First of all, I would like to apologise to those who clicked into this article looking for some Jamie Dornan/50 Shades type of advice, read that terrible writing on your own time people. It’s the internet in 2016, nobody will judge you for it, at least not to your face anyway. As handsome as Jamie undoubtedly is, this article instead focuses on the ever increasing problem of procrastination that is crippling our generation (Am I a Millennial or Generation Y?), it is becoming more of an issue with every passing day.
Procrastination is defined as the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. Sounds easy to fix so should we snigger and say just avoid procrastination?
While you’re at it, tell obese people to avoid overeating and humans to avoid oxygen. Speaking from personal experience procrastination is not something that is optional, it is done without even realising and can be incredibly difficult to stop.
This can be especially true for somebody like myself who works at a desk/laptop in various locations all day, I am also a prime example of a man-child so it is not the most ideal combination. If you break it down I am pretty much an excitable loner toddler who knows how to code.
This article alone took me a lot longer than it should have. It has been sitting on my desktop half-finished for the last 3 weeks. The last time I attempted to finish it, I was momentarily distracted into researching the benefits of P2P communication within a closed out frame and ended up watching old football videos on YouTube. This was 8 hours out of my life where I accomplished absolutely nothing even though my sole aim was to only write a few hundred words on a lazy Sunday while I nursed a hangover and watched some terrible football. Thanks a lot procrastination, you dick.
Thankfully I have managed to get the best of the monster for the most part thanks to implementing a few life hacks which I have found really useful in beating procrastination. They might not work for everybody but I certainly find my productivity and creativity improve when I follow them.
Exercise.
This is straight forward enough, move around a bit and you will be more stimulated. If you are killing it at the gym you will be a lot more focused when it comes to work/studies. I am kind of an all or nothing kind of person though so I am either in the gym 6 days a week or not at all. It’s not hard to guess what weeks I am more productive so try to be as active as possible.
Music/Books = Sleep.
I am a firm believer in music & podcasts to help focus you, I listen to a lot of motivational podcasts with Eric Thomas being a particular favourite. There is also a huge library of motivational video cuts on YouTube which you can download. Reading & sleep kind of go hand in hand for me, I struggle to sleep at the best of times usually operating on 2-3 hours’ sleep as I cannot switch off my brain, crashing once or twice a week and slipping into a minor coma. Reading helps me to overcome this and get some quality sleep.
Seriously, Be Good In Bed.
My number one activity for beating procrastination. If you clicked into this article for some red reasons I applaud you for sticking it out this far. Being good in bed can be many things to different people but for me it involves dressing my leaba religiously every day. In a survey conducted by Hunch.com, 71% of bed makers considered themselves cheerful, while 62% of non-bed-makers admitted to being unhappy. As well as that, the survey found bed-makers were more likely to love their jobs, work out more and own a home. Making your bed was also seen to boost productivity. (evoke.ie)
Combining all three of these helps me to beat procrastination and I hope it can do the same for you, if not I am sure you will wow everybody at the pub with the useless trivia you picked up on Wikipedia. Everyone loves that guy, right?
Aidan out.