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How to actually beat procrastination

2023-12-09 · Short · Ali · recording, 0:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book, Evidence-based framing

In an extract from his book Feel-Good Productivity, Ali reports procrastination researcher Tim Pychyl's one piece of advice: whenever he procrastinates, ask "what's the next action step?", such as rolling out the yoga mat.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Tim Pychyl's next action step

  • ★ Ali says procrastination researcher Tim Pychyl has published over 25 papers on procrastination in two decades and runs a procrastination research group at Carleton University in Canada. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Tim Pychyl (quoted): Tim Pychyl told Ali he almost never procrastinates and is a poster child for the idea that once you learn about procrastination, you can reduce it if you want to. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Tim Pychyl (quoted): Tim Pychyl's advice against procrastination: whenever he finds himself procrastinating, he asks what the next action step is; when putting off yoga, it is rolling out his yoga mat and standing on it. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali says Tim Pychyl's next-action-step method sounds suspiciously simple but works: it turns an abstract bias to action into a concrete next step. — 00:00:29

Threads in this video

  • restate · How do you beat procrastination? — Tim Pychyl's advice against procrastination: whenever he finds himself procrastinating, he asks what the next action step is; when putting off yoga, it is rolling out his yoga mat and standing on it. (00:00:29)
  • refine · How do you beat procrastination? — Ali says Tim Pychyl's next-action-step method sounds suspiciously simple but works: it turns an abstract bias to action into a concrete next step. (00:00:29)

Mentioned

Central: Tim Pychyl

Also: Carleton University

Only in the description or credits: Feel-Good Productivity (book)

Also centred on Tim Pychyl: How to Stop Procrastinating (Forever)

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