What is procrastination
How to get ready for work if you don’t want to
In the USSR, this condition was simply classified as laziness! Now, instead of: “I’m screwed!”, they answer: “I’m procrastinating.”
Procrastination is the deliberate putting off of things until later. Everything is transferred: from little things (writing a note, doing the cleaning) to serious matters (visiting a doctor, submitting documents).
Chronic procrastinators do everything at the last minute: coursework overnight, urgent order - 24 hours in advance.
“Procrastinators” find a million reasons to justify doing nothing. They'll give the cat a bath, clean out the closet, clean the grout on the tiles, and sort through the photos on the computer. Anything to avoid writing a program or dissertation.
When there is a critical minimum left before the deadline, they pull themselves together and do everything quickly. Often they even do well. Then they honestly promise: “I will always do everything on time!” A new task arrives and everything starts all over again.
How to make yourself work
Complain to someone about your lack of motivation, yeah. “Do you want money? Work!" - the answer that ranks at the top of the hit parade.
When your job is to lend books to the library, sell potatoes, or unload trucks, this is enough motivation. Do you want money? You come and work, what are the problems? If you try to be polite, your boss will quickly hold an educational conversation and give you a motivating (not always censored) parting message.
It’s different for those who live in stylish offices. I came, took a seat, opened work programs, turned on the timer... And then - stupor.
You re-read the technical specifications, look at examples, try to squeeze something out of yourself, but the result is outright heresy. At a Scrum meeting (previously called a planning meeting), everyone talks about success and looks productive.
In theory, envy or a desire to compete should arise, but all these “achievers” are simply infuriating. You return to the office and make coffee again, trying to get at least a drop of enthusiasm...
Let's discuss how to get ready for work if you don't feel like it:
To make a plan.
List everything: urgent tasks for the day; things that need time, but not necessarily today. On a separate page, outline your long-term career goals: get promoted in a year, go on a business trip next month. Keeping all this in your head is unproductive: a lot of “RAM” is wasted. It’s better to entrust your plans to a notepad or Word document.
Break down global tasks into small ones.
“Get a salary increase” is a good goal, but abstract. The brain does not understand how to act. What amount of income are you aiming for? What steps should be taken to increase your salary? Talk to your boss, take on more work, take a course, take on a part-time job? We enter all the items in the diary. It is convenient to work with plans through applications for building a tree of goals. Are you a visual person? Give it a try.
Promise yourself a reward.
Promise yourself gifts for difficult or unloved tasks. Be sure to keep your promises! Have you balanced? Take yourself to a restaurant. Did you complete the site on time? You can treat yourself to devices for your car or bicycle. Nothing gets you in the mood for work when you don’t want to do it. This is how you can get in the mood for work if you don’t want to do it at all.
Alternate things correctly.
For some, the “frog” method is suitable: first do the unpleasant, then do the rest with a calm soul. Others find it more convenient to alternate between their favorite and their least favorite. Some people prefer to tackle the most energy-intensive issues in the morning and leave household chores in the evening. And some people need time to build up, but what a result by 18.00! Listen to yourself, adapt different strategies to suit your work.
Make yourself beautiful.
It doesn’t matter: you are a freelance designer (workplace is a sofa) or a mechanic (instead of an office - a new sink every time). Arrange everything so that the magnet is drawn to work. It seems that a comfortable overall with pockets and a suitcase with tools for a locksmith are nonsense.
But believe me, working in decent equipment is much more pleasant. Think about your workplace (moodboards, stickers, lighting, photos, pens, notepads), tools (the tools themselves, an organizer for storing them), and work clothes.
Don't miss the weekend.
Once a year, you can disdain a weekend, for example, for the sake of a bonus. But seriously, you definitely need to rest. Of course, some days will be spent on cleaning, shopping trips and other “entertainment”.
However, do not forget to arrange a total reboot: travel to other cities, go hiking, sit with friends until dawn, attend movie nights. It’s not clear how aimlessly wandering around the city at night will help you write a new track or lyrics?
The brain will switch from obsessive: “Generate ideas, quickly generate ideas, we need to come up with a hit urgently!” to observer mode. This will allow the convolutions to rest. And a rested brain works better. Also, “changing the picture” helps you find inspiration in unexpected things. The brain needs new visual information to be creative.
Always learn.
Of course, you also need to improve your qualifications, but that’s not the point. Learn something really new! Are you a hairdresser? Start learning Spanish or joining a book club. You are a doctor? Take a break from conferences and English, find a couple of hours a week for ballroom dancing or wushu.
Force your brain to create new neural connections all the time! Try new things, solve unusual (for yourself) problems. Gone are the days when turning 30 was too late. Now it doesn’t matter how old a person is: he will be joyfully greeted both in the ballet hall and in the chat of an online course on philosophy.
Alternate formats.
Have you worked your brains out? Now let's use our hands. Then we change again. From 9.00 to 19.00 are you busy with intellectual work? In your free time, leave the questions of existence alone and keep your hands busy: sawing, mending, embroidering, digging a garden, playing the piano or ukulele.
Do you spend most of your day at a factory machine or at a construction site? Do you get people out of the fire or entertain children in a shopping center? In your spare time, read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos: give your body a rest and challenge yourself to unconventional tasks.
How to force yourself and your child to study if you really don’t want to
One of the hardest things about studying is doing your homework regularly.
Photo: Yulia PYKHALOVA
In the modern world, people continue to learn not only in childhood and adolescence, but throughout their lives. In order to improve our professionalism or reorient our careers to more relevant areas, to create our own business, we have to learn something new and improve our skills.
However, not everyone can complete the training courses. It’s especially difficult for adults - there are always some “more urgent” or “more important” things to do that can be distracted. So the notebooks with textbooks are pushed into the far corner. And then you have to go to class unprepared or cancel the lesson altogether (and that’s money!). How to stop putting off homework for later, find the strength to study, we talked with a practicing psychologist, a specialist in the field of behavioral psychotherapy, a consultant for courses on learning English “Flow” from Yandex.Practicum Alina Redko .
One of the hardest things about studying is doing your homework regularly. It’s tempting to put off your homework until the very last moment, and then you have neither the energy nor the time to do everything efficiently. What to do?
In this case, it is really difficult to track your own progress in studies, which leads to loss of strength and disappointment, the expert says. My self-esteem suffers, because I planned this training course, took it on, but I can’t do it. In mastering any new activity, be it learning a foreign language or working on new professional skills, it is important to have an end goal, to have meaning. We need to keep the focus on the question: what practical application in my life will I find the acquired skills?
— Meaning is not some final goal in the form of a certificate or diploma, it’s about what I constantly use in my life, about what really matters to me. If we keep this meaning in the field of our attention, then it is not difficult for us to do homework regularly, says psychologist Alina Redko.
That is, the point is not “Complete the course with honors,” but “become a certified gardener and receive N rubles for going to work, doing what you love.”
WHAT IF YOU DON'T DO IT AT ALL?
If the meaning of learning is clear and understandable for me and I keep it in the focus of my attention, but I still feel like putting off my homework until the last minute, it’s worth thinking about, if I don’t do what I planned, what consequences will this have for me?
There are short-term consequences: I will get out of this training course; I will lose so many thousand rubles spent on studying.
And there are long-term ones: I won’t get the new desired profession (skill) and in a couple of years I’ll be left without a job, since a crisis awaits my current profession.
“Often we begin to actively do something, afraid of some undesirable consequences for us: a decrease in social status and wages, for example,” explains psychologist Alina Redko.
This is a really working tool, and this can be seen especially clearly in the example of health: many people give up bad habits only when faced with the threat of a sharp deterioration in their health. For years before this, I had missed lectures about the dangers of smoking and excess weight, for example.
In learning, both types of motivation - the fear of missing out on something important and the focus on achieving a desired goal - work perfectly in combination.
DON'T BE AN ANGRY TEACHER
Another reason why we put off homework every time until later is the natural desire to avoid discomfort.
Many people have had experiences in their lives when learning was associated with violence or failure. For example, at school, when something didn’t work out, the stupid teacher called him names, ridiculed him, could hit him - and it was better not to come to class at all or not to talk about his difficulties in learning with his parents. This involuntarily lives inside us, even when we have grown up and forgotten to think about the hated MaryVanna. But in a learning situation, the expectations that “I won’t succeed”, “I’ll feel it all again” begin to be reproduced within us.
“I was lucky,” says Alina Redko. “I was surrounded by people, teachers who taught me how to learn, they showed me that failure is not the end of the world, it’s part of learning.” People who were important to me were there for me in difficult moments of learning and did not humiliate me when I didn’t succeed. Most likely, if such associations are associated with the learning process in a person, then in the future, if new knowledge and skills are mastered in adulthood, then the person will not have problems with this.
But if your childhood learning experiences were challenging, it may help to realize that learning is actually a process of making mistakes. People learn by making mistakes, analyzing them, and filling gaps in their skills. It's okay to make mistakes!
Don't blame yourself for mistakes or misunderstandings. On the contrary, become the opposite of MaryVanna, a kind teacher who notices successes and praises them for them.
ADEQUATE PLANNING
There is no need to plan for yourself an accelerated pace of work, a “five-year plan in three years.” It happens that we come up with so many things to do for ourselves that the internal security system gives us a signal that this threatens to overwork.
“Therefore, if you have planned three exercises in a foreign language, for example, and also watch a webinar on this topic, then feel free to divide this plan into three, leaving one exercise,” the psychologist recommends. – And be sure to ask yourself internally when making plans, whether you are really ready to complete this task, whether you have the strength to do it.
Small but feasible steps are better. Than the vastness of plans that inspires horror.
STRUCTURING THE WEEK AND DAY
People now live at a different pace than they did even 40 years ago. Professions are becoming obsolete in batches and we all constantly need to learn and acquire new skills. Therefore, it is worth understanding that learning is a long-term process. Not a sprint for results. This is with us forever.
“The sooner we admit this to ourselves, the faster we can start learning, and the easier it will be for us to build the structure of our week and our day,” says psychologist Alina Redko. “It’s important to understand what requires more energy and what uses less, where I get overtired, and what comes easy. Because running a fast training cross-country, constantly challenging yourself, taking credit from your strengths, is not the best strategy. At some time, your internal power bank may ask you for “interest” and then, hello burnout and depression.
IMPORTANT!
How to get a teenager to sit down with textbooks
Children do not have a fully developed frontal cortex, which means that teenagers do not have the physiological ability to plan and exercise willpower as adults can. Children are not capable of long-term planning and cannot correctly assess the consequences of their actions in the long term. Their brains are wired for immediate gratification.
“Therefore, until the age of 14–15 years, parents are engaged in long-term planning and teaching such planning for their children,” says psychologist Alina Redko.
Based on this, it is wrong to leave the choice of sections, clubs and studios entirely to the child. Curious children want everything! “And a photo club, and a choir club,” and an indispensable foreign language class, and a sports section would not hurt... But together with school, with its considerable workload, all this will cause overload. And in the end, complete rejection. The role of the adult is to give the child a choice of what to do. But limit it, focusing on needs and possibilities: “Masha, you need to choose - either a macrame class, or wool felting. You should have time for rest and household chores.”
MEANWHILE
A psychologist explained how to help a child make friends at school
His success largely depends on how well a teenager knows how to build relationships with peers (details)
How to make yourself work if you are a freelancer
With freelancers, everything is clear: here the situation is conducive to slacking. You don’t have to go anywhere, your family is nearby, the kitchen smells delicious... What kind of work, what are you talking about?
But even a freelancer has deadlines! To avoid stress the night before the project is due, you should:
- Clearly allocate time for work . Set aside a free schedule! No: “If I have time left, I’ll work!” There should be a schedule, you just create it for yourself. On Tuesday you start at 10.00, on Wednesday at 7.00, and on Thursday at 12.00. But fixed time must be allocated for work. This is necessary so that the family gets used to it and does not disturb it. And it’s more convenient to set “estimates” (order deadlines).
- Change clothes . Change your clothes to get ready for work. Naturally, no office suits. But working in pajamas is also not the case. The outfit will be a beacon, a reminder: “It’s time to get to work!” What uniform should I choose? A knitted home suit will help you relax, and a funny kigurumi jacket will “switch on” your creativity. Let your imagination run wild. What does an artist look like at work in your mind? An old T-shirt and jean shorts splashed with paint? You can assemble such a kit for yourself. Are you a programmer and want to cosplay as Zuckerberg or Jobs? You can afford it: everyone has sweatshirts and black turtlenecks.
- Leave home. Did you manage to explain to your wife about working remotely, but your grandmother refuses to understand? Self-employed people often complain that their family or neighbors are always trying to meet a plumber, go to the store, or babysit because: “What’s wrong? You’re still sitting at home!” When you’re constantly being pulled, it’s difficult to work. We leave the location: we leave the house. You can work in a coworking space, with friends, in a park, in a rented office, in a library or in a cafe. A very effective way to get in the mood for work if you don’t want to do it at home or in the office.
Monday and the employee: who wins
After a weekend, you often need another week of rest. After all, on Saturday and Sunday they try to fit everything in: fishing, gardening, a beauty salon, visiting parents, children's clubs, meeting with friends, cleaning, cooking, playing the guitar and minor repairs.
How can you make your Monday easier if you haven’t really had time to rest? For this:
Come up with traditions
Pick something cool that you will only do on Mondays. Based on the amount of free money and your own preferences. Lunch with a colleague in atmospheric establishments? You can afford it once a week. Meet after work with your spouse, friends and have a get-together in a hookah bar, dumpling shop or pastry shop? Good idea!
Going to work by taxi, buying pizza for dinner, sending children to spend the night with their grandmothers, playing virtual reality or shooting at a shooting range - the choice is huge. Make Monday a desirable day. Let your work week begin with guaranteed enjoyment.
Do easy things
Is it possible to distribute tasks yourself? Make Monday a routine day. Do small and similar tasks that do not require high energy costs.
Clarify the meaning
“One of the most common reasons for Friday idleness is a lack of understanding of the meaning of work and lack of interest in it,” says Maria Ulitina. - “There are two cool days ahead, when I will do everything that I like and that really lights me up, and here...”
The manager advises you to honestly answer the question: “Why should I do this?” The first reaction is denial; the person does not want to focus on completing the assigned tasks, considering them a pointless waste of time, and hard, monotonous work will not bear fruit. But if you look from the other side: this is a work task that he was assigned. He is also paid a salary for it. That is, the minimum point is at least to get money.
“If you can find a more valuable motive, it will be even easier to overcome procrastination,” says Maria Ulitina. “For example, the report itself may seem confusing, but at the same time it allows the company to more clearly plan its finances, and ultimately create a better product.”
We are talking about self-hypnosis, about searching, even in the most useless, at first glance, work, for some meaning for yourself personally, which awakens interest in the process. A person begins to approach any task more thoughtfully and no longer puts off completing it.
Returning from vacation: mission accomplished
I don't particularly want to work after vacation. In my memories, the sea is still agitated, the resort discos are noisy... It seems impossible to sit down and write reports.
To make work easier after vacation, you can:
- Reduce adaptation time . Don’t delay your return to the rhythm; it’s better to extend your sea holidays. You can iron your office suit, wash your hair and get a manicure done within 24 hours. Leave this 24 hours to prepare for workdays.
- Remember what it's all for . Did you enjoy your vacation? Remember: you need to earn money for your next vacation. Help motivate you to survive the dull routine. For the laptop screensaver - a photo from a vacation, a landscape of a country you visited, or a photo of a renovation that was done instead of traveling. Decorate your workplace with souvenirs: postcards, tickets from trains and planes, pieces of maps. Don't have a permanent job? Leave reminders of your vacation in the car on your smartphone screensaver.
- Think about everyday life from vacation . Do you know that returning to the office will be difficult? While on vacation, take care of your future. Where you are relaxing, buy local tea, coffee, spices, and cigarettes. It is not necessary to buy elite samples for thousands of money. Even a bag of cereal brought “from there” will seem tastier at home. Therefore, stock up on everything that does not spoil and is available for export from the country: snacks, chewing gum, cookies.
- Bring a new outfit or accessory for work from your trip. It could be anything: a business suit, a phonendoscope, an unusual mouse, a set of manicure tools, sportswear. There are two conditions: it must be strictly for work and it must make your eyes light up. Ready to go home right now just to try out a new guitar processor or diary? You are on the right track: this purchase will definitely brighten up your first working day and help you get ready for work if you really don’t want to.
How to return to work after sick leave
Breaking into the rhythm of a career race after sick leave is a difficult task. You can still view the news while on vacation and stay on trend. But lying on a hospital bed (under a drip and without Wi-Fi) you can’t chase the latest news.
To get back into the rhythm of work after illness, try:
Stay in touch with your doctor
Agree on the opportunity to ask questions in chat. No matter how thoroughly you ask everything, nuances will still emerge. I drank the syrup and started vomiting, what should I do: drink it again or stop the medicine? Forgot to take your pills at the right time: take two next time?
It is important to ask questions immediately, without accumulating. Firstly, it improves the quality of treatment - you do the right thing right away. Secondly, dialogue with the doctor reduces anxiety. You have resolved your health issues and returned to work. And without correspondence, I would have to worry about my condition until the evening.
Start small
Is it possible to go out for half a day? Wonderful! Even 1-2 days at an easy pace will be beneficial. Do you choose when to start work: Wednesday or Monday? It's better to start in the middle of the week or at the end. Then the usual five-day period will be incomplete and will be easier to accept. Brain o. And believing in yourself is half the success.
Nourish the body
No matter how busy your schedule, you shouldn’t play extreme sports after a sick leave. Colleagues don't go to lunch, stay until midnight, forget to take their medications? Don't be like that!
After an illness, additional resources are needed. Organize meals: delivery to the office, trays from home, lunches in the canteen. Consult your doctor about vitamins. Do you need medications? Buy a pill bottle in advance (the ones they make are absolutely adorable!), lay out the capsules, and set alarms on your phone.
Feeling tired? Go out into the air, find something to do in the spirit of: “Bring it.” Take documents to another area, send letters, pick up a parcel - everything will do. It will be two in one: you did not sit without work, but received a portion of the necessary oxygen and physical activity.
Arrange tea (beer) drinking
Yes, this will require financial and moral costs. Communication after illness is also difficult: it is difficult to maintain attention and concentrate on the conversation.
But there are teams in which it is important to remind yourself. While you were being treated, were you written off? Gatherings after a working day will show: you are in business!
At the same time, the employees will spill all the gossip and news. Your task is to listen and update the drinks.
It’s now clear how to get ready for work if you don’t want to. There are many ways: but to find your own, you will have to try different ones. Stop waiting for mysterious inspiration! Learn to call him on deadline: when you need it. Otherwise, on vacation it plays pranks, not allowing you to turn off work chats, but at work it goes on strike. Enough! You can't procrastinate at work! Where to put the comma is up to you.
Carrot and stick method
“Let’s start with the carrot: come up with a reward for completing something that has been put off for a long time,” advises Maria Ulitina. “For example, there is a quarterly report on indicators, which has been “hanging” on the “to do” list for the third week. Try to negotiate with the lazy version of yourself and offer yourself a gift for completing this task.”
The “carrot” can be both tangible and intangible rewards: a pleasant purchase on the weekend, the feeling of a task well done, the answer to the question: “How will I feel when I complete this part of the work?”
Source: pexels.com
“Now about the “stick” method: tell yourself a scary story: “If I don’t finish writing this article now, then on Monday at the general planning meeting the boss will tear me to pieces / disgrace me / deprive me of my bonus,” Maria Ulitina gives an example. - “The scarier the story, the better.”
The danger may be absurd, delusional and fictitious, but the effect will definitely be, says the corporate communications manager. This kind of shake-up gives an impulse to get ready and stop shirking things.
A separate part of this horror story is a vivid depiction of the consequences: a feeling of shame, low self-esteem, lack of career prospects and respect from superiors, and other examples.
