Transcripts
1. Introduction: Procrastination. This
is the word that we are all facing
every single day. Every one of us is facing
procrastination in his life in everything in
his life, in his career, in his personal life,
in his personal growth, every aspect of our life, we face procrastination somehow. In today's class, we're
talking everything about procrastination because if
you want to be productive, you need to stop
procrastinating your tasks, procrastinating your thoughts, your emotions,
everything in your life. You need to stop
procrastinating. So in this class, we're talking all about
procrastination. We are talking what
is procrastination? Why are you feeling this,
why you're doing it? And we're talking about the
easiest practical steps that you can take to stop procrastination and be
productive in your life. Join me in this class because
by the end of every year, we are talking about goals and productivity and we're talking about being successful
and setting new goals and making New
Year's resolutions and so on. You can't do this
without stopping procrastinating your
tasks and be productive. This class is meant to be
in this time of the year. By the end of the year,
you need to know what to do to achieve all your goals and resolutions
for the new year. Join me today in this class.
2. The reasons for procrastination: Hello, my friend, and welcome to the class that
we're all waiting for. We all need because, of course, we have
goals to achieve. We have things that we want to do in our life, and especially, as I said in the introduction, especially by the
end of the year and the beginning of a new year, everybody is setting new goals and new resolutions
for his life. All aspects of life,
personal life, financial life, career
life, family life. Every aspect in his life, he's setting new goals
and new resolutions. But have you ever experienced that you
set goals for yourself, and then by the time you stop achieving those
goals and stop reaching them. And you find every single day
that you have tasks to do. But then when you start with
the energy and the power, get these tasks done. But then you stop by in the
middle of the day, you stop. You don't know the reason,
you don't know why. You just feel like you don't
want to get things done. I don't want to get
this task done. I don't want to do it right now. Maybe I'll do it later. Maybe tomorrow it's
not that urgent. It's not that important, so I will delay it for another time. This thing happens to all of us, and I am totally understanding
because I face that, too. First, let's see what is procrastination because
we keep saying that word, maybe some people
misunderstand it. What is procrastination? Procrastination is that you
delay or put off tasks. You have a list of tasks, so you have two
or three of them. You delay them or
you put them off. You don't want to do that. You don't want to do that task because it's
heavy on your heart. It's hard for you to do it. It's not funny. It's not, you know, it's not your thing to do. So you just delay it. I'll do it later or put it off. I don't
want to do it at all. Sometimes it's very
effective in your goals. It's very effective in your day. So you feel like the
balance of your day or your goal or your
life is not stable. So it's not only a time
management thing or a time management issue because people say that if you're
procrastinating your tasks, you procrastinating your goals, you have a problem
in time management, and you need to do that.
No, it's not like that. Maybe you are a good
manager to your time, and you manage
your time so well, but you have one or two things
that are not good for you, not funny for you, not suitable for you, so
you don't do them. You delay this specific task. You're not delaying
all your tasks. So it's not a time
management issue. It's only only related
to your self discipline, because I can discipline
myself that if I want to reach that thing
by the end of my day, by the end of this month, by the end of this year or
by the end of this goal, if I want to reach it, if I want to achieve what
I want to achieve, I need to do that
task or these tasks, no matter what they cause me, if they are
uncomfortable for me, not funny for me, not suitable for me, but
I need to do them. So it's a self discipline thing more than a time
management thing. So just realize
this because people accuse themselves
and very hard on themselves because they feel like they are not
managing their time well and they go to take time management skills,
time management classes. It's not a time
management thing. It's a self discipline. Procrastination is not
dangerous. It's not dangerous. It's not a very big issue. Yes, it causes very big issues, but it's not something
that you can be ashamed of because
everybody faces this. We're human. Human being can not be happy while doing a task that
he's not cool with, okay? So it's common. Everybody faces this. Even the most successful people in the world faces that
problem sometimes, but they know how exactly
to discipline themselves, to work out with them,
and to keep going. That's the key. It's not that you don't face
procrastination at all. It's how you deal with it. And, of course,
now, at this time, we have a lot of
distractions around us. Those distractions make us, you know, focused on other things than
what we want to do. We focus and pay attention to things that
are distracting us that is running around us and
we don't focus or pay attention to the things that
we really want to achieve. This is common
these days because of all these
distractions around us. Of course. Of course. You start working on
something and then you find a whole bunch of things
come along your way. So you and then you
lose your energy, and then you delay
that test because you're not there anymore.
You know what I mean? Sometimes we are waiting
for the right time. When you have a
list of things that you need to do, you keep saying, I'll do this in the right time, not now, I will do it later.
I will do it tomorrow. I will do the day
after tomorrow. I will do it next week.
It's not that important. You're waiting for
the right time. And I'm always saying
the best time is now. If you are now have a list of
things that you need to do, so the right time is now, just push yourself to do them. There's no other
right time because if you are waiting
for the right time, it's never gonna come. You will keep procrastinating, keep delaying, keep delaying. And then at last, you
will find that you didn't do it or you were so
stressed to do it. You're always waiting
for the right time, and there's no right time, but now the right time is now. Another reason for
procrastination is the meaning of motivation. This meaning now has changed
completely because people are talking about
motivation all the time and think that we always need
motivation to do something. You always need to be
motivated to do that task, to reach that goal, to
do whatever you want. No, you're not always
needing that motivation. Sometimes we have to do that without any motivation.
We have to do that. Like every every day's chores, for example, every day's
job, everyday's life. You don't need motivation
to go to your work. You have to go to your work. Okay? You don't need
motivation to do your laundry. You have to do your laundry,
even if you don't like it. You don't have to
procrastinate it. You must do it. You don't have to have
a motivation to do it. You must do it. So don't get dragged by the idea that
everybody's giving you today that everything in
your life need a motivation. You must have a motivation to do everything in
your No, you don't. Sometimes you have to do
things without any motivation, and even if you hate it, you must do it. If you convinced
yourself with this idea, you will find yourself if you
have tasks for you to do, you will find that you're
doing them anyway, even if you don't like them,
even if you don't want to. But you're doing it
because you want you must Those are the reasons
for procrastination, why we do procrastinate
everything in our life. Okay? Next class, we're talking about the types of procrastination because we
have types of procrastination, so you need to know exactly what you're facing in your life. Ah.
3. Types of procrastination: Okay, now we're getting to
the types of procrastination. Yes, procrastination has types. So you need to know what exactly the kind of
procrastination that you have. We have two types
of procrastination, the passive procrastination and the active procrastination.
What does that mean? The passive
procrastination is not knowing what to do or don't
want to do something. If I am I want today to do
things around the house, but I don't know exactly to
be productive in the house. I don't know exactly
what do I need to do? How to be productive? What do I need to
achieve today so I can feel satisfied that
I am productive today? You don't know what to do. Or you have tasks to do, but you don't want to do them. I want to do them, but I don't want to do them, so I'm
not going to do them. This is a passive
procrastination. What is the active
procrastination? Active procrastination is people who likes to work
in the last minute, because people feel
like it's challenging for them to work in the if
I have something to do, so I will do it at
the last minute. It brings out the
challenge on them, and then they work to finish
it as fast as they can. So they procrastinate
consciously that task, so I can do it at
the last thing, so I can do it under pressure, so I challenge myself. This is satisfying for them. This is active procrastination. I am aware that I'm delaying this task to the end so I can challenge myself and work under pressure. You know what I mean? Some people are like that. They like to
challenge themselves. Does procrastination has
impacts in your life? Yes, negative
impacts? Of course. What are those impacts? First, high levels of stress. You feel very stressful if you procrastinating
tasks in your life. Two, negative consequences
because if I did delay, something, and I left it to
the end, or I didn't do it. I will have
consequences, of course. And those consequences, of
course, will be negative. Maybe tomorrow will have a
lot of things to do because I pushed today's
tasks to tomorrow. So I will have a lot of
tasks to do tomorrow or maybe there's something
that had to be done today, and it's not because I procrastinated or
delayed to do it. So it impacted my progress
in work and life, in myself, in my family. So, yes, I have
negative consequences. Now, you know everything
about procrastination. What does it mean? Why it happens, what
types of procrastination. And you can notice those
types on yourself, what type of people you are on those two types
of procrastination and also the impact of procrastination on
you and your life. In the next class,
we're talking about how to avoid procrastination in a very practical and
simple steps. He
4. Your easy steps to avoid procrastination: Now we're coming
to the conclusion. Now we're coming to the class
that you're waiting for. How to avoid procrastination. The easiest steps
for you to do to avoid procrastination
One. Get to the point. One, make it to do list. This is so important for
you to make a to do list. If you have ten tasks in your head and they keep
running around your head, of course, you will
forget things. You will get bored, you
will get overwhelmed, and you will delay or put
off some of those tasks. Put them on paper and
make it to do list. So everything is clear and
you take things out of your mind and put
them in front of you on paper or on your
phone or whatever. So they are very
clear and you know exactly what to do
and when and how. So make it to do list
to know what you exactly need to do in this day, in this life, in this goal, whatever you're planning for. Two, take baby steps. Don't think that
after this class, you will go and achieve a
list of 20 tasks right away. No, take baby steps. If I had a list of 15 tasks, and I achieved ten,
this is a good thing. This is a first step, and then I will raise
my achievement. So I will achieve 11 and then
12, and then the whole 15. So take baby steps. Don't be harsh on
yourself and say, No, if I didn't if I
didn't do all of them, I am not going to
do any of them. No, break down the tasks
into small steps also. You know, if you have a task, don't take it as
a whole package. Try to break it down
into small steps, small tasks, small things to do because that will make
it easier for you to do. If I want today to clean the house or
declutter the house, for example, so you need
to make it small tasks. Number three, make a
procrastination alarm for yourself. Not an alarm that is peeping? No. An alarm in your head. If you have a task, you have a list of tasks
that you need to achieve. And then you started to say, I'm not going to do that
right now. I will delay this. I don't like this, I'm
not going to do it. Notice this. Every time
you start to delay, notice that thought and
stop and remind yourself, this is an alarm. I am going to
procrastinate this. I am going to fall down in this area in this mistake again. So train your mind to notice, every time you will start procrastinating or delaying
something in your life. Train your mind to do this. And when you train
your mind to do this, it will be aware when you
start to do this and will stop you from doing it
spontaneously later, okay? Four, move out distractions. Distractions are your big enemy. If you're working
on something and you have everything
running around you, TV, phones, notifications, your laptop, people around you. Every distraction around you is your big enemy while you're trying to be productive
and achieve something. Move out all those distractions while you're working
on something, and then afterwards,
you can turn them on. But while you're
trying to focus on this task while you're trying to be productive and
move, move, move, move, move, and finish
what you want to do, delete any distraction
out of your way. Because if you left them, you're not going to do anything. Last thing, reward yourself. This is the happy
zone. Reward yourself. If you did that, if you
achieved everything, if you call yourself
productive today or this month or this, you know, this time of your life, reward yourself with
something you love, with a meal, with a walk
outside, with a movie. With, you know, a cup of
coffee with a friend of yours. Whatever you want
whatever you want, just reward yourself because you deserve it. You deserve it. You lasted for that time and
you achieved what you want. So you need that reward. You deserve that reward. So don't forget yourself. Don't forget to give yourself
a pat on the shoulder. Procrastination is
something common, normal. You're not alone. We're all in this area. You just need to know
how to discipline yourself and how
to get out of it.
Sarah Omar, Psychotherapist
