Beat Procrastination while learning!

Do you have trouble with procrastination?

Procrastination while learning to code: Example

Let’s say you want to learn to code. Most people see it as a pretty daunting task. They see it as a major undertaking and they don’t even get started. But, just like everyone, if you decide to postpone it when you think you will have that extra time.

Here’s a news flash!

It will never happen if you don’t do something, right now!

But, I get it. It’s hard to do certain things right now, isn’t it? Your day has already started and things have already started taking place and have been decided for you. Whether you like it or not. Despite what you might think, your brain controls your thoughts in these situations. So, there’s no point in watching 100 motivational videos if it’s not in the plan for you today. Your brain is going to come up with 100 excuses as to why you can’t learn to code today.

Just creating a list of tasks the night before is not enough either. You need an execution plan. And unfortunately, this is where a lot of people make the mistake, “Starting tomorrow I’m gonna work on this task, every day for four hours straight”. That’s a big endeavour.

Can you trust yourself to do it every day? It’s important to understand that you don’t have the stamina to do this new activity for four hours straight yet, and you’ll lose confidence if you fail to achieve your promise. It’s going to seriously take a toll on you and you’ll end up giving up because your mind will tell you “You can’t trust yourself to do this.”

You see it takes so much energy to start something new and if it’s a big goal like learning to become a software developer, it may seem very difficult. So people just never end up taking the first steps. There are times when it seems like 10 years have flown by quickly and you do not know how it happened.

The 10-minute rule explained

I have got a trick that can change your life!

It’s called the 10-minute rule.

Before going to bed, write down the tasks you must get done by tomorrow. But, the secret here is that for the tasks that seem difficult, you have to promise to dedicate only 10 minutes to that activity. Just 10 minutes. Whatever task it may be, spending 10 minutes is easy to fulfill the promise to yourself. It’s an easy win that you can have every day and you’ll feel like you’re making progress every day. However, small it might be. Because according to your mind you’re winning. If you do the task that you promise yourself, you’re winning and your self-confidence will go up.

Surprising effects of the 10-minute rule

Sometimes what will happen is that you sit down and work on it for 10 minutes but an hour passes by. You tricked your brain into starting the task and you did it for an hour. The advantage you have with the 10-minute strategy is that it will remove all obstacles from your thinking.

Thinking is what slows you down and your brain starts to make these weird excuses if you let it think. Excuses like “You don’t have enough time” “your desk is messy” or “you’re getting hungry”. With this 10-minute strategy, time definitely won’t be an excuse. Since it’s only 10 minutes, you will start to say to yourself that “What the heck, let me at least take care of this short 10-minute task. I’ll worry about the desk later. I’ll try a different desk”.

Even if you’re super hungry, you’ll still say to yourself “It’s just 10 minutes, you know, I can make it. I’m already hungry I can wait another 10 minutes”.

Habit formation

The cool thing is once you’ve started, you’re in the zone. You’re already on track and your brain has already forgotten about those excuses. You lived up to your word and you’ll start to notice that, after a few weeks that 10 minutes will become 30 minutes, then 60 minutes. Then that daily activity will now become a habit.

As you get more and more comfortable, that task won’t seem that difficult at all. And you will get to a point where you’re able to do work for four hours now and that’s when you’re going to make serious progress.

Earl Nightingale famously said, “If you spend an extra hour per day, doing something. You could be a national expert in that chosen field, in just five years”. Now, I understand not all fields are the same of course but if you could stretch that to maybe two hours per day, just think how much progress you can make in five years.

Now, if you’re an extra lazy person. What you can do is you can create easy days which include just 10 minutes of activity. Don’t take any days off. Stay consistent. If it needs to slow down, it’s okay totally fine. Slow down but don’t come to a complete stop. It’s really hard to push a boulder into motion, but once it’s moving you can keep tapping it along and remain in motion.

Trust me, these 10 minutes are a blessing for your dopamine receptors in the brain that will make you feel good each time you complete the tasks. And when you are putting in just 10 minutes of work it’s not a difficult promise to keep.

To achieve this, you must start small and break the task down into manageable chunks. You’ll grow into it fairly quickly and develop the stamina to do something for much longer. This is a very powerful trick. 10 minutes can change your life.

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