 What is up guys karma medic here and welcome back to another dose in this video I want to talk about how and why I never procrastinate if you're new to the channel Then hi, my name is Nasser and I'm now a final year medical student studying at King's College London And here are my best tips to help you stop procrastinating now being a medical student There is a lot of content for me to go through and study so being able to stop Procrastinating is really important to keeping me on track with my work It's also important for me to not procrastinate on my work because if I did I wouldn't have time to do all the other things that I actually want to get done in my life For example film videos for this YouTube channel hang out with my friends have a good social life play video games, etc These are also things that I need to do to stop myself from burning out and being able to go back to the studying and the work That needs to get done for me to graduate and be a doctor in the near future being intentional with your time is so Important to stop procrastination planning my activities allows me to be intentional with my time and gives me a pretty good idea of How I'm gonna be spending my day before it even starts I generally work in four-hour blocks And I'll make sure I'm blocking out set time for breaks snacks time to chill and go out and have fun with my friends now Because I know that these breaks are coming later up in my schedule I know exactly how much time is allocated to those breaks and how much time is allocated to the tasks I need to get done for the day I'm much more likely to stick to my plan if I know I have plans to go out at 7 p.m Then I try really hard to make sure I get all my work done before then I'll have a clear mind I'll feel good about the day and I can just enjoy myself and relax when I'm actually out Time blocking your day gives you this great sort of birds-eye view of what you are going to be doing and importantly It is predetermined which means you don't have to actually make decisions throughout your day about what you should do next because you just Look at your schedule and you've already told yourself what you're gonna do earlier that day or earlier on in the week Being intentional with my time both for when I'm gonna be studying or being productive and for when I'm going to be Relaxing and having fun makes it easy for me to separate these two activities in my head And so when I'm studying I just don't feel the need to be distracted and have fun and when I'm having fun I don't feel guilty about not studying because I know I've dedicated time to both of those things This keeps my distractions to a minimum and keeps me focused on what I'm trying to do at that time So this is a good one if you're gonna be procrastinating anyway You might as well be using it to your advantage You can use the things that you don't want to do instead of your work as a motivator to keep you going Let me explain spending five minutes on your phone at the end of a 30 minute study block can really motivate you to Keep going and push you through until that reward in my previous video about procrastination that you can watch somewhere up over here I talk about using these incentives and rewards to keep me motivated to study I still do this and I still find it to be one of the most important things that I do to help stop procrastination For example, if I know that I'm gonna have a five minute study break at the end of a one hour long studying session Then that just pushes me through and keeps me more focused and motivated to actually study and get things done right now Because I know I'm gonna take that time off and I'm gonna relax in just a little bit more an entire day of studying can seem really daunting But I know that if I have these regular breaks Snacks time to chill call my friends etc Then it becomes so much more manageable one of the main reasons that people procrastinate is often fear of failure of the task itself Which makes them feel like there's no point in even getting started So they just procrastinate but breaking the task down into these smaller and more manageable chunks and adding incentives or rewards Means that you're less overwhelmed and less likely to have it in your head that you might fail Okay, so this tip is for all of you seasoned procrastinators knowing the difference between whether you are an active procrastinator or a passive Procrastinator is crucial You need to know what type of procrastinator you are so that you're able to change the way that you work in the most effective way So active procrastinators will put off one task by doing another task that they still need to do It's like putting off doing the really long essay You need to write by doing a slightly more pleasant task or chore first like feeding your dog You can allow yourself to get all of the other tasks You're procrastinating with out of the way and leave yourself enough time to finish that final Probably more unpleasant task at the end of the day This way you're leaving yourself pretty much no choice because you know that task has to get done and the day's gonna finish sooner or later So you need to do it right now on top of that You've also got nothing left to procrastinate with another way that I love using active procrastination is by introducing Relaxing or chilling time into my schedule Let's say I have an assignment that I need to do but I'm just not really feeling like doing it right now I tell myself okay, Nasser no problem for the next 30 minutes Sit down and watch this episode of the office or scroll through your phone on tick tock call a friend Whatever and then after those 30 minutes. I'll be rested. I'll be relaxed and I can start the actual assignment now personally I don't see this as procrastinating the assignment I see it is actively rescheduling that assignment and doing something in the meantime like relaxing that's gonna put me in a Better position to complete the task that I actually need to do later on now on the other end of the spectrum We have passive procrastinators these types of procrastinators avoid tasks by doing things They don't really need to be doing like watching Netflix going on social media or laying on the sofa for an undetermined amount of time without any Goal or intention in mind Passive procrastinators will move from one thing to the next just to fill the time and push away that daunting task that they Don't want to do if this is you then hopefully bringing together all the tips from this video is gonna be your best defense against procrastinating All right, so being realistic you have got to be realistic about your time and the constraints that you are working within It's unrealistic to think that you're gonna be able to study an entire topic in a single day whilst you have loads of distractions around you You need to set yourself up for success by splitting your studying into manageable chunks and padding out your time properly If you think that writing an essay is gonna take you two hours Then please just schedule in three hours or four hours for writing that essay. This isn't a sign of weakness It's not anything negative. It's just literally building into your projects a margin of safety So that if your schedule doesn't go a hundred percent as planned You're still gonna be okay and you're still gonna manage to do everything that you needed and wanted to get done in that day One of the worst feelings that I have in university and in life Generally is when I plan to do a bunch of things in my day and everything takes a little bit longer than expected So my schedule is falling further and further behind and that stress and anxiety just builds up throughout the day Because I can't complete all the tasks that I wanted and told myself I was going to do so being realistic and having this margin of Safety allows you to get back on track should anything go wrong And if you do actually finish on time or finish early then great You've magically unlocked a whole bunch of extra time in your day Which you can use to either move on to the next task or relax and rest before moving on Something really powerful that you can do is change the factors that you are in control of if I know for example That my house is gonna get really noisy and hectic in the evenings when friends or family are around Then it might make sense for me to go to a coffee shop or to go to a library Or study earlier in the day when those types of distractions aren't around if I think about all of these factors before I actually start Studying for example, do I have all of the coffee and snacks that I need? Do I have all the resources that I need am I in the house am I in the library? Is it gonna be loud is it gonna be quiet am I gonna have my phone on silent or not? There's tons of factors surrounding the work that can elevate or impede your ability to actually get things done Have a think about what some of those are and how you might be able to change them Sometimes it's so easy for us to punish ourselves for not working every minute of the day or not studying every possible thing Right before an upcoming exam as someone who tries to balance medical school with this YouTube channel A really active social life and still finds time to exercise. This is something that I often struggle with myself What I keep trying to remind myself is that down time and relaxing and taking time off is not procrastination We all need that down times that we can recharge and be ready for the things that we want to do like for me Studying medicine and becoming a doctor as long as you're not actively avoiding doing something else You're not procrastinating by having downtime one way to make sure that you don't fall into the trap of avoiding work Because you need downtime is by understanding why and how often you need to take a break It's so important to know yourself and to not overwork yourself or overbook your schedule This is probably one of the easiest ways to lead to burnout and something that we definitely want to avoid So be sure to build downtime into your schedule regularly and remember that it's not procrastination It's definitely needed and in fact, it'll help you even more when you sit down to do the task that you actually want to get done If you are a procrastinator then don't punish yourself for it instead Just sit down and think about you know, what are the barriers that are preventing you from starting work What are the things that are more likely to make you start procrastinating and how can you maybe change your environment or other things Around you to help set yourself up for success If you can understand why you might be tempted to procrastinate then you can focus on eliminating that issue and eventually become more focused For example making sure the work you're doing is for some wider goal of yours Something that you really want can really help you combat that feeling of not wanting to do something And that is it for me guys Hopefully the tips in this video will be able to help you stop procrastinating so you can do the things That have to get done so you can then have enough time to work on the things that you really want to get done If you did enjoy this video Please don't forget to leave a like on it and also subscribe to my channel to see more content like this from me in the future And that is it. I'll catch you in the next one. Peace Being intentional with my time both for when I'm gonna be studying and for when I'm gonna be running Allowing yourself to rest and recharge before going to do it I find I find I find that taking Sometimes it's so easy for us to punish ourselves over not working every minute of the day and not studying every possible thing that exists before