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Imagine you have a big, important task to do, but procrastination sets in.
When you first start thinking about a task, you may encounter the obstacle of emotions, such as fear of failure or perfectionism. If you manage to overcome this obstacle and are ready to begin, you may then face the obstacle of confusion: What should I do? How long will it take? If you manage to overcome this obstacle, you may then encounter the obstacle of friction, such as a lack of motivation, willpower, or feeling too tired to start. This is how procrastination happens. We have all experienced these three obstacles before, but some people struggle more at certain points than others.
Emotional Obstacle
If you are easily distracted or tend to overthink, you might get stuck at the first obstacle, with too many negative emotions about the task. You may predict what might happen and how capable you are of completing the task, and if there is any uncertainty, you may become anxious, fear failure, and procrastinate. One way to overcome this is to not worry about the outcome and instead focus on the process that successful people have used. For example, don’t worry about what score you’ll get on the MCAT. Follow the study schedule that successful students have used, trust in the process, and you’ll be okay.
Another way to overcome this is to face your emotions head-on. In the War of Art, Stephen Pressfield describes a force of procrastination called the resistance. He says that when you’re met with resistance, that’s an indication that it’s important. If you have strong emotions, love or hate, about the task, then it’s important. It will be gratifying when you finally complete the task.
Confusion Obstacle
Next are the individuals who have motivation and want to be productive, but lack direction. They spend their time and energy on activities that feel productive, but ultimately do not matter. According to Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog, your “frog” is the task that has the greatest impact on your life at the moment. For example, if med school applications are approaching and you need to write a personal statement, that personal statement is your frog. You need to focus and complete that task before anything else, rather than getting sidetracked by…
