How to Beat Procrastination Now - Top 5 Hacks

Summary

In this video, the speaker, a busy corporate lawyer and mother, shares tips from five top books to overcome procrastination and boost motivation. Key insights include identifying factors leading to procrastination, setting achievable goals, prioritizing tasks, applying the 80/20 rule, and using the '2-minute rule' to start daunting tasks. The speaker emphasizes the effectiveness of small changes in creating habits, visualizing goals, and rewarding oneself to increase productivity without stress and anxiety.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Identify the root causes of procrastination: lack of confidence, lack of value, impulsiveness, or delay.
• 📈 Use the motivation equation from 'The Procrastination Equation' to understand what influences procrastination: Motivation = Expectancy × Value / (Impulsiveness × Delay).
• 🏋️ Boost confidence by setting achievable goals and reminding oneself of past accomplishments, no matter how small.
• 🍭 Increase the value of tasks by making them more rewarding or enjoyable, and manage impulsiveness by minimizing distractions.
• 📅 Apply Parkinson's Law to avoid inefficiencies by setting deadlines and not allowing work to expand to fill the time available.
• 🐸 Prioritize tasks by tackling the most challenging ones first, as suggested in 'Eat That Frog' by Brian Tracy.
• 📊 Focus on the 80/20 rule to concentrate on tasks that yield the highest returns with the least effort.
• 🎯 Visualize outcomes and set clear goals to improve productivity and make tasks more manageable.
• 🧘‍♂️ Schedule leisure time first to reduce stress and create a positive mindset towards work, as recommended in 'The Now Habit'.
• 💪 Make tasks obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying by using visual cues and rewards, as outlined in 'Atomic Habits'.
• 📝 Capture all tasks in a trusted system and clarify, organize, reflect, and engage based on priority and context from 'Getting Things Done'.
• ⏱️ Implement the 2-minute rule to start tasks immediately if they can be done in that time frame, building momentum and reducing procrastination.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is finding motivation and overcoming procrastination, with tips drawn from five top books on the subject.

What is the equation introduced by Pierce Steel in 'The Procrastination Equation' to capture the elements influencing procrastination?

The equation introduced by Pierce Steel is 'motivation equals expectancy times value, over impulsiveness times delay'.

How can setting achievable goals boost one's confidence according to 'The Procrastination Equation'?

Setting achievable goals, such as a 10-minute walk or 15 minutes of studying a disliked topic, can build confidence in one's ability to follow through with longer tasks.

What is the 80/20 rule mentioned in 'Eat That Frog' by Brian Tracy, and how does it apply to productivity?

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, suggests that 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. By focusing on tasks that yield the highest returns, one can improve productivity.

What is the concept of 'scheduling leisure first' as discussed in 'The Now Habit' by Neil Fiore?

The concept of 'scheduling leisure first' involves planning enjoyable activities before work tasks to create a positive mindset towards work and reduce stress.

How does the book 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear suggest making tasks more satisfying?

'Atomic Habits' suggests making tasks satisfying by rewarding oneself immediately after completing a task and breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps.

What is the '2-minute rule' as mentioned in the video script and why is it effective?

The '2-minute rule' is a strategy where if a task takes two minutes or less, it should be done immediately. It's effective because it helps build momentum and prevents small tasks from becoming mental clutter.

What is Parkinson's Law and how does it relate to procrastination?

Parkinson's Law states that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.' It relates to procrastination by suggesting that the more time given to complete a task, the longer it will take, often leading to inefficiencies.

How does 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen recommend managing tasks to prevent procrastination?

David Allen recommends capturing all tasks in a trusted system, clarifying each task, organizing them, reflecting regularly, and engaging based on context, time, energy, and priorities.

What is the significance of visual cues in creating habits according to 'Atomic Habits'?

Visual cues are significant in creating habits as they make tasks more obvious, serving as reminders to perform the task, such as placing gym clothes by the bed to remind one to exercise.

What does the video script suggest as a simple action to rewire one's brain and give confidence?

The video script humorously suggests that smashing the subscribe button can rewire one's brain and give confidence, as a way to engage with the content and support the channel.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Overcoming Procrastination: Strategies from Top Books

The speaker, a corporate lawyer and mother, introduces the topic of finding motivation and overcoming procrastination despite the lack of initial interest or energy. She plans to share insights from five influential books on the subject. The first book mentioned is 'The Procrastination Equation' by Pierce Steel, which emphasizes identifying factors leading to procrastination such as lack of confidence, value, impulsiveness, and delay. The book introduces a formula for motivation and suggests setting achievable goals, boosting confidence by acknowledging accomplishments, and increasing the perceived value of tasks to combat procrastination.

05:00

🎯 Prioritizing Tasks and Leveraging the 80/20 Rule

The second book discussed is 'Eat That Frog' by Brian Tracy, which advises prioritizing the most challenging tasks first thing in the morning and applying the 80/20 rule to focus on tasks that yield the highest results. The book also encourages setting clear goals, visualizing outcomes, and breaking tasks into manageable parts with specific deadlines to avoid the inefficiencies caused by Parkinson's Law, which states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

10:01

🕰️ The Now Habit: Scheduling Leisure First for Productivity

The third book, 'The Now Habit' by Neil Fiore, focuses on the concept of scheduling leisure time first to reduce stress and increase productivity. The book promotes guilt-free breaks and the visualization of completed tasks to create a positive mindset towards work. It suggests allowing oneself to recharge through leisure activities before tackling challenging tasks and emphasizes the importance of planning leisure time to foster a more enjoyable work experience.

🌟 Atomic Habits: Small Changes for Big Results

The speaker's favorite book, 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear, is about making small, incremental changes that can lead to significant outcomes. Clear suggests making tasks more obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. For example, placing gym clothes by the bed can serve as a visual cue to exercise, and rewarding oneself after completing a task can reinforce positive behavior. The book emphasizes starting with habits that can be accomplished in two minutes to build momentum and confidence.

✅ Getting Things Done: A Trusted System for Task Management

The final book, 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen, outlines a system for capturing all tasks and ideas in a trusted system and then clarifying, organizing, and reflecting on them regularly. The book encourages capturing tasks, clarifying what actions are needed, organizing tasks into categories, and making decisions based on context, time, energy, and priorities. The speaker highlights the '2-minute rule' as particularly effective, suggesting that if a task can be completed in two minutes or less, it should be done immediately to avoid procrastination and mental clutter.

🚀 Implementing the 2-Minute Rule for Effective Task Management

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the effectiveness of the 2-minute rule in her own life as a corporate lawyer, mom, and wife. She encourages viewers to try this rule to build momentum and overcome the initial resistance to starting tasks. The speaker invites viewers to share their experiences with the tips provided and their own strategies for overcoming procrastination, and she reminds viewers to subscribe to her channel for more content.

Keywords

💡Motivation

Motivation refers to the psychological drive that compels an individual to take action towards a goal. In the video, motivation is central to overcoming procrastination and getting tasks done, especially when one lacks the desire to start. The script discusses how to find motivation by identifying factors that lead to procrastination and boosting confidence through achievable goals.

💡Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or actions, often due to a lack of perceived urgency or importance. The video addresses this behavior as a common obstacle to productivity, and explores strategies from various books to identify its causes and overcome it, such as by setting achievable goals and managing impulsiveness.

💡Expectancy

Expectancy in the context of the video is a component of the motivation equation presented by Pierce Steel, which suggests that motivation is influenced by an individual's belief in their ability to complete a task. The script uses this concept to explain how boosting one's confidence in their capabilities can increase motivation to tackle tasks.

💡Value

Value, as discussed in the script, is another factor in the motivation equation that influences procrastination. It refers to the importance or worth an individual assigns to completing a task. The video suggests increasing the perceived value of a task to make it more rewarding or enjoyable, thereby reducing procrastination.

💡Impulsiveness

Impulsiveness is the tendency to act without thinking or being easily distracted by immediate stimuli. In the video, it is identified as a factor that can lead to procrastination. The script advises creating an environment that minimizes distractions and managing impulsiveness to reduce the tendency to delay tasks.

💡Delay

Delay is the act of postponing or deferring action, which is a key aspect of procrastination. The video script discusses how to avoid delay by minimizing the time between planning and execution, emphasizing the importance of starting tasks immediately to prevent procrastination.

💡Parkinson's Law

Parkinson's Law is a principle that states that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.' The video uses this concept to explain why giving oneself too much time to complete a task can lead to procrastination and inefficiency, suggesting the need to set specific deadlines to stay productive.

💡80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)

The 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is a concept that suggests that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. In the video, this principle is applied to task management, advising viewers to focus on the 20% of tasks that will yield 80% of the results, thereby improving productivity.

💡Visualization

Visualization is the act of creating a mental image or picture of an outcome or goal. The video script mentions visualization as a technique to help reduce stress and increase motivation by picturing the completed task and the steps needed to achieve it, which can help in planning and executing tasks more effectively.

💡Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits is a book by James Clear that the video references for its advice on creating small, manageable habits that lead to significant changes over time. The script highlights the book's suggestions on making tasks obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying to build new habits and overcome procrastination.

💡2-Minute Rule

The 2-Minute Rule is a concept from the book 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen, which the video script discusses as a personal favorite tip for overcoming procrastination. It suggests that if a task takes two minutes or less, it should be done immediately, as a way to build momentum and reduce the mental clutter caused by pending tasks.

Highlights

The Procrastination Equation by Pierce Steel identifies factors leading to procrastination such as lack of confidence, lack of value, impulsiveness, and delay.

The motivation equation is defined as expectancy times value over impulsiveness times delay.

Boosting confidence can be achieved by setting achievable goals and reminding oneself of past accomplishments.

Increasing the value of a task can make it more rewarding and enjoyable.

Managing impulsiveness involves creating an environment with minimal distractions and avoiding delay.

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion, often leading to procrastination.

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy suggests prioritizing tasks by tackling the most challenging ones first.

Applying the 80/20 rule focuses on tasks that yield the highest returns.

Visualizing the outcome and end result can activate imagination and improve productivity.

The Now Habit by Neil Fiory emphasizes scheduling leisure first to reduce stress and increase productivity.

Guilt-free breaks and play can recharge and reboot the mind, making work more enjoyable.

Atomic Habits by James Clear discusses the power of small changes leading to big results.

Making tasks obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying can help build and maintain habits.

Starting with tasks that can be done in two minutes can build momentum and lead to completing larger tasks.

Getting Things Done by David Allen focuses on capturing tasks in a trusted system and clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging based on priority.

The 2-minute rule is a practical tip for overcoming procrastination by starting tasks immediately if they take two minutes or less.

Breaking down daunting tasks into smaller, manageable actions can make them less intimidating and easier to start.

Starting tasks with the intention of only working for two minutes can help build a habit and lead to longer periods of productivity.

Transcripts

how can we find the motivation to get shit done

I mean when we don't feel like it

when nothing can move us to doing what we wanna do

how can we actually do it

now I'm no stranger to procrastination

but I'm a full time corporate lawyer

I'm also a mom I'm a wife

but there are days that I do not want to do anything

don't wanna get out of bed

I don't wanna do anything

but I have to take care of business

and I have to take care of my family

so how can we find the motivation

and how can we beat procrastination

I wanna share some tips from 5 top books on this topic

and these tips are perfect for anyone to get just done

and at the end of the video

I'm gonna share with you

which one of these methods has worked the best for me

and has helped me find my inner Zendigger

so I can get things done without the stress

without the overwhelm and the anxiety

first up

we have The Procrastination Equation by Pierce Steel

now the key rules in this book are that steel says

you have to identify

the factors that lead to your procrastination

is it lack of confidence

you don't think you can get the thing done

the thing done lack of value

don't really care about the thing getting done

impulsiveness

which is getting basically distracted by other things

or delay and basically

not doing the thing that you're supposed to be doing

and putting it off and putting it off

he introduces this equation that captures the elements

influencing procrastination

and the equation is

motivation equals expectancy times value

over impulsiveness times delay

first you have to boost your confidence

your ability to know you can handle the task

and you can actually get it done

steel

says that you can boost your confidence by setting

achievable goals for example

if you're planning to exercise

set small achievable goals

like a 10 minute walk

to build confidence in your ability

to actually follow through with longer workout

or if you wanna study a topic

that you particularly loathe

maybe set a timer for 15 minutes

and only do it for 15 minutes

and then once you do it

remind yourself how awesome you are

that you were able to study

something that you don't like

for 15 whole minutes now

reminding yourself of your accomplishments is actually

you know no matter how small or insignificant

significant is actually a way to boost your confidence

it's a really great way to boost your confidence

so remind yourself of all of your accomplishments

whether small or big and this seal says that

you gotta increase the value on the

in the things that you think that you're doing

you gotta find ways to make the task more rewarding

or enjoyable for example

if you need to study

reward yourself with a treat or short

break after completing a chapter

just one chapter or maybe after that

15 minutes that you set the timer for

reward yourself

then he says that you gotta manage impulsiveness

you gotta create an environment that

minimizes distractions and you got to avoid delay

minimize the time between planning and execution

to reduce procrastination

now a lot of people get stuck in the planning phase

I've been there definitely

so you research and research and plan

and research and plan more

but at some point you just gotta act

remember to start before you're ready and just do it

but how do you just do it

you wanna set clear goals

and you wanna break tasks into smaller

manageable parts as we discuss

and then set specific deadlines

so the more time we have to accomplish something

the more will procrastinate

this is known as Parkinson's Law

the principal states that work expands

so as to fill the time available for its complete

in other words

the more time you give yourself to complete a task

the longer it'll take you

often leading to procrastination and inefficiencies

next eat that frog by Brian Tracy

this is a great book

the key rules from this book are that

you gotta prioritize your task

you gotta tackle the most challenging task

the frog first thing in the morning

or before you do anything else yes

even before you check your Instagram

so do the things that you you don't really wanna take

care of or the most challenging ones

first thing next is to apply the 80 20 rule

also known as a Peretto principle

focus on the 20% of tasks that will yield

80% of the results

so 80% of the results come from 20% of your effort

by identifying the tasks that yield

the highest returns you can focus on those

and then improve your productivity

then he says set the table

be clear about what you wanna achieve before starting

in other words visualize your outcome your end result

activate your imagination

and see the end result that you want to accomplish

and this is particularly uh

easy when you have really smaller

set smaller time frames

like for example that 15 minutes that we talked about

if you only have the 15 minutes

then if you visualize what

you wanna accomplish in that 15 minutes

and write down what you wanna accomplish

that's wonderful way of getting things done

here's an idea

one way to beat procrastination right now

is to smash that subscribe button

it'll really really rewire your brain

give you confidence so go ahead and do that

it'll really help the channel

third book is The Now Habit by Neil Fury

and that's all about scheduling leisure first

to reduce to reduce your stress

so schedule fun first and then work

if your recommends guilt free play

and visualizing your goals

he refers to it as the three dimensional thinking

visualize the completed task and then the step

steps that you need to get there

allow yourself some guilt free breaks to recharge

and reboot and make it

make it more fun for instance

block off an hour in the evening um

to watch Netflix maybe or not not even an hour

maybe an hour is too long

but like 15

20 minutes just so you can tackle the hard stuff later

we wanna reduce our stress so that we can

to the things that we need to get

without the stress and anxiety

allow yourself guilt free breaks to recharge

plan your leisure first

to create a positive mindset toward work

fourth book which is my favorite

favorite book of all time on creating habits

is Atomic Habits by James Clear

now this book is everywhere these days

and it's for good reason

because it really is an effective book

if you implement the tips in your life

the book is basically about small changes

leading to big results

clear suggests that making tasks obvious attractive

easy and satisfying for instance

place your gym clothes by your bed

to remind you to exercise in the morning

that's what you wanna do and then

reward yourself with a treat after completing a task

you don't have to go out there and eat a whole cupcake

but a all treat will do and for building new habits

you gotta start with something that

can actually be done in two minutes

like reading just one page of a book

so key rules are make it obvious

use visual cues to remind you of your task

make it attractive

pair task with something you enjoy doing

make it easy break tasks into smaller manageable steps

make it satisfying and

reward yourself immediately after completing a task

finally

the last book is Getting Things Done by David Allen

this is also a great book

Allen emphasizes

capturing all your tasks in a trusted system

and then clarifying and clarifying each task

organizing them reflecting regularly

and then engaging based on contacts and priority

for example keep a notebook handy

jot down any task or idea that comes to mind

and then process each item at the end of the day

so the key rules from this book are capture

which is collect all tasks

ideas and commitments in a trust system

clarify which is process

what each item means and what action is needed

organized put tasks in appropriate categories

whether it's like projects

next action do it now or do it tomorrow

reflect which is regularly

go back

and then review your system to keep it up to date

make decisions about what you wanna do in the moment

based on context time

energy and priorities the one rule

the one tip bar whatever

that has worked the best for me is the 2 minute rule

as a corporate lawyer and a mom and a wife

this simple rule has really helped me get things done

efficiently and it's helped me my time better

and it's just amazing so David Allen says

if something takes two minutes or less

just do it immediately just take care of it

like right off the bat

this is like the same concept of eating the frog

first thing in the morning

no less making no procrastinating

for example taking out the trash

it takes 2 minutes tops do it now and boom

one less thing cluttering your mind

one less thing to stress about throughout the day

and in Atomic Habits Clear

also suggest that when you're dreading a big task

you can break it down into smaller

and something you can manage

that you can do in 2 minutes or less

instead of committing to a massive project

start with tiny little actions

need to read a daunting report

just read one paragraph takes two minutes

Wanna exercise start with two minutes of stretching

that's it this might sound like a mind trick

and in a way it is actually a mind trick

it's a trick that actually works

sometimes when I'm dreading reviewing a contract

for example I start with looking at it

and then reviewing it for just two minutes

I say I give myself two minutes

and a lot of times I build momentum

and then I continue reviewing from there

so I go longer feel silly at first

trust me I know it sounds really silly

oh

I work for two minutes only and I can get things done

but those two minutes really built a habit

soon you'll start doing things for longer

without even noticing

by beginning with manageable chunks

you'll find it easier to scale up

you'll find the confidence you need

you're less distracted

you're not you're not likely to delay

and there's not a whole lot of planning

and list making that needs to go into two minutes

and it's easy to visualize

doing something successfully for just two minutes

I really hope this one helps you out

because it's really helped me

let me know in the comments

which tip you're gonna try first

and then share with me

what happened as a result of doing that thing

and then maybe share your own strategies for being

procrastination

cause I'm sure these books don't cover everything

if you found these tips helpful

please give this video a thumbs up

and then smash the subscribe button

subscribe to my channel and I'll see you next time