The ONLY Way To Stop Procrastinating | Mel Robbins

You're not a procrastinator.

You have a habit of procrastinating.

Big difference.

Because if it's a habit, I can teach

you to use science to break it. [MUSIC]

So, let's talk a little

bit about procrastination.

Who in here struggles

with procrastination?

Yeah, and the rest of you that aren't

raising your hand are just

procrastinating on doing it, aren't you?

I know.

You see, I always thought procrastination

had to do with the thing I

was procrastinating around.

Right?

Like that

procrastination has

something to do with work.

Believe it or not, procrastination

has nothing to do with your work.

Procrastination

is a form of stress relief.

Let me explain this.

So, let's say that you've got

some stuff going on in your life.

And heck, who doesn't have

stuff going on in your life?

Maybe you're fighting

with your significant other.

Maybe mom's or dad's health is failing

and it's really, really upsetting you.

Maybe you've got some financial stuff, you

put too much of your savings into Bitcoin.

And now that that's crashed,

you're stressed out about it, right?

And so, you go into work.

And when you get into work,

you got stuff to do.

You kind of walk in and you got this big

stress ball that subconsciously

is hanging over your head.

And so you walk in

and you sit down and you know you

got 13 phone calls you need to make.

And you also know that you've

been chickening out.

You've been making easy calls,

and there's a bunch of CIOs or other

people that are higher level

that you haven't been calling.

And so, as you sit down to do it and you

got the stress on your shoulders,

your brain starts to go, wait a minute,

you want me to make a call

to somebody that I'm scared to make?

Absolutely not.

I'm so stressed out about, can we just

watch some cat videos for a minute?

And next thing you know,

an hour's gone by.

And then, of course, what do you do?

You beat yourself up.

So, the only way that you can break this

habit, and that's an important word for

you to hear, you're not a procrastinator.

You have a habit of procrastinating.

Big difference.

Because if it's a habit, I can teach

you to use science to break it.

You see, all habits have three parts.

There's a trigger.

And in the case of procrastination,

the trigger is always stress.

Then there's a pattern.

You repeat.

And in the case of procrastination,

it is to avoid doing something.

And then there's a reward.

You get a little stress relief.

The only way to break a habit, you guys,

is not to deal with the triggers.

You're never going to get rid

of the stress in your life, but you can

100% change your pattern of avoiding work.

So, next time that you're in a situation

where you feel yourself hesitate,

you spent way too much time checking out

the highlights from last night's scores.

What you're going to do is you're going

to go, "Oh, I must be

stressed out about something."

Acknowledge the stress, then go,

five, four, three, two, one.

I want you to count to yourself,

because I want you to interrupt the habit

that's stored here, and I want you

to awaken your prefrontal cortex.

Then I want you to just work,

just for five minutes.

The reason why I want you to only work

for five minutes is because

your problem isn't working.

It's the habit of avoiding.

I just need you to start.

And here's the other cool thing.

We know, based on research,

that if we can get you to start,

80% of you are going to keep going. [MUSIC]