Lecture #7 - My Method for Defeating Procrastination
Summary
TLDRThis video script addresses procrastination as an emotion management issue rather than a time management one. The speaker shares three personal methods to combat it: using rewards to break tasks into manageable parts, removing distractions to avoid temptation, and 'motivation harvesting'—a technique that leverages one's existing desire to impress or not disappoint others to stay motivated and complete tasks. The script also includes practical examples and insights from the speaker's own experiences as a college student and later as a professor.
Takeaways
- 🕒 Procrastination is an emotion management problem, not a time management issue. It's linked to the unpleasant emotions associated with a task, such as fear or boredom.
- 🎮 The speaker used the example of playing 'Mario Kart' to illustrate how procrastination can lead to skipping classes and falling behind in schoolwork.
- 🏛️ To combat procrastination, the speaker recommends creating a dedicated study space away from distractions, like a library desk, to maintain focus on academic tasks.
- 🍬 Method one for tackling procrastination is 'rewards', which involves breaking tasks into smaller parts and rewarding oneself after completing each part.
- 🚫 Method two is 'temptation removal', where one removes or avoids distractions to stay focused on the task at hand.
- 🔒 The speaker personally uses browser blockers and a cell phone lock box to remove temptations and maintain productivity.
- 🌱 'Motivation harvesting' is the third method introduced, which leverages existing social motivations, like impressing others, to complete tasks.
- 👥 Accountability groups, like the one the speaker participated in during graduate school, can be effective for motivation harvesting by sharing daily goals and accomplishments.
- 📑 Printing out materials can help with focus by reducing the urge to switch tasks or get distracted by digital alternatives.
- 🏆 Setting up scenarios where one's actions are visible to others, like projecting work on a screen, can harness the motivation to impress and prevent procrastination.
- 📝 Professors often use the strategy of submitting abstracts before writing the full paper to create a commitment that motivates them to complete the work.
- 📚 Sitting at the front of the class can be a form of motivation harvesting, using the fear of embarrassment to stay awake and focused during lectures.
Q & A
What is the main argument presented in the video about procrastination?
-The main argument is that procrastination is not a time management problem but an emotion management problem, where tasks are associated with unpleasant emotions that individuals seek to avoid.
What are the three methods mentioned in the video to combat procrastination?
-The three methods mentioned are: 1) Using rewards to break tasks into smaller parts and incentivize completion, 2) Removing temptations to prevent choosing easy alternatives over the task at hand, and 3) Motivation harvesting, which involves leveraging existing motivations to complete tasks.
Can you explain the concept of 'motivation harvesting' as introduced in the video?
-Motivation harvesting is a technique where one takes a pre-existing motivation, such as the desire to impress others or avoid embarrassment, and applies it to a task that they are procrastinating on, thereby increasing their desire to complete that task.
What personal anecdote does the speaker use to illustrate the struggle with procrastination?
-The speaker shares an anecdote from his first year of college, where he avoided going back to his dorm to prevent playing Mario Kart and instead reserved a desk in the library to focus on his studies.
How did the speaker's experience with a work accountability group in graduate school help with motivation?
-The work accountability group helped by creating a structured environment where members declared their daily tasks, worked in the presence of others, and reported their accomplishments, leveraging the desire to impress peers and avoid looking lazy or unreliable.
What is the significance of the 'rainbow road' analogy in the video?
-The 'rainbow road' analogy illustrates the difficulty of stopping an enjoyable activity (like playing Mario Kart) once started, which can lead to skipping important tasks such as attending classes.
How does the speaker describe the use of browser blockers as a method to remove temptations?
-Browser blockers are software that prevents access to distracting websites, helping the speaker to focus on work by eliminating the temptation to browse the internet.
What is the concept behind the 'cell phone lock box' mentioned in the video?
-The cell phone lock box is a device that locks the phone away for a set period, preventing access to it and thus removing the temptation to use it while trying to focus on work.
How does the speaker explain the effectiveness of setting up a situation to harness motivation?
-The speaker explains that by setting up a situation where one's existing motivations, such as the desire to impress others or avoid embarrassment, are aligned with the task at hand, it becomes easier to overcome procrastination and complete the task.
What are some examples of motivation harvesting provided in the video?
-Examples include arranging a meeting with friends to ensure getting out of bed and bathing, committing to a weekly pickup basketball game to practice consistently, and submitting an abstract to a conference to motivate writing the full paper.
How does the strategy of sitting at the front of the class relate to motivation harvesting?
-Sitting at the front of the class is a form of motivation harvesting where the pre-existing motivation to avoid embarrassment by falling asleep in front of others is harnessed to stay awake and attentive during a lecture.
Outlines
🎯 Procrastination as Emotion Management
Procrastination is an emotion management issue rather than a time management problem. The video introduces three methods to combat procrastination, with a focus on 'motivation harvesting,' a term coined by the speaker. The video aims to explore these methods and their implementation.
🎮 The Tale of Mario Kart and College
The speaker shares a personal anecdote about avoiding Mario Kart to stay productive during college. By reserving a desk in the library and avoiding the dorm, the speaker managed to maintain focus and succeed academically, illustrating the importance of environment in combating procrastination.
📱 Overcoming Temptations and Emotional Barriers
The speaker discusses strategies for removing temptations, such as using browser blockers and working in distraction-free environments. Emphasizing that procrastination stems from emotional discomfort with tasks, the speaker shares methods like using a phone lock box and printing materials to stay focused.
👥 Motivation Harvesting through Accountability
Motivation harvesting is explained through the example of a work accountability group. By leveraging the desire to impress peers, the speaker and colleagues boost productivity. This method involves setting up situations where existing motivations are redirected to achieve tasks, helping to overcome procrastination.
🏀 Practical Applications of Motivation Harvesting
Various examples of motivation harvesting are provided, such as arranging social commitments to encourage personal hygiene or setting up regular practice sessions to improve skills. The speaker emphasizes that motivation harvesting involves managing one's psychology to achieve desired outcomes.
📚 Academic Motivation Techniques
Professors often use motivation harvesting by committing to conference presentations based on incomplete work, creating a necessity to complete it to avoid embarrassment. Sitting at the front of the class is another classic strategy to stay alert, driven by the desire to avoid public embarrassment.
🔄 Motivation Harvesting: A Procrastination Solution
The concept of motivation harvesting is summarized as a powerful tool for managing procrastination. By setting up scenarios that align immediate desires with necessary tasks, individuals can overcome emotional barriers and maintain productivity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Procrastination
💡Time Management
💡Emotion Management
💡Rewards
💡Temptation Removal
💡Motivation Harvesting
💡Work Accountability Group
💡Browser Blockers
💡Cell Phone Lock Box
💡Academic Conferences
💡Sitting at the Front of the Class
Highlights
Procrastination is not a time management problem, but an emotion management problem.
The speaker uses three methods to combat procrastination, with the third method being the most powerful.
Motivation harvesting, a term invented by the speaker, is highly effective in preventing procrastination.
The video is the eighth in a series aimed at college students on how to succeed in college.
The speaker shares a personal story from college involving avoiding the common room to prevent playing Mario Kart and instead studying in the library.
The decision to study in the library and avoid the dorm common room was crucial for the speaker's college success.
Rewards method: Break tasks into smaller parts and reward yourself after completing each part.
Temptation removal method: Remove temptations that distract you from completing tasks.
The speaker uses browser blockers and a cell phone lock box to remove distractions.
Motivation harvesting involves using existing motivations, such as the desire to impress others, to complete tasks.
An example of motivation harvesting: Work accountability groups where participants declare their goals and work together in silence.
Another example: Setting up a public display of your work to harness the motivation to avoid embarrassment.
Using motivation harvesting to overcome procrastination by leveraging social accountability and personal pride.
College professors often use motivation harvesting by committing to present papers at conferences before writing them.
Sitting at the front of the class to avoid falling asleep is a classic example of motivation harvesting.
Transcripts
procrastination is not a problem
with time management it's a problem with
emotion management
just like everyone else i have this
problem
and i use three methods to solve it
the first two methods are obvious and
commonplace
the trick is to design them so that you
actually use them
the third method motivation harvesting
this is a term that i invented and of
the three
this one really is the most powerful the
most effective
in preventing procrastination at least
for me
this video is the eighth
in a series of videos designed for
college students
about how to succeed in college but this
particular topic
procrastination applies to almost
everyone
the purpose of this video is to explain
everything that i've just said
like what exactly does it mean for
procrastination to be an emotion
management problem what is that and what
exactly are these methods for
combating procrastination and how
exactly do you implement them
that's what i'm going to do so let's get
started
[Music]
i begin with the tale of a video game
in the summer of 1996 the nintendo
corporation
released a new video game console with a
64-bit processing unit the handheld
controller for the nintendo 64 console
had three things the best game
on n64 was a go-kart racing game
called mario kart and the best track to
race on
in that game was a colorful psychedelic
track
floating in space called rainbow road
in my first year of college there was a
television
with the nintendo 64 in the common room
of the dorm
where i lived and i remember the exact
moment
two weeks into the semester i had just
finished a 9 a.m class
and i was walking back to the dorm and i
realized
i can't go back if i enter that building
then i'm just gonna end up playing mario
kart and i'm not gonna get anything done
for the rest of the day
so i stopped walking i turned around
and i went to the library and when i got
to the library
i reserved a desk they were called
carols like a
library carol there was just a desk in
the library
and i was the only one who was allowed
to sit there i reserved that desk
for four years for the rest of my
college career and i would
leave all of my textbooks and all of my
notebooks
on that desk in the library i never
brought those books
into my dorm room and i used that desk
as a hub and i would go there in between
classes during the day i would wake up
go to class and then i would go to the
library and i would work for a few hours
and then go to my next class and then go
to lunch
and then go back to the library and work
for another few hours go to my last
class or whatever
but i did not go back to that dorm
during the day this decision may have
saved my college career
if you're one of those guys who you know
sits and plays mario kart in the common
room
all day well then what happens is that
you're you're on rainbow road
and you know you have class in three
minutes from now
but once you're on that rainbow road
you're not getting off
and so you skip class and then you skip
class again
and now you've skipped class a few times
and you've fallen way back
in the material and it's just too hard
to catch up and so then
you flunk out this happened to one of
those
guys who played mario kart in the common
room
dude flunked out today i'm a professor
here at the university of north carolina
at greensboro
and i still struggle with
procrastination
and the insight that i've discovered
that has helped me
deal with my own procrastination or lack
of motivation
is the one that i said at the very
beginning of this video which is that
procrastination is not a time management
problem
it's an emotion management problem when
you procrastinate
it's not that you don't know how to
allocate your time or how you should
allocate your time of course you know
you should be working on this
task now instead of like scrolling
around on the internet
the problem is that task whatever it is
that thing that you've got to get done
for some reason it is associated with
some
unpleasant emotion maybe it's
fear you're afraid of doing
poorly on that assignment or or doing a
bad job at that task whatever it is
and actually working on the assignment
forces you to confront the fact that you
might not do well
and that's unpleasant or maybe it's just
boredom
of course you don't want to experience
boredom
boredom is bad okay so whatever it is
there's some unpleasant emotions
associated
with the task that you are
procrastinating doing
and so you need some methods some
techniques that you can use to
overcome this fact and i'm going to
write them up again
these are the three that i use
this one is kind of easy rewards so what
you do is you break the task up into
little parts
and then at the end of each part you get
a reward you set
up a reward a chocolate or
a break or you know you get to scroll
for five minutes or whatever
right and what this does is it means
that
if you if you complete that portion of
the task
not only do you get the unpleasant thing
which is the boredom
but you also get this this pleasant
thing which is the candy
or whatever so then when you sort of
like add the boredom and the candy
together
it's not so bad and you're able to get
it done that's rewards
you break the task up and you set up
rewards along the way
method number two temptation removal
you have to be serious about this one if
you're afraid
to do this task you're overcome with
fear
and also there's right in front of you
some tempting alternative then then
you're forcing yourself to
choose fear over something else
something pleasant and easy
like scrolling on the internet or
whatever and if you
pit these two tasks against one another
or these two options
then scrolling on the internet is always
going to win
so you have to remove the temptation
right that's what i was doing
by not going back to the common room
where there's
the n64 with mario kart you wouldn't
realize that you have to do this
if you thought that procrastination was
a time management problem
if it was a time management problem you
just have to learn some you know
techniques for managing your time like
like what to do in what order or
whatever but that's not the problem
the problem is your emotions and so you
have to remove temptations
i'm now in my 30s and i'm a professor at
a university
here are the things that i do currently
to remove temptations so i can get my
own work done
the first thing is that i have browser
blockers
on all of my browsers so my computer in
my office
and my cell phone i have you know
a blocker it's a piece of software that
prevents me from going to fun websites
and i work in a barren room like usually
i don't do my own research
in my office because there's all sorts
of stuff there so i will go
to the library amongst the students or i
will go to various secret places that i
won't tell you about
where there's nothing just a just a
plain desk no distractions
whenever possible i print things out
because if you have a piece of paper
and you're looking at a piece of paper
and you have a pen you can't just click
somewhere on the paper to go to some
more interesting thing now this is all
you've got on the paper
so i print things out and then i use
this this is my
cell phone lock box i've shown this in a
previous video
but the way it works is you take your
phone you put it in
you lock it for a certain amount of time
one hour two hours three hours
and then there's no way to get your
phone out you can swipe there's like a
hole here
so you can swipe to answer a call and
put it on speakerphone if it's an
emergency
but you can't get your phone out there's
no override in this thing my phone is
locked away i
literally lock my own cell phone in this
box
when i'm trying to get work done and
then i noticed this thing
in the library this is a phone charging
station
but you could also use it as a phone
lock box like
you leave your phone in there when you
go into the library
even if your phone doesn't need to
charge the point of this
method is to set yourself up for success
you're only human i mean have you ever
even played
mario kart it's amazing if every time
you try to get work done you
have to resist the temptation to play
mario kart
you're going to lose
i made up this term motivation
harvesting
and now i'm going to explain what it
means when i was in graduate
school i had a work accountability group
with three other graduate students
there were four of us we were graduate
students and we would meet
in an empty classroom and we'd start by
going around the room
and everyone declared what they were
going to work on that day
and then we would work in silence in the
same room
for an hour and then someone's you know
alarm would go off and we'd all
take a break and use the restroom and
chit chat we'd all
say what we accomplished in the previous
hour
and then we got back to work we worked
for another hour and then the alarm went
off again
we'd take another break and we did this
over and over again this was
very effective we still do it
now we're no longer graduate students
most of us are professors at various
universities around the country
but we gather in like a video conference
and we all make chit chat at the
beginning about our children and our
lives and whatever
and then we declare what we're going to
do and we get to work
and while we're working we leave our
cameras on
but our microphones are muted and we
work for an hour
and then after an hour we all turn our
microphones back on and
and say what we just accomplished and
chat some more
and then turn our mics off and work for
another hour and we do this for
three or four hours once a week why does
this
work like this work accountability group
the fact that you go into a room with
other people in this way
why exactly does this prevent
procrastination
or give you a very effective consistent
motivational boost i have a theory
you see you are already
motivated to impress people what this
work accountability group does is
it takes the motivation that you already
have
to impress your friends or at least to
have them not think that you're like
really lazy and unreliable it takes your
motivation
to not you know let them down and it
transfers that motivation over onto the
task that you need to get done
here's another thing that you could do
that would work very similarly
let's say you went into the library or
whatever or some common place where
people are walking by and there was a
big projector screen there
and you plugged your laptop into that
screen so that
everyone who was walking by strangers
could see what was on your screen
and then you got to work so you're just
working looking at your screen but
you know that whatever's on your screen
everyone can see it
everyone can see what you're doing this
would prevent you from clicking around
randomly on the internet
why is that well because if you're like
me
you care about what other people think
of you
you want them to think that you're not
lazy and that
you can get work done or whatever and
that you're not just you know
working for a few seconds and then
clicking off and doing something else
right
so you want them to think that about you
and you take that want
you take that motivation that you
already have to impress other people
right and you set up a scenario where
your screen is projected
on the wall or whatever and that
scenario is a scenario where
in order to impress other people you
have to do the thing that you need to
get done which is like you know read
your chemistry textbook or
write your essay or whatever this is
what i mean by motivation harvesting
you take some motivation that you
already have
like to impress people or to have them
think highly of you or whatever you take
that motivation and you harvest it you
you pull it out of that area you set up
a situation
where now that motivation gets applied
to this thing that you have to do
otherwise more examples of this same
technique
let's say that you're just laying in bed
and you know that you should get up and
like
bathe yourself and like you know
emerge into the world but you're lacking
the motivation
so here's what you do you reach over for
your phone and you send a message to
your friends
and you arrange to meet up with them in
a few hours
if you show up to this event
without having bathed then they will
smell you
so because you arranged for this
get-together
in two hours or whatever your motivation
not to have your peers think that you
are
filthy that motivation gets applied to
your current circumstance
well now this thing that you didn't want
to do you didn't have enough motivation
to do it which is
get up out of bed and take a shower now
you're motivated to do that thing
because that's the only way
to get this other thing that you want
which is for your friends not to think
that you're a
filthy creature another example you have
tryouts
for the basketball team
in six months what you need to do for
the next
six months is practice playing
basketball so you can make the
basketball team in six months
but you're lacking the motivation how
are you going to do it you set up a
pickup basketball game
every week for the next six months with
people who you want to impress people
who you want to beat
at the game of basketball well you've
agreed to play basketball at this time
and at this place
and you don't want these people to think
that you're irresponsible for not
showing up
right they will dislike you if you just
flake on them and don't show up
so now you have to show up but also you
want them to think that you're good at
basketball
you want to dunk on them so now you have
one week to practice to get to
an acceptable level of basketball skill
and so you hustle all week long and then
you
play in the pickup game but then there's
another pickup game next week and you
want to impress those people
so you practice the next week too and
you do this every week for six months
and then you were able to do this thing
that you were otherwise
struggling with motivation to do which
is consistently practice over the course
of six months
so that you can make the team you know
during tryouts
okay now an example that college
professors
all over the world use all the time so
there are conferences like academic
conferences these are
when faculty or academics when we get
together and we present
our work our research to each other we
need to publish papers we need to write
and publish papers well some of these
conferences that you present a paper at
you can apply to present a paper without
the paper all you need is like an
extended abstract
that means like a two-page summary of
the paper so what what people do is
they write the two-page summary of the
paper before they've ever written the
paper
they send the two-page summary off to
the conference
and then the judges at the conference
who are other uh other professors other
academics
they read the the abstracts and they
accept the papers
okay so they accepted your paper now oh
but the paper doesn't exist you just
wrote a two-page summary of a paper that
doesn't exist
professors do this all the time well now
you don't want to embarrass yourself at
the conference
so you've got to write the paper and
that's how you get the motivation
to write that paper you harness your
pre-existing motivation not to embarrass
yourself
in front of other scholars
you have that motivation not to
embarrass yourself and you set up a
situation
the situation is where you're now
expected to present a paper that doesn't
exist
you harness that motivation
and apply it to the case so that now you
have to write the paper
that's motivation harvesting faculty use
this all the time
another classic strategy
that has existed for decades maybe
centuries maybe millennia
and that really it turns out i only
realized later it really is a form of
motivation harvesting
is sitting at the front of the class you
show up
to a class or a lecture and you're tired
and you're worried you're going to zone
out or just
altogether fall asleep so what you do is
you decide to sit all the way in the
front
why does that work well it works because
you have a pre-existing motivation
to not embarrass yourself by falling
asleep
right because if you're in the front and
you fall asleep well then the
the person giving the lecture will
notice that
and will hate you when other people will
see you because you're in front of them
you're in their line of sight so you set
up a situation by walking to the front
of the room and sitting down there
where now your motivation not to
embarrass yourself
turns into motivation not to fall asleep
so now you have extra motivation not to
fall asleep and you're able hopefully
to stay awake during that lecture that
is a classic
move sitting at the front of the room
when you're tired
and it's a version of motivation
harvesting
fundamentally motivation harvesting
is just a powerful way to
deal with procrastination in a way that
recognizes
that it is an emotion management problem
you are
managing your own psychology your own
desires
and you're setting up a situation so
that you can
do the thing when you lack the immediate
desire
to do it
you
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