To stop procrastination, you must set yourself seemingly simple tasks, break them down into specific and measurable ones, and make them a habit. Anastasia Ekushevskaya, PhD in Philosophy, Master of Psychology, child neuropsychologist and head of the content department of Skyeng and Skysmart told socialbites.ca about this. She explained how to “get down” your brain and do everything in a timely manner.
According to the expert, the phenomenon that causes you to postpone things until later is called procrastination.
“Procrastinators procrastinate on important tasks instead of taking on other unimportant tasks. This phenomenon is explained by neuroscience: when we tick the box next to the to-do list, dopamine, the pleasure hormone, is synthesized in the brain. The procrastinator always chooses the so-called “cheap” dopamine – the dopamine that comes from doing many simple tasks like washing dishes or scrolling through the news feed. At the same time, the main, most important task was postponed until later, ”explained the candidate of science.
Procrastination is caused by fear and a lack of motivation. The person understands the importance of the task, does not refuse to complete it, but is afraid to start solving it because of possible negative emotions and the amount of work that has not been adequately evaluated.
“The fear of the unknown is dispelled by detailed planning: the work must be broken down into several small but specific and measurable tasks and a clear sequence of actions must be established. Anastasia Ekushevskaya, for example, instead of the task “start learning a language”, plan: sit at a computer, choose a platform for learning a language, sign up for a trial lesson, etc.
He stated that procrastination is also characterized by constantly thinking about the future in a negative way, which increases anxiety and, as a result, even loses the power to start work.
“The easiest way to deal with this is to create a habit. After all, it is not necessary to make a strong-willed decision, and therefore spend energy, for ordinary action. We don’t procrastinate when we brush our teeth in the morning or have coffee for breakfast. Other tasks that require regularity also need to be turned into a habit that gradually builds up with the help of small but regular actions.”
According to the expert, not procrastinating and setting goals that seem simple and easily attainable will also help. In this case, it will even be possible to over-fulfill them.
“After solving every task that seems difficult and difficult to solve, you should definitely reward yourself. This will increase the motivation to carry out the following plans. One way or another, the main rule is not to rush and remember that big goals are achieved with small steps, ”the expert Ekushevskaya concluded.
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