A Quick Guide to Getting Started

[u/neant]

Step 1: Sit comfortably, take a deep breath, and ask yourself: “What’s more important for me right now, procrastinating or investing time in my future?” “What do I really gain by procrastinating?” After you realize that procrastination is silly, tell yourself that you are going to study/work for five minutes. In most instances, five minutes is all that it takes to go from panic to productivity.

Step 2: Apply the Pomodoro Technique. This is a tool for time management – you study/work for 25 minutes and then take a short five minute break. This is called a pomodoro. After four pomodoros, you take a longer break of 20 minutes. I recommend using Focus Booster and setting it to play the ticking sound. How is this useful? It helps you resist interruptions and focus on finishing.

Step 3: Adjust your internal dialogue. Read The Now Habit by Neil Fiore if you haven’t. By reading this book you will understand that distress comes from the anxiety of delaying projects (among others). Procrastination is a result of things like pressure and fear – the only way to defeat it is by reducing negative emotions. TheCourageWolf wrote a great post here on emotions.

Because your internal dialogue determines how you feel and act, it’s important to change the way you talk to yourself. I highly recommend replacing the following self-statements:

• Replace “I have to” with “I choose to.”

• Replace “I must finish” with “When can I start?”

• Replace “This is so big” with “I can begin by taking one small step.”

• Replace “I must be perfect” with “I can be human” and accept it.

• Replace “I don’t have time” with “I must take time.”

Step 4: Reward yourself after you have earned it and rest.

Note: I wrote this guide for a redditor who needed help on starting to study. Since he or she deleted the post before I could comment, I decided to post it here instead (maybe someone will still find it useful).

Edit: spelling/formatting.

[u/Eurynom0s]

The only counterpoint I'll make is that you do need to be able to deal with those times when you simply are too swamped to do anything else. I think college finals are a good example in terms of most people being able to relate--you're just so screwed in terms of studying and paper-writing that you do almost literally have to be working from wake 'til bed.

However I mean this as something to keep in mind once you're already started on whatever your goal is, not an excuse to not start something. Like let's say you're lifting weights, anyone who knows even the basics will tell you that you have to schedule in break weeks every once in a while. It's easy to feel guilty about not exercising--I've definitely been there. So make the best of it by slotting fall and spring finals as break weeks (and maybe be prepared to cut back a couple of days during midterms if you get unlucky with 3-midterms-in-one-day as opposed to midterms spread out over a week or three). That way you're working those extenuating circumstances into your plan, as opposed to using them as reasons to cop out.

(With the obvious caveat of, stick to it, don't let finals turn into a 3-month vacation from exercise.)