Many people start every day by procrastinating...or snoozing the alarm clock. Your first non-productive action of the day. “Just one more hour of Netflix, and then I'll really start!”, sounds the little voice in your head… But before you know it, an hour of Netflix becomes two hours, or even longer… Until the moment you ask yourself: “Why am I not started earlier?”. These phenomena are called procrastination.
Are you a first class procrastinator? You are not alone. Procrastination is recognizable to many people.
What's with our lazy nature? That sloth within ourselves? The thing that causes us to postpone difficult work, fiddle around all day long and then hang around exhausted in the evening, wondering why our energy is completely gone and we haven't been productive.
It is your brain, as usual, the control center of your body, that is responsible for that skewed constructiveness. The prefrontal cortex to be precise; the part behind your forehead is to blame.
But what's wrong with that? It simply has too small a battery. Not enough battery for all the energy you demand from it all day long. All day long you ask him to make all your decisions for you. “Should I get up immediately or should I lie down for a while?”, “Do I have low-fat cottage cheese with muesli or a slice of gingerbread?”, “Do I go through my agenda for the day or do I first check NU.nl and Instagram (should I do something? missed something really important)?”, “Shall I prepare a healthy meal tonight and train or order something easy (often unhealthy) and watch Netflix on the couch?”. You ask your brain for all those choices and you then expect your brain to make the right choices for you.
Illogical... your mind can't make that many decisions for you. The battery runs out too quickly, a natural shortcoming that hinders us every day. You may therefore be able to restrain yourself from procrastinating in the morning, but after lunch your mind is done with it.
Your limited brain battery has now also reached science and they call it: ego depletion or 'running out of motivation'. Motivation is NOT something we have an infinite source of. We have to make do with a limited supply of smart decisions before procrastination comes into play. A stock that we can burn through by making all kinds of decisions over and over again, with the guarantee that you will then make more and more wrong (lazy and easy) choices.
If you want to optimize your day by continuing to make the right and smart decisions, you will have to use your battery smarter and more efficiently by keeping your decisions to a minimum.
Peace, regularity and cleanliness... we all grew up with it. Your brain battery can only be maintained by building regular habits. Good habits that make the day better and that, by repeating them, you no longer have to think about (and therefore have to make fewer decisions). Create fixed workable patterns and integrate them into your daily life. So you're going to eliminate as many decisions as possible by changing them from a choice to a habit. Good habits that together form an optimal day without procrastination. You can also achieve all this by starting good habits instead of procrastinating (execution instead of excuses).
3 tips:
1. What does today look like? And tomorrow? Decide now before the choices come flying at you randomly and ad hoc again and exhaust you.
2. Repeat, repeat, repeat, etc. You will only be able to maintain your new patterns by persevering.
3. Keep your energy at a healthy level. You can't do anything without energy. Choose food over filling.
At Enforce we are always open to reflection! Our master trainers help you identify your current unworkable patterns and build new workable patterns. That is why we always work by appointment for personal training and small group training... that is a decision for you to make less... an agreement is an agreement and that becomes part of your new habit!
Richard Suijkerbuijk
Owner | Master trainer Enforce Zeeland
richard@enforce.nl
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