Week Three- Baseline Behavior

1. I have tried to stop procrastinating and did my best to follow my plan. This week was not really a good opportunity to test my plan since i didn't have that much hw! For this psychology test, i did get started on my study on monday (counts as one day before) and it did help me a lot in regards to finishing my study guide (counts as not doing it the morning of). Yesterday was a pretty rough day for me, class in the morning, work, class in the evening, then dance rehearsal till 10pm. I gave myself an hour break before i started my work because i was too exhausted from my day to just jump into studying. I did look over my essay for my english class (counts as starting my hw right after class) and then i proceeded to finishing my study guide. The only thing i allowed myself to procrastinate on was completing this blog....which i don't really count as homework, it's more like a fun thing.

2. Operant Conditioning could help change my behavior since i won't be as stressed and i'll have more leisure time for myself. Instead of having a huge load of homework one day, doing it little by little will lead to a more manageable schedule, especially when things come up that i can't plan. By thinking about the reward, it will persuade me to keep up with my good behavior.

3. I found this really cool website called the positivity blog and this guy included a lot of interesting quotes... i won't paste the whole thing here since it is quite lengthy, but everyone should take a look at this! His advice is pretty straight forward, and he gives reasons on why we procrastinate in the first.

How to Stop Procrastinating: 7 Timeless Tips

1. Stop thinking. Start doing.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”
Eva Young

A bit of planning can certainly help you to achieve what you want to achieve. A lot of planning and thinking tends to have the opposite effect.

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”
Olin Miller

By over thinking and putting things off you are not only trying to protect yourself from pain. You also make mountains out of molehills. The quotes above are so true it isn’t even funny. The more hours and days you put something off the worse it grows in your mind.

3. Just take the first step.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

When you start to look too far into the future any task or project can seem close to impossible. And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment.

4. Start with the hardest task of your day.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish.

5. Just make a decision. Any decision.

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

We feel bad when we sit on our hands and don’t take action because it’s unnatural. The natural thing is to be a decisive human and take action.

When you procrastinate you want to do something but you don’t take the action that is in alignment with that thought. You become conflicted within.

6. Face your fear.

“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the “someday I’ll” philosophy.”
Denis Waitley

The easier choice can come with a sense of comfort, with a certain level of success, pangs of regret for all the things you never dared to do and a vague sense of being unfulfilled. You wonder about what would have happened if you had taken more action and more chances.

7. Finish it.

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task”
William James

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you in a sort of negative funk. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone zapped your inner power.

http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2009/04/23/how-to-stop-procrastinating-7-timeless-tips/