Firstly, we need to define what procrastination is and determine if what we’re doing actually qualifies as procrastinating.
The term “procrastination” has taken over the world. We hear it daily, and there are numerous videos out there offering countless ultimate tips on how to beat procrastination. There are two things that need to be said.
Firstly, procrastination involves delaying an activity primarily because it’s not enjoyable. For instance, have you ever heard yourself say, “OMG, I really don’t want to scroll on Instagram, so I’ll do it later,” similar to how we postpone studying or doing homework? Probably not.
So instead of asking “how to beat procrastination,” we need to pose a different question. In this sentence, there are many words under which we cannot imagine anything. So I would recommend replacing these words with ones that we know what they actually mean, such as “how do I make it more enjoyable?” or “what would it look like if it were fun?” The second question is actually posed by entrepreneur Ali Abdaal in his new book – Feel Good Productivity. It’s a great book I definitely recommend reading if you’re interested in productivity and making tasks more enjoyable (I personally bought it in presale and have no regrets).
Secondly, I would like to present my way of dividing activities. I’ve already mentioned that there are activities you would never see yourself procrastinating from because we don’t think of them as a duty. In most of us (mostly in the case of school), the inner child speaks up – “I won’t do something just because someone said I should or that I have to do it.” (And believe me, I struggle with this too). So this is the first block – and that is not that difficult to beat. It’s all about your mindset (as my trainer would say). You just have to really think about why you do it or why you should do it.
Anyway, my original point was – we have to divide activities into two groups – the first group is activities that we do for a result (such as studying for a really boring or unnecessary subject) and the activities that we do just for the sake of doing it, and the result is just a great bonus. If you think about it, in the second group is scrolling (because what is the result of that???) But in your life, there should be more things that you actually enjoy doing than the things that you do just for a result. For instance, if you’re studying in university, you should enjoy most of the subjects since this is what you are about to do for your whole life. And if you do not enjoy more than half of the subjects that you know you are going to need in the future, then you should think about whether you made the right choice about your major.
And don’t let yourself be scared away if you enjoy something that someone else doesn’t or if you do something just for the result and someone else enjoys it – there is probably nothing wrong with you.
One of Ali’s (author of the book I already mentioned) most repeated points was treating things like a game. And it’s a great way to make things more enjoyable. Let’s dive deeper into this thought. Why do we enjoy games? There are many studies answering this question, and I do not want to talk about them. You, on the other hand, can search around and learn more about this topic if you’re interested. But I am interested only in the basic points of these studies. I don’t have much experience with computer games because I don’t really understand the complicated ones, and it’s just not for everybody. But as a younger teenager, we used to play a lot of games on our phones or in some cases, tablets. And for me, it was fun because I was struggling to win sometimes, but not so hard that it would be impossible for me to win (that is why I really enjoy solving logic examples and equations) – and that is how games are designed, and that is why we keep playing, because of the feeling that we can do it and that we will win the next time. That is why it can be so addictive. If you treat yourself this way in school, it would be much easier for you to make it feel more fun. Believe that you can do it (because you can).
I think you can sense that I almost said it in the previous paragraph – if you’re good at something, you automatically enjoy it more, am I right? Like when you’re playing an instrument (it would be piano for me) and you have to learn what the hands play first slowly and separately, and that’s not fun. But when you’re getting better and you can play the song with both hands, and it starts to sound really good, this is the moment when it starts to be really fulfilling. And the more you practice, the easier it gets. I heard or read somewhere that nowadays we are training our brain to forget (like when you are endlessly scrolling, you do not remember what was the video/picture one or two scrolls away. Imagine that your brain is trained this way so it forgets what you read or what you learned one page or one paragraph away – scary, isn’t it? This was the biggest push to uninstall Instagram at least for a while (but that is a topic for another article, so if you want, check that out).
In summary, overcoming procrastination involves understanding the reasons behind our actions, categorizing activities based on our interest and the desired outcome, and making tasks more enjoyable, potentially by treating them like a game.
Summary:
- Procrastination often involves delaying an unenjoyable activity.
- Rather than asking “how to beat procrastination,” rephrase the question to something like “how can I make it more enjoyable?” or “what would it look like if it were fun?”
- Activities can be divided into two groups: those we do for a specific outcome and those we do for the sheer pleasure of doing them. Balancing these activities can help overcome procrastination.
- Treating tasks like a game can make them more enjoyable and engaging, reducing the tendency to procrastinate.
- Practice and proficiency in a task can make it more enjoyable, reducing the tendency to procrastinate over it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this all the way through. I hope you found this article inspiring. See you letter.
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