Procrastination is a broken On Off Switch that can be Fixed

So how you doing? I've made a video for a bit. I've been taking a bit of a break, which is funnily enough what I wanna talk about in this video on procrastination. Now, when I make these videos, I wanna be clear that they are about making you productive. They're about helping you be consistent in your goals. That's a good goal, right? But the information we've received, the way we've been trained about procrastination or about personal productivity is very, very misguided. And to that goal of helping you be more consistent and being productive in what it is that you want in your goals, I wanna talk about the importance of the on-off switch. Okay, it's a concept I have when it comes to helping people with procrastination. And when we have procrastination, it's a, what we're suffering from really, you could think of it as a broken on-off switch. So on is I'm taking action, off is I'm not taking action. Our on-off switch, there's something screwy with it. And it's because of the information we've received, the training we've received around how to be productive, how to be consistent, how to relate to your goals. So what do I mean by this on-off switch? I'm gonna show you how it works in this video. And I think it can really help you with your goals massively. Okay, so stay with me here to the end of this video because I think it'll be a big, big help. Really what I'm gonna offer today is a strategy about how you approach your goals and how you approach your personal productivity. So this on-off switch, what do we mean by an on-off switch? Well, your body, for instance, and the body is the thing we're trying to get to comply with our goals, right? Sometimes it's the body that goes into resistance about taking action. But your body has many, many on-off switches. The blood gets pumped through your body, through your heart. It pumps and it relaxes, right? Contracts and it relaxes. Your muscles in your body, they're on-off, right? Blood pressure, all sorts of hormones in your body. Your body has a way of saying on-off, on-off. And these are all unconscious, right? Wouldn't you agree? You're not consciously really controlling much of that, right, all unconscious. And the body is very, very good at when it's on and when it's off. In fact, those two things are paired together. It's not like two separate things. They're both together, right? Now, here's the difference. When it comes to conscious goals, and usually what we're doing in our lives are conscious goals. We're aware of, I want to get from point A to point B and I'm aware of it, so I'm kind of taking control of it. When we have a conscious goal, the body is no longer in charge of that on-off process, that balance between on, off. So we have a conscious goal now and the on-off switch, that balance, is now, it's no longer automatic. It has to be consciously controlled, okay? So it's a conscious goal and now we have to take conscious control of this on-off switch. And here is the problem. We are very good at sending the on signal around conscious goals. We are very, very bad at the off signal. We don't even see it as that interesting or relevant, okay? And that's where we go wrong. And we've been conditioned like this. You know, take action, do more, why aren't you doing it already, right? That's on signaling. But there's very little attention given to the importance of the off signal, consciously telling myself. So really the strategy here, when we realize that this on-off thing is important, is you could put it like this simply. Before I do anything, in terms of goal, before I start, before I give myself the on signal, I also, this should be coupled, I need to know when this is going to end. Think of it this way, right? So let's say, let's say your body, you're gonna go to the gym, right? And your body, you're gonna lift some weights. Now, your body will say, okay, lift the weight. The body doesn't say, let's see how it goes here. How much is this person gonna lift here on this weight? We'll see. Before you even lift the weight, the body knows how much it can lift. It already knows when enough is enough. That's not gonna be a consciously determined thing, right? The body knows, at this threshold here, that's gonna be challenging. At this threshold, we're done, right? So the on-off switch, the unconscious one is there. It's the same for our conscious goals. Before you take any action, how long is this gonna take? Now, when I talk to people who have procrastination issues, I'll very often ask them that question. How long do you intend to work on that project on any given day? Very clear question, right? And the answer is very, very interesting. It's usually an answer like, well, you know, let's see. Hopefully a lot. And really, that's no answer at all. That's basically the same as saying, I have no idea where the off switch is. In fact, I hope I never run into it. Happy enough with the on signal, but the off signal, the on signal, yes, the off signal, I'm not that interested in it. That's gonna lead to an imbalance. And it's also gonna lead to your body, your nervous system will be watching this on some level because you're consciously asking your body to partake in this with energy needs and whatnot. And the body's gonna say, okay, there's no off signal. What's he doing? What's she doing? And it's gonna resist it. So you're gonna find yourself not being willing to take action on the goal. So this is the strategy. Before you take action in any project or goal you're doing, it's fine to identify a time when you're gonna switch on, right? So I'm gonna switch on here. But when are you gonna switch off? You need to take conscious control of both of those moments. If you do that, and it's important to be realistic and attuned to yourself around that, right? You could say, I'm gonna switch on here. I'm gonna switch off after nine hours of this. Now, that's better than having no off switch at all. It will give your body, your body will be less resistant in terms of you taking action on that. But over time, you start to realize, when you realize how important it is to know how much am I committing to this project, you attune to, okay, I kinda know my own patterns here. There hasn't been a single day when I've done more than an hour on this. So why am I telling myself I'm gonna do four? That's just not gonna happen, right? So you can start telling yourself, you look at your kinda baseline, your threshold about what you've done in the past, and it's something like that. Our only goal to begin with here is to become consistent. I always say, like in procrastination, we're trying to move our baseline away from zero. In other words, anything that you're doing in that project on a given basis, on any given day, anything above zero is a win, right? So if you commit to doing 30 minutes of it, right? After 30 minutes, I'll stop. And you'll find that, okay, your body now realizes there is a healthy on-off switch here. It's compliant. Funnily enough, what'll happen is you become consistent in doing that. Now, you can up that later on, or you can say to yourself, you're only gonna commit to blocks of 30, then I'm gonna stop and reassess where we are. I can make another commitment to on, but when is the off switch? Well, maybe another 30 minutes. And you can start to stack little time blocks like that, and you can become more productive in that way. But the idea, the question is, when are you going to finish? That is a hugely important question when it comes to procrastination, and you need to know consciously. And also what you need, I should say this. If you do have that conscious goal of, or that conscious off switch, right? Okay, 30 minutes. I've committed to 30 minutes. After that, I'm done. It's up to you then, and this is kind of where the discipline in this comes in. It's not the discipline to start very often. It's the discipline to stop. So you might say, well, I'm making great progress here. I've just committed 30 minutes. Now, you will probably commit to the 30 minutes because your body isn't resistant to it. But if you continue beyond that, especially if you get to the point where you start to feel resistance in your body to it, the next day, you can't expect your nervous system to be compliant with you, okay? Because the nervous system saw the arrangement there, said, okay, let's go with that. And then the next, and you broke that contract with it, it's not gonna be compliant. So what we're, we're not trying to be, you know, slaves to our nervous systems, right? The nervous system is in charge of everything. What we're trying to do is have a healthy relationship with our conscious goals and our nervous system. So that the two of them are working together. They have a healthy relationship. And that means we honor the arrangements that we create, that we make with the nervous system. So to summarize this video, before you take action, know how long you're committing to the action for, and when will the action cease? When are you done? When are you off? When is the off signal kicking in? If you can do that and realize how important it is, and this is for just consciously held goals, right? Your body will take care of all the other off signals, all the other on off switches for you. Circadian rhythms, time to wake up, time to sleep, right? Your body isn't gonna say, yeah, we'll see. He can stay up for 48 hours now, that's fine. The body isn't like that. The body knows when you wake up, it knows pretty much when you're gonna go to sleep. So it's the same with our conscious goals. So if you can know, okay, when do I start? Just as important is when will I stop? And that will make you far more consistent in taking action. And over time, you become consistent, and then funnily enough, what happens is your goals start happening. You start fulfilling these things, you start meeting these goals for yourself. So keep it in mind, work with your nervous system. It's not about bravado, it's not about pushing yourself, it's about learning how to negotiate that relationship between your conscious goals and your nervous system. Because your nervous system doesn't care about the goals, by the way. I should have mentioned that, maybe. Your nervous system cares about one thing only, and that is keeping you alive. It doesn't really care about whether you start a business or all these other higher-minded goals. So keep that in mind. We're learning how to negotiate and have a good, healthy relationship between the two. And if you can do that, you will be amazed at the results that you will experience. Hope that's a useful video. If you want to contact me, you can do that through my website. Like and subscribe and do all those things that help the channel. I really appreciate it. And I will talk with you guys again very soon. Take care, bye-bye.