guys we've all been there you're sat on your bum scrolling on your phone and you aren't even really enjoying the scrolling because in the back of your mind you can't stop thinking about the essay to WR slash the exam to study for Slash the run you wanted to do slash the project you wanted to start there's something stopping you you're paralyzed and even though the guilt and the stress is so much you stay exactly where you are and do absolutely nothing this was me I really really really wanted to be a doctor yet I couldn't find the motivation to study all for years I wanted to start a YouTube channel yet I procrastinated getting out of camera and filming a video and of course we can't neglect the normal everyday mundane life stuff that we leave to the last minute EG the parking fines I have left to double in price because even the knowledge that I was going to be financially worse off by not doing it did it motivate me to just pay for bloody ticket but do not worry these are the five actionable steps I use to stop procrastinating anything if you're new here then my name is Fay and why should you listen to me well I'm a full-time doctor in the NHS and I also have ADHD therefore I have absolutely no time and also a neurodevelopmental disorder that predisposes me to wasting time therefore I can tell you that the strategies I have developed to combat procrastination are foolproof we're going to start off with my most controversial strategy and one a lot of people disagree with that is to start with the easiest task first now many people will tell you to get the most arduous daunting task out the way first so it's all downhill from there and I completely disagree when you are sat lying horizontally not wanting to do anything remotely productive whatsoever what is going to help you transition from that state to a more productive State more easily is building your way up nice and gradually making the leap from sofa to desk seem far smaller and more manageable of course you're going to start off with a brain dump and dump all the stresses and tasks running around in your brain onto a piece of paper so that out of your head and you're able to tackle them then you're going to pick the easiest one that you'll be able to check off in probably less than 15 minutes and do it personal favorite easy ticks of mine are put a laundry on reply to an email that you've been procrastinating or even something that's maybe a little bit more fun and enjoyable so if I was studying for my medical school exams and I was really really really struggling to get off the sofa and get started I would kind of cheat and start by doing 10 practice questions with the setting on easiest this is one of my most controversial strategies that I live by because obviously if you do 10 questions on the easiest setting is that really going to develop you and help you reach your goals in the long run no but in the short term is that going to enable you to get started and actually feel a sense of achievement that might keep you going maybe personally for me as much as I try my ego does inevitably get in the way and when I'm sat on the sofa and I don't want to do anything something that holds me back is this feeling of guilt about being sat on the sofa I think feeling bad about ourselves is often used as a way of motivating us to reach our goals and personally for me that has never worked when I felt guilty about being lazy I've continued to take actions that reaffirm that self-belief that I am la czy or when I felt stupid and not studious I've continued to take actions that reaffirm that belief that I'm stupid and not studious by taking a small action that gets you going on your to-do list and builds your self-esteem you begin to give yourself evidence that you're not lazy you're not stupid you are disciplined and you start to form a view of yourself that is more in line with your goals number two may be equally as controversial and that is make it fun now I don't think that saying make it fun is going to be controversial but I think what I say afterwards will how I like to make productive time fun is by having a cute drink having a really aesthetic notion page or doing it with a friend all of these things can sometimes impact the quality of the productive time sometimes when I would go for a coffee steady date yeah a lot of that time would be spent talking to my friend or the time spent making a cute aesthetic notion page is time taken away from actually working towards your goals making your favorite drink delays the time that you actually start working on the important stuff but let me ask you this if we have person a person a sits on the sofa they procrastinate getting started on anything remotely productive they waste 2 hours 3 hours 4 hours and in the end they get absolutely nothing done because the thought of getting started is so daunting they never actually do anything then we have person B person B is procrastinating for about an hour recognizes their procastinating they think let's make this fun let's make this more enjoyable they get up they make themselves a nice matcher coffee that takes them 5 minutes and they then sit down at their desk and they are productive okay time has been wasted guessing to that point where they are productive but if that helped them bridge the gap in sofa to desk there has been a return on investment three the 2minute rule this is telling yourself that you are going to do a task for 2 minutes and then hopefully by the time that those 2 minutes have rolled around you immersed in the task and you forgot that you were going to only do it for 2 minutes anyway we all know that starting is the hardest part and the two-minute rule again aims to bridge that Gap and make starting seem less daunting obviously I can hear you thinking fate I can't lie to myself and I know that I am lying but I disagree we lie to ourselves every single day about things that we do not even realize that being said give yourself full permission to stop the task at 2 minutes but you're not allowed to put on a timer for 2 minutes by the time you've distracted Yourself by getting the task that you wanted to get done done you'll be thinking about that and you won't actually be counting down the seconds until you can stop number four this is the most important one for me personally and that is to put your phone away for God's sake put your phone away for those of you who may have watched some of my other videos I'm not going to bore you too much because I'm sure you can tell what I'm going to say next and I'm going to talk about Flow State there is a reason I bang on about Flow State in almost every single video because flow state is honestly a small piece of joy in a mundane gray world of productivity flow state is when you are so immersed in a task that time seems to slip away and it may actually become dare I say enjoyable but flow state does not come without a cost oh no no no no no for you to reach The Godly Heights of Flow State you have to invest 15 to 20 minutes distraction free into a task now what is the Ultimate Enemy of Flow State your phone if your phone is by your laptop and it's constantly lighting up and pinging it is distracting you and every time it distracts you you are straight back at the bottom of the hill and a step further away from reaching The Godly Heights of Flow State your phone should be out of sight at least now I do have a little warning associated with this because I would normally do that by putting my phone behind my laptop screen note to everyone watching please don't do that in central London or actually probably any public place at all because I did that in central London and my phone was stolen that is actually on camera and I will insert a clip somewhere it's a bag a pocket with the sound off will do just as well on that note make sure that you don't have notifications turned on on your laptop if you do think whilst you're in the middle of a task oh crap I forgot to message so and so about X Y and Z then this is why I always try and have a piece of paper and a pen next to my laptop times so that if I get distracted I can quickly jot it down and then get straight back to task without going on my phone intending to do that thing that I just remembered and then being distracted by the plethora of different apps and means of communication on my phone finally the most important one in my opinion is to check it off and for me this is checking it off physical list pen to paper ideally with a red line for the maximum dopamine kick not buged up by science but anecdotally however it could be anything just a form of reward for getting the task done a omic habits is a book that so many people Rave about and there is a reason why it gives you the blueprint for forming good sustainable habits and in atomic habits James Clear talks about the Habit Loop and the importance of having a reward and he gives the example of I believe a stock broker who every time they made a call they would move one pin from one jar to another jar now how on Earth can that be satisfying to the brain and motivate us to keep doing more tasks well I'm not a psychologist I don't really know but it does maybe it was visually watching the number of pins on this side go down whilst the ones on this side go up or the physical action of moving it closing off signifying that they have achieved one more call whatever it is ensure that you are giving yourself some form of reward if you enjoyed this video a video that you may also enjoy is this video here about how I reduce my screen time from 8 hours to 2 hours and if you wanted to see a little bit more of my life working as a doctor then I will pop a vlog here I hope you found this video useful if you did please don't forget to like comment subscribe I hope you have a wonderful wonderful wonderful week and I will see you in the next video