:salam2:
Is it ironic or just plain sad that I'm currently procrastinating while writing this?
What I've found in general to beat procrastination is often just determination and willpower. Because of course the thing with it is, like any other habit once you fall into it, you take it as a comfort zone and don't really work at getting yourself out of it. It's easy to say,
"Oh I'm a procrastinator... I wish I wasn't" but not at easy backing up those last words with
actions.
The problem becomes that you become satisfied with your lot in life, take a look at the people who always finish early and think they were born that way. Heredity is amazing isn't it? Some of us just got the short end of the stick when it came to being on time. Of course not! The first step I've found for getting yourself out of procrastination is not acknowledging the problem, but
resolving to do something about it.
And often to back up this resolve, you have to have clear cut goals and ideas of what you want to achieve. One time book I read recommended starting off by creating a list of all your priorities by the end of this year (or in this case maybe the next). You might be surprised to find out how unfocused we are about the things we want to do or achieve. Then take each goal and prioritize from the most important to the least, and then for the most important tasks - list what you have to do to get there.
When you have your goals in writing, it becomes much more concrete and allows you to go back to it and revise about
"Why I'm doing this?" Because most of us procrastinate not on things we like - but the things we dislike or dont have much interest in.
Also then create a list for your day, and what you want to achieve and stick to it. Ukhti you said planners don't work, I have that same problem too. Because I love just writing down what I should do, and then never looking at it again until the deadline is past. Instead of planning the
"should do's" maybe it would be better and more prudent to keep a list of
"will do now" in a place where you can see it and are accessible to it.
Some tips I've found to stick to the tasks:
1. Take the hardest thing first. The earlier you do what you don't like, you'll feel relieved for the rest of the day knowing it's done and over with. This quote made me laugh at first, but then I realized it was quite true:
“Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” -Mark Twain
2. Appreciate and remember past achievements. Our bodies have a hardwire for appreciating achievement, when we do well, are successful or have accomplished something particularly difficult we get an endorphin rush in our system, a bubbly little natural opiate that makes you feel good about yourself. Remember and recall those times, and even imagine that feeling you'll get at the completion of your task - before you begin it!
3. Give yourself time to enjoy completion of the task. Be it through a break, a personal award. Something which drives you on. Long term goals might give motivation to start, but desiring these small rewards motivates a person to completion of the act.
4. Don't give yourself the chance to be distracted! It's been said that people who succeed in making the most of their time, take one thing at a time. There was a period when I came thinking, "Well I can finish this and this together at the same time, two birds one stone voila!" Well it doesnt quite work that way, brain studies have shown that at most the brain can successfully multi-task between two things, after that each action we add to it actually makes us less and less productive. So, having TTI open, MSN/YM, the report you have to write etc - altogether, isn't going to get the work done! (Note to self here!)
5. Remove clutter from your area. The more things you have around your area, the harder it will be to focus. Keep only the basic needs for that particular work and remove all other obstacles. If however you know you'll get up for a snack etc, keep those handy as well so that on the way to getting that snack the fifty million other things out there don't distract you.
6. Give yourself uninterrupted time. Research has shown that 1 hour of pure uninterrupted time may equal or be greater to the work done in 3 hours of other time. So grant yourself chunks of time where you commit yourself to what you are doing, without outside interruption.
7. Positive self talk. As weird as this might seem, yes it does help. Talk to yourself and encourage yourself. Like Aapa quite rightly said, fear does a lot of people in. Tell yourself out loud that you can do this, or in retrospect even try convincing yourself that you like what you are doing - and try to believe it! Say for instance you don't like math tell yourself you like it, instead of always being on the negative. Repeat it and try to enforce it in your mind, in psychology the first rule of the mind is stated as, "What you believe becomes reality." And when you say things out, your subconscious part of your brain picks it up and in essence, said enough times you can brainwash yourself!
I also refer this to waking up at night for Qiyaam ul-Layl, or even staying awake after Fajr… personally I’m still working on it, I don’t want to give an impression otherwise, however what I’ve changed now is to stop saying, “I’m not a morning person” … as long as you say that and believe it – you never will become a morning person! You have to give leave to yourself to believe otherwise of yourself.
And 'sides, tell yourself,
"I'm a Muslim, of course I can do it 
!" It's not arrogance, but confidence. Our predecessors set a shining example, following in their footsteps we should have the confidence in our Imaan and abilities and strive our utmost in our actions.
8. Group similar tasks together. If you have certain chores or menial and similar tasks, do them at the same time. The laws of efficiency states that the more you do of a certain thing at a time, the quicker you get at it: as in the amount of time you take doing it the first time, will be drastically cut down by the end. If however you keep going back to it, you basically have to start from the ground up again.
9. Don’t look at past failures. The past is the past. Too many of us wallow in it and that becomes a crutch to our future. “Oh I’ve never managed to in the past, why should now be any different?” Just because something has been one way, it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Allaah gave us this moment, right now to be able to change.
10. Tell yourself to “Do it now.” Not in 5 minutes, not right after you finish chatting with so and so, but right at this instant. This bit doesn’t feel nice, and its where all the above points come together. When you have a mode of work, this will make it easier, coupled with the determination to change. But of course we still like loopholes. I don’t take myself out of this subhanAllaah, it’s almost laughable sometimes how accomplished I feel at creating a well written out list… and then somehow envision in my mind that by doing so my work will get done. Well, but the end of the day the outcome is obvious and telling.
11. Recover quickly. Yeah, you’re going to ultimately mess up something on your list, something will come up, something will go wrong – this is the Dunya, what do you expect? But what’s important from this is saving recovery time.
If you’ve ever played in a sport, you’ll recognize the value a few seconds might have. In life too, if you get waylaid by something, try to recover in the shortest amount of time possible. Recall your goals and what you started out to do, if people come in the way and you know you have to finish a task, tell them so (and thereby remind yourself) that you need to get back to work. When you give value to your time, other people will as well.
I’m not saying be rude, but if you have certain priorities don’t just push them back giving yourself the ‘people’ excuse. This actually reminds me of a story of Shaykh al-Albani rahimahullaah, maybe I’ll find it and post it properly next time inshaAllaah.
12. Stick with it till the end. Isn’t there a certain glory in putting yourself out in every effort and accomplishing what you set out to do? Well, unfortunately those bubbly endorphins that bring the greatest euphoria only come when you actually complete the task. So, if you keep going through the day, reach your goals, you get one hit after another, making you more happy and self-satisfied, knowing you knew you could do it, and yeah – you did it. It’s different when you know you just did it because it was due tomorrow and you had no other choice.
12. Ask, “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” I put this last on my list, because it’s a question every Muslim must ask in their lives. It’s very very important for us to not be negligent with our time; I struggle myself, so this first to myself before anyone else. And I too have the same feelings, that my most valuable thing would be to learn Islaam, or something related to its sciences, over writing a paper on science in the Romantic Era … Assuredly this is true, but in our lives we’ll come across many things we’ll need or be required to do, and we have to give ourselves the resolve to follow through on them.
Most of these were from a book I read recently. The author wasn’t a Muslim, but many of the principles while I was reading it struck me – since in essence Islaam calls for the same thing. These were the ones that influence me the most, and what I still work on doing. I’m having this problem at the moment that more points keep popping up in my mind as I write this, but if I make this any longer I don’t even know if it’ll fit!
In any case these are my 25 cents, but of course with it all do remember to make Du’a and keep trying. If you don’t make it once, as the saying goes,
“Try and try again!”
I’m still working with this too, so alhamdulillaah this is a very good thread and others’ views on what they do helps too. JazaakumAllaahu khayran
May Allaah aid us all in the use of our time and put benefit therein! Ameen
