Hi everyone! Welcome back to Lavendaire. It's Aileen. Today's video is on how to beat procrastination and get your work
done. Before I begin, make sure you're subscribed and you click that bell
to get notified of all my new videos. So first off, if you want to learn how to
beat procrastination, you have to see it for what it is: resistance. Resistance is something that Steven Pressfield
talks about in the book, The War of Art. And it basically is a word that means "the thing that keeps you from doing your
work". There's always this resistance that you want to get this work done but, for
some reason, you avoid it at all costs. For some reason, you find yourself deciding
to do something else, checking Instagram, checking Facebook, eating something out of
your fridge. And that is because that work is so important that you're scared
to do it. Whether it's an important school project or a personal project that means a lot to
you, you're probably going to feel some resistance there that causes you to procrastinate. For example, I feel resistance when I have
to tackle a big long-term project like my Artist of Life Workbook. My workbook is something that I've been thinking
about the entire year. I've known that I had to redesign it, but
it just took me so long to sit down and be able to focus. So many times I tried to sit down and then I get distracted, or I would procrastinate. But these couple weeks, I really had to lock myself down and finish
it because I set this due date for myself and I was like, "No, I must get it done by
this time." There are some pretty good techniques that
helped me buckle down and get my work done and I'm gonna share them
today. The short and easy answer to beating procrastination
is to take action. And I know that's super simple and you're
like, "Duh." But it's incredibly difficult to take action. So how do we do it? My best advice on how to get yourself started
on taking action is to look at what you have to do and ask
yourself, "What is the smallest, easiest, next step that I can take towards this goal?" Make it so easy, so simple that it takes one
second to do it. Break it down as small as you can. For example: If your big project is to write a huge research paper, then maybe that easy,
small step is to open up your Word document or type the date, type your name, type that
first word. Really, break it down into the easiest, easiest task ever and start
there. Once you've opened the tab, once you've written your word, ask yourself
that same question again: "Okay, now what is the easiest step that I
could take towards this goal?" You'll find that once you've taken a baby
step, you can take the next baby step, and the next one and the next one. And if you keep doing that, you'll build momentum and then you're gonna find yourself in flow
and then you're gonna be working on the thing that you've been procrastinating
on. I do realize that it could be pretty painful
and difficult to take action, even if it's just baby steps, so another strategy
that's helped me is to set a time deadline for myself meaning
I'll tell myself, "I'll only work on this project for the next thirty minutes or the next hour." And I'll just look at the time, if it's 8:00, I'll be like, "9:00, I'm done. Just do my best. Take the baby steps and work on this." But do it for an hour and by the time it's
9:00, I can let myself go." Setting that time gives me a space to work
in. And usually what happens is, when I get to the end of my time, I have built
my momentum by taking those baby steps and I'm in flow, so I usually want to keep
working. And that's something that's really, really useful. So if you don't feel like working on your
project, just give yourself a baby amount of time. Like, "I'm only going to work on this for fifteen minutes or thirty minutes," and
if that's all you can do, then that's it. That's great. But usually, most likely, you're probably
gonna want to continue working longer. The goal here is to be able to reach your
flow state. Your flow state is that state where you are super focused, super in the
zone, and working at your optimal capacity. I don't know if you've ever had that feeling
where you're just so 100% in your work, you have momentum, you're on a roll, and things
are going great. So that is the goal. It's what some people call "Deep Work", and
that is a state of intense focus that is really, really productive. So that's the goal of where you want to be when you're trying to beat procrastination. I know you're feeling the resistance. First, be aware that it is procrastination
and it is resistance, and then you can take the next small baby steps and set that time
deadline for yourself so that eventually, you're gonna feel the momentum and you're
going to put yourself in flow state. Some other strategies to help yourself get
into flow and get work done is using music to set the mood. My favorite, favorite playlists to work to
are on Spotify. One of them is called Deep Focus. The other one is called Piano in the Background. I really like Deep Focus. That's really intense, atmospheric–not necessarily
intense, but sometimes it's calming. It just really puts me in the zone. And then Piano in the Background, that's because I love piano. That's more softer, so I'll listen to that
when I'm designing or doing something more free-flowing. But when I want to get work done, writing and stuff, then I'll play Deep Focus. Feel free to set the mood in your space with
whatever works for you. Maybe you want to light up a candle. Maybe you want to clean up your desk so that you have a clear working space. Ask yourself, what is your ideal space to
work, and create that so that you have everything
you need in order to get stuff done. An app that I love to help me get to work
and focus is called Forest. Forest is an app that's based on the idea
of planting a digital tree. When you set the timer for, say, 25 minutes
to work, you start planting that tree. And basically, if you leave the app to check
any anything else on your phone, your tree starts to die. And so you don't want to kill your tree, so
it kind of motivates you to not check Instagram, not check anything
so that, for those 25 minutes, you are working. And what's really cool about Forest is that,
i think after you collect some coins, it actually plants real trees in real life,
so I really like that environmental aspect of it. The last strategies you can try is to journal
and/or meditate before you get to work. Sometimes we can't focus on our work because
our mind is so distracted. We're thinking about a million things at once. So sometimes it's helped me to sit down and journal for two or three pages before
I get to work. Usually, in my journal, I'll write down all the things that are on
my mind, get them out of my mind and onto paper. And then I usually start giving myself a pep
talk to prepare myself to get into the mindset to work. I will literally visualize, "Okay, Aileen. You're going to do this and you're gonna work
and you're gonna finish this today. You're gonna do this." So I'm my own motivator in my journal. Doing that really helps to set the intention
for getting to work and being productive. Another thing is: You can meditate before
you get to work. It has a similar effect where you clear your mind, you calm yourself,
and you can also set your intentions during meditation to focus on whatever you
want to focus on. So either journaling and/or meditation. You could do both or you can choose one or
the other. But I think both are really great to prime
yourself to start being productive and get to work. Alright, those are my tips on how to beat
procrastination. I hope it helped you. Let me know if you have any tips of your own
that I missed. Post them in the comments below so that I can learn from you as well, because
I always need help on how to beat resistance because I think it's always gonna be there. Whenever there's an important project that means a lot to you, there's always gonna
be resistance. That's natural. We're humans, so we are all a work in progress. Alright, make sure to subscribe if you haven't
already. Love you all so much. Have a beautiful day and I'll see you next
time. Bye!
