Do it and you can beat procrastination

Chapter 2 The Psychology of Procrastination, 5 Psychological Effects of Procrastination (1)
Procrastination has almost become a common problem of modern people. "Let's put it down and act later" has become the biggest ideological cancer of procrastinators.Many times, you fall into the "vortex" of procrastination without knowing it.It's like being on a roller coaster with emotions rising and falling with it.As much as you want things to move forward, delays inevitably end up happening.

The Waiting Effect: Thinking Freezes, Acting Slowly

Banking needs to queue up for business, ATM machines need to queue up to withdraw money, take buses and subways, need to queue up, eat in cafeterias need to queue up, and supermarkets also need to queue up to pay for groceries... In daily study, work and life, I believe no one is right Waiting in line feels strange.Looking at the long queue in front of me, I don't know when it will be my turn. The waiting time is so long, even if I waited only 10 minutes, it feels like a century has passed.

Waiting tends to make people fall into a mental state of dull thinking and slow action.Take the simplest example, the customers in the bank who are waiting to be called can't settle down to do something, even if it is watching TV, movies, or reading their favorite magazines, books, etc. why?The answer is simple: What should I do if I accidentally miss the number call?It is precisely because of this waiting mentality that they cannot calm down until the target appears, which also proves the inverse proportional relationship between waiting and action efficiency from another aspect.

From a psychological point of view, due to waiting for something, people tend to have changes in attitudes or behaviors. This psychological phenomenon is called the waiting effect.Although the vast majority of people do not deliberately pay attention to waiting in life or work, this waiting effect subtly changes your life and work.

Think back carefully: what did you do in the last 20 minutes before leaving get off work?Relevant survey data show that more than 87.34% of people are not interested in working when they are close to get off work. Most of them are dull in thinking and slow in action. Will waste the last time near get off work by tidying up the desk.

I dawdled for a while before eating at noon, and procrastinated for a while before leaving get off work in the afternoon. How could the originally scheduled work tasks be completed?In fact, the "relaxation" before get off work is not free, it will bring you a heavy mental shackles.In order to alleviate your guilt and guilt, you often comfort yourself: "I'm off work right now, it's only 10 minutes, even if I work, I can't do much, let's talk about it when I go to work tomorrow!" However, tomorrow after tomorrow, tomorrow How many?If everything has to be delayed, and you have to leave yourself a "tail" before getting off work every day, what kind of consequences will it have in the long run?

If you don't want to be a procrastinator, don't always wait to get off work, wait for vacations, and wait for weekends.Don't underestimate the 10 minutes before you get off work. Although you can't do much in one 10 minutes, if you add up the 10 minutes every day, it will definitely be a great wealth of time.Mr. Lu Xun once said: "Wasting other people's time is tantamount to murdering money, wasting one's own time is tantamount to chronic suicide." Wasting 10 minutes a day is a big loss over time, perhaps because of this difference in time utilization, It will make you lose your advantage in the competition in the workplace, and you will become a muddleheaded person from then on.

What are you doing 20 minutes before leaving get off work

Waiting often makes the time longer, and people's hearts will be tortured during the waiting process. In this case, why do you have to choose to wait without interest?In fact, waiting for nothing to do is longer than waiting for something to do, and the heart is more likely to be restless.That being the case, why wait for the end of get off work bell to ring?
You might as well make full use of the 10 minutes before leaving get off work. This will not only eliminate the dull thinking and slow action caused by the waiting effect, but also improve work efficiency and save you from inner suffering and irritability. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Seven is the brand planner of a large company. From a professional point of view, he is definitely an excellent brand publicist.However, it is a pity that he has not only never been appreciated by the leaders for his outstanding ability, but also often becomes the object of criticism and education in various meetings. What is going on?
"My God, why don't you get off work? I just looked at the watch for 15 minutes. After such a long time, why do I still have 10 minutes to get off work?" This is Seven's mantra every day when he is about to get off work, and sometimes he repeats it repeatedly. Say it several times.I want to continue working, but I can’t, because my mind has already “flyed” elsewhere.How could this state of being in Cao Ying and being in Han not make people slow down?Simply do nothing at all and wait until get off work is done.

At first, Saiwen got impatient with waiting, so he started to tidy up the desk in advance, but it was not time to get off work after tidying up, so it was uncomfortable to wait impatiently, so he couldn't help but started chatting with colleagues around him.Because of this, colleagues have some opinions on Sai Wen: "Ah? What did you say just now? I was too busy to hear it. Let's talk about it after get off work!" I don’t have as much time as you.” The colleague’s ignorance or substantive response made Seven very depressed, but what made him even more depressed was the leader’s criticism. "You still have 30 minutes to get off work? You are not working hard now, and you are still looking for someone to chat with. It is already a violation of discipline for you not to work during working hours, and you are deliberately delaying others!" "Severn, what's the matter with you? Yes, but it's not time yet after all. You packed up your things so quickly, have you finished your work?"

Because of waiting to get off work, Seven will enter the off-duty state early every day.There are still 30 minutes before the end of get off work, but there is no way to concentrate on doing things, and the work efficiency is low; the work that can be completed today is always left until tomorrow.Over time, he piled up a lot of work, which naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the leaders.

Either be kicked out by the company, or change himself, Seven finally chose the latter after painful and tangled thinking.Since then, when it was time to get off work, Sai Wen repeatedly warned himself: forget how long it is to get off work.This countermeasure sounds simple, but it is not easy to implement. I remember someone once said: "There is only one way to get rid of weeds, and that is to plant crops in the fields."

Getting rid of the negative state of waiting for get off work, Seven began to wait for the quarterly summary and commendation meeting, and hoped that he could get a large amount of bonuses at the quarterly summary meeting.With the goal of getting a bonus, Sai Wen looks energetic. Even if it is only 3 minutes before he gets off work, he can still be busy with his work calmly, and his work efficiency has always been in a state of high efficiency.Unknowingly, Sai Wen bid farewell to the dull thinking and slow action caused by waiting to get off work, and his working status has also undergone a considerable improvement.If you pay, you will gain. Seven's efforts were quickly recognized by the leaders, and he was listed as a manager candidate for the brand planning department.

Waiting for get off work and waiting for the quarterly summary and commendation meeting are both waiting, and both imply a waiting effect. Why are the results produced completely different?Through Seven's experience, it is not difficult to see that the waiting effect is not good or bad, the key lies in how you use it.

· Do it now, don't wait

Many people are accustomed to waiting: wait for a while, wait until the conditions are ripe, wait until you are in a good mood, wait until you are in a good state, these have become your excuses, you spend a lot of time so that you can Entering the state, but did not think that the state is done instead of waiting.

As long as you think about it, you can see that other times than the present are more difficult for you to grasp.If you can keep your mind on the present, on the present that you often neglect and let it pass by, you can live a fuller and happier life than you have in the past.

But many times you are constantly sacrificing the present for the sake of the future.There is a story about an old Chinese lady and an old American lady who met in heaven after they died.The old Chinese lady said with regret: "I have worked hard all my life and just built a building, but unfortunately I died after a few days without enjoying it." The old American lady said with a sigh of relief: "I have lived in the building for most of my life." , I just paid off my housing loan a few days ago."

You ignore and sacrifice the present for the sake of an imagined future.

It's all about you now.The future is only a moment you can grasp when it comes.You should cherish the present, let the past pass by, and don't always fantasize about the future.Take advantage of the present moment, it is all yours.

Do your best to keep yourself interested in the present time instead of waiting for the future.Seize every minute and every second of your life, spend every minute and every second well, cherish your present time.Spending your time daydreaming or regretting will only make you lose the present and make it impossible to grasp the future.

When you encounter difficult tasks, you often don't know where to start, and you are unable to take any action.

At this time, what should we do?In fact, just try to "do it" as much as possible, and start with the easiest and easiest part to start with, regardless of the order.When the easy part is done, you naturally know how to move on to the harder part.

For example, when you are writing a dissertation or a book, you can start writing from the part you are most familiar with.At the same time, if you have developed the habit of writing directly on the computer, you will not be affected by the sequence at all.

There is a British proverb: "Half the job is done when you start it!" In fact, the work is often not as difficult as you think, so don't be driven back by your fear of difficulty before you start.

Putting aside today's work and wanting to leave it for tomorrow, the time and energy consumed in this procrastination can actually get that thing done well.

In order to realize his dream of being the first, Ippei Hara, the god of insurance sales in Japan, worked with all his strength. He opened his eyes at 5 o'clock in the morning and immediately started a day's activities; ;Eat breakfast at 6 o'clock, discuss work with his wife; go to the company at 7 o'clock; Going to bed on time, this is his most typical day in life.He worked non-stop from morning to night, thus winning the crown of sales king in the history of Japanese insurance.

The skill of fighting and dragging: skillfully use the waiting effect to gain advantages and avoid disadvantages

Waiting with positive goals can promote positive changes in your work attitude and behavior, while negative waiting will only make you dull in thinking and slow in action, which is an important reason for your habitual procrastination.

After a relatively comprehensive summary and research on the psychology of waiting, David Mester, a professor at Harvard Business School, specifically put forward 8 psychological principles of waiting: waiting with nothing to do feels longer than waiting with something to do; Waits after a procedure feel longer than waits during a procedure; anxiety makes the wait seem longer than it really is; an uncertain wait feels longer than a known, finite wait; a wait without a reason is longer than a reasoned one The wait feels longer; an unfair wait feels longer than a fair wait; the higher the value of the service, the longer people are willing to wait; a single person waits longer than a group of people.

Although these are purely theoretical knowledge, they have practical significance that cannot be ignored in terms of using the waiting effect to gain advantages and avoid disadvantages.

So, specifically, how can you sidestep the downside of the waiting effect and get the most out of its upside?
1. Maintain the psychological balance of self-cognition

Why do you feel anxious, irritable, more and more unable to hold back while waiting, and even lose independent and effective actions?In essence, this is a phenomenon of psychological imbalance.The so-called psychological imbalance is simply an inner contradiction. In the process of waiting, you often expect time to become a ray of light, passing by in a flash, but this is full of contradictions with the reality of time being unhurried. This sense of ambivalence will often subtly change your attitude and behavior.

It is not difficult to overcome the negative effects of the waiting effect. As long as you eliminate this sense of ambivalence, you can get rid of the quagmire of dull thinking and slow behavior.Buddhists often say that "everything is moving when the heart is moving, and everything is still when the mind is quiet". If you are at peace, how can you be disturbed by the inconspicuous waiting effect?

2. Suspense helps you overcome the negative effects of the waiting effect

Everyone has curiosity, especially for those unresolved problems or phenomena, and can't help but want to find out.Suspense can often stimulate people's curiosity and start thinking, thus prompting people to act immediately.Although the waiting effect is likely to make you fall into negative emotions such as passivity, anxiety, and irritability, with suspense, this negative waiting effect is difficult to produce.

Suspense is full of contradictions and cannot be accurately predicted, so it often produces a kind of desire and excitement psychologically. Because you want to break the casserole and find out the answer as soon as possible, you often act immediately unconsciously. In order to uncover the suspense as soon as possible.In this way, the problems of dull thinking and slow action will naturally be solved.

If a person cannot overcome the negative effects brought about by the waiting effect, he will inevitably fall into anxiety and irritability because of waiting, which will lead to absent-mindedness in doing everything, and the efficiency of action will naturally be extremely low.

The waiting effect is not only related to you personally, but also has extraordinary reference significance and functions for the company and the company's top management.

If the company wants to win the recognition and favor of customers in the fierce market competition, it must reduce the waiting time for customers to obtain products and services as much as possible.If you have to wait, then in order to avoid losing customers due to the waiting effect, certain measures must be taken to provide customers with a comfortable waiting environment while they are waiting, so as to prevent the other party from leaving due to inner anxiety, such as setting up a simple small Bookshelves, used to place newspapers, magazines, etc. that customers are interested in.Waiting can easily cause customers to feel anxious. If the customer's emotions cannot be well channeled, they may walk away because they are impatient. This is what the company does not want to see.Therefore, if you want to avoid losing orders because of this, you must act quickly.

Whoever makes customers more comfortable and relaxed while waiting will often be able to win a broader market.

The Translimit Effect: The Painful Price of Pleasure
Television is a relatively common form of leisure and entertainment. I believe everyone is familiar with the various advertisements in it.

"It's so annoying, why is it time for commercials again!" "These commercials are being broadcast every day, and the ears are almost full of cocoons!" "Watching a series is so annoying, the commercials are longer than the TV series!"

…although people do not have all the same attitudes towards advertising, why do the vast majority of people seem to have a dislike for advertising?In fact, people often hate watching commercials not because they are unlikable, because from the viewer's point of view, many of them are very creative, and they really make the vast majority of viewers feel excited when they first appear. It is pleasing to the eye; but even if it is the best advertisement, if it always carries out high-density "bombing" publicity in a short period of time, it will definitely arouse the disgust and disgust of the audience. This phenomenon is often called the over-limit effect in psychology. .

(End of this chapter)