How to Overcome Procrastination Using A Weird Asian Nerd’s New Science-Backed Strategies
How do you overcome procrastination? We all have it. We all want to fix it. We all hate it. Yet we still find ourselves putting off what we know we should be doing to do something more fun (but less productive).
I’ve poured over advice from the world’s most successful people on this topic, like Brian Tracy. And want to provide you with some tips.
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You Don’t Have To Be Perfect
We all procrastinate, even multi-millionaires and billionaires have admitted to procrastinating. Matt Lloyd of MOBE, a mult-millionaire, admitted he still catches himself on Facebook from time to time. Warren Buffett admitted in the 2016 Annual Shareholders Meeting that he put off firing someone with Alzheimers for too long because he liked him.
But what they do differently is they set up systems so it happens less, especially for important things. Working smarter often beats working harder.
While we all know the importance of working hard by now, working yourself to death alone isn’t the most efficient or effective process.
How to stay consistent for a long time on something?
I’m going to take a different spin and opinion on this.
You have to love what you do.
I’ve spent many, many, years trying to beat my head against the wall with willpower to stay concentrated.
But these were things I wasn’t truly passionate about. Even though I tried to convince myself I was.
Honestly, the passion was partially there. It wasn’t completely fake.
I was one of the most energetic in class. I participated most in discussions and questions.
I was often fascinated by the topic.
But there hit a point where I wasn’t anymore as the curriculum got more complex.
I tried to keep at it for a long time. It had worked in the past. For a good deal of high school, I had succeeded by implementing study strategies that allowed me to keep learning and preparing to do well in school.
But college changed things around.
Procrastination Isn’t The Problem. Your Choice of What To Do Is.
I was pre-med. I wanted to go to medical school. Being asian, this doesn’t seem like a surprise. This is a very common thread for most Asian American families.
Having said that though, in college, I felt like this was right for me. Although I was encouraged by my parents, I thought it would be a good pathway forward. Honestly, it definitely just felt like a more serious, challenging, and interesting major than mathematics, computer science, or English, all of which I had dabbled in quite extensively in high school.
But the truth was that it was just not right.
As the years went on, I got assigned more and more stuff. Eventually, I had dozens of pages of reading on dense topics such as mammalian physiology, lymph systems, human blood circulation, advanced genetics, and biochemistry.
Although I tried extremely hard, studied super hard, got mad at myself numerous times when I lost focus every 3 pages,