Friday, February 12, 2010
3 Positive Self-Talk That Will Overcome Procrastination
Do you want to learn how to overcome procrastination? Are you putting things off?
I believe that everyone faces the challenges of procrastination in their daily life. No matter who you are, a doctor, an engineering, a super successful businessman, you’ll face with issues with your personal productivity.
And I believe that to deal with procrastination, you will have to find and cure the source.
What I mean is, you need to know what is causing you to procrastinate and how you procrastinate before you can prevent it.
Most personal productivity books will just tell you that to be more productive, you need to create a to-do list, organize your tasks, do the most important task first and so on.
However, this will not help you overcome procrastination. These techniques can help you to be more productive and get more things done, but they never deal with the source of procrastination within you.
The source of procrastination is deep within you, in your mind, and you work it out as a habit.
I found self-talk a powerful strategy to overcome procrastination. Whenever you want to get a task done, you will ask yourself questions before you proceed to do it.
So if you can deal and act before you actually procrastinate, you will be able to put yourself into action and do the task.
Some people will talk to themselves like, “should I really do this?” “God, I hate this part.” “I’m going to spend all my time here, what a boring thing to do.”
What if you talk to yourself positively before doing the task? What if you tell yourself, “How am I going to enjoy with this today?” Or “Where can I start today?”
Do you think this is going to help you overcome procrastination? You bet! The answer is a BIG yes!
So here are the 3 positive self-talk you can use to help you avoid procrastination in your life…
1. Tell yourself you’ll enjoying doing it.
When you have to get your task done, ask yourself, “how am I going to enjoy doing this now?” This is going to interrupt your pattern because this is not the way you use to act.
And if your pattern gets interrupted, you will never focus on how boring or mundane the task is. What you’ll do then is that your brain will start to search for answer of how you can enjoy doing it.
Try it, it really works. Even before I’m typing this post here, I’m thinking about how am I going to enjoy and share this great tip with you.
2. Tell yourself that you can accomplish a small step.
Many people focus on the big task instead of the small task that they should get it done. When you focus on the big task, you’ll feel your mind with fear. You’ll fear of the massive amount of time you’re going to pour in. You’ll fear if you cannot get it done by the deadline. You’ll feel the fear and feel overwhelm.
Confucius has a very interesting quote on this, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Yes, no matter how big the project is, you will have to start by taking one small step at a time.
You cannot build a house at once. You cannot write a book in a day. However, you can start by designing the house, pour the concrete, laying the bricks, and so on and so forth. It is the same for everything in life.
You can take just one small step to accomplish a big project right now. Maybe you can draft a plan for your project, maybe it is a phone call, or maybe it is saying “hello” to somebody.
So ask yourself, “what one small step can I take today?” This will help you to avoid putting things off.
3. Tell yourself, “I wish to” instead of saying “I should” or “I have” to.
In the world of psychology, the word “I have to” or “I should” creates the emotion of unwillingness to do it.
When you say that you have to do it, you are telling yourself that you need to get it done, but you feel like don’t want to do it.
So change the word to “wish”. Say to yourself “I wish to study tonight” instead of saying “I have to study tonight”.
You can try this little change right now and feel the change in emotion and feeling in you. Close your eyes and imagine all the task that you need to do in order to achieve your goals.
Think by using the word “have”. For instance, you can think, “I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to…”
Now, change the word to “wish”. What do you feel?
Try to use this word and make it a habit to use it.
And these are the 3 positive self-talk strategies that will help you to overcome procrastination.
I believe that everyone faces the challenges of procrastination in their daily life. No matter who you are, a doctor, an engineering, a super successful businessman, you’ll face with issues with your personal productivity.
And I believe that to deal with procrastination, you will have to find and cure the source.
What I mean is, you need to know what is causing you to procrastinate and how you procrastinate before you can prevent it.
Most personal productivity books will just tell you that to be more productive, you need to create a to-do list, organize your tasks, do the most important task first and so on.
However, this will not help you overcome procrastination. These techniques can help you to be more productive and get more things done, but they never deal with the source of procrastination within you.
The source of procrastination is deep within you, in your mind, and you work it out as a habit.
I found self-talk a powerful strategy to overcome procrastination. Whenever you want to get a task done, you will ask yourself questions before you proceed to do it.
So if you can deal and act before you actually procrastinate, you will be able to put yourself into action and do the task.
Some people will talk to themselves like, “should I really do this?” “God, I hate this part.” “I’m going to spend all my time here, what a boring thing to do.”
What if you talk to yourself positively before doing the task? What if you tell yourself, “How am I going to enjoy with this today?” Or “Where can I start today?”
Do you think this is going to help you overcome procrastination? You bet! The answer is a BIG yes!
So here are the 3 positive self-talk you can use to help you avoid procrastination in your life…
1. Tell yourself you’ll enjoying doing it.
When you have to get your task done, ask yourself, “how am I going to enjoy doing this now?” This is going to interrupt your pattern because this is not the way you use to act.
And if your pattern gets interrupted, you will never focus on how boring or mundane the task is. What you’ll do then is that your brain will start to search for answer of how you can enjoy doing it.
Try it, it really works. Even before I’m typing this post here, I’m thinking about how am I going to enjoy and share this great tip with you.
2. Tell yourself that you can accomplish a small step.
Many people focus on the big task instead of the small task that they should get it done. When you focus on the big task, you’ll feel your mind with fear. You’ll fear of the massive amount of time you’re going to pour in. You’ll fear if you cannot get it done by the deadline. You’ll feel the fear and feel overwhelm.
Confucius has a very interesting quote on this, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Yes, no matter how big the project is, you will have to start by taking one small step at a time.
You cannot build a house at once. You cannot write a book in a day. However, you can start by designing the house, pour the concrete, laying the bricks, and so on and so forth. It is the same for everything in life.
You can take just one small step to accomplish a big project right now. Maybe you can draft a plan for your project, maybe it is a phone call, or maybe it is saying “hello” to somebody.
So ask yourself, “what one small step can I take today?” This will help you to avoid putting things off.
3. Tell yourself, “I wish to” instead of saying “I should” or “I have” to.
In the world of psychology, the word “I have to” or “I should” creates the emotion of unwillingness to do it.
When you say that you have to do it, you are telling yourself that you need to get it done, but you feel like don’t want to do it.
So change the word to “wish”. Say to yourself “I wish to study tonight” instead of saying “I have to study tonight”.
You can try this little change right now and feel the change in emotion and feeling in you. Close your eyes and imagine all the task that you need to do in order to achieve your goals.
Think by using the word “have”. For instance, you can think, “I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to…”
Now, change the word to “wish”. What do you feel?
Try to use this word and make it a habit to use it.
And these are the 3 positive self-talk strategies that will help you to overcome procrastination.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
