How to stop procrastinating tasks?

I'm at my parents house to study for a very important exam in my country, of the same importance as studying for college. So I apply many techniques such as mind maps and resting 10 minutes after each 50 minutes of study, this way I can study for 4-5 hours (counting on the clock literally) per day. But I schedule to do other things related to my study also, like review my mind maps, to make a strong connection between what's new and what I already know in my studies. However, at night I like to play some games in my computer, like Need for Speed and many others, even when I know that won't help me in my objectives, when I should be studying instead of playing video games.

I saw a talk with Dr Jeffrey M Schwartz where he says that the brain is different from the mind, which was very new for me, honestly. And he says you can change the bad habits for good ones. How is this possible? How can I be more productive in my studies? Stop procrastinating? (I already thought about deleting my Facebook account =] )

Any help? Ideas?

Valter Henrique

Posted 2014-01-30T22:06:21.447

Reputation: 144

Thanks! I didn't know about this other stackexchange site about productivity, thank you very much! Stop to be afraid of what comes after success is great! Thank you! – None – 2014-01-31T01:02:36.283

Welcome to Personal Productivity. There are already some questions here about procrastination, such as Avoiding procrastination on university assignments and What can I do to fight procrastination? (closed). Do these questions help you? If not please explain why your question is different.

– THelper – 2014-01-31T07:26:08.143

1Nothing was helping me: Tasks arranged, schedules and everything. The only thing that helped me was to remove the things that distract me, which were games and youtube videos. I uninstalled all the games and unsubscribed from time consuming channels and what left to do is just study and do productive stuff and then I got into it, I liked the idea of doing more useful stuff and feel like I improve myself, than this feels like the games, it feels fun to learn new stuff... – Lilian A. Moraru – 2014-03-04T22:42:08.360

There are many self-help books which could help you. I did a really great improvement after reading many of them. I advise you to read: Wayne - Your erroneous zone. Also note the mean vote is 5 of 5, given by 170 reviewers.

– Revious – 2014-03-30T20:44:47.490

Answers

I use technology to help me. I would be completely lost without my cell phone. In order for me to get a task done I have to write it on my digital calendar and put down all the specifics!

I have to envision where I will be doing the task and put that down.
I also need to envision when I will do the task and put that down - day, start time, and end time (include buffer time). Add an alarm to go off at this time.
I also need to enter who I will be doing the task with (and send invitations if applicable).

If I don't think about these items and record them for each task, then I pretty much have a snowballs chance in hell of actually doing them. Doing this in a calendar forces you to set reasonable goals. Only do one that at a time! If two tasks overlap on your calendar, then you likely won't be able to do one of them.

Allowing some recreational time is a good thing. You can't study all day and night, that may be a bit overkill.

Aaron Klap

Posted 2014-01-30T22:06:21.447

Reputation: 221

My absolutely best tip for stop procrastinating is to regularly just stop what your doing. Put the game control down, put the remote control on the table, and think: "What is the most important thing I need to do right now?". If that doesn't help, extend the question to "What is the most important thing I need to complete today?" That most important thing being the one you procrastinate during the day perhaps?

Whatever the answer is, do it. Do it right away. Just do it. When asking the question, put yourself in a different environment from where you are at the moment. I actually like to go to the toilet when reflecting and ask myself this question. When I get out of the toilet, I just go straight to that thing that I needed to do. And do that until I get stuck, something stops me, or I need to wait for someone else or in the best case scenario I complete that thing. Because even if I don't accomplish the task, I can at least go to bed I can say to myself that I tried my very best and I couldn't do anything more.

Erik Börjesson

Posted 2014-01-30T22:06:21.447

Reputation: 166

Thanks for the review and edit Aaron! – Erik Börjesson – 2014-12-28T20:47:48.967

I found http://pomodorotechnique.com/ very helpful. Many psychological experiments have validated the effectiveness of this technique. There are also many online and mobile apps like http://tomato-timer.com/ or http://www.cnet.com/products/pomodoro-timer-ios/#! that facilitate using the technique.

user2521204

Posted 2014-01-30T22:06:21.447

Reputation: 101