yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Guided meditation for procrastination


3m read
·Nov 10, 2024

Welcome to the meditation on procrastination.

And somewhat ironically, I've been procrastinating making this meditation, so we're all in the same boat together.

So, as with all meditations, posture and breathing makes a big difference.

I really encourage you to find a nice firm seat to sit on. If your legs don't fall asleep, you could sit on the ground as well. But try to sit with your back upright—really good posture.

Breathe in, breathe out a little bit slower, a little bit deeper every time. You could lay your hands on your lap; I like to leave them face up.

And when you're ready, you can soften your gaze and slowly close your eyes. Breathing in, breathing out.

Now, procrastination is an interesting thing. I'm not sure whether we human beings are the only animals we know of that procrastinate. It's maybe worth some research for somebody to figure that out.

But we clearly do it, and a lot of meditation is about becoming aware of our thoughts, observing our thoughts, and realizing that we are not our thoughts.

Even though many times our thoughts seem to control us or even overwhelm us. And so let's do that.

Let's try to observe those thoughts that are making us put off something that we know we need to do. Why do you think you are putting that thing off?

I'll tell you what it happens to be. Usually, from my experience, it usually is: I'm afraid to start because I might realize it's harder than I expected, or I might not do as well as I expected, or I might make a mistake. Maybe I don't think I'm prepared enough to start.

Another way to think about it is we're getting too caught up in the outcome versus enjoying the journey or enjoying whatever the thing is that you're putting off.

Because that's just a part of this fun experience.

And so I find that when I tell myself: "Self, define yourself by the action, not the outcome. Don't define yourself by whether you succeed or fail. Define yourself as making the effort, showing up, and enjoying it."

Laughing at yourself, laughing at this mystery that we call life, and just putting one foot in front of the other and realizing it's not so bad.

And then you could put the other foot in front of that one and keep going.

And slowly but surely you realize that you're making a lot of progress. The more you make that progress, the more that you actually enjoy it, especially if you're not doing it at the last minute.

And now I'll give you about a minute for you to repeat something in your mind that can hopefully short-circuit any of those thoughts that have been keeping you from taking action.

For the next minute or so, repeat to yourself that you really enjoy taking action. You're lucky that you're in a position to be able to take action.

The outcome, it is what it is. You enjoy action. You are lucky to be able to take action. The outcome is what it is.

Keep thinking that for the next minute or so, and I'll be back. Don't worry.

All right, so when you're ready, really at your own time, just become a little bit more aware of your surroundings, a little bit more aware of your body, a little bit more aware of your breaths, and slowly open your eyes.

And so, I'll finish with one last tip. Sometimes we put something off because it just feels big or overwhelming. What I like to do then is say, "Hey, let me just put 20 minutes towards it and see where I am at the end of 20 minutes."

If I didn't make any progress, no big deal; it was just 20 minutes.

But if I did make some progress, great! I did the 20 minutes; I deserve a break. If, after a 5 or 10-minute break, I'm ready to put in another 20 minutes, awesome!

If at the end of the 20 minutes I want to keep going, I shouldn't stop myself; I should keep going.

But when you view things as, "Hey, I'm just committing 20 minutes to something," it doesn't feel as intimidating. You just own it. You say, "Hey, I can do anything for 20 minutes, and I can enjoy anything for 20 minutes."

And then you'll want to do it.

Put on a smile on your face and own that action. Not only will you make progress, but you're going to have a good time.

So take it with that playful mindset, enjoy it, smile, and just get started.

And I think you'll find you'll be procrastinating a lot, lot less.

More Articles

View All
Preston Silverman on Building out a Marketplace in Education - at YC Edtech Night
Hello everyone. Good evening. Thanks for having me! Really excited to be here. So, I’m the founder and CEO of Raise Me. We’re focused on expanding access to higher education by rethinking the way that students access scholarships and grant funding for col…
Announcing O'Leary Fine Wines
[Music] And we are back now with the new edition of Shar Tank. Your life, we have two entrepreneurs ready to go head-to-head. Kevin Oer from Shark Tank is here. We’ve already seen him double Dutch; it’s one of his many, many talents. Also wearing that Smi…
My Story With Watch Insurance & WonderCare l Exclusive Interview With “Watch Time”
No, I’ve had um two entire collections stolen. Uh, one was an inside job and another was a random break-in to a home I had in Boston generated 1,000 requests for policies. Nobody in the insurance industry has ever, ever seen that before. I don’t sell watc…
Ides of March spark a civil war | World History | Khan Academy
We finished the last video with the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, March 15, 44 BCE. You might remember it was done by factions opposed to Julius Caesar who thought that, one, he had gotten too much power, but even more, he was using…
Diadochi and the Hellenistic Period | World History | Khan Academy
Where we left off in the last video, Alexander dies in 323 BCE at the young age of 32. Even though he conquered all of this territory, it was a very short-lived Empire. What happens next is a period known as the wars of the Diodi. Let me write down this …
Naming alkanes with ethyl groups | Organic chemistry | Khan Academy
I think we’re ready now to tackle some more or even more complicated examples. So let’s draw something crazy here. So let’s see, let me draw a chain. Let me draw it like that, and so like we’ve done in all of the examples, you want to find the longest cha…