One of the major obstacles in achieving success is the habit of procrastinating. This habit is a reflection of our psychological and biological

Procrastination is not our 100% error. Because our brain is controlled by two consciousnesses, namely the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, where the conscious mind only has 12% of the power to control ourselves, while the subconscious mind has 88% of the power to control ourselves, it is no wonder that we are more often controlled by the subconscious mind rather than by the conscious mind.

Experts find that procrastination is rooted in our biological condition. They found that procrastination was caused by opposition between parts of the brain called the prefrontal cortex and the part of the brain called the limbic system.

The limbic system is part of our ancient brain. As in the brains of animals and ancient human brains, the limbic system in our brain works automatically or unconsciously. He invites us to do work that does not involve decisions, analysis, conclusions, and all cognitive activities.

In fact, our work, our tasks in the office involve a lot of decisions, analysis, and cognitive processes, aka the process of understanding. Likewise our work at home is like reading a book, sweeping or cooking.

Contrary to our condition (we have to work to survive), the limbic system is more pleased with tasks that do not require an understanding process such as eating, watching TV, or daydreaming. He prefers to do tasks that, by Thomas Sterner, in his book entitled The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life, are called recreational work or recreational tasks (fun tasks like playing, listening to music, watching TV )

In contrast, the prefrontal cortex is a relatively newer part of our brain. It is the result of the evolution of the human brain (from animal brains evolving into ancient human brains, then evolving again into modern human brains). This section is responsible for carrying out cognitive activities such as understanding, analyzing, concluding, and making decisions. He invites us to do activities that involve decision, analysis, understanding, and all cognitive activities. He invites us to complete our tasks both in the office and at home (in Thomas Sterner's terms, this kind of work is called work alias).

Now, do you know why your prefrontal cortex often loses its battle with the limbic system? This is because the limbic system works automatically aka unconsciously, while the prefrontal cortex works consciously. In fact, we know that consciousness (the conscious mind) only has 12% of the power to control ourselves. 88% of the remaining power is owned by the subconscious mind (automatic mind).

This is why you often regret when you realize that you have been and are delaying work. However, you still delay your work.

Get rid of procrastination

After knowing that the habit of procrastinating is not only because of our habits or culture, but because of our natural biological conditions, how do we eliminate these habits? Maybe you even ask, "If procrastination is caused by our natural condition, can we eliminate the habit? Does that mean not against nature or nature? "

There is good news that you should be grateful for, even if your subconscious mind (the limbic system) is far from dominating yourself rather than your consciousness (the prefrontal cortex), there is still a chance for you to defeat the subconscious mind. The trick is to maintain your awareness! Have self-awareness, aka self-awareness.

Acting Consciously

You have been blessed with awareness. So, you don't need to look everywhere. All you need to do is maintain that awareness.

But, how to maintain awareness? In the Mind Management book: Effective Methods of Overcoming Depression, Anger, Anxiety, and Other Destructive Feelings, Dennis Greenberger and Christine A. Padesky reveal powerful ways to maintain consciousness, namely by writing our automatic thoughts on paper.

Write automatic thoughts

Automatic thoughts are thoughts that we don't realize, which often come from our subconscious mind (the limbic system). When we postpone work, what happens in our brain is that our subconscious mind produces automatic thoughts in such a way as to encourage us to delay work.

Now, therefore, we need to write down our automatic thoughts that encourage us to delay work. This is done so that we know the reason for our thoughts why he encouraged us to delay work.

It could be that, after writing down our automatic thoughts, we know why they encourage us to delay work, because our subconscious mind is afraid and anxious that the results of our work are not optimal and disappointing. Or, perhaps, our subconscious mind thinks we need to delay working on a task because it is a difficult task, where we have to concentrate and focus on getting it done, while now is not the right time to concentrate.

Whatever our automatic thoughts, write these thoughts on paper. To know our automatic thoughts regarding procrastination, ask yourself, "Why do you have to delay this work?"

After discovering the reasons for our subconscious mind, write the reasons on a piece of paper. For example, one day, you want to delay your work. Now, when that happens, realize that you are being controlled by your subconscious mind. Next, ask yourself why you want to delay work. After finding the answer from yourself, write the answers on a piece of paper.

Look for automatic thought support evidence

The next step, look for evidence that supports the mind (answer) and look for evidence that denies it. For example, you find the answer in yourself why you postpone work, that is because your subconscious mind is afraid and anxious about the results of the job. Your subconscious mind is afraid if the results are disappointing. The next step you have to do is look for evidence that supports that fear and anxiety.

Maybe, you will find evidence that supports the anxiety and fear of your subconscious mind, that you have made a mistake in doing your job. That makes your boss disappointed. Your subconscious mind thinks that if you ever made a mistake, then even now there is a possibility that you made a mistake again. For this reason, your subconscious mind encourages you to delay your work.

Look for evidence of automatic denial of thought

After getting your automatic (subconscious) mind supporting evidence, now look for evidence that denies that thought. In the example above, your subconscious mind is worried and fears your work is disappointing. Now, look for evidence that denies that thought. Maybe you find evidence that often your boss praises your work, even if you make mistakes often. That's because, you can almost always correct your mistakes. You know that your boss can tolerate the mistakes of his subordinates as long as his men have good intentions to correct their mistakes.

Now, by knowing the evidence that denies automatic thought (your subconscious mind), at least you realize that your unconscious mind is not 100% correct, that its anxiety and fear do not make sense. By knowing and being aware of this, at least you are encouraged to immediately do your work.

Set the time

The second way to eliminate procrastination is to set the time. In managing time, you don't need to write down all the tasks you have to do. Timing should be arranged so that there is enough time to do your tasks.

You also need to prioritize tasks that are important and easy for you. That way, you are encouraged to immediately solve it and continue to other tasks that are more difficult.

Give yourself credit

Even though it is not the most important factor in motivating yourself, appreciation is a factor that helps you be compelled to immediately complete your task. Appreciation can distract you from anxiety and feelings of worry in case your work is disappointing.

When you plan that you will reward yourself when you successfully complete your work, your attention will undoubtedly be distracted from what you used to focus on results (fear of disappointing results) to the form of appreciation you will give yourself.

Maybe, you will imagine a nice weekend with your family; take an excursion to a beautiful tourist spot, swim with family, watch, eat in a restaurant, or maybe do a hobby with your friends.

Now, the pleasant weekend imaginations will undoubtedly encourage you to finish your work immediately. Your subconscious mind will be compelled to think, "If this task is not completed today, then a vacation with your family is threatened with canceling because I have to overtime on the weekend to complete this job." As a result, your mind is encouraged to complete your task immediately.

Do it until it's finished and fix

Maybe, in the middle of working on a task, a desire arises within you to take a short break. Maybe you want to chat with friends, listen to music, or maybe you want to open an email, send SMS, open social media, or other activities.

With your self-awareness, control yourself not to do the things above before your task is complete. Set a timer to limit your work time. For example, to work on task A, set a timer for 2 hours. Do your job within 2 hours. Leave if there are one or two mistakes in doing your job.

After your assignment is complete, take time to re-examine your work. Fix the mistakes you made earlier.

This method (setting the timer) is very effective to shorten our work, also to divert our attention from disturbances such as social media, email, telephone, SMS, and music. In addition, this method is also very effective to divert our attention from the desire to delay work.

One of the major obstacles in achieving success is the habit of procrastinating. This habit is a reflection of our psychological and biological. Psychologically, our subconscious mind constantly fears and worries about the results of our work. And, therefore, he invites us to delay our work. Meanwhile, biologically, our subconscious mind is not interested in heavy tasks that involve decisions, analysis, effort, and responsibility. He always invites us to do relaxing activities, which do not require effort and responsibility.

As I explained before, the key to eliminating bad habits, including procrastination is awareness.Be aware of whatever thoughts are in our minds. Be aware that those thoughts drive us to do bad habits. When we are aware, we can control ourselves. We can deny those thoughts. And, we can also do whatever it takes to eliminate our bad habits.