, purpose, combine them with
extrinsic motivation, such as rewards, punishment, power, praise or competition. That way, you're able to have a clear idea what will drive
you to get things done. If you're doing a task, you could reward yourself. Or you could get praise for it or it's part
of a competition. You'd like to lose
weight, for example, you go for weight
loss competition, you're competing with
others. It will help you. It's an extrinsic motivator. For intrinsic motivation,
you have challenge, you got curiosity,
you get control, you get enjoyment.
You got purpose. You're going into a
video game competition. You combine both, for example. You enjoy playing video games. That's intrinsic motivator, and you're part
of a competition, and you will be praised and
you'll be getting a reward. So you're combining
these invaders, and the more stuff
you have combined, the more drive that you're going to feel because logically, your brain is going to associate these motivators
with importance, and you will get that push. So most probably we
have seen so far the diagram I have
laid out over here, which is very, very important. This took a lot of research, took a lot of experimentation, took a lot of testing to give it to you in that
simplistic fashion. First of all, let's
walk through the cycle. This is not those
lectures where you have stuff all over the place and you have no idea how to
apply them in your real life. On the contrary. This is
something that you get to apply. Let's
start with a task. You have a task at hand
that you need to do, right? And all of a sudden, it
becomes overwhelming. You're more inclined
to procrastinate. Now, what I would like you to do is visualize the outcome. When I say visual
I mean, literally, close your eyes and visualize
you succeeding at the task. How are you going
to feel about it? How it's going to make
your life better, how it's going to make
your life easier? And all of a sudden, your perception will change. Take it from a veteran, experienced educator who
knows how to go about the educational methodology
in terms of teaching and learning from a
scientific point of view, from a practical point of view that actually involves
how your brain works. Now, what I'm teaching you
here right now is part of educational science,
educational methodologies, how you go about learning something or how do you go
about utilizing in that sense, your brain's capabilities in order to push you
to get stuff done. This is not just
simply a random talk. This is based on actual
knowledge, expertise, science, practical
applications shared with you in the
simplistic fashion, and you're able to
apply it directly. So that way, you do have a task. We visualize the outcome, right? So we try to visualize
the outcome. What happens is your
brain has no ability to distinguish between imaginary
image or an actual image. So if you close your
eyes and you imagine a burger with fries with a
milkshake, what would happen? You would notice that
you're going to salivate. Like literally, your mouth
will release saliva. Why? Because it's
anticipating food. So by imagining something, your brain knows it's not there, but you're actually
imagining it, it creates a response, right? Then visualize the outcome. Similarly, you winning
a competition, trying to crush a competition. All of that will help you Overcome the motivation barrier. And if you notice
I said visualize. I did not say, think
about the outcome because visualization triggers
a different part of your brain compared
to positive thinking. This is something quite
different in that sense. If you think positively
about the outcome, you're not going to be feeling motivated about the outcome. You need to visualize in order
for you to get that push. And then once you
visualize the outcome, do not overthink it, act. Which you go to the
third step where you actually try to get things done. Follow the Pomodoro
technique I've taught you, two minute rule, take some
breaks along the way. And once you are done,
this is very important. Reward yourself, whether with
a cup of coffee, a cookie, a treat, a piece of candy, a walk in the park,
whatever it is, whatever it's important to you. Let's say you are a student, you're focusing on studying
a certain chapter. You visualize yourself, crushing that chapter,
you start studying. Once you are done,
you're playing an hour of a video game.
This is your reward. And once you are done with this, you repeat the cycle. Why? If you notice the
arrow that I put over here, this is what we call as a
negative feedback look. The word negative feedback doesn't mean something negative. It means we go back
to step number one. Now, from an engineering
perspective, as a mechanical engineer,
systems in general, they operate under feedbacks
where you have an output, you take about the output, you use it, you modify it, and you give it back
as an input in order to get the things done in
the best way possible. And this applies to
our brains as well. Right? So here I'm combining for you my engineering expertise, my expertise as a teacher, and as an educator, in addition to the research, the science, the practicality, the experience in the sense
of driving your motivation, avoiding procrastination,
getting things done. So the stuff that
you're learning, these are not philosophical. Or, you know, sharing only
best practices based on my experience
because these things vary from one person to
the other, obviously. But this is actually sound
and ground knowledge, which is obtained from how
our brains tend to operate. And it's put for you in
a simplistic fashion. That way, you're
not dwelling into these details rather
than you're able to apply them as is
and get results. So whenever you're
facing a task, whether a student,
an entrepreneur, a business owner,
content creator, visualize the outcome,
visualize yourself succeeding. It's not just simply about
thinking positively. You need to visualize it, create a visual image. And as you do so, your brain will not tell
the difference between the visualized image in
your brain that they have imagined and the reality. Another example would be
if you imagine, let's say, if someone has any sort of fears about roller coasters,
snakes, cars, hights, insects, birds, animals, wherever it is, they are
afraid of any of these things. If they close their eyes
and they imagine them, what happens is, their
heart rate will go higher. Why? Because the brain is not able to tell
the difference. Is this something real or
is it an imaginary image? Because if it was able to do so, it will definitely increase the heart rate. So
you get the idea. And this is another example. Most probably even
in your dreams, like you're dreaming
about something, right? And you wake up, let's say, you're
scared or you're happy. Your brain does not tell
the difference between closing your eyes and imagining something and seeing
a real life image. So we use that to our advantage. So when we visualize us doing
something, crushing it, getting the job done, seeing the results, seeing
their rewards, and then we act on and
once we act on it, we reward ourselves for completing this and
reward could be anything. I'm not talking about
jackpot over here. It could be a cup of coffee, it could be a cookie,
it could be a dinner, it could be some time
with your friends, outing, whatever it
is, it's up to you. Then you repeat the cycle and
this by default will help reinforce the habit in your brain and literally as
part of neuroplasticity, it will literally help you rewire your brain where you are no longer facing such obstacles in terms of motivation
and procrastination.
8. Wrapping Up: So what do you think?
I truly hope that you found the class helpful
if it helped you gain some perspective on procrastination
and motivation and the key elements which drive motivation and the reasons
why we procrastinate, it means it has done
its job perfectly. I look forward to receiving your feedback on the
current class and make sure that you follow
my profile for the latest releases and updates, and I'll see you
in the next class.
Engr. Hussein Attié, CEO I Engineer I Educator
