One of many greatest classes I realized from spending eight days in complete darkness.

This sounds paradoxical, however…

…I realized one among my greatest classes about stopping procrastination by doing nothing for eight days.

Final yr, I spent over per week in a darkness retreat, the place I sat in pitch-black with out something to do. Okay, that’s not 100% appropriate – I truly did loads. A whole lot of feeling.

As a result of there’s nothing to distract your self, you must sit with no matter emotion comes up. It’s an extremely robust, but very therapeutic expertise. However what does that must do with procrastination?

Lots.

Procrastination may be tremendous irritating since you:

• Don’t transfer ahead
• Really feel caught and get mad at your self
•  Don’t attain your objectives, which frustrates you much more and begins the entire cycle anew

“Procrastination is an emotion regulation downside, not a time administration downside.” – Dr. Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Analysis Group at Carleton College in Ottawa

This means the explanations behind your procrastination aren’t what you thought they have been.

The True Causes Why You Procrastinate Aren’t What You Suppose

Overlook all the things you assume you recognize about procrastination for a minute.

Let go of all of the beliefs you will have about it – that you just’re lazy, not disciplined, can’t focus, are unhealthy with schedules, or no matter story you’ve been telling your self.

As a substitute, take a look at procrastination from a unique angle. If you wish to know why you aren’t doing one thing, take a look at what doing it brings up in you:

• Discomfort as a result of it’s laborious otherwise you don’t get pleasure from it (e.g. going to the health club)
• Worry of failure since you may not be good at it (e.g. studying a brand new talent)
• Worry of success as a result of it might add extra duty (e.g. having to ship worth to the purchasers of your facet hustle)

To evade these uncomfortable feelings, your unconscious presents you with a easy answer.

“I’ll simply watch one YouTube video, scroll a bit bit, do that different factor…”

“Procrastination makes straightforward issues laborious and laborious issues more durable.” – Mason Cooley

This implies that as a substitute of managing your time higher, you must regulate your feelings higher.

You’ll want to study to cope with the worry, discomfort, stress, and all the things that comes with doing what you must do.

This will can help you dive head-first into it reasonably than discovering low-cost excuses and straightforward methods out.

Right here’s how.

How To Cease Procrastinating – By Doing Nothing

After I was within the darkness retreat, I didn’t have a straightforward approach out.

There was no YouTube, no Instagram, and no different issues I may do – all I may do was sit with the sensation.

To beat procrastination, you are able to do the identical.

As a substitute of grabbing no matter distraction is inside attain, take a deep breath and keep the place you’re.

All you want are 5 minutes wherein you don’t enable your self to do something however the factor – or really feel what comes up.

This will trigger both of two issues to occur:

• You are feeling by means of the discomfort, worry, and different feelings till you launch them and get to work
• The discomfort of doing nothing turns into so massive that you just begin engaged on the factor as a substitute

This requires a heightened consciousness so you’ll be able to cease your self earlier than the distraction.

It’s okay in the event you don’t make it on the primary strive. After I began doing this, I typically solely observed after half an hour of scrolling by means of my telephone what I used to be doing. Then, I pulled myself out of it and sat nonetheless.

If you happen to wrestle with this, listed below are a number of ideas that can assist:

• Work in your consciousness
  A number of occasions in the course of the day, cease what you’re doing, take a deep breath, and test in with your self. This will provide help to acknowledge how you are feeling and if you’re attempting to flee.
• Really feel into your physique
  Feelings are related to bodily sensations, often within the chest and abdomen. When you’ve got a tough time exploring your emotions, merely observe the bodily sensation till it dissolves.
• Be taught your patterns
  Most individuals have a selected sample they have interaction in when confronted with an amazing job. Mine is resistance, frustration, overwhelm, after which dropping my practice of thought as a result of my mind will get foggy. When you perceive yours, you’ll have a neater time catching your self.

Keep in mind, you don’t must do something – you simply have to take a seat nonetheless till you don’t need to anymore.

Wrap-Up To Assist You Cease Procrastination As soon as And For All

If you happen to procrastinate, you don’t have a time administration downside – you simply wrestle to manage your feelings.

Doing nothing to beat it may appear foolish, however it’s precisely what is going to assist.

The worry, discomfort, and overwhelm are a lot more durable to cope with than to succeed in for a fast distraction. However if you wish to cease procrastinating, there’s no approach round them. You possibly can solely undergo.

Don’t enable your self to do something however the factor – or undergo the feelings it causes.

Paradoxically, doing nothing like that can make you much more productive.