"Procrastination: The Thief of Time and Its Cures"

[00:00:00] Dennis Wittley, a motivational speaker says losers try to escape from their fears and

[00:00:04] drudgery with activities that are tensured really when winners are motivated by the desire

[00:00:09] towards activities that are goal achieving. For example, coming into work earlier reading

[00:00:14] regularly in your field, taking courses to excel your skills, focusing on high value tasks

[00:00:19] on the other hand, the opposite. The reason I am telling you all of this is to set the stage

[00:00:23] for today's episode. Today we are going to talk about the most famous world problem or

[00:00:29] challenge that is procrastination. Hi, I am Rabjot Singh, an automobile engineer by profession

[00:00:34] and owner of Sing Automore. And I am on a mission to help people live a life of emotional and

[00:00:39] financial freedom and this podcast is one of my ways to do it. This is episode 11 of 75

[00:00:45] episodes challenge where I am building a community of 1000 emotional and financial free individuals

[00:00:50] who are daily working on themselves consistently by hearing to this podcast. So before you decide

[00:00:56] on your medicine and get on of the work of having it, you have to decide exactly what

[00:01:01] you want to achieve in each area of your life. Clarity is perhaps the most important concept

[00:01:07] in personal productivity. The number one reason why some people work more faster is because

[00:01:13] they are absolutely clear about their goals and objectives. They don't deviate from them.

[00:01:18] The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take

[00:01:22] to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination. A major reason

[00:01:27] for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness and confusion about what you

[00:01:32] are trying to do and in what order and for what reason. You must anyhow avoid this common

[00:01:39] condition with all your strength by having clarity. There is a very powerful formula

[00:01:43] of setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life. It consists

[00:01:48] of 7 simple steps. Anyone of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you

[00:01:54] are not currently using it. Step 1. Decide exactly what you want. Either decide for yourself

[00:02:01] or sit down with your mother because this is what at least I did. Discuss your goals

[00:02:05] and objectives until you are crystal clear about it. What is expected of you and in

[00:02:11] what order? Other than that, I love you, Mummy. I want all of you to go to your mother

[00:02:17] and say her I love you right now. Step 2. Write it down. Think on paper. When you write

[00:02:23] down a goal, you crystallize it and give it tangible form. You create something that you

[00:02:28] can touch and see. On the other hand, a goal or objective that is not written is merely

[00:02:33] a wish or fantasy. It has no energy behind it. Unwritten goals lead to confusion, vagueness,

[00:02:39] misdirection and numerous mistakes. Step 3. Set a deadline on your goal. Set sub-deadlines

[00:02:45] if necessary. A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning

[00:02:50] or end. For completion, you will naturally procrastinate and get very little done.

[00:02:55] Step 4. Make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to do to achieve your

[00:03:01] goal. As you think of new activities, add them to your list. Keep building your list until

[00:03:06] it is complete. A list gives you a visual picture of a larger task or objective. Step 5. Organize

[00:03:12] the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence. List all tasks in

[00:03:18] the order they need to be done. Take a few minutes on what you can do later. Decide what

[00:03:23] has to be done before something else and what needs to be done afterward. Even better,

[00:03:29] lay out a plan visually in the form of a series of boxes or circles and arrows leading to

[00:03:35] other. Step 6. Take action immediately. Do something, do anything and average vigorously executed

[00:03:42] plan is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done. For success, execution

[00:03:47] is everything. Step 7. Resolve to do something every single day that moves you towards your

[00:03:54] major goal. Build this activity into your schedule. You

[00:03:57] may decide to read a specific number of pages on a key subject. You may learn a certain

[00:04:01] number of words in a foreign language. Whatever it is, never miss a day. Keep pushing forward.

[00:04:07] Whatever it is, have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize

[00:04:12] you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy and help you overcome

[00:04:18] procrastination as much as any other factor. Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.

[00:04:25] The next thing to do is to plan every day in advance. Planning is bringing the future

[00:04:30] into the present so that you can do something about it now. The very act of thinking and planning

[00:04:36] unlocks your mental powers, triggers your creativity and increases your mental and physical

[00:04:42] energies. Conversely, taking action without thinking things though is a prime source of

[00:04:47] problems. Your ability to make good plans before you act is a measure of your overall

[00:04:52] competence. The better the plan you have, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination.

[00:04:58] To get started, to have your medicine and then keep going, the good news is that every

[00:05:03] minute spent in planning saves as many as 10 minutes in execution. It only takes about

[00:05:09] 10 to 12 minutes for you to plan your day, but this small investment of time will save

[00:05:13] you hours or wasted time and diffuse efforts throughout the day. I personally follow the

[00:05:19] 6P formula. It says proper, prior planning prevents poor performance. When you make your

[00:05:26] list the night before your subconscious mind will work on the list all night long while

[00:05:30] you sleep. Often you will wake up with great ideas and insights that you can use to get

[00:05:35] your job done faster and better. Then you had initially thought, the more time you take

[00:05:40] to make written list of everything you have to do in advance, the more effective and efficient

[00:05:45] you will be. When you have a project of any kind begin by making a list of every step

[00:05:50] that you will have to complete to finish the project from beginning to end. Organize the

[00:05:55] steps by priority. What is most important and sequence of task which must be complete

[00:06:00] in this order. Lay out the project in front of you on a paper or on a computer based project

[00:06:05] planner so that you can see every step and task. Then go to work, do one task at a time.

[00:06:12] You will be amazed at how much you can get done in this way. The next thing is the number

[00:06:17] of task versus importance of task. Here is an interesting discovery. If you write down

[00:06:22] of doing 10 tasks, so each of 10 tasks may take the same amount of time to accomplish.

[00:06:28] But one or two of those tasks will contribute 5 or 10 times the value of any others. Often

[00:06:33] a single task can be worth more than all that other 9 items put together. This task is

[00:06:39] invariably the task that you should take on first. The sad fact is that most procrastinate

[00:06:44] on the top 10 or 20% of items that are most valuable and important, the vital few. They

[00:06:51] busy themselves instead with the least important 80% the trivial many they contribute very little

[00:06:58] to the results. I would ask you to abide by the rule which goes by resist the temptation

[00:07:03] to clear up the small things. Remember whatever you choose to do over and over eventually becomes

[00:07:09] a habit that is hard to break. If you choose to start your day working on low value task,

[00:07:15] you will soon develop the habit of always starting and working on low value task. This

[00:07:18] is not the kind of habit you would want to develop and keep. Low value tasks are like

[00:07:22] rabbits and they multiply continually. You never get caught up. The hardest part of any

[00:07:27] other important task is getting started on it on the first place. Once you actually

[00:07:32] begin work on the valuable task, you will naturally feel motivated to continue. The part

[00:07:36] of your mind loves to be busy working on significant tasks that can really make a difference.

[00:07:42] Your job is to feed this part of your mind continually. The fact is that time required

[00:07:47] to complete an important job is always the same so time required to do an unimportant

[00:07:52] job. And the final thing I want to share is consider the consequences. The mark of a

[00:07:57] superior thinker in his or her ability is to accurately predict the consequences of doing

[00:08:03] something. The potential consequences of any task or activity are the key determinants

[00:08:08] of how important a task is really to you. This way of evaluating the significance of a task

[00:08:14] is how to determine what the next big task is. Your attitude towards this has an enormous

[00:08:20] impact on your behavior and your choices. People who take a long term view on their views

[00:08:25] and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities

[00:08:30] than people who give very little thought to the future. Before starting on anything, you should

[00:08:35] always ask yourself what are the potential consequences of doing or not doing this task.

[00:08:42] I want you to remember these two things. One is long term thinking improves short term decision

[00:08:48] making and second is future intent influences and determines present actions. Always obey the law

[00:08:55] of forced efficiency. The law of forced efficiency says there is never enough time to do everything

[00:09:01] but there is always enough time to do that important thing. Put it another way, you cannot do each

[00:09:07] and every task and mini task that is in front of you but you can always take on the biggest

[00:09:12] and the most challenging task and that will be enough at least for the time being. I made this

[00:09:16] episode with a practical approach that all of you are able to get on following the simple ideas

[00:09:22] which I have given you very quickly so that you can start on winning the fight against procrastination

[00:09:26] almost immediately. I'll come up with more such ideas on dealing with procrastination in the

[00:09:31] near future till then I want all of you to stick to this episode for the time being. Follow and

[00:09:36] rate this podcast on your streaming platform. This small gesture of yours is very motivating for me.

[00:09:40] Thank you. This is Rappjod Singh, your host, take care and keep being awesome.