My friend is a genius, he may have discovered the single most effective tool to instantly kill procrastination. At it’s not some fancy time management technique, it’s simply a different way of viewing things.
I want to introduce this concept with a real example. Let’s say that you’re drinking ice tea. Not natural tea, some flavored beverage, and someone in your table points that they don’t drink that beverage for the sugar and the other unhealthy substances that are present in it. Her arguments are convincing and you resonate with them, but better that than drinking soda right? Now, what would you do in that situation, would you stop drinking ice tea altogether? Very unlikely. It’s easier to stick with old habits and avoid facing a decision. It’s easier to procrastinate than to take action.
Now let’s say that the conversation between you and your friend went a bit different. Let’s say that after she told you about the reasons why drinking ice tea was bad and you both agreed on them, she were to say: “Now you must take a decision. Are you going to boycott drinking this tea, or are you going to support it?”.
Deciding wherever you’re going to boycott or support a behavior is using a different perspective for making a decision. Depending on your cultural origins you may feel a sense of greater responsibility toward yourself and others, whatever option you decide. But more importantly it allows you to kill procrastination instantly because once you take a decision, that’s it, you don’t have to think about it anymore.
You can test if this method works for you very easily. Next time you see something that you know you should do, but are somehow postponing (like sending that fax that has been sitting on your desk for a week), ask yourself: “Am I going to support this behavior or am I going to boycott it?” Then take your decision, and act accordingly. You can substitute boycott with stop if you like.
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I’m curious to hear if this method works for you, for me is the best way to kill procrastination that I know about. I was introduced to it by my friend, which is indeed a genius.
Hopefully I’ve been able to express the concept that I had in mind, but feel free to ask for more clarifications in the comments below.