hey guys my name is Ali aluli I'm a systems engineer and a post doctor fellow at the nas propulsion lab in this video I'm going to show you how you can figure out why you're procrastinating specifically and how to put an end to that so this video is going to be attacking the root cause of procrastination and it's not going to be one of these cookie cutter like oh nine tips on how you can be more productive or like six tips on how you can stop like no this is actually going to help you figure out what the hell is going on inside your brain now to give you some insight although I am am currently working as a full-time engineer at Nasa I did my PhD when I was 26 years old I have grown this YouTube channel as well as my other engineering YouTube channel to almost 40,000 subscribers and uh I've always been a chronic procrastinator I've struggled with procrastination my whole life High School College even during my PhD in the beginning of my PhD especially I would give my PhD adviser heart attacks not literal heart attacks but I would make him panic because I would have to wait till the very last minute to do things and when I when I when I came near graduation I started realizing like man why am I why do I do this why do I do this so I figured I would use my skills as a systems engineer to actually figure out what's going on diagnose the problem and that's the system that I'm going to walk you through and by the end not only am I going to show you how to diagnose the right cause of procrastination for you but also what to do about it so basically before we talk about procrastination which is basically like the hurdle to execution execution is only the last step in a in a in a proper productivity system any type of producct AC it system especially if you're someone who has ADHD or higher up on the ADHD Spectrum must give you Clarity you need to get crystal clear on what is your goal and why if you don't have a goal how are you going to have be productive or or or not procrastinate because your brain is constantly going to be like why are we doing this why what what is this working towards you know so you definitely need to have a clear goal you definitely need to learn how to prioritize how to pick what the right task is I need to understand when to do the right task and then finally sitting down and doing it is going to be the part where is tend to procrastinate right that's the execution um so there are two things that people struggle with continuing and starting procrastination is really a problem of starting so people who are not who are are procrastinating are really struggling with starting a task and from my experience that comes down to three different uh reasons and you can next time you procrastinate you can ask yourself like which one of these three is it most likely one is fear right you very often you'll notice that you're going to procrastinate on either a big project or something that's important or something that's very very important for example not many people procrastinate on like walking to the fridge and picking up something to eat or like going to the mail and and grabbing something to grabbing your mail from the mailbox uh these are things we don't really procrastinate on because they're not like really that important they're things that are like automatic we just do them there's nothing really at stake uh something that you may procrastinate out of fear is like a project or like a YouTube video they have to make or like a presentation for your business or something like that something or or like a dissertation for a PhD like things like that uh there's there's definitely a lot of fear of like oh man what if I do it and it comes out to be not good enough very often that there's there's internal selft talk around the fear but there's also two other causes why procrastination may happen one of them is simply the the in congruence of interests and values and I'll tell you a story when I started my first Consulting business I hired a business coach who was very very talented very very very talented guy I learned a lot from him uh but when it came down to sit down and write my ads my paid advertisements um we had to write them in a style that he told me and it just it just I don't know it didn't sit it didn't sit right with me I didn't enjoy that style I like to be more direct more honest more like I have this thing do you want it or not the style in which the ads were supposed to be written as and was kind of more like the very typical salesy like markety as which I really cannot stand and when he would check in with me and say hey did you have time to write the ads I would always say no no I haven't no I did this other think no this other thing came up I was procrastinating it and it's not necessarily because I was fearing that the ads would not come out to be good it's just because the the way that task was set up uh it did not it did not align with my with my values so I kept just putting it off very similarly if something you're just not interested in doing at all for example if you're like a product engineer and you have to sit down and write copy for like an ad you just don't really care that much about marketing usually and because you don't care about it you just keep putting it off because it's not fun so this is another reason why you may be putting things off but I would say especially for for people with ADHD the most common one is just overwhelm right it's like oh man I have to start this big thing I have to like uh sit down and do this thing oh my God I have to work on this project like it's just whenever whenever you think of a task and like there's like a mini like oh my God like Panic like that accompanies it or like something of that nature that's usually like your brain signaling that okay I have a big thing that I need to tackle and I don't know if I'm quite ready to tackle it yet um this is where overwhelm can be a big problem and this again relevant for projects sitting down writing at copy doing things that nature so these are things that will definitely um affect you when it comes to procrastinating now very very important herisk you can perform is next time you find yourself procrastinating again right here we're not talking about Solutions yet we still we haven't addressed how to solve these problems in practical ways but next time you you sit down and you try to do something and you can't do it uh instead of thinking I got to do this why am I procrastinating shift the selft talk to just asking why what out out of the three reasons why am I procrastinating am I fearing that the that I might fail or the outcome may not be good enough um am I just not interested or this something that I just like really really don't want to do and I'm avoiding for some reason or am I overwhelmed and by overwhelmed like I haven't really fully thought through all the steps needed to like um improve um upon what I got to do and sit down and do it and this is where I introduce you to the three different solutions so the reason we touch on this again is because procrastination is not a one-size fits all you have to understand why you're procrastinating right whether it's overwhelm whether it's fear whether it's like conflict of interest values um obviously there could be other like minute minuscule reasons but I generally think from my experience those three um are kind of like the main the 99% of procrastination that's why I call this the procrastination Trident because very often in my casee it's one of these three things so in the case of overwhelm it is very very simple think only of the first step right there's a very common mistake I see especially with people who have ADHD is when they when they think about what they got to do they say oh I got to write a proposal oh I got to make a video oh I got to do all these things uh but you don't actually need to do that all you need to tell yourself is what is the first step I got to take like in my case for a YouTube video if I tell myself oh my God I sit down and record a YouTube video like and they're a typical person that that may be fine with them but someone higher up on the ad Spectrum you'll just keep putting it off because especially if your brain has not processed like all the steps or visualized all the steps necessary you you're just going to put it off but if instead you replace that selft talk and tell yourself oh I just got to sit down and uh write an outline for the video I don't need to I don't need to record the whole video I just need to write an outline what is the first step well if I don't have outline then I don't have a video and then you sit down and you and you and you write an outline or you write the first part of the video or you do or you do something and then that's going to give you the momentum to keep going and then then before you know it you'll turn on the ring light you'll you'll start talking you'll set up your microphone whatnot so if you're if you're overwhelmed think only of the first step that you got to take that's basically the the the cure to that um if you are someone who is like having a conflict of interest or values ask yourself um once you verified that this is something like that is congruent with your values if it's something completely in congruent with your values then maybe you should not do it like sometimes procrastination is good sometimes procrastination is you like like telling yourself oh I really I should not be doing this right maybe this will put my my uh like like this is just something that I don't feel comfortable doing right uh but if it's the other case of of which is which is fun which is boredom like the reason you're putting it off is because you get bored and you're just not interested in that thing find ways to make it fun there are so many things in my life that I have to do that are just not fun and my my hack for that is music I put on music that I really really enjoy for example if I have to sit down and do paperwork I can't stand paperwork but if I put on like a really nice song that gets me in Flow State and gets me kind of moving what on then all of a sudden the paperwork is not so bad because I'm at least enjoying um the music uh find find whatever maybe it's like having someone they sit down and do the work with whatever it is that can make the task more fun will definitely help you solve the boredom or interest problem in an Ideal World the things you don't want to do you just delegate them but if you're not at that stage yet then you have to find a way to make it fun and if the case um is of procrastination is fear failure then what you need is something called vzer and this is something I have uh learned to do which is I tell myself okay I'm I'm maybe there's a bit of fear maybe this thing needs to be good and I'm afraid that it's not going to be good enough right maybe there's a fear of a failure there or a fear of effort wasted oh man what if I sit down and like do this and it turns out to be not good that tends to be a very very strong cause of procrastination something that I that I that I that I do is I say well before I even sit down and make a V1 or the first version of my thing and then maybe iterate on it later what would I should do a v0o and vzero is like let me just do a very quick check of like everything I need to do for example if I once sit down and record a YouTube video V1 would be make the first version of the video and if it's crappy that's fine V2 can be a better one V3 can be an even better one I can iterate that way but vzer is like well how about I just clean my room turn some lights turn turn the lights on make sure my cameras in the right place uh do a camera check do a mic check do a computer check like I'm not gonna I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not going to actually record the real video which means I'm not going to fail it's impossible for me to fail because I'm not going to record the real video but what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down and do all the like Steps uh assuming that I'm going to record and and turn it on without actually posting it and there's zero fear associated with that step and it kind of feeds into this idea of first step is you want this thing to be like low stake low consequence because then once I sit down and I clean my desk and then I I I clean my environment and I do all these things and I have my camera and I test my microphone then again from a selft talk perspective it's a lot easier for me to say oh dude I mean okay now I have the setup what is it really that screw it let me just record the video let's just see what happens like if it fails it doesn't fail like sometimes the problem is not so much in the belief that the thing is going to fail and that you're going to be bad for having it fail but rather that combined with the the the the the overwhelm induced in in this case so if you're someone who's like really really sensing that the reason why you're procrastinating is fear of failure and you're like afraid to get started on this task because it may not be good enough to your standard tell yourself okay I'm not going to ship this thing I'm not going to deliver this thing I'm not actually going to I'm just going to sit down and do the V zero like the bare minimum just to get some type of functioning thing working just so I can take make make some progress and then if I feel like actually shipping it and and and continuing and shipping the the thing that is done I'll do it if not that's that's that's fine too but what I've what I'll have at least done is I've at least made some progress which is going to make me feel good about myself is going to boost my selfesteem Steam and the moment you you you like let go of this need to deliver something great on first try you're going to feel this like weight lifted from your shoulders and then you'll be able to get started with a v0 and the v0 will turn into a V1 and the V1 is usually very often good enough to be shipped if not you go ahead and re-record it a second time again in the case of a YouTube video so again this kind of a very uh um simple way way to overcome it now if you want to kind of amplify this on steroids which is power also for continuing is you can go and find some accountability if you can find other people that basically hey bug you and ask you hey did you do the thing did you do the thing or maybe they can help you better diagnose why why why you're struggling with it um or or why why you're not doing the task um accountability is very very important from a friend from a family member from a certified coach from a from someone who knows what they're doing if you have like some no one in your life that you think can hold you accountable on a consistent basis I'm going to go ahead and put a link below to our community where you can come hang out with me other like min entrepreneurs who can hold you accountable where I also go over some of this stuff in detail as well but you want to make sure that you have some type of accountability involved in your life because if you don't have extrinsic accountability like at all uh even if you're addressing the the the the fear of failure the fear the like lack of having values and interests and the overwhelm issues you're still not going to have that extrinsic pressure that like good weight on your shoulders to deliver and that expectation of other people especially if you're someone who has like people pleasing Tendencies and you can use that to your advantage because then you don't want to disappoint other people well at least you don't want to disappoint them in in in showing them that you haven't done your stuff which can be productive for yourself but anyway that's a discussion for another video um if you enjoy this content stick around for my channel for more videos and I'll see you the next one Peace Love