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You know your procrastination is bad when you click on this video and immediately click "Save" > "Watch Later". I will get to this eventually. XD

1. Keep your shoes on to prevent laying on couch 2. Use a transition ritual like boiling the kettle for tea or coffee 3. Use either background noise or a playlist (instrumental) to get you started 4. Go to library or equivalent to study

I am a mother of 3 and a small business owner.. I am a procrastinator and more embarrassingly a quitter. What causes my procrastination is stress caused from overthinking. The quitting is caused by fear from the negative thoughts. What has been helping me overcome this lately is to clear my mind of thoughts and saying to myself, “don’t think, just do”. Then instead of overthinking and procrastinating, I just do what I need to do.

I watch this video and feel a little less "lazy" while I really should be studying 😂

Justin, you’ve given a 53 year old professional procrastinator hope! Thank you.

I want to add to this: firgure out WHERE it's coming from as well as how your procrastination manifests. It changed my life when i discovered that i procrastinate not because my phone is nearby, its actually because of how i feel about the work i need to do. Usually, procrastination happens when I percieve the task to be kverwhelming. When i feel that way, ill do literally anything other than the thing. Even if i were to eliminate every other task available to me other than the one i have to do, i will not do the required task. I will curl up into a ball and pretend to be a rock before i apporach the task. UNLESS i make myself feel differently about the task. I can do this by checking whether or not my sense of overwhelm is realistic (e.g. is this task REALLY as scary as i think? Is the importance of this task THAT major?) and if it is, i do things to make it less overwhelming. I'll commit myself to an extrenely easy version of the task or think about it in small pieces. And sometimes, this means making the pieces REALLY small (especially for chronic procrastinaters). One of the best tips i ever got was to make the task so small and easy that it would feel utterly silly not to do it. For example, if you know you need to finish 100 pages of a textbook by X date and are procrastinating getting started, start out by commiting to only reading 1 sentence a day. Not only will you complete the task, youll probably go far beyond it. Youll read the enitre page, because hey, youre already sitting there and theres actually not that much stuff on the page, and the content is actually kind of interesting, and so on and so forth. The most inportant thing is starting, because thats what gets you momentum. If you can make it easy to start, youll probably reduce your odds of procrastinating and increase your odds of completing the task, as well as build your confidence. And then if you add on everything else in this video, youre golden.

Whenever I feel unmotivated to do something, I simply just do everything to prepare the task and take a break. I eventually get to doing the task later, and sometimes actually getting motivated to not take a break at all.

The one thing you've not really addressed is mental health conditions like ADHD and anxiety. This is why if someone is a constant procrastinator and nothing seems to improve no matter how hard you try, or if improvements just don't seem to stick, and this is causes years and years of suffering, then I'd definitely recommend just seeing a psychiatrist to look at things. ADHD was my big one, but anxiety added another level of procrastination that I didn't realize I had. The medications help a lot. Merely thinking about even trying to implement these things without my medication sounds like hell on earth. But, I used to chase all these little methods and routines, and they consistently... didn't work, or barely had an impact. Another BIG trick I have is to actually break things apart into tiny steps. Like, want to get out of bed? Start wiggling your toes. Want to stop scrolling and start studying? Don't aim at studying to get off of scrolling. Instead, close the app first, but don't think "I have to start studying," because the first action is actually to close the app.

Loved this. Something I want to start doing this week is keep a notepad where I jot down any restless “to google” items that pop into my head. It’s become hilarious to observe my brain come up with any reason to stop what I’m doing and look up the most random question I conjure up. I’m hoping I can practise delaying my gratification through this method.

I plan in my mind to study so well. I feel so motivated that I tell myself, 'Oh yes, I can do this and achieve my goal.' However, I end up scrolling on Instagram because the plan I made in my mind is doable and something I know I can achieve. Instead of getting to it, I delay, thinking that I'll eventually finish it since I so clearly envisioned it in my mind. As a result, the day passes, the deadline comes closer, and my new reason for not studying is feeling overwhelmed and thinking, 'I won't be able to finish,' so I end up not starting in the first place. *crying internally* this became a habit

15 minute video that teaches what took me years to understand about procrastination and ways to mitigate it. Tied in nudging, behavioral economics, environment reestructuring (a behavioral change technique), and some neurophysiology in a digestible and actionable way. Well done! I want to add that I’ve also mosty relied on changing my external environment to achieve results, but I do believe creating internal control is also important afterwards. The way I see it is that most of us are like level 5 characters in a lvl 15 world where we are constantly trying to battle mobs that are too difficult. By this I mean social media, video games, TV, etc. These are built by hundreds and thousands of brilliant engineers with the purpose of getting your attention. Is it a fair fight? By decreasing the “difficulty” of the environment you can start battling “mobs” of a similar level, win and increase your XP. Regardless there will be times you face a boss and having developed strong skills and internal attributes you can still likely come out on top. Also have a stronger internal system means that even if conditions aren’t perfect you can also still come out on top. Work on the environment -> Become proficient in stable, optimal settings -> Train the internal system -> Win in any setting. Hope that made sense?

I'm at the point where procrastination is my usual cycle. I've also spent the last 2 years in burnout. Thank you so much for this video, I really needed it! Bookmarking it to play it again later.

I think social media like television has jacked our attention spans and brains. When I cut these things out, I was so much more productive!

01:47 Procrastination is a category of behaviors that lead to undesirable outcomes. 03:34 Identifying and specifying the behavior is crucial to fixing procrastination. 05:21 Changing the environment is key to addressing procrastination behavior. 07:08 Identifying triggers and implementing specific solutions can help overcome procrastination. 08:55 Identify the behavior and manipulate environment to change it 10:42 Procrastination might have become a habit 12:29 Mindfulness meditation helps train the brain to focus on the present moment and let go of distracting thoughts. 14:15 To address trauma, seek guidance from a therapist or psychologist during meditation.

Justin's videos are amazing. They are so captivating and informative that I would gladly spend an entire day watching them. I am learning things that I have never encountered before, and I sincerely appreciate the effort and dedication that Justin puts into creating such valuable content. Thank you, Justin, for your outstanding work.

I’ve had this in my “Watch later” list for a month a now

I'm old enough to be your grandmother but you are like my parent, teaching me life basics- thank you!

when he say "or are you?" my brain just automatically play the vsauce theme

* Identify the specific behavior of procrastination * Focus on the drivers of procrastination * Map out the chronology of events and triggers * Make specific changes to the environment and structures

One of my options of dealing with procrastination is having more clarity in what I'm trying to accomplish. It helps get rid of my FOMO because I get to pick out the essential things I need to do. Still, this stems from my assessment of emotions and mental state.

I've saved this video to watch later.

My worst source of procrastination isn't external distractions but internal ones. Ever since I remember, long before KZfaq existed and even before I had access to the Internet, I always constructed stories in my head. The greatest pasttime for me is just doing nothing and thinking. At some point I wanted to become a writer but then I become a programmer and a AI-specialist. So novadays I do less worldbuilding for my nonexistent stories in my head and more designing new solutions, thinking of new experiments, etc. I like to do that but oftentimes it's a distraction that just doesn't let me do things that I should be doing. I don't think you touched on anything like this in your video. Maybe it's just a me problem and I'm broken :P

Watching a video on how to end procrastination while also procrastinating by watching the vide on how to end procrastination. Dude I think I'm meta!

You seemed very happy in this video Justin, laughing and joking a lot. While you never were "too" serious in past videos, you gave me a really good vibe in this one, i enjoyed the video a lot more. Nice advice as ever, thanks Dr. Justin

Meditation worked great for me because it helps with being aware what's going on inside of me. Procrastination really is not the problem, it is a solution to other problems like overwhelm, fear, uncomfortable feelings, you name it. Very specific, like Justin said. If you are able to become aware of the problems you solve by procrastinating, you become able to find better solutions.

About a year ago, I stopped sitting on the coach when I was in the verge of procrastinating, or not sure what to do or what to start doing. It's a soul sinking anchor that glues me on there and I lose so much time doing nothing productive. Now I only sit when I intent to watch something or play something, usually on the laze part of my weekend or after a really long day after I've finished everything. As soon as I start feeling bored or start wanting to do something else I jump off it ASAP. Also had to fix my sleeping habit, similarly, I was procrastinating to sleep. I would just doom scroll or keep watching content/media, fighting off sleep., and I would go to sleep very late into the AM. Now as soon as I start feeling sleepy I immediately turn everything off, and jump to bed.

3rd point is very important, when I start doing something apart from work, I gain so much momentum that switching to other important task is important. It's like climbing down a tall tree and climbing up another tree(work) which looks very tall from the ground, which seems an arduous task. Self realisation is crucial here, as the second tree will bear fruit rather than the first one.

Basically a short summary of Atomic Habits in bite sized form. Thanks.

how ironic that I added this to my watch later playlist

I need this. I'll watch this video later.

This guy content are very useful. He has help me a lot, because procastination cause me many problems. Sorry for my English, I am learning.

The book 'Atomic Habits' is similar to the ideas of this video Thank you teacher Justin for this informative video❤

Adding my painting space to my work desk and getting a comfortable office chair enabled me to finish painting projects sooner.

I am so addicted to distracting myself/procrastinating, that I even scrolled down to the comments to entertain myself while you were talking.

I love the format your channel has taken! Precisely your unexpected and absurds « Like this video » really are hilarious. Thanks a lot for the information!

This made a lot more sense to me than anything I’ve heard from other content creators. Especially the way you explained how to go about starting meditation and the ways it can benefit attention span / focus. Thank you so much! 🤗 Going forward with all three steps starting now! 👍👍

I got my desk and my bed in the same room, and the only thing that seems to work is to flip the bed upside down before i start studying so i wont fall back to the bed after 5 minutes

This is hands down the best video on procrastination and I've seen them all. Even if the ideas aren't completely new, the way it's implemented is very fresh, straight to the core of the matter in a very practical and digestable way. Matter fact, I've observed my "triggers" but you made me realize I didn't break it down enough. I'm glad I didn't skip on this one and there's new hope. Thank you!

Like freelance artist my method to avoid procrastination is to make what I have to do more exciting and fun, get in the mood. Do the boring things straight away to move on to the more fun things about my work and give myself rewards when I reach my goals. Don't fill my days with too many things to do and take a day off to relax😁 Sorry for my bad Eng.

I've watched this video, right after "What I Learned after 5000 Hours of Studying" and bro... That's life changing knowledge! Thank you for both videos!

When I procrastinate I am super productive at doing what I do!! You know… that pile of clothes to fold, organize the pantry, clean the washer… you know the stuff you don’t want to do on regular basis.

This is exactly what i need! I’ll start implementing sometime in the near future!

In my old apartment, I only had two rooms. One of them was for sleeping/resting, and the other one for studying. Unfortunately the "study room" didn't deserve its name, because it also contained my computer setup and I basically made all homework in front or even at the computer. There was simply not enough space or a third room to create a perfect atmosphere with a separate desk. A medicore solution was to switch to the couch in the sleeping room. Sometimes I fell asleep, but managed to read a couple of pages of the material before that rather than getting distracted by the digital world.

Your videos have been helping and I just want to say thank you

Understanding what is happening is half the battle. 감사합니다 의사님.

for me going to the library directly after school kept me in that focused mindset, as soon as I go home I can’t put my head down to study

OMG DUDE MEDITATION IS THE WAYYYY. I like studying but I keep getting distracted from thoughts and then my work seems boring, but tyyy. I have trained will power and literally cleaned out my room without my phone or anything else around and I still procrastinated cuz I couldn’t focus.

You could apply this framework to any sort of negative habit, not only habits that fall under procrastination.

For more on these topics, I recommend BJ Fogg's book Tiny Habits (it describes the triggers and role of "ease" in unwanted behaviors) and Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism for how to untangle yourself from addictive tech.

Another well trusted voice objectively solidifying just how prevalent mindfulness/metation is at fixing these problems. I've done it for 1-2 days, feel/do great for a short burst and fall off. Maybe it's time to really dive into it.

I knew of the "eliminate the cause to cure the effect" but the things in this video where all new. I really liked the card from step 2. Thank!!

This video was definitely needed! Thankyou Justin😁

Something that has helped me be a bit more productive or to remind me of the things I need to do is: Download an app that helps you keep memos that way if I open my phone I can see it and I am reminded of it. The other thing is I keep a little white board where I try to write everything I need to do for the day or week. I keep it anywhere I can see it, like near my desk. That way I am reminded of my tasks once again and feel a bit more pressure to do them. This coupled with before I go to sleep I think of all that I did and congratulate me and even if I didn't manage to do every task, I end up feeling better because I tried my best. Then I take a few moments to think of what I need to do tomorrow or today every time I go to sleep and wake up. One thing that really does help is to surround yourself with other people who study, be it a library, or a moment where your friends are also studying. Can help to put you into the mood of the task.

I gave in to the urge to like this video... And I regret nothing!

"your chimney smokes" is a highly underrated joke

Watching this video instead of doing what you should be doing right now is also procrastination.

I have been a chronic procrastinator. I put of things to the last moment for two reasons • I feel overwhelmed by the toughness • I feel that the concept is easy/ nothing interesting in it, so i tend not to actively engage in learning it. Eventually i feel so bored, i end up watching KZfaq shorts Then there is a cycle of escapism i struggle with • I try to escape into youtube shorts just too detach from the stress of real world/ depressive and negative thoughts, and regrets about how i wasted my time and ruined by marks. • These overwhelming and -ve thoughts also arise due to finding the concept too hard and not being able to understand it properly. It is obviously easier for my brain to shift my focus to low effort high dopamine output activities like scrolling on youtube shorts. So i decided to cut off all entertainment from my life/ a complete dopamine detox to be precise along with nofap. Contrary to my beleifs i relapsed within 7 days and again started my old habits. Here starting it again. I will test out the 3rd method as mentioned in the video, along with some new techniques and will tell you guys about how it went after a while. If you have any advice or have earlier experienced such things mentioned above, please consider sharing ❤

I tried listening to this 5 times the other day and it just wasn’t happening but now I’m hearing it and it just makes sense. Must have been distracted

“Your chimney smokes” 😂😂😂😂❤

I know it's not the best start but really I NEED to procrastinate this video

I am literally taking notes on this and putting it into a set of notes app folders. I already journal and go to therapy, but I have a feeling this is going to help me a lot, so thank you!

That's so cool to heart about this topic for me, it seems like you came at the right time. Thank you so much. this is my 1st comment on youtube. :)

Regarding exercise I learned this years ago: go to the gym. When you have done that you are finished and don't have to do anything else, but oftentime it was bothersome to get there so why not work out a little when you are already there. But I also don't HAVE to. One time I was just at the gym for like 15 minutes before I realized I didn't want to work out that day so I went home, and didn't beat myself up for it. It was ok, it was something just not nothing. And most of the time I am there for at least an hour anyway.

One of the most effective thing for me was hiding feed and recommendations on youtube and stuff. And being selective about who I follow and what I watch.

I procrastinate studies by doing work....... My trigger is perfectionism. Studies are graded, but trial and error is expected in my work. I also hate my studies, but am pretty passionate-ish about my work. I'm gonna come clean to my thesis professor NOW. I will say, environment does help. My work plus a new laptop actually has helped to reduce procrastination. I think the fact that I was progressing elsewhere kinda alleviated the 'depressed' feelings.

One idea for people who work from home is to build in a "commute." Have breakfast, and then have the next step be to go for a walk. Make a personal rule that you have to go for another walk to get "back from work." This lets you build up a habit of "morning walk = thinking/working time is now" and "evening walk = relaxing time is now." Also it works two walks into your day, which is nice light exercise.

Yes, i like that the idea of you putting hightlighted most important content in order thru the podcast feed. If was working for the top notch alpha for a boss I'd clean off a few sections in the house to work and focus. And do mindful meditation. I was just thinking before playing your video...i wrote down the behaviors i need to change work diligently on...I going to display them so its the first thing i see when my eyes open from slumber. Thanks sir dude for your wonderful aurora.

all these work and I’ve seen it with myself *trigger warning* I used to get sucicidal ideation because of not feeling worthy enough since I became a chronic procrastinator and it started negatively affecting my life prospects. But this sort of thinking about getting ahead of it through limiting distraction and above all being aware of my triggers (e.g. passing by my Xbox, game icons on my laptop, watching shorts while eating breakfast, pacing when thinking) all contributed to my deteriorating mental health however after incorporating meditation, slowing down, changing my environment, trial and erroring things to work on I’m seeing progress, though I still struggle with it now I feel I’m in a much better place and I’m glad he’s talking about it in this manner !

From personal experience, and a person that procrastinated all the way through high school, I can agree with all that has been said here. And I'd like to emphasize on the fact that, to stop procrastinating, you should simply do that task for at least 5mn. Even if you'll stop after that, you'll will be more interested to come back to that piece of work that you started previously. But honestly I would suggest to first, find out the real reason why this work should be done. Make from it something that is bigger than you, and then you'll have the option to fulfill that gap through your work, or not do it and willingly admit that you're too weak for it. If you choose to keep procrastinating knowing that keep in mind that you're doing a disgrace to your family, friends and other people. That small amount of work that you would force to pursue, would add a probability to reach or gain something that you otherwise would't get, and potentially with it, you could other people. In some sort procrastination is an evil act against humanity, a selfish behaviour seeking pleasure over utility in life.

I found that certainty gives me the motivation to continue studying something.

This man will save this generation

Thing is: I don't want to stop procrastination. I want to do nothing.

This is the first video I’ve watched and then I went skimming your channel. You really have a wonderful channel with lots of useful content we can all benefit from. I think it might be a good idea to binge a bit, take notes and start applying the knowledge.

My dad was is a heaving smoker, did it give me the urge to smoke as well? Nope! It gave me Anosmia and Dyspnea. Thanks dad!

I never cared about dieting. A friend told me to try the carnivore diet to bring down my AIC. Reluctantly I gave it a try. Three weeks into I woke up one day with no more anxiety, insomnia or procrastination. I guess all these years it was what I ate. I'm still flabbergasted and shocked.

So this is the thing that has worked for me most of the time. It is to put my phone om time-lapse and record my screen/notetaking. I have a hard time concrentrating while using the computer bc of youtube mostly, and i really need to use the computer. But I have found that recording myself helps with the two biggest issues:using my phone + not getting distracted with things on my computer. Its like I want to study more bc i feel watched. And as most people i find the first 30 min of studying the hardest, so this gets me through the first minutes untill I am in the flow, then I really dont mind it anymore. I seriously considered making a studygram to like share this and keep myself accountable (I am an engineer student so I have tons of material and hours of study 😂), but i wonder if it is actually a good idea.

This looks very interesting, I'll watch it tomorrow

Thank's, you gain new subscriber from Indonesia🇮🇩

Thank you

I had similar ideas mentioned in this video, and now they are finally confirmed. Thank you very much! You are an epic!

Nice, this looks good. I’ll add it to watch later when I feel like watching it.

I'd love to share my current environment changes. Because I live in my own place, I have the privelege of being able to slav engineer the bajesus out of my room. I made my own desk, my own pullup bar and a shelf to store only drawing paper on. The desk has a work PC and a gaming PC mobo built into it and each has its own two monitors (cheapest second-hand, mounted on hand-made wooden monitor stands). The paper is cheap A3 sheets so that it's easier for me to start doodling/drawing as I don't have to worry about ruining a fancy, expensive sketchbook and the bar has a fitness band on it so I can do a pull-up here and there without warmup if I feel the urge to do so. And me having built and constructed these things myself, it feels like a waste not to use them because I put in a lot of effort to make everything as sturdy as a brick outhouse and then I painted it all black so it's easy to look at. I cannot recommend enough building or modding your own equipment, it gives working with it a special deep-seated kind of joy that you would not get otherwise. And *that* feeling helps slow down the brainwaves by default because it rewards me for the slow work I did every time I use it.

Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” routine may be another daily technique for slowing down your brain to gain focus.

Thank you for caring!

Nice and cool! I'll finish to watch this video later.

Arnold said it best in his book, Be Useful. 1. Have a vison. 2. Become obsessed with your vision. 3. Your daily actions fall in one of the two categories, A. Brings you closer to your vison. B. Pushes you further away. The choice is yours.

Very useful suggestions for students of any age. Very helpful videos for all learners, thank you very much. 👏🙏

Thanks Justin, I'm learning a lot with this video.

😂. "My intention was ... Sorry, Someone's intention was"

Sometimes you need a more drastic approach, especially if procrastination is caused by feelings such as fear, low self esteem, depression

Hey I recently got into your channel and I've been taking notes on it (trying to incorporate higher order learning techniques,) and I noticed with this video that the approach to eliminating procrastination you talk about seems very applicable to general behavior changes and habit forming and breaking

What I get from this video: -Sometimes your environment is the problem. Change it in a way that it makes procrastinating as difficult as possible, and doing the desired task as easy as possible. -If you are the problem, cut social media for some time and try mindfulness to rearrange your brain -Analyze: intentions, events (before, transition, results), feelings, triggers

Thank you Justin for this video😊.And please can you make a video on if a student haven't study for a long time then how to start in a correct way.😢And make it sucessful.

I actually got a phone lockup. Set the timer for an hour and you force yourself into what you want to do, or at least boredom (which is better than distraction).

ill try these later

One of the things that helped with studying is to start with 15 minutes of work and 2 min of rest and my time blocks doesn't go further than 20 minutes.

Absolutamente me encantó! Llevo mucho tiempo tratando de salir de este circulo vicioso y todos los videos en youtube me enseñaban a que en efecto estaba bajo procrastinación pero ninguno me ayudaba de forma tan real a solucionarlo. Muchas gracias🎉

Thank you, this is so clear and helpful. I've been implementing mindfulness more recently which has been great, but I've not applied it to a "procrastination at work" context. My current procrastination task feels too long, boring, inaccessible with formatting, and overwhelming in terms of pulling together information I don't care about from many different sources - whilst getting pulled in a number of other directions from colleagues demanding my attention/priority action. I need to break my task down into manageable chunks and protect blocks of time to chip away at it. As well as try and shift my mindset around how I feel about the task itself.

OH yeah thanks for the tip. my brain needs to slow down. thanks for the tip. that's why I felt good today because yesterday I was too busy working