Hello,
Unique learners!
This is Yvette from Right Way and you are listening to a meditation about reducing procrastination.
This is the second session of the reduce procrastination series.
Last time we did a quick introduction,
A grounding exercise and a self-enquiry questions about procrastination.
In this series we will discover what your procrastination is about,
What it serves and what strategies might help you.
This session includes another grounding exercise and strategies that will place a reality check on your thoughts.
So let's get started.
Get comfortable,
Preferably sitting straight.
And if you haven't done so already,
Close your eyes if you like.
Feel your feet touching the ground.
Give them a rub on the ground.
Notice your body and try to take a deep breath in through the nose.
Hold it and breathe out slowly through the mouth.
And the key is to focus on those moments between the in and the out breath,
The silence there.
Now breathe in through the nose.
Hold it and breathe out more slowly.
One more big breath in through the nose.
Hold it and you can make a dramatic sigh outwards.
How does that feel?
What emotions are you feeling?
Sadness,
Anger,
Fear,
Happiness?
Label them but don't dwell in them.
And now place your right arm if you like on your left arm and put your left arm on your right and give yourself a cuddle.
In our previous session we talked about awareness of procrastination.
And now I would like to discuss becoming aware of our thoughts.
Recognize that although your mind may tell you that you will feel more like doing it tomorrow,
More motivated,
More energetic,
More in the mood,
Whatever,
You won't.
You don't need to really feel like it to get on with the task.
Learn to be suspicious of your mind when it feeds you the message that you will feel more like it tomorrow.
Don't listen to this message.
And instead just get started.
You may have to just get started many times a day on the same task.
Just take one small next step.
Once you get started you have primed the pump and will find it a bit easier to keep going.
So what thoughts are now going around about not doing it?
What can you say against those?
For example,
Thank you for the information but I will start now and do my best.
And another strategy is to know yourself when you work most ideally.
What I would like to clarify by that is,
Generally speaking,
People who say they work best under pressure mean that the only time they can overcome procrastination is under pressure.
This does not necessarily mean they work better under pressure.
Be aware that although people often believe this is because they are eterland junkies or thrill seekers,
Research shows that this is a myth for the majority of people who procrastinate.
So can you think of one of your most stressful times with deadlines and pressure?
How did you work?
Were you really that efficient under that stress,
That anxiety?
And do you remember how you were feeling,
What sort of emotions were you experiencing?
Try to remember that emotion for the next time when you give into procrastination by saying to yourself,
I'll do it tomorrow.
You will experience the immediate relief of not having to do the task now.
Plus,
The positive feelings that go with creating positive goals.
We imagine ourselves into tomorrow feeling great and getting on with the task effortlessly.
When we are doing this kind of thinking,
The picture of the future is generally ungrounded,
Undetailed,
Not taking into account the nitty gritty realities of the situation and over optimism.
So give yourself a reality check.
Will you do it tomorrow?
Will you feel really that great?
So for the next tragedy,
How do you just get started?
I always recommend to do a 5 minute difficult task immediately at the start of your day.
Just for 5 minutes.
And why you ask?
Research shows that we tend to overestimate the difficulty and unpleasantness of the task.
Research also shows that getting started on a task changes our perception of it and can also change our perception of ourselves.
We feel more in control and more optimistic.
Once we start a task,
It is rarely as bad as we think and generally,
If we put it off to the last minute once we start it and find it more interesting than we thought,
We wished we started earlier so that we could have done a better job of it.
So just get started.
Progress on our goals makes us feel happier and more satisfied with life and with ourselves.
These positive emotions help us to make further progress on our goals and a positive cycle begins.
Help to prime and pump yourself to always feeling more motivated and energized and in the mood.
So we now talked about reasons like we will do it tomorrow,
Actually excuses and we stood still at how we were feeling when we would procrastinate and how we would imagine that tomorrow we will feel better.
And now I'm asking you,
When during the day you are procrastinating,
Can you stand still and feel your emotions and can you sense now looking back that actually during the whole day your levels of anxiety or stress or fear,
They just rise,
They just increase?
And that is really important to notice,
Be in your body and notice your thoughts,
Your emotions and what procrastination is really doing with you.
So yes,
Unique learner,
This meditation has come to an end and I wish you well and would like to thank you for listening and participating.
Namaste.
