How to Stop Ruining Your Life By Beating Procrastination Forever.

Hey Everybody!

Welcome to the first edition of the Modern Productivity Newsletter.

I won't bore you with a long introduction haha.

Let's get right into this week's topic: How to Stop Ruining Your Life By Beating Procrastination Forever. 

You ready? Let’s gooo!

What Actually Is Procrastination?

It's simply a voice in your head saying…

“I don't like this, it makes me uncomfortable”

This voice holds us back from reaching our potential and taking action on the sh*t we know we should be taking action on.

Not only that, it literally takes the most valuable asset we have away from us: our time. 

So…how can we beat this kraken and take back control of the reigns?

What NOT to do.

If you look up “how to beat procrastination” on YouTube, you'll get a list of videos that describe all kinds of tricks, hacks, and rules to solve the problem.

What I’ve experienced is these work for a couple days or weeks, but I would always end up resorting back to my old ways.

But here’s what’s interesting…

For the things we love to do, getting started is easy.

For the things we hate, it's a nightmare.

This was the question I had wandering in my mind for a while…

It’s sounds like a simple and easy question to answer.

“I like it so I do it”.

But after hours of researching deeper into why this actually is, here’s what I’ve found:

Procrastination has nothing to do with your motivation, discipline, or drive. 

Instead, it’s all about how your brain perceives the work itself.

It’s Rooted In Our Biology.

Let me take you back 20,000 years before humans were…smart.

Whether we found something comfortable was an instinct that allowed us to survive. 

If fire hurts, it’s bad. You get the picture.

In the modern age this couldn’t be further from the truth.

• Social media, Netflix, and video games are comfortable, but they distract us.

When our brains are given the choice, the distracting and comfortable option is a no-brainer.

That’s why we must take another approach if we want to overcome procrastination.

How to Implement This For Yourself (The DIOR System)

Enough explaining…let's get into it!

Without further adieu, the 'DIOR' Reframing System.

1) Dopamine Reset:

Before you try and solve the problem, we must clear our heads.

We are constantly stimulating our brains and it keeps us from thinking straight. (a topic for another day)

Take a couple hours off of social media, Netflix, and other stimulating activities.

This will give you clarity for the next step.

2) Identify the Resistance:

Sometimes we procrastinate for reasons other that laziness or overstimulation.

There are 4 main kinds of deep-rooted resistance that keep us from pursuing our goals:

Fear of judgement

Fear of failure

Lack of perfection

Lack of self-belief

Take some time to reflect on these through journaling.

3) Overcome the Resistance

Overcome this resistance through simply recognizing it. This is half the battle.

The other half we will attack in the next step.

4) Reframe the Task

This is the Feedback Loop.

Take yourself back to the classroom for a second…

If you grew up like me, you got rewarded when you did well on a test.

The rewards my parents would get me would motivate me to keep doing well.

Here’s how to use this ‘loop’ to your advantage.

Every time you do this task going forward, reward yourself with something you enjoy doing after you complete it.

This will change the way your brain associates the task from negative to positive.

This reward system will change the way you feel when you work on this task going forward.

Hope you guys enjoyed the read. See you next week!

-Matt “DIOR” Harriman

PS:

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help:

1. Smash your goals & systemize your life for success with a 1-1 Strategy Session.