Welcome back to Lavendaire.

It's Aileen.

Today's video is on

how to beat procrastination and get your work done.

Before I begin, make sure

you're subscribed and you click that bell to get notified of all my new videos.

So first off, if you want to learn how to beat procrastination, you have to see it

for what it is: resistance.

Resistance is something that Steven Pressfield talks about

in the book, The War of Art.

And it basically is a word that means

"the thing that keeps you from doing your work".

There's always this resistance

that you want to get this work done but, for some reason, you avoid it at all costs.

For some reason, you find yourself deciding to do something else, checking Instagram,

checking Facebook, eating something out of your fridge.

And that is because

that work is so important that you're scared to do it.

Whether it's an important school project

or a personal project that means a lot to you, you're probably going to feel

some resistance there that causes you to procrastinate.

For example, I feel resistance when I have to tackle a big long-term project

like my Artist of Life Workbook.

My workbook is something that I've been thinking about

the entire year.

I've known that I had to redesign it, but it just took me so long

to sit down and be able to focus.

So many times I tried to sit down

and then I get distracted, or I would procrastinate.

But these couple weeks,

I really had to lock myself down and finish it because I set this due date for myself

and I was like, "No, I must get it done by this time."

There are some pretty good techniques that helped me buckle down

and get my work done and I'm gonna share them today.

The short and easy answer to beating procrastination is to take action.

And I know that's super simple and you're like, "Duh."

But it's incredibly difficult to take action.

So how do we do it?

My best advice on how to get yourself started on taking action

is to look at what you have to do and ask yourself, "What is the smallest, easiest,

next step

that I can take towards this goal?"

Make it so easy, so simple that it takes one second to do it.

Break it down as small as you can.

For example: If your big project is to write

a huge research paper, then maybe that easy, small step is to open up your Word document

or type the date, type your name, type that first word.

Really, break it down

into the easiest, easiest task ever and start there.

Once you've opened the tab,

once you've written your word, ask yourself that same question again:

"Okay, now what is the easiest step that I could take towards this goal?"

You'll find that once you've taken a baby step, you can take the next baby step,

and the next one and the next one.

And if you keep doing that, you'll build momentum

and then you're gonna find yourself in flow and then you're gonna be working

on the thing that you've been procrastinating on.

I do realize that it could be pretty painful and difficult to take action,

even if it's just baby steps, so another strategy that's helped me

is to set a time deadline for myself meaning I'll tell myself, "I'll only work on this

project

for the next thirty minutes or the next hour."

And I'll just look at the time, if it's 8:00,

I'll be like, "9:00, I'm done.

Just do my best.

Take the baby steps and work on this."

But do it for an hour and by the time it's 9:00, I can let myself go."

Setting that time gives me a space to work in.

And usually what happens is,

when I get to the end of my time, I have built my momentum by taking those baby steps

and I'm in flow, so I usually want to keep working.

And that's something

that's really, really useful.

So if you don't feel like working on your project,

just give yourself a baby amount of time.

Like, "I'm only going to work on this

for fifteen minutes or thirty minutes," and if that's all you can do, then that's it.

That's great.

But usually, most likely, you're probably gonna want to continue working longer.

The goal here is to be able to reach your flow state.

Your flow state is that state

where you are super focused, super in the zone, and working at your optimal capacity.

I don't know if you've ever had that feeling where you're just so 100% in your work,

you have momentum, you're on a roll, and things are going great.

So that is the goal.

It's what some people call "Deep Work", and that is a state of intense focus

that is really, really productive.

So that's the goal of where you want to be

when you're trying to beat procrastination.

I know you're feeling the resistance.

First, be aware that it is procrastination and it is resistance, and then you can take

the next small baby steps and set that time deadline for yourself so that eventually,

you're gonna feel the momentum and you're going to put yourself in flow state.

Some other strategies to help yourself get into flow and get work done

is using music to set the mood.

My favorite, favorite playlists to work to are on Spotify.

One of them is called Deep Focus.

The other one is called Piano in the Background.

I really like Deep Focus.

That's really intense, atmospheric–not necessarily intense,

but sometimes it's calming.

It just really puts me in the zone.

And then Piano in the Background,

that's because I love piano.

That's more softer, so I'll listen to that when I'm designing

or doing something more free-flowing.

But when I want to get work done,

writing and stuff, then I'll play Deep Focus.

Feel free to set the mood in your space with whatever works for you.

Maybe you want to light up a candle.

Maybe you want to clean up your desk

so that you have a clear working space.

Ask yourself, what is your ideal space to work,

and create that so that you have everything you need in order to get stuff done.

An app that I love to help me get to work and focus is called Forest.

Forest is an app that's based on the idea of planting a digital tree.

When you set the timer for, say, 25 minutes to work, you start planting that tree.

And basically, if you leave the app to check any anything else on your phone,

your tree starts to die.

And so you don't want to kill your tree, so it kind of motivates you

to not check Instagram, not check anything so that, for those 25 minutes, you are working.

And what's really cool about Forest is that, i think after you collect some coins,

it actually plants real trees in real life, so I really like that environmental aspect

of it.

The last strategies you can try is to journal and/or meditate before you get to work.

Sometimes we can't focus on our work because our mind is so distracted.

We're thinking about a million things at once.

So sometimes it's helped me to sit down

and journal for two or three pages before I get to work.

Usually, in my journal,

I'll write down all the things that are on my mind, get them out of my mind and onto

paper.

And then I usually start giving myself a pep talk to prepare myself

to get into the mindset to work.

I will literally visualize, "Okay, Aileen.

You're going to do this and you're gonna work and you're gonna finish this today.

You're gonna do this."

So I'm my own motivator in my journal.

Doing that really helps to set the intention for getting to work and being productive.

Another thing is: You can meditate before you get to work.

It has a similar effect

where you clear your mind, you calm yourself, and you can also set your intentions

during meditation to focus on whatever you want to focus on.

So either journaling

and/or meditation.

You could do both or you can choose one or the other.

But I think both are really great to prime yourself to start being productive and get

to work.

Alright, those are my tips on how to beat procrastination.

I hope it helped you.

Let me know if you have any tips of your own that I missed.

Post them in the comments below

so that I can learn from you as well, because I always need help on how to beat resistance

because I think it's always gonna be there.

Whenever there's an important project

that means a lot to you, there's always gonna be resistance.

That's natural.

We're humans, so we are all a work in progress.

Alright, make sure to subscribe if you haven't already.

Love you all so much.

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you next time.

Bye!