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How to Stop Procrastinating

2020-07-28 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 7:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time (also: Mindset, motivation and happiness) · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Evidence-based framing, Sponsor segment present, His medical past

Ali explains procrastination as present bias and short-term mood repair and gives his formula against it: understand motivation (action comes first, motivation follows), understand momentum (the resistance is in starting), and three rules for getting started: the two-minute rule, the five-minute rule and the mind activation rule.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Procrastination is nothing new: the ancient Greek word akrasia

  • ★ Ali says the ancient Greek philosophers had a word for procrastination, akrasia: acting against our better judgement by doing one thing while knowing we should be doing something else. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali says procrastination is probably even more prevalent today, as we live in a world full of distractions and procrastination temptations. (hedged) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Why we procrastinate: present bias, short-term mood repair, the hospital versus home

  • ★★ Even as a self-professed productivity guru, Ali says, one of his biggest struggles in life is overcoming procrastination. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Ali calls procrastination the perfect example of present bias: we can set any goal for our future self, but it is the present self that has to act. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Choosing between exercise and episodes of Hunter X Hunter, Ali says, we put the exercise off to tomorrow: the present self always prefers instant gratification to a long-term goal such as becoming a Gymshark athlete. — 00:00:58 · Gymshark

  • ★★ Ali cites a 2013 study by the procrastination researcher Tim Pychyl that called procrastination the primacy of short-term mood repair over the long-term pursuit of intended actions. — 00:00:58

    “procrastination the primacy of short-term mood repair over the long-term pursuit of intended actions”

  • ★★ Ali says procrastination is more about the immediate urgency of managing negative moods and pushing the problem away than about getting on with the task in the present. — 00:01:27

  • ★★ At work in the hospital Ali cannot put off treating someone, and delaying a cannula because he does not feel like it never crosses his mind, "or so I tell people"; at home, free to manage his own time, he keeps putting things off. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ One of Ali's biggest fears is being shackled to a job he might not enjoy; at his age he has the chance to build towards a future with the freedom to do what he wants, and procrastination holds him back. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Part one, motivation: action comes first, motivation second; discipline and habits

  • ★★★ Ali says he used to think you need motivation to get something done, but it is the other way around: you get things done and motivation naturally follows. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Jeff Haden (quoted): In The Motivation Myth, Jeff Haden says motivation is not something you have but something you get: it is not the cause of action but its result. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Ali tries to scrub the word motivation from his vocabulary and thinks instead in terms of discipline or habits. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Ali says discipline is energy put into the system with willpower; done often enough, a thing becomes a habit needing no willpower, like brushing his teeth, while going to the gym, not yet a habit, still takes discipline. — 00:02:55

00:03:25 — Part two, momentum: resistance is in the act of starting, like a ball at the top of a hill

  • ★★★ The second part of Ali's formula against procrastination is momentum: most of the resistance we feel when doing a task is in the act of starting. — 00:03:25
  • ★★ Steven Pressfield (quoted): In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield describes resistance as a universal force with one sole mission, to keep things as they are, preventing action, creativity and progress. — 00:03:25
  • ★★ Ali says that once we cross the action line the pain of procrastination goes down: starting the work is the problem, not doing it, like a ball at the top of a hill that rolls on by momentum once pushed. — 00:03:55

00:04:24 — Three rules for getting started: the two-minute rule, the five-minute rule, the mind activation rule

  • ★★★ Ali's first rule for getting started is David Allen's two-minute rule from Getting Things Done: a pending task that takes less than two minutes is done right away, and Ali tries his best to just do it. — 00:04:24
  • ★ Ali forces himself to do two-minute tasks such as refilling his water bottle or washing a mug, and writes down a task that takes longer. — 00:04:53
  • ★★★ Ali's second rule is the five-minute rule for longer tasks: when he finds himself procrastinating from something he has to do, he tells himself he is going to do it for just five minutes. — 00:04:53
  • ★★ Ali says the length in the five-minute rule does not matter (some call it a 30-, 20- or 10-minute rule): the point is to trick the brain into doing the work for a small amount of time. — 00:05:22
  • ★★ Procrastinating from filming this video, Ali told himself to shoot only the five-minute introduction and then stop if he wanted; three hours later he was still filming, because the problem is in getting started. (playful) — 00:05:22
  • ★★★ Ali's third rule is the mind activation rule: in a slump, usually just after lunch or in the evening after work, when he recognises the haze of not being bothered, he does something to stimulate his mind. — 00:05:51
  • ★★ To lift a slump Ali makes himself a cup of caffeinated coffee only before 2 p.m.; after 2 p.m. he uses a non-pharmacological way to stimulate his mind. — 00:05:51

00:06:21 — Sponsor read for Brilliant

00:07:08 — Recap of the formula and a pointer to his Book Club video on The Motivation Myth

  • ★★★ Ali's simple formula for overcoming procrastination: understand motivation, understand momentum, then three rules for getting out of the slump, the two-minute rule, the five-minute rule and the mind activation rule. — 00:07:08

In the description and comments

  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether Ali has read Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You, the channel answers that it is good. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: five-minute rule · mind activation rule · present bias · two-minute rule

Also: People: David Allen · Jeff Haden · Matt D'Avella · Steven Pressfield · Thomas Frank · Tim Pychyl

Projects: Book Club

Works: Getting Things Done · Hunter X Hunter · The Motivation Myth · The War of Art

Organizations: Brilliant · Gymshark

Concepts: akrasia · caffeine · discipline · resistance

Only in the description or credits: Cal Newport · So Good They Can't Ignore You

Also centred on two-minute rule: How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber - 9 Time Management Tips

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