A three-minute rule that will help you overcome procrastination
Do you also tell yourself over and over again that you must do something, and then avoid it at all costs?
To defeat this all-too-familiar demon, you should demarcate it within clear boundaries and then break it down into factors.
This will make it easy, even before the coffee water boils
Walla!
health
07/04/2022
Thursday, 07 April 2022, 06:40
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The human brain is a complex and bizarre organ, and this complexity often plays to our detriment.
This is reflected in the fact that the more tasks we accumulate that we do not feel like doing, the greater the chance that we will ignore them and do nothing.
People mistakenly think it comes from a place of laziness or carelessness, but in practice, in these moments we are likely to experience unhappiness, guilt and anger at ourselves, which will only make the problem worse and harder to overcome.
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To the full article
Guilt is one of the most dangerous emotions that arises in all of us.
Instead of making us take ourselves in hand and complete the tedious tasks, guilt creates a vicious cycle that feeds itself over and over again.
We are afraid of these tasks, run away from them, whip ourselves and then only fear and avoid more.
But that accusation also has a sworn enemy who can defeat it - compassion.
Psychologists will explain to you that the first step on the way to overcoming any mental difficulty is to identify it and accept it.
While attempts to combat procrastination will only increase its intensity, identifying what causes it may be a first and important step in the right direction.
Once you do that, it's easy to formulate tools that have been scientifically proven to help stop procrastination and start doing.
One of these tools will not require more than three minutes of your precious time.
Only 3 minutes.
Jim's Gif from "The Office" with a Watch (Photo: Giphy)
Dr. Jennifer Wilde is a psychologist and researcher at the University of Oxford. She has compiled the many findings she has collected throughout her career including a book called Be Extraordinary, which explains how we can all become extraordinary people. One of the tools she presents in the book is Which promises to significantly reduce the tendency to repeatedly postpone the most tedious tasks on your to-do list.
Our most sucks start - and stop
Procrastination, we emphasize, is one of the most common and well-known problems in the Western world.
It affects all of us, from junior employees, through freelancers to the world's busiest CEOs. Over the years, various methods of reducing procrastination have been explored, many of which include one time window or another where we are "forced" to work. What all these methods have in common is Looking at a task we do not want to perform, it seems to us particularly long, frightening and frustrating
. On procrastination, which has also received support from well-known scientists, psychologists and CEOs.
As part of this, we suggest that we dedicate 20 minutes to a specific task and at the end we will see if we want to continue or stop.
In practice, Dr. Wilde has seen that even 20 minutes is perceived by some people as too long and exhausting,
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The method we tested, the 3-minute method, is quite simple to understand and apply - choose the task we most do not want to perform at the moment, open a timer that counts three minutes back, start working and then at the end of the three minutes ask ourselves whether to continue or take a break.
"Three minutes quickly turn into six or nine"
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Wilde told of a study she conducted, which showed that 98 percent of those who tried this method chose to continue working and complete the task even at the end of the three minutes.
"Three minutes quickly turns into six minutes, or nine, and sometimes without us noticing, we finish the job," she said.
And her findings, we emphasize, are not really surprising, joining those of many others who recommend thinking small to face big challenges.
Just like our cars, the human brain requires "starting" that takes quite a bit of energy, but after "starting", it is much easier to move ourselves, even if it is difficult.
Therefore, experts also recommend in other contexts "gymnastic snacks", ie short breaks from work for stretching, jogging or fitness exercises of a few minutes.
This is also true in nutrition - small and healthy meals during the day will inevitably help to better control the quality of nutrition and calorie intake.
In general, the main message to take away from this is that the more forgiving we adopt ourselves, the easier it will be for us to overcome any difficulty that arises.
Instead of asking why we are like this, we should ask what can be done to improve the situation.
Instead of thinking big, you should reduce each task to as small and feasible steps as possible.
It will not be easy and it will never be perfect, but it is part of the complex package deal of being human.
And in this context, compassion will serve you much better than the familiar and dangerous guilt.
health
psychology
Tags
Procrastination
blame
psychology
time