16 TED Talks that are perfect for procrastination

playlist TEDTalks

The few days before a holiday are brutal. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of work on your plate or have midterms to study for — your mind just wants to be distracted from it all. And so, we bring you the best TED Talks for procrastinating, so you don’t have to feel completely guilty for not doing what you are supposed to be doing. After all, you are learning.

This post is partially inspired by this Reddit user, who asked for great talks to get him/her over the desire to procrastinate. But we say: what’s the fun in that? Though do check out the thread for ideas, as some good talks are suggested.

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6 Playful Strategies to Beat Procrastination and Boost Your Productivity

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How to Beat Your Fear of Laziness and Procrastination

Your to-do list is bigger than you are. You can’t keep doing this. You’ve got tasks and goals lined up from here to forever. Most of them are dated today and tomorrow. Sure, it’s good to be busy, but not this busy. And not for this long without a break. When’s the last time you stopped worrying about everything?

Desperately struggling to achieve perfect time management and productivity is wearing you out. Let laziness back into your life. I know what you’re thinking: easier said than done, right? There’s so much stuff you have to do, and you can’t just skip it or hand it off to somebody else.

Actually, you mostly can do that. You just have to beat your fear first. Fear? Yep. You’ve got a serious phobia of goofing off.

Like you, most Lifehackers are keen to be as productive as possible at all times. There’s a problem with that: humans are not built for 24/7 productivity, and nobody’s perfect at time management every single second. One of the best things you can do to boost your productivity is give yourself a break.

No matter what you’re doing, if you’ve been doing it for more than 30 or 40 minutes, your brain’s getting too accustomed to it. That means you’ll start to make mistakes. A very short break will let you maintain your mental focus, and a longer break will refresh your whole body, as well as your mind.

As for time management, it should come as no surprise to you that if you have fewer things to do, managing your time suddenly gets easier. If you’re genuinely struggling to manage time, rather than energy and motivation, maybe you simply have too many tasks on the go. The easiest way to test this theory is to reduce your to-do list. If that helps, problem solved. If you’re still struggling after halving your tasks, then you’re probably procrastinating. Trouble is, you’re doing it wrong.

When most people procrastinate, they do it in an aimless daze. Sharpen your procrastination skills and you’ll discover that procrastination is a tool, not a problem.

Every time you feel like avoiding a task, look at why you feel that way about it.

Is it scary, like going to the dentist?Depressing or morbid, like drawing up a will?Tiring, like cleaning out your garage?Do you feel like you don’t know how to begin?

Once you’ve identified the source of your procrastination inclinations, address it. Take a friend with you to the dentists for support. Arrange to meet up with your extended family after finalizing your will. Ask for help cleaning out the garage. Figure out the first step to overcome your initial paralysis.

Get procrastination working for you by telling you how you can make your tasks easier to handle.

The other key thing about procrastinating is that it follows the same principles as the classic productivity advice to “action, defer, delegate, or delete” any task that crosses our path. In this case, the aim is to de-stress by delaying, delegating, and abandoning as many tasks as possible.

Seriously, does this item on your to-do list have to be done? What’ll happen if it never gets done at all? If you can live with the consequences, ditch the task.

Does that sound scary? Are you thinking, “What if it turns out to be important after all?” No problem. Lay that fear to rest by keeping a list of your abandoned tasks, so that you can move them back onto your active to-do list later on if you want to.

Weirdly, some people call this approach a productivity technique while others call it laziness. I say if it works, use it.

Can you get someone else to do this for you? Really? You sure?

Most people overestimate their own importance in the completion of a task. It’s easy to think that your family/business/universe would collapse if you weren’t there working hard to keep it going, but the simple fact is that there’s usually someone else who can handle it. They just aren’t right now, because they can see you’ve got it already.

More importantly, can you find someone to delegate to who’ll perform well enough that you won’t feel disappointed? The biggest delegation screw-up is turning to somebody who’s willing, but not able. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by delegating to somebody just because they’re available. Look for the most reputable person with the most relevant skills that you can find, so that you can relax knowing the task’s getting done right.

No matter what you hear about Inbox Zero and other done-at-first-sight productivity tactics, they don’t work for everybody. If you’re so obsessed with emptying your inbox that you don’t get anything else done, that isn’t a productive day!

Assess the urgency and importance of any tasks you can’t abandon or delegate. Today, do only tasks that:

need to be done today or tomorrow, like buying more milk before the store closes.have a lot riding on them, like revising for an exam or booking your next vacation.

Everything else can be added to your “to do later” list, where it can stay until it becomes important enough to do today (or, ideally, until you find someone to do it for you instead).

How do you feel about laziness and procrastination now?

Don’t let fear of imagined consequences blind you to the real benefits of doing less. Goofing off is vital to your productive lifestyle!

Want more reasons to slack off?: 11 Reasons Why You Should Never Get a Full-Time Job

Featured photo credit: Day 201: Professional via Shutterstock

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Stay Focused by Trying This One Powerful Tip to Stop Procrastination in its Tracks

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Avoiding The Butterfly Effect, The Supersaurus and Procrastination

In Chaos Theory, “The Butterfly Effect” explains how small changes in conditions can produce results very different from predictions. If good weather is predicted on a day at one side of the world and a butterfly flaps its wings on the other, this could actually cause a storm rather than the good weather as predicted. The flapping of the wings changes the air pressure very slightly causing a weather pattern completely different from the one originally forecast.

Sometimes one simple action can lead to great results — or avoid catastrophic ones. Have you ever delayed paying a bill, resulting in a fine? The next day you have to leave the office to pay the fine. As a result you miss a meeting, delay handing in your reports and your hair gets wet because you were caught in the rain…and you were supposed to go out for cocktails after work! One simple action could have avoided the storm that followed.

There may also be a project that you just can’t seem to get started on. You postpone picking it up, make excuses, distract yourself with menial tasks in the hope that it will disappear. Why do we do this?

One of the chief reasons we avoid work is fear. We are afraid the task may be too big or too difficult for us.

The task looks enormous. Never mind an elephant — this is a Supersaurus! You see yourself as a tiny dot looking up at the largest dinosaur that ever roamed the earth and think:

“How in the world am I going to get this done? This is impossible, it scares me so much that I’m now going to pretend that dinosaurs (especially the Supersaurus) never existed and I’m going to start ticking all the nice little tasks that I enjoy off my list. Call Mary, yes I can do that, have a little chat and arrange the social club outing much more pleasant that super lizards…”

But what happens? The super lizard won’t go away. He plagues your dreams.  You push him back into your subconscious and you pretend there will be no repercussions — but, alas, one day you are reminded.

You are called to a meeting. A meeting in which you are reminded that, in fact, the Supersaurus does exist and all of the other people at the meeting know of his existence. You have no choice now but to face him head on…so what do you do?

The fear comes from ignorance. Not having defined exactly what that the Supersaurus is, you sit down and open the files, you look at his size, you understand his form and composition, and then you assess its greatness and then break it down.

What exactly needs to be done? How long is it going to take? When can this be scheduled into the day? Once you are clear about the size of the task then you can begin to break it down into a manageable size — you know, like a cow or a goat rather than a massive dinosaur.

The most important part of avoiding procrastination is the “Do Habit”. The planning and the scheduling is important — vital, in fact — for the smooth running of any project. But without actually standing up and doing something about it nothing will ever progress.

Create a habit of doing. If it’s a project in work or a book you are writing, stop planning and start doing — even if you can only do ten minutes a day. Just do it. After all, ten minutes a day adds up to more than one working day a month. Every little bit helps, so make a plan and create space for the task every day.

As Bob Marley (and probably someone equally as important person before him) said:

“Every little action, there’s a Reaction”

Start the momentum.

Don’t allow your wings to flap aimlessly and cause a tornado.

Start consciously fluttering…and the small little actions may just create amazingly big results.

(Photo credit: Lesser Gull Butterfly via Shutterstock)

Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “Through Productivity and Positivity I believe there is little we can’t achieve” go to Productivity & Positivity and get Free eBook called Clear the Clutter; Find Your Life

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29 Ways to Beat Procrastination Once and For All

We all procrastinate. Sometimes it’s not a bad thing, but it can turn into something evil and nasty if we aren’t careful. Try these procrastination beating techniques to destroy this deadly foe once and for all.

One of the best ways to “change the channel” of procrastination is to change your scenery. Rather than sit in front of your computer or TV all day, get up, do some stretches, jog in place, do pushups, and move until your frame of mind has changed.

Setup a daily (or hourly) reminder that you should be working on something or at least not wasting your time (unless you have time to waste). You can also set up reminders that give you motivational quotes.

There is nothing like having someone on your side when it comes to making your goals a reality. If you start to slip into procrastination, your motivation buddy will get you back in the game.

You can do this with people around you or even with your motivation buddy above. A great way is to announce your change publicly and be vocal about it. Hit the social networks, your blog, write letters, whatever it takes to make yourself more accountable to getting work done.

No matter what it is. Artwork, photos, videos, a journal, some code, anything that gets you into a creative mood and gets you working.

The nicest part about waking up early is that it is quiet and still. You can concentrate on a few big tasks as soon as you get up and get a bunch of work done that would have taken many more hours during the bustle of the day.

You can’t wake up early and work if you don’t get to sleep early. We need to recharge and being tired is definitely a motivator to keep procrastinating.

Sometimes we see how big a mess is in our lives and rather than do anything about it, we procrastinate. If you spend 15 minutes a day or just clean and clear things as you go (email, physical cleaning, tasks, etc.) the load of things to do isn’t as big.

Sitting in front of your TV isn’t a good thing (all the time). Beat procrastination (as well as save some money) by getting rid of your cable.

We have all heard the excuses. So, rather than make up new ones, just hunker down and get to work.

If you know that some tasks are coming up as due and you have a lot of work to do on them, take out your calendar and schedule some time blocks. This will give you a set time to work and help you beat procrastination.

It’s hard to get stuff done when you don’t know what to get done. Have a task list with you to make sure that you have the right things to do at the right time.

We recommend GTD, because, you know, it’s the best.

One of the worst things that you can do when starting to “work” is check email. It will put you in an “non-action” mood. Instead, pull out your task list and work on a big task first. Check email later.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, everything. Turn them off completely to beat procrastination. Focus on the task at hand.

One good way to get to work is to set a specific time for yourself to work. Say, 25 minutes (ie. Pomodoro Technique). After the set amount of time, rest and do whatever you want for a little bit. Then work for a set of time again.

One of the best ways to know where you are spending your time and find free time to beat procrastination is by tracking yourself. There are a host of apps for doing this. Find your weaknesses and change them.

If you hate doing some menial on your computer then try to automate it whenever you can. It will save you time and allow you to concentrate on more important, interesting things.

Jam out to some music to beat procrastination. Create a “beating down procrastination to a pulp” play list that puts you in a state of flow with your work.

Most times, we are afraid of something when we procrastinate. Try to find your fear and and face it. Then you can start creating and working.

If you can’t work on something unless it is perfect then you should find a way to leave earth. Nothing is perfect. Make something real and awesome. That will be great enough.

Know what you are doing at all times to beat procrastination. Don’t get stuck in a mindless rut of web surfing, channel flipping, comment flaming, balderdash. Be aware of your surroundings.

At the beginning of each day identify a handful of things that you want to accomplish. Some say three things. It depends on how large the tasks are. Set a limite for yourself and work on each of them until they are done.

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you are having a tough time beating procrastination. Remember, you are human and we love to sit and stew in our own uncompleted mess of work sometimes. Just work hard to get out of it.

You are reading Lifehack because you love the idea of productivity and productivity tools. I’m writing for Lifehack, because I love them too. Don’t let them control you. Trying to find the perfect productivity tool can be an excellent way to procrastinate.

Go to a movie, a play, an art museum. Getting away from work is a great way to beat procrastination as well as refuel your creative energy.

One reason we procrastinate is because we are trying to do too many things at once. Identify key projects and complete those first. You won’t feel overwhelmed and will be able to get to work.

We are constantly plugged in to our digital world. We constantly have music or sound on. It can be a overwhelming and stressful causing us to tune out of work and life. Give yourself at least 15 minutes of quiet everyday to refocus and be with yourself.

Don’t think that “you are just lazy” and that “this is the way you are”. It doesn’t have to be and you don’t have to let it be. You can beat procrastination.

If you want to beat procrastination once and for all, these are the 29 ways to do. Pick the best one for your current situation and then get back to work.

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The Nike Guide to Overcoming Procrastination

You aren’t doing what you know you should be doing.

And it’s eating at you. Every time this task you’re postponing and postponing crosses your mind, you feel stress and anxiety.

But somehow you just take your mind to something else again, and postpone once more.

And that’s exactly what procrastination is… The postponement that never ends.

It steals your peace, joy and creative energy. Instead of crafting awesome words, works of art, or solutions, you sit with worries, stress, anxiety and a subtle realization that you’re still not the productive, task-accomplishing machine that you hoped to be by now.

Nike’s slogan is old news to all of us.

Still, when it comes to procrastination, it’s such good advice. No matter which way you look at the constant postponement that we label procrastination, there’s simply just one solution.

Just do it!

That task that you’re postponing that’s stealing your joy… Start with it, and start it now. There’s no such thing as tomorrow. We always only have the present moment. And we should use the present moment to do what needs to get done.

Yes, this all sounds a bit easier in theory than it is in practice.

But some simple awareness can help you overcome your obstacles. When you think of a task that you’ve been postponing, and you decide to do it, watch out for mental sabotage.

Some thoughts will arise with reasonable excuses for not doing the task right now. These thoughts are the very reasons why you’ve been postponing the task in the first place.

“I’m a blogger, so I’m not sure it’s a good idea to start webinars. I should rather just focus on my writing.”

Or…

“I know it’s important to sort out my office and I do believe the clean working space will give me more creative energy, but today’s a busy day, and I don’t have time for admin. I need to keep my clients happy…”

These thoughts are the little foxes that sustain procrastination. You need to have your guard up, be on the lookout for them, and as soon as they appear, you need to counter them.

And there’s only one way to counter such thoughts. You need to take decisive action, right now. Let me show you how…

This is a short blog post. I like writing longer posts, in the region of 1,500 words. I kept this one short (at less than half my preferred length) to save you at least five minutes.

And no, you can’t go on a tea break or catch up on the latest sport news.

I want you to use that five minutes right now.

As you read this article, your conscience would have shown you a task that you needed to have done by now. What task was that? If there’s more than one, just pick one. Any one.

It could be redoing your website’s about page. Or (more likely…) it could be starting that book you’ve been dreaming about for years.

I want you to take 5 minutes right now, and start with that task.

The idea is not to complete it right now.

Just get a start. And don’t think bigger than five minutes. Only use five minutes.

What might happen is that the energy you get from starting is so great that you work on it for an hour.

Or after five minutes you’ll stop, but the feeling of accomplishment and the fact that you took five minutes and actually worked on it might get you to take another five minutes this afternoon or tomorrow.

It gets the ball rolling…

Oh, and right about now your mind will be coming up with some clever little excuses. These are mere thoughts. The ones that cause procrastination. Awareness is key.

Please ignore them and start. Take action. Do something! Right now…

And then commit to taking five minutes (yes, only five minutes!) to work on your project every day.

You’ll be amazed by the results. Just do it!

I would love to hear about your experiences and your progress in the comments section below.

(Photo credit: Motivational Phrase via Shutterstock)

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Four Procrastination Myths Debunked

Day 115 is courtesy of Jacqui Brown

There are less than one hundred days left in 2011.

If you have a backlog of projects that you meant to work on this year, but which you haven’t gotten around to, it’s very likely that procrastination is the culprit.

Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., creator of the popular web site procrastination.ca, is one of the world’s foremost experts on procrastination. Dr. Pychyl defines procrastination as “the needless, often irrational, voluntary delay of an intended task”. That is, you intend to work on a task but you go off and start working on something else which you know is not as important, and which doesn’t need to get done right away.

There are several myths, lies, or excuses that we use in order to avoid doing the work that needs to be done. A procrastination myth is when we tell ourselves that there’s a valid reason why we’re putting off an important task, when the reality is that it’s just a lame excuse we’re using in order to defer doing work that requires effort and concentration. Four of the most common procrastination myths are laid out and debunked below.

You have an important report due in two weeks, but instead of getting started on the report you find yourself cleaning out the refrigerator or reorganizing your closet. In order to reduce the dissonance that exists between what you’re doing and what you should be doing, you immediately start rationalizing this behavior. You tell yourself that you’re just one of those people who works better under pressure, so the best thing for you to do is to postpone getting started on the report.

The reality is that procrastination harms performance. Scrambling around trying to complete projects at the last minute and cramming the night before a big exam is not the most efficient or enjoyable way to get things done. Planning and pacing your projects always gets you better results, and it’s a lot less stressful than constantly pulling all-nighters and handing things in at the last possible moment.

If you’re convinced that you simply can’t get yourself to start on a task unless you feel the pressure of a looming deadline, then start creating artificial pressure for yourself. There are many ways you can do this. For example, set a timer and tell yourself that you have thirty minutes to write the first paragraph. You can even pretend that it’s a timed essay exam and that at the end of the thirty minutes you have to stop typing, no matter what. Another method you can try is to get an accountability buddy to whom you have to “hand in” regular updates of your work.

By using artificial pressure you get the best of both worlds. On the one hand, having artificial deadlines forces you to focus all of your attention on the task at hand, and it prevents you from expanding the work needlessly in order to fill the time available for its completion (Parkinson’s Law). On the other hand, this method allows you to give yourself sufficient time to do adequate research, to check your facts and figures, and to edit your work properly.

If you’re still not convinced, conduct an experiment. Take two similar tasks: postpone working on one of the tasks until the last possible minute; pace yourself on the other one. Then, compare the two experiences.

Do you put off getting started on important tasks until you’re “in the mood” or until inspiration strikes? Telling yourself that you’re waiting for inspiration to strike is procrastination in disguise. Instead of waiting for the ideas to start flowing before you get started on a task, you need to sit down and get to work with or without inspiration. You’ll find that inspiration is a byproduct of having the discipline to do what needs to be done; inspiration comes from doing.

Stop wasting time waiting for inspiration. As Picasso once said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

In “Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” Brian Tracy recommends that you think continually of ways to save, schedule, and consolidate large chunks of time. Then, use that time to work on your most important tasks. However, if you don’t have a large chunk of time available to work on an important task, such as a report that’s due in a couple of weeks, it’s a mistake to keep postponing the task until you do have a few hours of uninterrupted time.

Instead, you should apply the “Swiss Cheese Approach”. This is a method that was introduced by Alan Lakein in his book, “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”. Of course, Swiss cheese is easily recognizable because it’s full of holes. According to Lakein, “the underlying assumption of the Swiss cheese approach is that it is indeed possible to get something started in five minutes or less. And once you’ve started, you’ve given yourself the opportunity to keep going.”

In a nutshell, the Swiss Cheese Approach consists of the following:

Work in small holes of time, such as fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, or half an hour.Poke small holes into a large task on a consistent basis.

This approach works for the following reasons:

Once you get started on a task, it no longer looks as difficult and overwhelming as it did before you got started.By poking small holes in a project you’ll be making constant progress at a good pace.This approach allows you to create a sense of forward momentum.Each time that you get a little bit of the task done, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment.You’re making good use of small pockets of time, instead of wasting that time.

When you only have fifteen or twenty minutes to work on your project, instead of telling yourself that you’re better off waiting until you have more time to work on it, ask yourself the following questions:

“What can I get done in these fifteen minutes?”“Is there a small segment of the project that I can get started on?”“How can I use this time to poke a small hole into this project?”

Keep poking holes into the project whenever you have a few minutes to spare, and soon you’ll be surprised to discover that you’re practically done with the project.

We all have a tendency to think that things will be different in the future, even if that future is just tomorrow. In the future we’ll have more time, we’ll be better organized, we’ll have more impulse control, we’ll be better rested and have more energy, and we’ll be better equipped to get things done. Therefore, we keep handing our present-day responsibilities over to this superhero future self.

The reality is the following:

Unless you start taking steps to become more productive and effective today, you’ll be as time-starved tomorrow as you are today.Unless you take steps to become more disciplined today, you’ll be just as undisciplined tomorrow as you are today.Unless you take steps to become more organized today, you’ll be just as disorganized tomorrow as you are today.

This can be boiled down to the following tried and true adage: don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today.

Most of us have probably used one or more of the myths above as a way to excuse ourselves from getting to work on a task that made us feel uncomfortable–because we were afraid of doing a bad job, because the task was complex and we felt overwhelmed, or because there was something else we would rather have been doing. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll stop saying these things to yourself when it’s time to get to work on an important task.

What myths have been sustaining your procrastination habit? Please share in the comments below.

Marelisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as well as a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center. She lives in the Republic of Panama. Marelisa blogs about creativity, productivity, and getting the most out of life over at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. She's the author of the eBooks "How to Live Your Best Life - The Essential Guide for Creating and Achieving Your Life List", and "Make It Happen! A Workbook for Overcoming Procrastination and Getting the Right Things Done".

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7 Symptoms of Procrastination and How to Fight Them

We all do it to some degree or another; put off for tomorrow what we know should be done today. Postpone the inevitable pain for the current moment of pleasure. But we know that even if we can manage to put it out of our minds for the present, it will eventually come around and bite us on the butt and disturb our external calm demeanor.

Below are some of the symptoms of a Procrastinator and the remedies to try.

Not having a clear vision for the future is one of the biggest reasons people procrastinate. If you can’t see the benefits of completing certain tasks why would you bother starting them?

Remedy: Have a clear picture of all that needs to be achieved and the reasons why, you are much more likely to be motivated to get going and get things done.

Lack of time is the most popular excuse banded about for not getting things done. But fortunately there are very few people in this world that don’t have the scope for becoming at least 10% more efficient. Being busy doesn’t equate to being efficient. Regularly when someone lacks time in their lives, it is due to poor organization skills, poor prioritization or the inability to say no.

Remedy: Learn to become more efficient with one’s time. This can free up many hours a week to get the more important stuff done.

The infamous words of Peter Druker say it clearly “Fail to Plan and Plan to Fail”. If you are disorganized and don’t keep a schedule you are likely to forget tasks and miss deadlines.

Remedy: Keeping a schedule will help you to track all the tasks that you have to do and ensure that tasks aren’t forgotten.

Some will use the excuse of being too tired to get started. Many people delay and procrastinate on their home duties because they are too tired when they get home from work.

Remedy: Find out the reason for your tiredness. Are you eating right? Are you exercising? Not getting enough sleep? Find your reason and try to remedy it by changing your ways.

Fear of the outcome can be another delaying factor. Some people fear failure; they won’t be able to do the task to a good enough standard so they delay in getting started. Others — believe it or not — fear success. They may know that by completing a certain task, the outcome may lead them places they are unsure they want to go.

Remedy:  Become clear about the consequences of completing or not completing a task.

“Clarity brings Power”

- Anthony Robins

In the modern age we are bombarded with technology and external stimulation that it becomes more difficult to stay focused.

Remedy: Turn of email notifications and only check emails at allocated times during your day. Switch off your phone and allow messages to go to voicemail. Close your office door and let people know you are not to be disturbed. Remember to stay in control of your technology and not let it control you.

Some tasks at hand can make us feel overwhelmed, mostly because we don’t know how to get started.

Remedy: Break it down into bite sized chunks. Then break it down even more. Plan each part of the task so that you are focusing on completing the sub task rather than the overall task. This helps to feel in control and not overwhelmed. Zoom in and zoom out every now and again to make sure you are moving forward with the overall task.

But the best and simplest advice is to make a start on any important task. No matter how small or how insignificant in the overall picture, just get moving. In keeping with the laws of physics — “An object in motion tends to stay in motion” — you can start to get rid of procrastination by moving forward.

Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “With Productivity and Positivity there is little you can’t achieve” Find out more about Ciara and sign up for her tips, articles and links at Productivity & Positivity

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Best Procrastination Tip Ever

Your first thought as you look at this article will be, “I’ll read this later.”

But don’t. Let the urge to switch to a new task pass. Read this now.

It’ll take you two minutes. It’ll save you countless hours.

I’ve written the book on ending procrastination, but I’ve since come up with a very simple technique for beating everyone’s favorite nemesis. It is incredibly easy, but as with anything, it takes a little practice.

Try it now:

Identify the most important thing you have to do today.

Decide to do just the first little part of it — just the first minute, or even 30 seconds of it. Getting started is the only thing in the world that matters.

Clear away distractions. Turn everything off. Close all programs. There should just be you, and your task.

Sit there, and focus on getting started. Not doing the whole task, just starting.

Pay attention to your mind, as it starts to have urges to switch to another task. You will have urges to check email or Facebook or Twitter or your favorite website. You will want to play a game or make a call or do another task. Notice these urges.

But don’t move. Notice the urges, but sit still, and let them pass. Urges build up in intensity, then pass, like a wave. Let each one pass.

Notice also your mind trying to justify not doing the task. Also let these self-rationalizing thoughts pass.

Now just take one small action to get started. As tiny a step as possible.

Get started, and the rest will flow.

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Put Off Procrastination - Tired of Procratinating? Use Nlp and Hypnosis Mp3 to End Procrastination

Put Off Procrastination - Tired of Procratinating? Use Nlp and Hypnosis Mp3 to End Procrastination by Michael J. Emery, M.A., C.Ht., M.NLP - Personal Development Coach

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Time and Procrastination: Using Technology To Become Efficient With Your Time

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Ever since I started school I have had to battle my procrastination. Sometimes it almost feels like a disease; one that is treatable at times, but just seems to never go away. Because of my bad procrastination, I adopted systems like GTD,  a calendar and scheduled and time-blocked everything,  reminders of important tasks and due dates “dinging” from everywhere. What I found is that unless I am on top of my game and choosing to “be productive”, I easily fall back into the pit of procrastination, where time is never “of the essence”.

I’ve read quite a few books and essays on the psychological effects and reasons of procrastination. Something interesting that has stuck with me is in the book Procrastination by Jane B. Burka (not an affiliate link) having to do with the way that “procrastinators” perceive and interact with time. According to Burka there are two ways that we deal with and understand time: objectively and subjectively. Objective time is “measured by clock and calendar” and is predictable where as subjective time is measured by our own personal understanding and is outside of clock time.

As you can see, if your personal subjective time isn’t lining up with the world’s objective time you can have some serious issues, especially since your boss, your professors, and your spouse tend to base everything off of objective time.

I have this problem with objective time and after reading through Procrastination I decided to break myself of it by employing some different techniques when it came to my “time management skills” or lack thereof.

Some bright person once said, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” and that holds completely true with managing your time. The first thing that I had to do to understand how I use my time was track almost everything. For instance, I found myself being late in the mornings for work and always blamed it on something external; like the winter weather, traffic, how long it took to get gas in the morning etc. It wasn’t until I started tracking how long it actually took me to take a shower and get out of the house did I understand that I needed to get up about 20 minutes earlier. It sounds stupid, I know, but to someone who thinks they understand time and where it goes, it takes the detail of tracking the real world to understand it.

You can track your time many different ways but some of the best apps that I have found for Android and iPhone are great when you are on the run and need to get a quick statistic to use for planning. There are a ton of options on both platforms but in the free category I would go with Eternity Time Lite and aTimeLogger for iPhone and Time Recording – Timesheet App and Track Task Time for Android. All of these offer the user the ability to track multiple activities, create their own categories, and gives them reports and statistics they can use to help understand just where there time goes.

You can also track your time use on your PC or Mac with RescueTime. RescueTime basically tracks what applications you are spending your time with and can give you a realistic view of where your computer time is going.

One of the most elusive ways that procrastinators abuse time and do not sync their subjective time with objective time is underestimating how long a task will take to complete. I’ve been told my many former and current software project managers that when they ask a software developer how long it will take to get something done they usually multiply their answer by two or three to set realistic expectations. Many of us are confident (sometimes overconfident) and do not set realistic time constants on ourselves.

This is where starting a task or project immediately and then time blocking the rest of it is a great way to balance time. The idea is simple, when given a task or project to complete,  jump in and start working on it for at least 25 minutes. This allows you to understand how big the task or project is which allows you to make realistic predictions of how long it will take to complete. This is syncing your subjective time with objective time. After this you can time block the project.

Time blocking, the idea of blocking out a certain amount of time on your calendar for a task or project, has been around forever and works well if you have a realistic view of how long something will take to complete. After starting your task or project, take out your favorite calendar app and start “blocking” out time in your schedule to complete the task. Usually, if I think something is going to take 2 hours to complete, I block out about 2.5 total hours. This gives me some starting and stopping leeway. I also suggest only blocking out 50 minutes at a time to prevent burning yourself out. It seems that 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest/play when you are in a working period is ideal.

When it comes to generic timers for PC or Mac I highly recommend FocusBooster. It’s an Adobe Air application that lends itself to the Pomodoro technique of task timing, but you can use it for setting your working time on a task or project. For calendaring, I have to admit that I solely use Google Calendar for all my calendaring needs as it is everywhere I go and I can sync it to just about any device I want to. That isn’t to say there aren’t a bunch of good calendaring options out there, it’s just that Google Calendar has met all of my needs thus far.

Having an understanding of how to sync your subjective time and the world’s objective time can save you a ton of pain in your personal and professional life. But, if you are anything like me you will need a some help along the way to understand where the objective time goes. Hopefully if you understand the difference between your “inner clock” and the real world, track how long it takes you to accomplish tasks, and think more realistically about how long it take to accomplish something and schedule accordingly, you can say goodbye to procrastinating your time away.

Chris is a developer, writer, tech enthusiast, and husband. He studies MIS and Computer Science at Penn State Behrend. Chris is also interested in personal productivity and creativity and how to utilize technology to get more things done. Check out his tech writing at androinica.com where he writes about Android.

View the original article here

Put Off Procrastination - Tired of Procratinating? Use Nlp and Hypnosis Mp3 to End Procrastination

Put Off Procrastination - Tired of Procratinating? Use Nlp and Hypnosis Mp3 to End Procrastination by Michael J. Emery, M.A., C.Ht., M.NLP - Personal Development Coach

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Price: $8.98

Click here to buy from Amazon