the longer you wait, the harder it gets
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What is procrastination and how does it affect us?
And the truth with procrastination is you can get away with it. If I had to choose one thing I think I'm in the GOAT conversation for, it would be procrastination. I procrastinated everything in my life to a point where I didn't even know what it was like to not procrastinate. I'm kind of unlearning a lot of those bad habits now.
Why do we procrastinate despite knowing the consequences?
But man, if I had an exam that was due at the end of the semester and the teacher was telling me, you got to study for it like yesterday, what do you think I was doing the night before? I was cramming the entire thing in. I procrastinated because I knew I could get away with it. Until it started to affect my life super deeply. And some of us are finding ourselves in this hole right now. Maybe we're about to return to school. Maybe we're about to return to a job in this new year. And we don't want to procrastinate anymore. We want to be on top of things. There's one thing that has helped me without fail that now I actually look forward to and I tell myself as a way to get things done. And maybe this can help you. What is the next step? What is the next step in the operation?
What is the simplest step to overcome procrastination?
What is the next step? Usually the next step in getting something done is the simplest one. It's opening up the laptop that you have your assignment on. It's going and facing the email that you were supposed to write a week ago, right? And just saying, hi, Marissa. Maybe it's as simple as looking through something to have a briefing of, okay, this is what I got to do. This is what needs to get done. But we overcomplicate it. We make our tasks and the things that we need to get done so much worse than they have to be. We make them into this monster in our minds. And once the monster starts to develop, we then let it compound over time until it becomes a problem. Because we've delayed ourselves from making something happen, from making any kind of progress.
How can I break down my tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed?
What is the next step? Simplify it. And I know that that's easy to say when some of us, for example, have exams that we were supposed to study for the entire semester and now we are seven days out of the exam. It's a rough place to be in. Or is it? You have seven days. What is the next step? Maybe the next step is super simple. Maybe it's just telling yourself, okay, today is Sunday. My exam is on Friday. Gives me some time. I'm going to use Monday as a day to plan out what I need to do. I'm gonna use Tuesday as the first day of action. I'm gonna just dive in. Wednesday and Thursday, I'll have the momentum from Tuesday to continue studying. Thursday, I'm going to already feel way more confident about it. Friday, I can review it with some friends.
You made all of that progress by asking yourself what the next step was. But a lot of us don't ask that question and instead we just let it linger. Nah, I'll worry about it tomorrow. That's a future Xerxes problem. But future Zerky is then wanting to punch you in the face and be like, what? Why? We had the whole weekend, bro. We did nothing. We could have totally did some studying.
What should I do if I'm running out of time for my project?
What is the next step? Getting things done does not have to be difficult. It can be pretty simple. And I know that sometimes you get to a point of no return. I've been there. I've had certain projects that I really should have started earlier that I really regret. Not giving my all. But at the end of the day, you can't change what has already happened. You have to face it. So if that means that you messed up and your project's not going to be as good, maybe the idea that you had in your brain wasn't good enough at the moment and now you want to execute it and you're having troubles doing that, you've got to come to terms with it.
How can I change my perspective on tasks to make them easier?
Was du aus deiner Zukunft auch machst? Wir können alles, was kommt. Das Handwerk.
You got to look at it and be like, okay, I can't achieve what I wanted. Maybe I can't get an A on this exam. But what can I do? I can definitely pass it. So if you know you can pass it, what is the next step? What do you have to do next? And I'll even do it in my day-to-day life. I will know that I have a hangout and I will know that I have something I want to do beforehand, like wash the dishes.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is procrastination and how does it affect us?
0:00–0:22
2
Why do we procrastinate despite knowing the consequences?
0:22–1:15
3
What is the simplest step to overcome procrastination?
1:15–2:10
4
How can I break down my tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed?
2:10–3:31
5
What should I do if I'm running out of time for my project?
3:31–4:09
6
How can I change my perspective on tasks to make them easier?
4:09–10:41