(AA meeting vibes) Hi! My name is Arjun Sunil and I am a fellow master procrastinator. I’m gonna be talking about how much being a procrastinator affected me and how I started getting shit done.

The past

I used to be someone who used to be a super lazy person, always putting off things until the last moment almost all the time. More often than not, I used to struggle with deadlines(even realistic ones).

I’d end up watching movies or binging on Netflix and be like, “Ooo let’s build this cool thing here” or usually just end up jumping into a train of thought and eventually not finishing what I started in the first place. More often than not, this was the case with most things, be it school assignments, college projects, you name it; I have probably procrastinated on that.

In fact, I have put away things for later even with stuff that definitely shouldn’t be procrastinating on. One good example would be exams; even for major ones that would define my career.

This how my thought process used to be:

  • 4:00 PM: Okay, so its 4 PM I have my exam at 09:30 AM in the morning, that’s like a lot of time! 4, 5,6 .. 10 - that’s like 7 hours today alone, I’ll sleep early, wake up at 5 AM and study till 09:00 AM. That should give me like, uh… 5,6,7…9; 5 hours there.
    12 hours of study is more than enough to score really good marks!
  • 4:05 PM: Ah, I’ll start studying in a couple of hours, I won’t lose too much time in that, I mean I have 12 hours!! And just 5 units to study! I can easily pull that off in like 1 unit every two hours.
  • (Grabs a large snack, starts binging on how I met your mother) Time flies by…
  • 6:15 PM: After the snack, checks time Hmmm 6:15 PM, I’ll wait for it to be a whole rounded number. I’ll start at 7.
  • 7:03 PM: Oops, missed it again; I’ll just sit at 8 I guess
  • 7:55 PM: *yawns * I guess I’ll just take a quick nap and sit for studying rests head on the desk
  • 1:00 AM: OH SHIT I FELL ASLEEP. Opens a book and tries to read Realizes I can’t, and decides to go to sleep anyway
  • 7:00 AM: SHIT SHIT SHIT, I HAVE TO STUDY NOW!! flips through a few topics
  • 9:00 AM: Leaves home running
  • 9:29 AM: Still revising outside the exam hall
  • 6 months later: Gets result, passed by the bordeline 🤣

If you can relate to that? You my friend are a fellow procrastinator.

How does a Procrastinator’s mind function?

Here’s a really good explanation of what goes on in a procrastinators mind.

I used to be that kid who never got his shit done in time but when it came to work, I probably haven’t procrastinated too much. Saying that I’ve never procrastinated ahead would be a lie cause, let’s be honest. No ones perfect. I can’t stop being a procrastinator but when I did need to get shit done, I found the ultimate tool to do this.

So a little background on how I came about this technique, I was curious on how the brain worked and I thought I think I’m just bad at learning or maybe I’m just doing learning wrong. I thought I was scoring less cause

A. Either there’s something wrong with my brain (my parents got me checked, mom came out crying and I’ve got no clue why 🙄. She doesn’t remember anything now, about that. )

B. I’m just learning in the wrong way.

Since I didn’t get an answer for option A, I presumed it could be B, which was probably something I could tackle.

Probably ended up searching how to learn, and there was actually an online course on “LEARNING HOW TO LEARN!”. This blew my mind. I learnt so many things I was doing wrong, but this isn’t a write up about that course. Anyway, they talked about procrastination and how the Pomodoro technique (insert angel background voice here) can help us into getting started.

So the deal with procrastination is mostly getting the wheels rolling. Once the initial momentum comes in, its almost self sustaining (unless you absolutely hate what you’re doing).

So what is the Pomodoro technique?

It is a technique that tricks the mind into starting work for a small-time, and staying focused without moving to anything else for that dedicated short time. Its usually in the configuration.

25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of break (away from work)

4 iterations of the above(totals out to 2 hours) followed 30 minutes long break after that.

This seems absurdly easy, but the condition is you’re not allowed to switch context or move to anything during these 25 minutes.

The moment that restriction comes in and if you’re someone with a turbulent mind? It becomes super hard to stick to the one task at hand.

But once you target to just do the 25 minutes; you’re forced to get started, which gets the wheels rolling and you’re out of the rut. And before you know it you’re actually focusing on the task and getting more things done than you did in 4 days total.

So all in all, the pomodoro technique is what I used to get away and started getting some shit done.

Conclusion

To get started with it, I have a couple of app suggestions that you could use to get started.

https://www.forestapp.cc/

Makes you feel super guilty for killing a living thing. You really don’t want a mass grave and makes you want to get stuff done, stay away from the phone for that little while.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.superelement.pomodoro

Does the same thing, as forest; doesn’t make you feel as guilty though

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.offtime.kit

Something slightly off topic, but super powerful and can be useful if you set the timer manually. This doesn’t allow calls or texts to come through and even sends a response message after hanging up saying “I’m currently Offtime right now. Please leave a text, I’ll give a call after some time”

So, that’s a wrap! Thank you for reading through this. Feel free to share this with your fellow procrastinators and help them get some shit done as well 🤓🚀

Peace ✌🏾