Do it and you can beat procrastination

Chapter 22
Remember: the first stage of this whole work, the first small job that can be done right away, is to list in words the many sub-steps in progress of this whole work.

The principle of "destroying each in stages" can be used not only in combat planning, but also in work.As long as you use your brain, anything can be solved.

2. A balanced evaluation form Another great way to beat procrastination is to use words to analyze what you have to do.On the left side of a piece of paper, list all the reasons why you are procrastinating on a certain task, and on the right side, list all the benefits you may get from starting this task.The effect of this comparison will be extremely amazing.On the left you can usually only have one or two emotional excuses, such as "this is going to be awkward" or "I'm going to be bored".But on the right, you list many possible gains, the first of which is often the sense of joy that comes with completing a piece of work.

The effect is so obvious that you will wake up from your laziness and get to work, reaping the many gains you have listed on your list.

3. Develop good habits

Developing good habits is the most basic method. It is based on your realization that you can't take action immediately, not because there is any special difficulty in this job, but because you have developed the habit of procrastination.Procrastination is rarely about something specific, it's usually the result of a deep-seated behavioral pattern.If you can change your thinking habits, the first two methods are not very important.

The biggest difference between those who are highly efficient and those who are inefficient is often that the inefficient people are used to thinking that although this job must be done, it is an unpleasant job, so try to put it aside.Productive people, on the other hand, are used to thinking that this job, while unpleasant, must be done, so get it done now and get it over with sooner.

For many people, the thought of changing an ingrained habit makes them uncomfortable.They have tried many times, using sheer willpower to change their habits, only to fail.In fact, there is no difficulty, as long as you use the appropriate method.

William James, the father of American psychology, had a famous treatise on habits in which he discussed a method that appeared in Popular Science.Later behavioral scientists, after research, also confirmed that this method is effective.If it is applied to changing the habit of procrastination, the method is roughly like this:

First, when you are motivated by the points mentioned above, immediately decide to change old habits.Second, don't try to do too many things at once.Don't try to completely change yourself all at once, just force yourself to do one of the things you've been procrastinating right now.Thirdly, you are to be advised that during this period of time when your new habit is gradually becoming fixed, especially during the first three weeks, you must be very careful and allow no exceptions.

Prioritize the priorities and take the work lightly
There are many things waiting for you to do every day. If you work without prioritizing, then in the end not only will you "lose the watermelon", but you may not even pick up the "sesame seeds". Time for benefit" wasted in vain.Smart people know how to prioritize and how to improve their efficiency.To take control of your work, you need to prioritize so that the work can feel like a light weight.

·First-class people do first-class things

There is such a fable: Once, a weasel challenged a lion to fight it out.The lion decisively refused.

"Why," said the Weasel, "are you frightened?" "Very frightened," said the Lion, "if I say yes, you will have the honor of having once fought a Lion; and as for me, all the animals will laugh at me from now on. Fight a weasel." The trouble with fighting a weasel is that even if it wins, the lion is still on par with a weasel.The big man is dismissive of dealing with and competing with low-level people.If you argue with someone who isn't on your level, you're wasting a lot of your resources, lowering people's expectations of you, and unintentionally raising the other person's level.Similarly, the more a person is interested in small things, the less interested he is in big things; the fewer things that must be done and the fewer real problems people encounter, the more people care about small things.It's like playing chess. It's easy to play chess with people who are inferior to you, and you can easily win, but your chess skills will never improve, and if you play too many such chess, your chess skills will become worse and worse. So good chess players I would rather play less chess than try not to compete with those who are inferior to me.

Bennis said: "Pure managers may be able to do things right, but real leaders focus on doing the right thing." One of the major problems of modern people is that they are too casual, distracted, and unable to distinguish priorities.If you happen to be very capable, even if you do something wrong, you can do it well and reverse the unfavorable situation, but this will waste a lot of time and emotion needlessly.

"The wisest men are the ones who are indifferent to things of little importance, but they are always incapable of being indifferent to things of greater importance. Those who are too preoccupied with little things often become incapable of great things." Seize the Big Things , you can naturally solve small things.Most first-class people have the ability to ignore small things.When you are running forward, you can't pay too much attention to the ants on the roadside and the frogs by the water. Of course, there are poisonous snakes blocking the way. "If you have to remove all obstacles before you act, you can't get anything done."

Many people are so busy dealing with trivial and small things all day long that they always complain that they can't make time to do big things.In fact, their subconscious mind is avoiding doing big things.Because doing great things requires imagination, judgment, courage and self-confidence.

First-rate people do first-rate things.A first-class person will not waste time like an ordinary person. He has to accomplish many things in his limited life.If a person tries too hard to do everything well, he will not do the most important things well.

William James said: "The art of wisdom is the art of knowing what to ignore." Don't be disturbed by too many unimportant people and things, because the secret of success is to hold on to the goal.

Wen Rui'an said: "A truly smart person will concentrate the essence, energy, and spirit in one place." In life, it is a wise move to concentrate energy.Because within a certain period of time, a person's resources and energy are limited, and you cannot do several equally important and difficult tasks at the same time.And trivial things will also occupy your time and wear down your will.

The multiplication of information provides more opportunities for collective choice and individual development, but it also makes people distracted and tired.Choice is like a river, the wider it gets the better swimming skills are needed to swim in the right direction because you can't swim forever.

Things that aren't worth doing can trick you into thinking you've accomplished something.You spend a lot of time and energy, and what you get may be just a little self-comfort and illusory satisfaction.When you wake up from the dream, you will find that you haven't done anything you should do, but you are exhausted.

"The mere regularity of an activity gradually evolves into necessity".After a while, people will say, "We shouldn't let it go away, we've been doing it for so long." People don't want to make other choices.But in the end, a person has to pay the price for doing something that is not worth doing, and the bigger the thing, the greater the price.

·Do the important things instead of the urgent ones
The idea of ​​doing the important thing instead of the urgent one is very important, but it is often easily overlooked.Generally speaking, you have to deal with a lot of things every day, but the habit of most people is to achieve self-motivation by taking care of the least important things first, and then solve the most important things with full enthusiasm.Unfortunately, this is not the case. After a long day of work, you are mostly exhausted and exhausted. You have almost no more energy to think about the most important things, and there is not much time left. Therefore, want to It's really hard to do it well.If you analyze from your own heart, the fundamental reason for doing this is that people have serious fear of difficulties and will unconsciously avoid the most important work.

(End of this chapter)