My procrastination and I have a long history through many years of studying. We all have procrastination and we all have different reasons for it. But one thing is for sure - we don't really like her. Probably due to stress, perfectionism, the weight of the backlog, etc... we procrastinate. At least those are the causes we hear. Therefore, this text is a supplement to everything that can be found by easy googling or chatGPTing.
The following theories and ideas came to me one day and I should record them somewhere where they will always be (here), not on papers, phones, hard drives...
1. Time frame
A frequent enhancer of procrastination is the existence of a deadline by which a task that we are procrastinating should be completed. Therefore, the first idea and question:
When should I start!? I have a TO when, but I don't have a FROM when. Namely, there is also the so-called PREcrastination. This is when we start working and finish something too early (equivalent to going to the bus station half an hour before departure) and often do not use all the potential and reduce the quality of work. Here's an example - if my exam is in 3 months, I'll start studying 1 month before the exam because it's likely that I'll forget 90% of the information by then and my work efficiency will be zero (as if I hadn't studied).
2. Just start
What can be read in the literature and viewed on YouTube, is "just go". It's also what I remembered for a reason because it works. Again, a typical example of learning procrastination: "he didn't even open the book".
It is the beginning that is the most crucial (estimate around 50%). The problem is not the work, but the beginning and the habit of procrastinating. We can solve all that and endure it by preparing everything necessary for learning, ie. starting to perform the desired task.
The first step is: you need to prepare and enable preconditions under which it would take a maximum of 8 seconds (from some book) to start work. When everything is prepared and at your fingertips.
Step two: go for a short time. Start working on that task for about 1 minute. There, a lot of negative emotions are released when you see that the task is actually not that difficult and complicated. Then extend as much as you like...or as much as you feel comfortable. Sometimes it can take a task from one sitting, and sometimes it takes several days, weeks...
Therefore, you need to break that icy start - just go, however imperfectly.
3. Mental ecosystem
This occurred to me while I was procrastinating on something I had no idea about. I felt like I was in some completely unknown ecosystem of information that I WANT (so I don't even have a deadline and no one is forcing me) to explore. I knew almost nothing about this "ecosystem". I didn't know the size, complexity, or number of organisms, and I didn't know a single type of organism. I knew roughly where I would start and I knew the final destination. So CHAOS! procrastination.
One day I would start working (from the previous one I just start) and it would lead to the fact that I did not achieve anything in the long term. I just jotted down notes, but I didn't remember anything significant and therefore achieved. I think that was the most difficult part of the task. Because I start every day, but it seems to me that it's getting harder and harder because I don't feel like I'm making any progress. That's when I realized that when the ice to break through is really long, then you still need to have some kind of compass in which direction to go.
And then the ideas came to me: a mental ecosystem and a memory island. In short: I still have to set aside mental space for that task during work. Always have the location in my head and a compass that will help push me in the right direction.
In short, remember as much as possible about what you are doing so that at any moment you can adjust and "fall" into your mental ecosystem that you have set aside specifically for that task. So, in less than a few seconds, you can bring yourself to that working state. And then from that mental state to action.
Simply put: start thinking about the details of your project and don't confuse planning with forecasting.
And the memory island is something like a mnemonic memory system. Similar to those memory systems where location is used (eg ALI memory system - AssociationLocation Imagination). Of course, the location is a fictional island.
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And that's basically it. Everything else can be relatively easily found on the net about procrastination and overprocrastination. These notes are just an addition that is easy to remember and always available in the head (just 3 steps to get rid of procrastination).
p.s. I'm writing this as part of my procrastination. 😌
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