At one point or another we’ve all been affected by the annoyance
that is procrastination. Knowing that something needs to be done, but just not
doing it is what I hate most about it. In the video, Tim Urban explains how procrastination
has affected him, and that there is more than just one type of procrastinator.
He knows that he must do a task – whether it be an important paper, or
preparing a slideshow for the talk itself – but he finds himself constantly
being controlled by pointless tasks that don’t add anything of value to what he
needs to do. He explains his points well. His talk is engaging, funny, and well
researched, either from personal experiences and/or studying the concept of
procrastination via multiple sources.
As I was watching the video, it got me thinking. I will admit that
I have fallen foul of procrastinating. Being interesting in finding out certain
specific facts about anything and everything can become addicting. New
information in various forms enlightens my mind and makes it want to find out
so much more. Once you’ve started procrastinating, it’s incredibly hard to stop
and get back to the task at hand.
But I wouldn’t admit that I suffer from incredibly strong
procrastination. I don’t leave things to the last minute, but it can sometimes
take me all day to complete one task – mainly due to that I haven’t even
started around mid-afternoon. I’ve been entertaining myself through the art of
everything else instead. Browsing on the internet, discovering weird and
wonderful, interesting and occasionally mind-blowing little snippets of
information across all forms of media doesn’t get any less boring when you’ve
gotten yourself into that unwanted routine. As the time is ticking by, hour
after hour passes, and the piece of paper on my screen has only the title
written, there is that sudden jolt of realisation. I haven’t done anything yet.
So I close the internet down, or the game I’m playing if I have found one that
looked interesting, and begin the task at hand. I do understand that it’s
ironic that I was procrastinating before I wrote this article about said topic –
and frankly, after being the victim of it for so long, it frankly wasn’t funny –
more annoying.
Getting annoyed at procrastinating is probably the worst thing you
can do if you are wanting to get on with things. Anger doesn’t solve anything.
I have taken on board several helpful tips that prevents procrastinating, and
after trying them out, the effect was immediate, however unfortunately didn’t completely
sole the problem.
When you’re finished for the day, just before you do shut down or
start watching any YouTube videos that you’ve found whilst not doing your work,
or play your game, make sure you write down what tasks that needs to be done
the next day. If you have a lot to do the next day, seeing all those tasks can
be daunting and I can understand if you believe that will lead you to
procrastination even more – I thought the same. But trust me, if you make the
point of completing all those tasks by the end of the day, or by a specific
time if necessary, crossing each one off doesn’t get more satisfying, and it
only gets better when you’ve crossed off the last task of the day. Seeing all
those tasks with a solid line through them, I smiled with joy when I saw that
for the first time, and so I continued that on and, whilst I do occasionally
fall foul of procrastinating, it has changed the way I work altogether.
After a hard week’s work, all you want to do is it back and relax
for the weekend and do nothing. Watch a movie, marathon your favourite TV show,
or play your game, or anything else that you find enjoyable, the weekend is
yours to do with as you wish. Setting yourself an award at the end of the week
is another helpful tip. For me, my reward is seeing the list of tasks with that
line through them, and so I place my rewards at the end of the week. However,
if you feel that you need to place them at the end of the day, that’s just as good.
There’s nothing better than the feeling of knowing you’ve earnt something. It’s
almost comparable to when you’ve been saving up your money for so long to buy
that almost gadget that’s just hit the market and knowing that you’ve earnt
that.
I work from home, and so I am subjected to more distractions than
if I were in an office. Access to the internet whenever I want is one thing,
and the ability to pop into the kitchen, open the fridge, see it completely
stocked full, decide that there’s nothing to eat and go back into my room again
only to repeat the process about fifteen minutes later because my brain thinks
that the fridge has gotten an entirely new set of items – and when I discover
that it doesn’t, I then go back into my room and once again repeat the process.
I’ve stopped doing that – every Saturday, the local market comes to town. I
make my way down there and buy a few things. A couple of bottles of drink – a pack
of four cakes, possibly a pack of biscuits; nothing over the top. When in my
room, and after I’ve completed an article, or reached my goal of so many words
written in that day, I treat myself to a biscuit, or a cake. The bottles of
drink are there purely so that I don’t constantly keep going backwards and
forwards to the kitchen.
In the video, Tim presentation gives off that aurora of irony.
Simple artwork that gives off the impression that he put it together at the
last minute – I like to think that it wasn’t the case at all, but actually a
deliberate well-thought out misdirection. Seeing the slideshow as it is felt
more impactful than if it looked as if he spends months working on it, making
sure that the graphics were shining, the animations were on point, the sound
effects were working without fail. It needed that taste of irony to drive home
his point and how procrastinating can be, sometimes, an unstoppable force.
Those are my three top tips to help defeat procrastination. I did
think about writing an article explaining the ten best ways to prevent said
problem, but I thought it would be better if I talked about the methods that
actually helped me as I would be able to talk about them a lot better and with
more detail. I do hope that this article has helped you in some way, but if it
hasn’t, then I will link some sources that explains many more ways that can
help, including the blog post that Tim mentioned in the video.
And yes, I was procrastinating when I was watching that video.
Links:
Tim Urban's website:
Helpful websites:
Thanks for reading
Antony Hudson
(TonyHadNouns)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Here, you can comment on what you liked about it or what changes you feel will best suit bettering your experience.