(Last edited March 2, 2008)

Christmas wishes

Merry Christmas everybody! May the holidays bring you joy, warmth and happiness to the New Year.

Thank you, Palm Addicts!

I want to take a moment to thank Sam McLoughlin of the very popular Palm blog site, Palm Addicts for mentiong my blog. Sammy is way too kind, already mentioning my blog quite a number of times. It’s much appreciated and I’m very honored that he has put a link to my blog on his page and his continued support. I rely on Palm Addicts for my daily Palm fix and it’s always interesting to check out the latest Palm news, and special Palm user thoughts, tips, ideas contributed from everyone all over the world. Please take a moment to check out such a wonderful site!

Adding yourself to my Frappr map

If you haven’t checked out the Frappr map that I’ve set up for visitors to the blog, please add yourself to the map. I think it’s cool to be able to get a sense of where people who visit my blog are coming from. You don’t need to disclose anything, just your city or town and you’ll be on the map. And we can all see where many of you are located. If you don’t add yourself, we won’t know you’re here. While we’re on the subject of procrastinating, please stop procrastinating and add yourself to the map. Thank you in advance.

This is part two of the Procrastination series. If you haven’t read part one, check it out here

Okay, we’ve spent some time trying to uncover what procrastination is and where it comes from, the question is now what do we do about it? So, how do we learn to procrastinate less? The obvious answer is to completely deal with the situation or problem or task right away so that it doesn’t come back to “haunt us” in the future. But that is not always easy since it’s hard to motivate ourselves to do things we don’t like.

Again, like I’ve discussed in an earlier posting, that it all boils down to what we’re used to, or are accustomed to, or are comfortable with. We have to “train” or re-condition our brain to get into the habit of not procrastinating or at least procrastinate less. We have to re-learn or train ourselves by repetition to get “used” to this new way of doing things. We have to get used to dealing with tasks immediately or have a systematic way of doing it so that it does get done and doesn’t end up in a “will do sometime” (procrastinate) pile.

Let’s face it, we tend to reach for that quick easy fix because, most of us are lazy and try to find the shortcut to everything. That’s why we get tempted by those late night infomercials (TV commercials) that promise us a slimmer body, healthy lifestyle, get rich quick, etc. And we realize after we “buy” in to their product that it doesn’t work. There really is no easy short cut in life. If we want to lose weight, we have to exercise regularly and eat healthy foods. No special pill, or food will do miracles for us.

Combatting procrastination requires hard work

I can already hear the “groans” when people read the word “hard” in the title. See? The negative feelings are already there. I am not going to sugar coat anything for you. The fact is, in order to make the change, we have to do the work. Period. With everything in life, any kind of change requires a lot of motivation, effort and mental strength. Gold medal athletes didn’t get to the podium by not working hard every day regardless of the weather, personal problems, etc and focused 100% on their training.

You have to put in the time, effort, and work. In order to achieve success or attain your goal, whatever it may be, you have to work hard at it, refine your skills, learn from your mistakes and keep on at it until you achieve it. This is one main trait of all successful people. Nobody who’s successful, famous, got there overnight, although it seems that way. Okay, back to procrastination and how to procrastinate less.

Re-program or re-wire your brain. Re-associate things in a positive perspective

So, rather than associating something we procrastinate with the “bad” feeling, we should try to associate it with a “good” feeling. How? Okay, now I can probably hear you guys saying “give me a break! How can I associate good feelings when I have to balance my chequebook?” True. It comes down to how you do it.

If you can try to associate the “bad“ feeling to all the bad consequences of not doing it right now (ie. late charges, cheque bouncing, service charges and the hassle of going to the bank and settling the whole bigger mess later) and associating the “good” feeling of getting something accomplished so that you don’t have it nagging at you, save on penalties, etc. And while you’re at it, reward yourself for getting something done right away, rather than procrastinating and dealing with it later.

The Power of Reward. Reward yourself to re-program your brain

Reward is a very important aid to stop or decrease procrastination. Remember, we always try to do things that make us feel “good” as opposed to doing things that make us feel “bad“. If we can associate the “good” feeling with getting the job done right now, and associate the “bad” feeling with procrastinating, we are one step closer to stopping procrastination or at least lessen how often we procrastinate.

So, make the promise of rewarding yourself when you don’t procrastinate and deal with a situation, problem, etc immediately when you encounter it. Sometimes, you may not be able to reward yourself right there and then, but make a mental note of it to reward yourself later. Put a reminder in your Palm or organizer to go out and have a beer after work as a reward, or buy something you like, or do something that you normally don’t get to do. It is very important to reward yourself. Don’t skimp on the reward or skip it altogether to save money. Doing so will only teach your brain that you don’t deliver on the reward when you deserve it. That is not good. What you’re trying to achieve with the reward is to get your brain to associate the reward and the good feeling of the result so that you can reflect back on it later. If at all possible, take a moment to really enjoy your reward. Try to take a mental snapshot of where you are, how you feel, what you’re doing, the sights, sounds, smell, etc. The more things you can remember or associate with this reward, the better. This will be a very important tool for future use.

Here’s an example of associating a reward to accomplish a dreaded task. I remembered how in my childhood years that my Dad used to reward us with a bottle of Coca Cola after a long day of mowing the lawn. We mowed, raked, bagged it up and it was a lot of work, taking the entire afternoon. But it was really nice to have the reward of drinking pop at the end. All that sweat and hard work was worth it. The cost of a bottle of Coke wasn’t expensive, but it was a great reward. To this day, I can still recall it and it brings back fond memories. It’s that effective.

Rewarding yourself the first time may not be enough to “condition” your brain to get used to this new way of doing things or preventing procrastination, but if you do it enough times, over time, you will get “used” to this new way and your brain will actually feel uneasy when you try to procrastinate because your brain has established a new habit. But it’s a good habit.

The mind can help overcome habits

Another example I can take from my experience is smoking. I was never really much of a smoker, smoking a cigarette or two a day, and more of a “social” smoker where I’d smoke at a bar with friends. I never gotten too “hooked” that it was extremely hard to quit. But I was somewhat “hooked” that I would periodically go out and buy a pack of cigarettes. I never liked smoking. I didn’t like the smell of it, especially on my clothes. I just wanted to get the nicotine “high” which helps me relax after a long, stressful day. The way I got myself to finally “quit” for good and never touching another cigarette was very much of a mental exercise more than anything else.

The last time I bought a new pack of cigarettes and started smoking, I thought to myself. ‘Why did I buy another pack of cigarettes again? Now, I have to work my way to finish it up and then only to buy another pack and start another cycle again.’ It was then and there that I was fed up with this stupid and somewhat expensive habit. I was wasting money on something I didn’t like. Once I finished my cigarette, I threw away the entire pack in the garbage. I swore that I would never buy another pack of cigarettes ever again since I just wasted money on a perfectly new pack and threw it in the garbage. I made sure I remembered this scene very well, taking in all my emotions, feelings. This was my mental exercise to overcome a bad habit.

Whenever I had the urge to smoke, I recalled that particular scene. I thought about how I didn’t really enjoy smoking, the smell and how I wasted my money on a pack by throwing it in the garbage. I’ve already promised that I would never touch another cigarette again. If I go back on my word and buy another pack, what’s to stop me from going through this cycle or even quitting? By associating these negative feelings with the smoking and cigarettes and the waste of money, I was able to keep my commitment to quit. I have never touched another cigarette since and never will. I’m not sure how helpful my idea of associating a negative idea with a habit can be for others, but I think if your mind is set to associate pain or a negative feeling with something you wish to control, it may help. They always say that the mind is a powerful thing and we tend to forget that.

Habits are learned and re-learned

As human beings, we are creatures of habit. In order to survive, we can quickly adapt to our environment (sink or swim) whether good or bad. Once we take the plunge into whatever it is, the brain realizes it’s sink or swim, doing whatever it takes to survive and starts adapting. If we do it often enough, or we’re forced into it, it will become a habit.

“Practice makes perfect” is a very accurate statement, because we learn through repetition and practice. As babies, we learn by repeating the same things over and over. If we discover that we get attention by crying, we quickly learn that and cry every time.

Here’s an interesting info I’ve discovered from a radio show I’ve heard recently. Apparently, dreams or the period when we are going through REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is actually when our brain sorts out all the information we’ve collected during the day. During our dreaming period, the brain decides whether to throw away various events of the day or file and organize them into something that makes more sense. And this makes a lot of sense. Think about when you are learning something new the first time and how you struggle through it for hours without much improvement. But when you try to do it the next day, things seem to “click” and greatly improve. Do you suppose that you suddenly “learned” it over a day? Most likely, your brain has figured out how to sort the whole process of what you’re trying to learn, getting the coordination, the movement, placement, and all the other details into something that can translate to the newer improved result. Wow. The brain is so amazing.

Here’s an example of how amazing how we can use our brain to re-program ourselves to make whatever it is we want to become a habit. When I was first starting out with a jogging regiment, I remembered how I was moaning and groaning to do it, especially when it was raining or it was miserable weather outside. In order to “condition” my brain to do it consistently regardless of the weather (snowing, raining, windy, etc), I made sure that I recall on a previous run, how I good I felt during the run, how relaxed and good I felt when I really started to get into the run mid way, when my limbs were warm and limber, and of course, when I had the shower. Ahh. That felt really good. I alway loved that great warm feeling after I had my shower. So, I reflected on that to convince myself of the run and also recalled the bad feeling how stressed out, irritable, angry I would remain if I didn’t have my daily run with all those tense muscles not being loosened up. By doing this, I convinced myself to do the run, even when I originally didn’t “feel” like it. But, of course, during the run, I felt much better. With each run, I make a mental point to remember how good it felt once I got in the “groove” so that I can easily convince myself. Eventually, it become a regular regiment that worked very well.

Break things, ideas down into small parts. A little at a time

Now, before you start getting so overly excited by this “new” idea (or not) that I’ve discussed, thinking that you now have found the “key” to ending your procrastination, let’s not get disillusioned and think reality. The only way to make anything, especially any new ideas or methods or learning experience to stick is to do a little at a time.

Just like in learning a new language, new task, the key to getting your brain to work better is to break it down into something that is manageable. Focus on that little bit and try hard to learn it as best you can. Don’t put too much high hopes on learning it the first few tries or times. Like the well known saying “Practice makes perfect”. Keep practicing. Keep on at it and eventually, you’ll get it.

Our main goal is not to become frustrated and give up. We want to succeed. We want to feel that we are getting better, that we are going in the right direction. There is nothing worse than spending a lot of time trying to do something and failing every time. Eventually, unless we get any positive results, we will give up. We don’t want that to happen. We want to be able to work our way slowly towards our goal. That’s why a little at a time, and as simple as we can make it. The simpler, the better because it’s much easier to learn something simple than to learn something hard.

A good example of breaking something complicated and hard into something simple and manageable is learning a piano piece. You first break the song into what you need to learn with your right and left hand. Practice learning and playing the part of the song with your right hand until you have a good feel of the rhythm, notes, fingering, tone, etc. Then, practice learning the part with the left hand until you are comfortable with playing the left hand. Then, put them together. You build your knowledge and learning based on a solid foundation. If the song is hard to learn, break it down to their individual bars. Learn the notes, rhythm, etc in that particular bar until you get the hang of it. Then, learn the next bar, and so on. Build on what you have perfected or at least got a good feel of. Then, continue with the next stage. Everything builds upon what’s been learned previously so that you minimize being overwhelmed by everything: fingering, rhythm, tone, melodies and accompianment, etc. If you try to learn everything all at once, it will be extremely difficult, and you may easily give up. But if you learn a little bit at a time and building on what you know, it can be much easier and before long, you’ve gotten the whole thing down pat.

Concentrate on dealing with one thing at a time

So, with respect to applying the same ideas to procrastination, deal with them one at a time. If you find that you have a tendency to be really procrastinate about paying your bills on time, focus on preventing procrastination just on that. Don’t start dealing with everything else that you procrastinate on, or your attempts to “re-learn” this new idea, technique, method will backfire on you and you will get discouraged.

We want to slowly learn and work towards our goal of decreasing procrastination. It’s not possible to quit “cold turkey”, although if you have a strong will-power to do so, and a lot of hard work, it can be done. But most people will find that doing a little at a time is the key to achieving success.

Keep in control of your thoughts and stay focused

Of course, although you can program your brain to re-learn new habits to change your life dramatically, the oppposite can be true, as with everything in life. If you can program your brain to associate the good with something you wish to accomplish and the bad with the procrastination, you can also work back the other way, associating the bad with all the wrong reasons, confirming your feelings to avoid doing something and continuing to procrastinate. It all comes down to you. You have to outsmart your brain to associate the good with the positive points that can convince you to change, and the negative points with the bad things and consequences so that you will avoid it.

You have to find the positives of a situation, task, etc to associate with. In my quit smoking example, I made sure that I got a good snapshot of memory of the situation. I thought very hard of how my surroundings looked, keeping a good mental picture of what it looked like, where I was visually in respect to my environment. I remembered how I felt at the time, how disgusted I was at myself for buying another pack of cigarettes, and how I really didn’t like smoking, the smell of it, how my fingers were cold (since it was windy that day) and how I didn’t really enjoy the experience. The more you can associate with the situation, the better and stronger the feelings you will get and the more effective it can be when you need to use it to help you overcome the anxiety, habit.

These are the some of the ideas that can help you in your journey to control procrastination and take control over your life, rather than let life and circumstances take over you. The following quote is one of my favorites and I recall it from time to time to make sure that I’m not letting something control my life:

“Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened.”

Don’t let things happen because you fail to take control of your life and situation. Make things happen by controlling your situation rather than let the situation take over you.

In the next and final part of this series, I will go over the list of ten reasons that I’ve pointed out in Part 1 that causes and leads to procrastination and my ideas on how to tackle them.

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com or palmdiscovery.net, the website you are reading it from is guilty of copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

: archives, categories, procrastinate, howto, stopprocrastinating, tips, procrastinateless

Try or Buy Yukon-on-the-Palm

Buy Styra ballpoint pen, a multifunction stylus