If you understand a problem, you are halfway through solving it.
Procrastination is a very common problem in our day to day life.
Yet we cannot find a solid solution for it.
But what if I told you the reason is because procrastination has two types.
The common solutions we see are for type 2 whereas what we deal with is type 1.
Without a further ado, let's dive in.
Type 1 Procrastination
This type of procrastination is the normal procrastination you know.
✤ Not feeling like doing work
✤ Trying to check your phone mid work
✤ Feeling guilt while doing it
The most common solution everyone suggests is the 5 min rule.
"Start on the task and just do it for 5 mins".
However the biggest flaw in this solution is that, the task we are tackling requires much more than that.
Often we see that, after 10 min of work, we are chasing cheap dopamine to reward ourselves.
While this solution does help with short term, it doesn't help with long term.
While we at it, might as well share my own solution for such problem.
I place large time block of relaxation after the task.
That way, I can look forward to that and keep working.
The reason we chase cheap dopamine is because we dont have clarity on when we will be relaxing (i.e. getting dopamine).
This method works for me all the time.
With that out of the way, now let's discuss the second type of procrastination.
Type 2 Procrastination
I discovered this type of procrastination in the last few weeks.
It's procrastinating on work that you love.
You know you have work you need to do and you like it, but it has delayed gratification.
Something like writing, building your business, client acquisition, etc…
I came back from work and I needed to start on building my product, Systematic Writing (launching this month).
I was procrastinating on it, until the next moment I just seen myself literally building it.
I opened Stan (where I am building my product) and I started typing…
Best part?
I didn't want to stop.
I thought it was a coincidence so I tried once again the next day.
I was procrastinating on YT until I opened Stan tab…
The next second I just started working.
This didn't repeat only 2 times, it happened at least 5 times in the last few weeks.
It's as if my subconscious mind takes over and does the job.
This taught me that, if you truly love what you do and it still has delayed gratification, all you need is 10 sec- 1 min to stop procrastinating.
Now this method seems similar to that one of "5 min rule".
Application
So how can we apply this to our daily life?
Identify the task you are about to do.
If it is something you truly love, just start on it for 1 min.
If it is something you don't enjoy much, and you need sheer power to push through, place dopamine rewarding session.
This was you can tackle both types of procrastination.
That's all from me for today.
Talk again soon.
Hamsa
