How & Why I NEVER Procrastinate

Summary

In this video, Nasser, a final year medical student at King's College London, shares his top tips for combating procrastination. He emphasizes the importance of intentional time management, breaking tasks into manageable chunks, and incorporating regular breaks and rewards to stay motivated. Nasser also discusses the distinction between active and passive procrastinators, suggesting strategies for each type to improve productivity. He advises being realistic with time constraints, setting up a conducive environment, and understanding the necessity of downtime to recharge and avoid burnout. The video is a practical guide for students and anyone looking to enhance their time management and reduce procrastination.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Nasser, a final year medical student at King's College London, shares his tips on avoiding procrastination.
• 📅 Being intentional with time is crucial, and planning activities helps Nasser stay on track with his work and personal life.
• 🕒 Nasser works in four-hour blocks, with set times for breaks and social activities, which helps him maintain focus and productivity.
• 🌐 Time blocking provides a clear overview of the day's tasks and reduces the need for decision-making, thus preventing procrastination.
• 🎮 Nasser emphasizes the importance of balancing study with leisure activities like gaming and socializing to prevent burnout.
• 🔄 Procrastination can be used to one's advantage by using the avoidance of unwanted tasks as motivation to complete work.
• 🍦 Small rewards, like a short break on the phone, can serve as incentives to push through study sessions and stay focused.
• 📉 Breaking tasks into smaller, manageable chunks and adding rewards can alleviate the fear of failure and reduce procrastination.
• 🤔 Understanding the difference between active and passive procrastination is key to changing one's work habits effectively.
• 🏠 Changing controllable factors, such as study environment, can help combat procrastination and improve focus.
• 🧘‍♂️ Recognizing the importance of downtime and not equating it with procrastination is essential for maintaining a balanced schedule.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video by Karma Medic?

The main topic of the video is about how and why the speaker, Nasser, never procrastinates and shares his best tips to help viewers stop procrastinating.

Who is Nasser and what is his current educational status?

Nasser is the creator of the Karma Medic channel and a final year medical student studying at King's College London.

Why is it important for Nasser not to procrastinate?

It is important for Nasser not to procrastinate because he has a lot of content to study as a medical student, and he also wants to have time for other activities like filming YouTube videos, socializing, and playing video games to prevent burnout.

What is the significance of being intentional with your time according to Nasser?

Being intentional with your time is significant as it helps in planning activities, sticking to a schedule, and allocating specific time for work and breaks, which in turn helps to stop procrastination.

How does Nasser structure his work and break time?

Nasser structures his work in four-hour blocks and ensures he blocks out set time for breaks, snacks, and social activities.

What is the benefit of time blocking according to the video?

Time blocking provides a clear overview of the day's activities, reduces the need for decision-making throughout the day, and helps in maintaining focus on the task at hand.

How does Nasser use procrastination to his advantage?

Nasser uses procrastination to his advantage by turning the tasks he doesn't want to do into motivators to complete his work, using short breaks on his phone or other activities as rewards for completing study blocks.

What is the role of incentives and rewards in Nasser's approach to studying?

Incentives and rewards play a crucial role in Nasser's approach to studying by keeping him motivated, focused, and pushing him through until the completion of a task.

How does Nasser differentiate between active and passive procrastinators?

Active procrastinators put off one task by doing another task they still need to do, while passive procrastinators avoid tasks by doing things they don't need to be doing, like watching TV or browsing social media.

What is Nasser's advice for passive procrastinators?

For passive procrastinators, Nasser suggests being realistic about time constraints, setting manageable goals, and changing controllable factors in the environment to set oneself up for success.

How does Nasser manage to balance medical school, a YouTube channel, social life, and exercise?

Nasser manages his commitments by being intentional with his time, planning activities, taking regular breaks, and understanding the importance of downtime for recharging.

What is the importance of understanding the need for downtime as per Nasser?

Understanding the need for downtime is important because it helps in recharging and preparing for more focused work, and it's essential to avoid burnout and maintain a balanced lifestyle.

How can one avoid falling into the trap of avoiding work due to the need for downtime?

One can avoid this trap by understanding why and how often breaks are needed, knowing oneself, not overworking, and building downtime into the schedule regularly.

What should a procrastinator do according to Nasser?

A procrastinator should not punish themselves but instead reflect on the barriers preventing them from starting work and consider changing their environment or other factors to set themselves up for success.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Overcoming Procrastination: Time Management for Success

In this paragraph, Nasser, a final year medical student at King's College London, introduces his video on combating procrastination. He emphasizes the importance of intentional time management to balance studying and personal life, including social activities and hobbies. Nasser shares his strategy of working in four-hour blocks with scheduled breaks, which helps him stay on track and avoid distractions. He also discusses the benefits of planning activities in advance to minimize decision-making during the day, allowing for a clear separation between work and leisure time.

05:03

🎯 Procrastination Tactics: Active vs. Passive Procrastination

This paragraph delves into the distinction between active and passive procrastination and how understanding this difference can help viewers manage their procrastination more effectively. Active procrastinators replace one task with another less urgent one, while passive procrastinators engage in activities that are not necessary, such as watching TV or browsing social media. Nasser suggests strategies for both types, like clearing the schedule of other tasks to focus on the most important one or incorporating relaxation time into the schedule to recharge before tackling a task. He also stresses the importance of being realistic with time estimates, building in a margin of safety, and adjusting environmental factors to minimize distractions.

Keywords

💡Procrastination

Procrastination refers to the act of delaying or postponing tasks or actions, often resulting in reduced productivity and increased stress. In the video's context, the theme revolves around overcoming procrastination to manage time effectively and achieve a balanced life. The speaker, Nasser, a medical student, emphasizes the importance of not procrastinating to keep up with his studies and other life aspects such as creating YouTube content, socializing, and playing video games.

💡Intentional Time Management

Intentional time management is the deliberate and purposeful planning of one's activities to optimize productivity and achieve a balanced lifestyle. Nasser uses this concept to explain how he organizes his day into four-hour blocks with scheduled breaks and leisure time. This approach helps him stay on track with his studies and other commitments, illustrating the video's focus on avoiding procrastination through structured planning.

💡Time Blocking

Time blocking is a time management technique where one allocates specific time slots for different tasks or activities throughout the day. Nasser mentions using time blocking to maintain focus and avoid procrastination. By knowing when breaks and leisure activities are scheduled, he is motivated to complete his work efficiently before enjoying his downtime.

💡Incentives and Rewards

Incentives and rewards are motivational tools used to encourage oneself to complete tasks or maintain productivity. Nasser explains that he uses short breaks on his phone as a reward after a study session, which helps him stay focused and motivated. This strategy is a key aspect of his tips to combat procrastination by providing a positive reinforcement mechanism.

💡Active Procrastination

Active procrastination is a form of delaying a task by engaging in another task that still needs to be done, often perceived as more pleasant. Nasser differentiates between active and passive procrastinators and suggests that active procrastinators can clear other tasks first, leaving themselves no choice but to complete the most important task at hand. This concept is part of his strategy for managing procrastination effectively.

💡Passive Procrastination

Passive procrastination involves avoiding tasks by engaging in activities that are not necessary or productive, such as watching TV or aimlessly browsing the internet. Nasser describes passive procrastinators as those who fill their time with distractions to avoid the daunting tasks they do not want to do. Understanding this type of procrastination is essential for the video's message on overcoming procrastination.

💡Fear of Failure

Fear of failure is the apprehension or anxiety about not being able to successfully complete a task or achieve a goal. Nasser mentions that one of the main reasons people procrastinate is due to this fear, which can be mitigated by breaking tasks into smaller, manageable chunks and adding incentives or rewards. This concept is integral to the video's theme of overcoming procrastination through task management.

💡Realistic Scheduling

Realistic scheduling involves setting achievable goals and timelines for tasks, taking into account potential obstacles and distractions. Nasser advises being realistic about the time needed for studying and other tasks, suggesting that padding out time and setting a margin of safety can prevent stress and anxiety that come from an overly tight schedule. This concept is crucial for the video's message on effective time management.

💡Margin of Safety

A margin of safety refers to the additional time or resources allocated to a task or project to account for potential delays or unforeseen circumstances. Nasser uses this term to explain the importance of not overbooking one's schedule, allowing for flexibility and reducing the stress associated with falling behind on tasks. This concept supports the video's theme of avoiding procrastination through careful planning.

💡Downtime

Downtime is the period of rest or relaxation that is necessary for recharging and maintaining mental and physical well-being. Nasser emphasizes that taking downtime is not procrastination but an essential part of a balanced lifestyle. He advises viewers to schedule downtime regularly to prevent burnout and enhance productivity when working on tasks. This concept reinforces the video's message on the importance of balance in avoiding procrastination.

Highlights

Introduction to the video's focus on how to avoid procrastination.

Background on Nasser as a final year medical student at King's College London.

Importance of not procrastinating to balance studies and personal life.

The concept of being intentional with time to prevent procrastination.

Planning activities to manage time effectively.

Working in four-hour blocks with scheduled breaks for a balanced day.

Using planned breaks as motivation to complete tasks.

The benefits of time blocking for a clear overview of daily activities.

Differentiating between active and passive procrastination.

Strategies for active procrastinators to manage tasks effectively.

Introducing relaxation time as a method to combat passive procrastination.

The importance of realism when setting study goals and time management.

Creating a margin of safety in planning to account for unexpected delays.

Adjusting controllable factors to optimize the study environment.

The necessity of downtime and its distinction from procrastination.

Understanding personal needs for breaks to prevent overworking.

Encouraging self-reflection to identify barriers to starting work.

Linking work to wider personal goals to increase motivation.

Conclusion summarizing the video's tips on overcoming procrastination.

Transcripts

[Music]

what is up guys karma medic here and

welcome back to another dose in this

video i want to talk about how and why i

never procrastinate if you're new to the

channel then hi my name is nasser and

i'm now a final year medical student

studying at king's college london and

here are my best tips to help you stop

procrastinating now being a medical

student there is a lot of content for me

to go through and study so being able to

stop procrastinating is really important

to keeping me on track with my work it's

also important for me to not

procrastinate on my work because if i

did i wouldn't have time to do all the

other things that i actually want to get

done in my life for example film videos

for this youtube channel hang out with

my friends have a good social life play

video games etc these are also things

that i need to do to stop myself from

burning out and being able to go back to

the studying and the work that needs to

get done for me to graduate and be a

doctor in the near future being

intentional with your time is so

important to stop procrastination

planning my activities allows me to be

intentional with my time and gives me a

pretty good idea of how i'm gonna be

spending my day before it even starts i

generally work in four hour blocks and

i'll make sure i'm blocking out set time

for breaks snacks time to chill and go

out and have fun with my friends now

because i know that these breaks are

coming later up in my schedule i know

exactly how much time is allocated to

those breaks and how much time is

allocated to the tasks i need to get

done for the day i'm much more likely to

stick to my plan if i know i have plans

to go out at 7 pm then i try really hard

to make sure i get all my work done

before then i'll have a clear mind i'll

feel good about the day and i can just

enjoy myself and relax when i'm actually

out time blocking your day gives you

this great sort of bird's eye view of

what you are going to be doing and

importantly it is predetermined which

means you don't have to actually make

decisions throughout your day about what

you should do next because you just look

at your schedule and you've already told

yourself what you're going to do earlier

that day or earlier on in the week being

intentional with my time both for when

i'm going to be studying or being

productive and for when i'm going to be

relaxing and having fun makes it easy

for me to separate these two activities

in my head and so when i'm studying i

just don't feel the need to be

distracted and have fun and when i'm

having fun i don't feel guilty about not

studying because i know i've dedicated

time to both of those things this keeps

my distractions to a minimum and keeps

me focused on what i'm trying to do at

that time

so this is a good one if you're going to

be procrastinating anyway you might as

well be using it to your advantage you

can use the things that you don't want

to do instead of your work as a

motivator to keep you going let me

explain spending five minutes on your

phone at the end of a 30 minute study

block can really motivate you to keep

going and push you through until that

reward in my previous video about

procrastination that you can watch

somewhere up over here i talk about

using these incentives and rewards to

keep me motivated to study i still do

this and i still find it to be one of

the most important things that i do to

help stop procrastination for example if

i know that i'm going to have a

five-minute study break at the end of a

one-hour long studying session then that

just pushes me through and keeps me more

focused and motivated to actually study

and get things done right now because i

know i'm going to take that time off and

i'm going to relax in just a little bit

more an entire day of studying can seem

really daunting but i know that if i

have these regular breaks snacks time to

chill call my friends etc then it

becomes so much more manageable one of

the main reasons that people

procrastinate is often fear of failure

of the task itself which makes them feel

like there's no point in even getting

started so they just procrastinate but

breaking the task down into these

smaller and more manageable chunks and

adding incentives or rewards means that

you're less overwhelmed and less likely

to have it in your head that you might

fail

okay so this tip is for all of you

seasoned procrastinators knowing the

difference between whether you are an

active procrastinator or a passive

procrastinator is crucial you need to

know what type of procrastinator you are

so that you're able to change the way

that you work in the most effective way

so active procrastinators will put off

one task by doing another task that they

still need to do it's like putting off

doing the really long essay you need to

write by doing a slightly more pleasant

task or chore first like feeding your

dog you can allow yourself to get all of

the other tasks you're procrastinating

with out of the way and leave yourself

enough time to finish that final

probably more unpleasant task at the end

of the day this way you're leaving

yourself pretty much no choice because

you know that task has to get done and

the day is going to finish sooner or

later so you need to do it right now on

top of that you've also got nothing left

to procrastinate with another way that i

love using active procrastination is by

introducing relaxing or chilling time

into my schedule let's say i have an

assignment that i need to do but i'm

just not really feeling like doing it

right now i tell myself okay nasr no

problem for the next 30 minutes sit down

and watch this episode of the office or

scroll through your phone on tick tock

call a friend whatever and then after

those 30 minutes i'll be rested i'll be

relaxed and i can start the actual

assignment now personally i don't see

this as procrastinating the assignment i

see it as actively rescheduling that

assignment and doing something in the

meantime like relaxing that's going to

put me in a better position to complete

the task that i actually need to do

later on now on the other end of the

spectrum we have passive procrastinators

these types of procrastinators avoid

tasks by doing things they don't really

need to be doing like watching netflix

going on social media or laying on the

sofa for an undetermined amount of time

without any goal or intention in mind

passive procrastinators will move from

one thing to the next just to fill the

time and push away that daunting task

that they don't want to do if this is

you then hopefully bringing together all

the tips from this video is going to be

your best defense against

procrastinating

all right so being realistic you have

got to be realistic about your time and

the constraints that you are working

within it's unrealistic to think that

you're going to be able to study an

entire topic in a single day whilst you

have loads of distractions around you

you need to set yourself up for success

by splitting your studying into

manageable chunks and padding out your

time properly if you think that writing

an essay is going to take you two hours

then please just schedule in three hours

or four hours for writing that essay

this isn't a sign of weakness it's not

anything negative it's just literally

building into your projects a margin of

safety so that if your schedule doesn't

go 100 as planned you're still going to

be okay and you're still going to manage

to do everything that you needed and

wanted to get done in that day one of

the worst feelings that i have in

university and in life generally is when

i plan to do a bunch of things in my day

and everything takes a little bit longer

than expected so my schedule is falling

further and further behind and that

stress and anxiety just builds up

throughout the day because i can't

complete all the tasks that i wanted and

told myself i was going to do so being

realistic and having this margin of

safety allows you to get back on track

should anything go wrong and if you do

actually finish on time or finish early

then great you've magically unlocked a

whole bunch of extra time in your day

which you can use to either move on to

the next task or relax and rest before

moving on something really powerful that

you can do is change the factors that

you are in control of if i know for

example that my house is going to get

really noisy and hectic in the evenings

when friends or family are around then

it might make sense for me to go to a

coffee shop or to go to a library or

study earlier in the day when those

types of distractions aren't around if i

think about all of these factors before

i actually start studying for example do

i have all of the coffee and snacks that

i need do i have all the resources that

i need am i in the house am i in the

library is it gonna be loud is it gonna

be quiet am i gonna have my phone on

silent or not there's tons of factors

surrounding the work that can elevate or

impede your ability to actually get

things done have a think about what some

of those are and how you might be able

to change them

sometimes it's so easy for us to punish

ourselves for not working every minute

of the day or not studying every

possible thing right before an upcoming

exam as someone who tries to balance

medical school with this youtube channel

a really active social life and still

finds time to exercise this is something

that i often struggle with myself what i

keep trying to remind myself is that

downtime and relaxing and taking time

off is not procrastination we all need

that down time so that we can recharge

and be ready for the things that we want

to do like for me studying medicine and

becoming a doctor as long as you're not

actively avoiding doing something else

you're not procrastinating by having

down time one way to make sure that you

don't fall into the trap of avoiding

work because you need down time is by

understanding why and how often you need

to take a break it's so important to

know yourself and to not overwork

yourself or overbook your schedule this

is probably one of the easiest ways to

lead to burnout and something that we

definitely want to avoid so be sure to

build down time into your schedule

regularly and remember that it's not

procrastination it's definitely needed

and in fact it'll help you even more

when you sit down to do the task that

you actually want to get done

if you are a procrastinator then don't

punish yourself for it instead just sit

down and think about you know what are

the barriers that are preventing you

from starting work what are the things

that are more likely to make you start

procrastinating and how can you maybe

change your environment or other things

around you to help set yourself up for

success if you can understand why you

might be tempted to procrastinate then

you can focus on eliminating that issue

and eventually become more focused for

example making sure the work you're

doing is for some wider goal of yours

something that you really want can

really help you combat that feeling of

not wanting to do something and

procrastinating and that is it for me

guys hopefully the tips in this video

will be able to help you stop

procrastinating so you can do the things

that have to get done so you can then

have enough time to work on the things

that you really want to get done if you

did enjoy this video please don't forget

to leave a like on it and also subscribe

to my channel to see more content like

this from me in the future and that is

it i'll catch you in the next one peace

being intentional with my time both for

when i'm gonna be studying and for when

i'm gonna be right

a little bit allowing yourself to rest

and recharge before going to do it

a

i find i find i find that taking

sometimes it's so easy for us to punish

ourselves over not working every minute

of the day and not studying every

possible thing that exists before