Every time when the circumstances are right, the thought will come up, including the corresponding emotions. There is likely to be a thought and emotion whenever you have just started studying. There is likely to be a thought and emotion when you have been studying for a few minutes.
These are your obstacles!!!
Don’t think of the thought as having anything to do with you, anymore. Right now, it’s become a mere program running inside your brains, that is bothering you.
You are going to get the thoughts and you are going to get the emotions. Don’t worry about it. Don’t identify with the thoughts, don’t belief the thoughts, don’t fight the thoughts but instead accept them fully and ignore them. Treat the emotions for what they are: short pulses of suffering. You can handle these pulses.
At the core of that discomfort is fear. That potent and instinctive emotion whose reason for being is to protect us from pain (including the emotional variety) and urge us away from anything it perceives might threaten our sense of self, injure our pride, or rattle our world. However, left unchecked, those fears can drive us to cling on to the hope that if we procrastinate long enough, our situation will improve, or our misgivings will magically evaporate and be replaced with newfound clarity and courage. But nothing is going to change.
Remember: “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an unfulfilled goal.”
Here are some strategies to end procrastination:
♦ Make this dua every time you start studying:
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم۔ رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي ۔ وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي ۔ وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي۔ يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي
(O my Lord! Open my mind. Ease my work for me. Untie the knot of my tongue so that others can understand my speech.)
♦Write down your goal and give yourself a deadline. A goal without a deadline can be put off indefinitely.
♦Break your goal into small pieces. The bigger your goal or the change you want to make, the more quickly it can send you into overwhelm. So if your goal feels daunting, break it into manageable, bite-sized steps. Remember, you don’t have to know every step of the way; just the next few steps immediately ahead. Your next steps will become obvious as you move along.
♦Visualize the future you want. Imagine the emotions you will feel.
♦Fear is a powerful emotion that can keep us mired in excuses. Yet, by focusing on what you don’t want, you can harness it in your favor. So write down how you will feel a year from now if you do nothing. Be brave and really honest with yourself about the cost of continued inaction.
♦Build accountability of yourself.
♦Reward progress. Set up a reward system to ensure you celebrate progress and small successes as you go along. Whether a fun activity with friends, or an episode of GoT or The Defender, make it something that acknowledges your progress and effort.
♦Act bravely daily. Starting today. Building momentum is crucial as you start out. So commit to stepping out of your comfort zone at least once per day. Beginning today – before your fear-laden excuses, disguised as sheer laziness, kick in again.
♦After 25 minutes: stop working for 5 minutes! You can relax for a moment. You’ll actually learn faster this way! Set the timer for this.
♦Avoid wrong thinking. Repetitive wrong thinking can make things appear much more terrifying than they really are. This is how phobias arise. Never fight these type of thoughts: Avoid them fully, and undergo the temporary suffering.
