Need some advanced Anti procrastination guide

[sharkman]

Guys I have a major procrastination problem, not sure if you would call it chronic considering that I still run a decent company and some useful things with my life, but not once have I taken the entire weekend to work on my project and accomplished absolutely nothing. For a long time I have been trying to solve this issue but all the advice that I find is related to less motivated people that are afraid of failure, and that just not me. I’m insanely motivated and optimistic I have goals which are well written down, I don’t overbook my day at work, I give double the amount of time for anything that I want to do. I’m definitely the guy that rewards himself for good work and I think that I’m following all the basic Anti procrastination techniques. Yet just this Sunday I needed to work on a project for a client, which probably could have taken an hour or 2 and I literally spent the entire Sunday and a bit on Saturday getting around to do it. Could anyone help me here with this or send me to the right expert. I simply cannot afford having days like this. Hey guess what, while looking for this anti procrastination I'm still procrastinating and I’m avoiding doing the project which I have not done on Saturday.

[SimonaRich]

Try to look at the project not as though it is a burden to do, but focus on exciting or positive aspects of it. Keep thinking about the good features of it and then think how well you will feel after it is done. Really imagine what relief and pride you will feel after its accomplishment.

Look at this project as a step-by-step process, and not as a one big assignment you need to accomplish.

Keep thinking about this project in a positive way until you feel inspired to start it.

Keep thinking about it in easy manageable bits and complete it bit by bit.

Focus entirely on one task until you feel that you lose your focus. Then rest and again align your energies (in other words think positively about it until you feel inspired to accomplish it) and start working on it.

Hope that helps.

By the way, if you procrastinate, it always means that it is not a good time for a project and your energy is out of the alignment with the project.

It is best just to enjoy yourself and complete the project when you feel naturally inspired to do so, but when you have deadlines, artificial alignment of your energy is required. Therefore I gave this kind of Techinique.

[sharkman]

Thank you for the advice, I might be lying to myself but I think I kind fo follow this strategy. You know in my world (internet) anytime you want to learn something there is always a guru or an expert. Is there an expert or a great book for anti procrastination technics?

[SimonaRich]

Originally Posted by sharkman

Thank you for the advice, I might be lying to myself but I think I kind fo follow this strategy. You know in my world (internet) anytime you want to learn something there is always a guru or an expert. Is there an expert or a great book for anti procrastination technics?

I don't know about that, but in my personal experience I just do what I like and then when I am inspired to take action, I take action and it produces great results. The key is to take action out of inspiration.

Of course if you are scared that something will go wrong or when you feel guilty that you are just enjoying yourself and not working on your projects, that would get you into an even bigger trouble. You should trust that the inspiration will come and the great results will follow.

That may be hard to do for some, I am not sure how much you know about universal laws and your vibration, etc. If you do not know anything about these subjects, then of course it will be hard for you to follow my advice.

[sharkman]

Originally Posted by SimonaRich

I don't know about that, but in my personal experience I just do what I like and then when I am inspired to take action, I take action and it produces great results. The key is to take action out of inspiration.

Ha ha if I would do that there is certain tasks that won't do for months :-)

Of course if you are scared that something will go wrong or when you feel guilty that you are just enjoying yourself and not working on your projects,

I wish I would enjoy myself, it more wasting time doing useless internet browsing and playing no so entertaining online games

That may be hard to do for some, I am not sure how much you know about universal laws and your vibration, etc. If you do not know anything about these subjects, then of course it will be hard for you to follow my advice.

I goggled it and I found it very interesting, it seems that when I make myself feel guilty about it and only makes things worst. So I love it I'm getting somewhere here. Where can I get information about reprogramming myself. when I'm stuck in this situation

[RT Wolf]

Pavlina recommended a book on his book spage, I think it's called The Now Habit. May help. Maybe you just need a vacatoin? Don't go by whether you're getting as much rest or fun or whatever as you "should". You ma yneed to accept that you're just tired or burning out on a larger scale, requiring some sort of extended break or a refocusing to some other part of your life rather than work.

[sharkman]

Nah I'm leaving a failry fun life and semi balanced, lol. For me it's more a task in hand, and yes of course the task at end is not always fun, but got to do it. It's part of my job :-)

[RT Wolf]

Perhaps read The 4-Hour Workweek? It's got an interesting perspective on productivity.

[mydau]

Sharkman,

from what i read about your situation, it seems as if you have approached a lot of anti-procrastination techniques... not sure if u have also thought about these which i can think of

first, just set a time only to start the project that you are expected to do, please be very clear in mind that all you want to do is only start, if it means reading some doc, or planning time or what ever it it you will only do that, try and keep it as the smallest chunk possible....if u want and u think a reward will help u motivate you do this ... then think of one reward ...

second , you can approach the time-boxing technique if you have not done that, i.e where you say you will only work for a fixed time, i.e 1 hr, 2 hr or whatever time length you prefer, but the key here is come what may u shld not quit before that time line, however if you extend beyond that time box, even without knowing then ... let it go .... as its better for you ... keep this mind as a resonable time line not too short or too long ...

hope this helps ...

[Halffull]

Neil Fiores The Now Habit, is the classic on this, and it has some pretty interesting and counterintuitive techniques that you may not have heard of before.

Until then, if you're looking for a quick tip that may help, try Merlin Mann's (10+2) * 5 Hack: Procrastination hack: '(10+2)*5' | 43 Folders

[gblunt99]

Procrastination is not to be confused with laziness; procrastinators are usually extremely busy, productive people. But they have gotten into the habit of putting off dealing with their most important tasks. The reason: anxiety.

You may not be an anxious person, a nervous Nellie, or a conspicuous worrier--but below the surface of your mind, you have fears about your project and so you avoid it. There are many ways to deal with it, and many good books on the subject. Cognitive-Behaviour Therapists will say you are repeating negative, irrational thoughts (cognitions) to yourself over and over--so habitually, so convincingly, and so rapid-fire that you're probably not even aware of them. CBT exercises will bring these out into the open, put them right on the table--and then you counteract them by disputing them with rational statements that contradict the cognitions. Doing this regularly, the theory goes, will weaken those negative thoughts, and free up your energy to work on your project.

There is a downside to this method however, and that is that by repeating the negativity on paper, even if you argue against it, you may strengthen rather than weaken it. Bottom line: Albert Ellis himself (one of the two fathers of CBT) deals with it this way. "When I feel the slightest twinge of procrastination, the first HINT of negativity about a project, I jump right in and do it." In other words, he skips his own cognitive approach and goes straight for the behaviour, short-circuiting all the negativity. In this way he wrote something like 90 books.

An illustration from my own experience: when I go on a beach vacation, even when I want to swim, I spend AGES at the edge of the water, dipping my toe in, inching my way out, agonizing over the whole thing. Or I tell myself I'd rather read under the umbrella for another three hours. Meanwhile, everyone else is just jumping in--and when I do that myself, I always have a better time. That approach-avoid feeling, that BLOCK, about swimming is the only thing I do that feels the same as my procrastination, and I suspect the way to deal with it is the same: Don't think, Plunge!

[Arina]

Last research has shown that the way we mentally approach a certain task will largely determine how quickly we will complete it.

When approaching any task, we can use either abstract or concrete thinking. Abstract thinking is perceiving a task as whole. It puts a mental distance between a person and the goal, making it seem very hard to reach. That is why the more we think about doing something that we deem difficult, the less are the chances that we will actually get to it.

Concrete thinking is breaking down a challenging task into smaller, more manageable parts making our goal seem much easier to accomplish.

I call it “lumping” vs. “chunking”. You can either perceive the task as a ‘lump’ that cannot be subdivided and digested or you can break it down into smaller “chunks” that seem less realistic and an be dealt with systematically.

The teenager who wants to go out with his friends will most likely view writing a paper on the economic factors involved in World War II as an ugly massive single-lump task and do everything in his power to postpone it for later.

Another great way to prevent ourselves from using abstract thinking is to focus on a small percentage of the task that needs to get done. Before getting to any task that seems difficult and timely, promise yourself that you will only complete 20% of it ( or spend 30 minutes doing it). Give yourself permission to stop, when you said you will if you don’t feel like working longer on it.

What this technique does, it gives you the right to procrastinate, without any feelings of remorse and regret, while still getting some of the work done.

~ Arina

[elisabeth]

Procrastination is an interesting thing...

On the one hand, it happens, and there are ways to improve on it. On the other, most of us tend to be way too hard on ourselves already.

And like Abraham said, if we work ourselves into exhaustion, we may be better off taking a break.

Consider: what if it's not time for it yet?

On the other hand, there may be other things going on in your life that make it difficult to keep up with things.

One of my favorite stress management gurus was the late Roger Mellott, and one of the key things I learned from him is to differentiate between time left in the day and energy left in the day.

If you don't have energy left, you can't do it, no matter how much time there seems to be available. And once I realized that I got a lot more productive because I had been wasting so much energy on beating myself up over not doing things when I simply couldn't.

Another cool tool I have recently discovered is a comprehensive Destiny Achiever/Time Management course by Jason Fladlien (check out the link below). It has helped me a TON to get stuff done so much faster.

You know about the 80/20 rule, right. But the real trick is to figure out which bits are the 20% you should do. The course below helps with that too...

And then there's the factor that we're afraid we might do the wrong thing, and so to that effect, let me share a quote I just recently found:

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[RRR]

YouTube - Procrastination...
Conscious Procrastination
Overcoming Procrastination by Steve Pavlina

[rocksupreme]

Reading about procrastination and asking for advice is just protracting the problem. There are really just a few simple steps to doing what you need to do:

1. Be clear with yourself about what needs be done
2. Be clear with yourself about the benefits of getting it done
3. Be clear with yourself about the consequences of not doing it
4. Get off your ass and get to work

Making it any more complicated than that is really just asking for trouble. You said you know what you need to do. Yet you put it off. Why? Either you do or don't have a valid reason. If you do, investigate it. If not, it's time to simply drag your ass off the couch or out from in front of the computer and get to work.