How to stop procrastinating in seconds

Procrastination is just a fancy word for resistance. If there weren’t resistance between you and your desired behaviour, then nothing would stop you from doing it right now. No resistance, no procrastination. 

For example, you all know that doing hard work is a must. You all are matured enough to understand that it is not possible to have a happy successful life without having some qualities (you already know about these qualities). You all know what you should do and want to do, but you don’t feel like doing it. This article’s technique will take you a step towards success. To defeat procrastination and get moving on things that matter most, we must figure out how to decrease the resistance we feel to taking positive actions. How to start. How to take the first step. The goal is that simple, and so is the solution.

To stop procrastinating… 

1. Define your target behaviour (for example, getting up your tired body out of your comfortable bed) 

2. Agree with yourself that you WILL do it before your countdown is finished 

3. Begin counting down from 10… 9… 8… 7… 

4. Take action before zero! 

 3 Reasons the 10-Second Countdown Works 

First, in order to have the countdown, you will have to clearly define your objective (otherwise, you’d be counting down for no reason). Lack of clarity is a huge source of resistance, because the human brain doesn’t know how to “work on things that matter,” it only knows how to do specific things like, “step out of bed”, “start reading that lesson”, “close YouTube”etc. Specific ideas are actionable. 

Second, giving yourself 10 seconds reduce the fear and shock of doing something important suddenly. It can be scary (or boring) to do things that matter, and when you demand that they be done NOW, the brain can freak out and say, “There are funny YouTube videos to watch! Just watch one or two and see where that takes you!” We all know where that takes us. By giving yourself a 10-second buffer between you and action, you allow the brain to have a small transition.

Third, 10 seconds doesn’t let you overthink. Once you begin counting down, the least complicated thing to do is just begin the activity you designated at the start, and then you can reevaluate. This is absolutely critical because it gets you started, and good things happen when you start!

So, whenever you’re stalling, set your target and begin the countdown from 10. I’ll bet that before you reach one, you’ll be in motion. And if not, you only lost 10 seconds by trying. 😉