I’m currently listening to The Now Habit audiobook by Dr Neil Fiore. 📚
It’s about beating procrastination. My main takeaway so far is the idea of replacing ‘I have to’ do [task] with ‘I choose to’ do [task].
If there’s something to do, and I’ve agreed to do it, then that was a decision I made instead of facing the alternative. So just do it and stop whining, or make the decision not to, deal with the consequences and move on to the next thing.
Dr Fiore highlights that productive people are able to reduce the agitated energy of a huge pending task by focusing on what can be done now. No matter how small the step.
Perfectionism is another big cause of procrastination. It’s something I’m certainly guilty of. Dr Fiore emphasised the importance of accepting you’re human and that it’s normal to make mistakes and for things not to go perfectly. He suggests not giving yourself big expectations as this can stop you from doing the things you need to do.
Sounds quite simple when you write it down like that, but it’s much more difficult to put into action when you risk something going wrong.
For me the ongoing energy, mood and consequences of procrastination are worse than almost anything. It’s something to fix.
Good listen so far, will keep going.