The Rad Rabbits: Procrasti-Nation
Just do it, later.
It is human nature to increase current pleasure and delay
pain – so we push the tediousness as
far away as possible, but within the limits of not getting into serious trouble.
And for the moment, we relax, enjoy, chill. And when tomorrow comes, we sometimes
find that it’s too late, there’s not enough time, we have to rush,
and things are either incomplete or badly done. Sounds familiar?
I think we are born with procrastination in our DNA - it’s not something you inherit through
your genes and blood cells but instead, it is basic human nature that has been
programmed in. It is not something we learn, but an ingrained habit that must be
unlearnt. We have to fight against it, reverse it, on a daily, hourly and
minute-by-minute basis. We need to constantly remind ourselves, that time is
ticking, and things must be done, and if we don’t do
it, it might never happen.
So we need to teach ourselves and our kids how to overcome
this inertia and get off our butts. Here are 3 tips which I personally use to
get things accomplished:
- Just get started. The difficult part of doing something is to begin. If you’re writing, the first sentence might be the hardest, but you need just type it, after which momentum takes over and then (hopefully) you’ll get into the flow.
- Split up huge jobs into mini-tasks and spread them out to the targeted completion date. It’s tough to sit down for several hours to complete a task, so break it up into 30-minute chunks which are easier to achieve – we all have short attention spans and tire easily. You can then complete the entire job comfortably over a period of days if you start early enough.
- Make promises to others that you can (have to) keep. This is risky, but it could be one way of forcing yourself to move, that’s if you value your reputation and want to look like a responsible and accountable person. Of course, if you keep missing your deadlines, then nobody will trust you anymore and you aren’t going to get more work assigned to you, which could be your aim?
It took me 4 days to complete this article! So I know what I’m talking about!