Ep. 7 - Overcoming Procrastination With Necessity

It’s springtime, meaning the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom, reminding Dave of his time at uni - and of exams!

How well do you prepare for exams? Are you like Dave and leave it all to the last minute? Cramming the night before doesn’t always lead to the best results. When you’re tired and stressed you can’t give study - or anything else for that matter - your best.

Many of us procrastinate. But there is something we can do to when to redirect our focus. Get to know your “WHY?”. Make the connection between what you’re doing and where you want to get to. For example, Jared didn’t do great at Study of Religion when he was in high school. But when he got to uni that changed because he was focussed on becoming a great Religion teacher.

Sometimes it’s easy to get energised and focus in on what you’re doing. Sometimes it’s easy to connect with the why. But other times it can be hard, monotonous or even boring. What can help is connecting our “WHY?” to a “WHO?”. This creates a sense of necessity: I need to do this because of this greater goal. So, by doing this I get closer to becoming the person I want to be and/or because of the influence I get to create for others.

A quick hack is before you begin a task or job, spend a minute bringing to mind who you’re doing it for. This helps you connect to that deeper purpose or reason underlying the task and creates greater motivation and desire to work towards completing it.

Another way of looking at it is by doing the task or job, what will it bring you? For example: doing ten minutes extra study - what could that bring you? Well, it could bring you better results, which could bring you to a university course you want to get into, which could bring you to a job you love, which could bring you to a position where you can create a positive influence for many more people. It all connects in the end.

Another quick hack: every 45-50 minutes take a 2-5 walk or break and then come back to what you’re working on but do some deep breathing first to connect to that deeper meaning, the why, for who and what it could bring you.

Challenge for the week: when you sit down at your desk to study or work, or when you’re about to begin a task, spend one or two minutes to close your eyes, do some deep breathing and ask yourself who or what needs am I doing this for right now?

Extra challenge: set yourself a reminder on your phone at the start of each day that says “Who needs my A-game the most right now?"

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