 I got a question on procrastination and it's important because I think a lot of people fall into this trap so stay with me here for this really essential tip that will help you overcome procrastination issues. So this question is from a viewer, this person has actually read my book procrastination decoded but they're getting stuck on something. What I suggest with procrastination is you become kind of single-minded in that you're basically just focusing on accomplishing this thing that you're procrastinating on and as you're doing and engaging with this thing that you typically procrastinate on generally speaking what you're going to be doing in conjunction with that is a lot of rest and relaxation okay so you're kind of single-minded you're resting recuperating single-minded go back and you focus on the on the thing you're doing and then you're resting and this person asked me here what should I do in this rest time between initiating with the project I've been using this to do things like exercise or work on side projects however I'm noticing that my tendency to procrastinate increases the busier I am in the rest period am I doing something wrong so I would suggest that this is not ideal I in the book the way I talk about it is you you got to become single-minded we're not really designed to be switching between complex energy intensive tasks okay so for instance if you're working on your studies or something you're preparing you're really single-minded I'm preparing for my my academic exams right and then you're resting and you go and you do a 45 minute workout or something and then you're back to your study that's not going to work because your nervous system is hyper vigilant when you have an issue of procrastination to energy exertion ideally when you are resting you are doing what I call in the book you embrace your your you embrace your inner slob you do as little as possible whatever feels slob-ish to you that's kind of the activity so you're going to be like it could be playing video games it could be watching tv it could be doing something just go for a walk but you don't do a lot you're not doing a lot right that's the idea behind it so things like exercise and those things you know those come in a different part of your day probably they're not appropriate for these rest periods we really want to be single-minded certainly when you're focused on your one thing your rest periods shouldn't be anything goal oriented right if it feels like you've got fitness goals or something and now you're working on your other goals when you just are taking a rest from this huge goal that's not really going to work so what you want to do is honor the fact that when you're resting you're resting now you'll find that you go through your day you take your your alternate between engage with your project and rest engage with your project and rest and you will get to a point another point I thought a thing I talked about in the book is that you should have an upper limit for the amount of work you're allowed to do on your main project okay so you will always have a sense of the work has a limit that I'm about to reach and when you reach it you reach it and then after that there's just there's these oceans of there's usually time to do things that are not related to that task at all so what I'm saying is you have a boundary with it but the the the heart of your issue here is you're not actually resting okay you're not doing the project but you're filling that rest period with anything but rest by the sounds of it right so that won't work I get the temptation because that's the chronic doer in us that always wants to be doing and that's of course the thing that leads us to procrastination in the first place this always doing more more more how much can I cram into every single day and we find ourselves switching between tasks all the time and it's just too much the nervous system will understandably shuts it down shuts off the motivation valve it closes it and it's like I don't feel it doing anything right now it's overwhelmed it's an anxiety it builds and builds and procrastination is a coping mechanism for that so guys bear to mind again you've seen any of my other videos on this topic I keep talking about the importance of guilt free non-negotiable play right and if you do that play or rest that will be such a help to you with this issue thanks for being with me guys I hope this video on procrastination was a useful reminder for some of you and maybe if you're new to my work on this it's been insightful for you I hope it has take care of yourselves and I'll see you again next time