Self Improvement Made Easy

Comment from Aunty Enigma
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

Lists are good if you are anxious, need reminders and/or to be organised. But it will make a lazy person procrastinate more just looking at it.

There are a few excellent – but little known – ways to tackle tasks that you put off. They are lesser known because few counsellors, psychologists, and behaviourists know of it, and because few people realise that you don’t need to be crazy to see one of us.

You asked for one method. The one that works best for most tasks that people put off is called the "Salami Technique." It was invented by an American guy whose name I’ve forgotten at this moment. It involves mentally dividing/cutting a huge task (such as a messy room) into smaller slices or chunks. The portions can be time or space/sections.

For example, commit yourself to focus on doing 5 minutes of the disliked task. Think of nothing else. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Go to the room by yourself for that task, turn off the mobile phone, computer & TV. You may have music on to feel energised. Go back to your time wasting activity as a reward only after you’ve worked hard for 5 minutes. Then do another 5 minutes before the next hour is over.

Other examples: If you have a messy desk, imagine it divided into 6 or 8 quadrants or squares then work on removing all items that don’t belong in that square, one at a time. If it is an assignment, work on composing one paragraph for the next 20 to 30 minutes. Then take a break. But always commit to returning to do more. This also works for cleaning/housework, ironing, and hand washing dishes.

Try it soon. The trick is to commit and do one section at a time, or do something thoroughly for 5-10 mins. In one day or over several days you’ll get it all done (depending if you have a deadline). If you cheat, you only cheat yourself; and one day could die leaving a great mess in your home, or unfinished loose documents, messy finances, etc. for others to find. One man I knew had to go to court to sue an executor on behalf of his mother because his father procrastinated over not updating his will for the last 50 years before he died.

The rule you must keep is to do as much as you can in the short time you’ve given yourself (you can set an alarm or just look at the clock two or three times when you are working on the task). That leads to another motivating method…

Comment from Where is my mind
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

Start writing lists of the things you need to do.
Prioritise them like "Has to be done this week" and more urgent ones "should have been done yesterday" etc.. when you feel like it, randomly pick something off the list, then do the one below it..

Comment from lunatic
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

Can I get back to you on this?

You are next on the list, I promise.

Comment from Person on yahoo answers….
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

procrastination.. the only way to beat it is just to do what your suppose to do…. i hate chores …. cleaning, lawn work, and taking care of deadlines…. this the may i keep it from building up….everyday when i get home from work i spend 30 to an hour working around the house…. i usually clean a room or mow the lawn…or cook several meals for the following day…acourse i only have to take of me and that makes most of this alot easier

Comment from mac77
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

Get used to the idea of defeat, everyone one goes through it often.

Comment from Shaina
Time October 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

Try doing the small, easy things first. The really brainless but slightly physical ones that just need to get done – organizing your files, cleaning your desk, etc. At this point, a lot of people get into this mode where they’re actually pretty into doing whatever it is; they’re completely reorganizing their computer files, or re-categorizing the crap that’s on their desk, or deciding to rearrange their room or whatever.

With that, there are usually two options: a) you take a break, but haven’t come out of "working" mode, and you sit down to accomplish something that doesn’t require a lot of physical effort but does take some thinking; reports, essays, whatever. OR b) you finish off, feel pretty good about yourself, and are out of that slow lethargic "just one more hour I’ve still got time" stage enough to get the rest of your work done.

Procrastination is pretty hard to overcome mentally. If you tell yourself to do it but you haven’t already, you’re probably not going to. And if you try and impose a sort of reward system, it may not work, because you may end up going "hey how about I have half of it first" and then suddenly it’s not effective anymore.

The best way, therefore, is pretty much physical – like an actual chemical change in your brain. By getting yourself to do something really easy but also something that gets you off your chair (either really or just figuratively), your brain automatically switches into a more active mode, where it’s much easier to keep going at your various tasks.