In a world where we all have a mobile on pretty much 24/7, procrastination is literally on taps and you're absorbed with dopamine filling self-esteem killing consumption, hence, we procrastinate. I recently had a conversation with someone who is by far the most productive person I know and that radically changed my perspective. This one person has so much going on but never complains about anything. So a few tips that I got to learn:
1) Work is never as hard we imagine it to be - Sometimes its dull and sometimes there are things that are difficult to deal with but on the whole, work isn't that hard.
2) Learning and working are opportunities that many people don't have - This is something that should be celebrated in our head rather than looking at it as a chore that we have to do.
3) Work itself can give us satisfaction and at that point, I have had a belief which I didn't even realize was a belief that I took it as truth that work is and has to be painful is the point that we've all heard stories about dredging about the work and I can bet you can name someone in your team at work who moans about all the stuff they've to do. The point is that these productive things are associated in our mind as pain and opposed to enjoyment & pleasure we've been indoctrinated with this idea that efforts equal pain.
Our chimp brains that are supercharged by these narratives overestimate the pain that work will cause and underestimate the fulfilment it will give us and that's why we procrastinate our inner chimp on high and the fake news that work is some form of torture to be avoided.
A few ideas that help me to see the productive work as painlessly as possible:
1) Visualize the pleasure that you would get once your work is done - Whatever you're doing on Instagram, YouTube or Netflix, none of those things would be satisfying as sitting down at the end of the day guilt-free knowing you can do whatever you want because your work for the day is done.
2) Start small - Little things that go into accomplishing that bigger task. Plan to do that small thing. Once you get into that, you will get into momentum and suddenly doing the bigger task becomes so much more feasible.
3) Create artificial deadlines - This is something often recommended so that you do not suffer from anxiety that kicks in from leaving things to be done for the last minute. Create artificial deadlines to stay ahead in the game.
4) Make your work discursive - For me chatting about something makes it much less intimidating than formal writing about it. So start where you feel most comfortable.
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