Viktor Kustein - Prokrastinace

During their studies, each student has more or less struggled with the issue of procrastination, pathological postponing important tasks and duties. Have you ever preferred to watch your favourite TV series instead of studying for important exams? Or have you gone for a beer with friends even though an important test was expecting you the next day? Have you ever felt like staying in bed in the morning and missing some important lesson or seminar, so you had a long sleep and then you were looking for an excuse why you had missed it to silence your conscience? If your answer to any of the previous questions is yes, then you have already experienced procrastination in your life. In the following 15 minutes you will learn what procrastination actually is and how to learn to fight against it. (VIKTOR KUSTEIN PROCRASTINATION) To be able to work with this problem further, this term first needs to be defined and we have to say what procrastination is and what procrastination is not. Although it may seem strange, procrastination is not a word that has arisen recently. This word comes from Latin from the Latin term PRO-CRASTINUS meaning BELONGING TO TOMORROW PROCRASTINATION is then, as already mentioned, PATHOLOGICAL POSTPONING TASKS AND DUTIES If I had to draw procrastination, it would look something like this: I have a set of THINGS which I need to do, which I SHOULD DO. Then I have set of THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO DO) Ideally, these two sets should overlap, and when procrastinating, I am doing things that are here: (THINGS I DO WHEN PROCRASTINATING) Or procrastination could also be graphically illustrated as follows: Every day we have some actions and tasks that should be done. We also have some time allowed for these tasks. (TASKS) If procrastinating, my solving the tasks looks something like this: (TASKS, TIME) This leads to frustration, stress and lower quality of these resolved tasks. (TASKS, TIME, SOLUTION) Subsequently, we get into a loop from which it is very difficult to escape by yourself. We do not do anything, thus we are full of remorse, we start doubting ourselves, feel helpless, which leads again to not doing anything. (I DO NOTHING, I AM FULL OF REMORSE, I FEEL HELPLESS,I DO NOTHING) It is also important to define what procrastination is not. First of all, procrastination is not relaxing. If a person is relaxing, he or she is gaining energy. If one is procrastinating, then energy is lost. There is a big difference between when we watch a movie after a well done job, or when we are watching a movie instead of the important tasks. Procrastination is neither laziness. A lazy man does not want to do anything with this he is a state of reconciliation. (LAZINESS) While a poor procrastinator would like to do something, but does not know how to. In my work, I build on the research of the best-reviewed universities in the world, such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley and others. Then I use these researches in solving the phenomenon, such as the already mentioned procrastination. All of us somehow strive live our lives to the fullest. Why to deal with procrastination is well shown in this figure. We study at schools, get educated, and gain work experience. (LIFE TO THE FULLEST) We work on ourselves and on other people or projects. Again and again, however, procrastination comes into our way, (LIFE TO THE FULLEST, PROCRASTINATION) it is the main reason why many people are not experiencing life to its fullest nowadays. It is the reason why many people do not complete their studies, why they have problems at work, suffer from burnout syndrome or depression. What can we do about it? How to fight against inefficiency during the studies? How to beat procrastination-related problems? In the next few minutes, I'll give you two tips which are the key to its defeat. The first is awareness of the value of time. Time is the most important value that we have in life. (VALUE OF TIME) Some people think that the greatest value is money, but it is not. We can earn money, we can borrow money. If we have enough, we can save them to the bank. With time it is different. Every second that passes out of our lives, is irretrievably gone and nobody can ever return it to us. One day we were born and one day we will die, too. And the time period between these two moments is finite and limited. The actual awareness of this fact results in question what we should devote this time to. If a person perceives time as value, he or she will hardly waste it. They will hardly be wasting their time by sitting at infinite TV series, hardly at social networks. As one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, Professor Philip Zimbardo, put it: People are much more likely to regret what they didn't do than to regret what they did. Therefore use your time wisely to prevent regretting later. The second key to defeating procrastination is the right kind of motivation.(MOTIVATION) Students are often confronted with the fact that they are not driven by intrinsic motivation to their study, but by extrinsic motivation -- sometimes it also called "CARROTS AND STICKS" MOTIVATION Simply put, this motivation works as follows: Man in his life does actions not because it is something he wants to do, but he does them because there is a stick behind him, that forces him to do those actions. This stick can be of various origins. At work, a typical example of such a stick is deduction of premiums; in the process of education, the stick can be represented by parents, possibly bad study results. A greatest stick of our time is the mortgage. People do jobs that they do not like, in which they do not see any sense, but they do them because they are paying their expensive housing. A lot of students are studying at a school or field not because they wished it, but because their parents or their surroundings forced them to. Yet alternatively, they are studying a field which they themselves did not want to, but had to study it, because they were not accepted to their dreamed-of one. Nevertheless, this type of motivation has some cons. As the person is not doing the actions that he wanted, but is forced into them, he is not so happy with them. This dissatisfaction leads to inadequate release of the hormone called DOPAMINE in his brain. This hormone is a neurotransmitter, which is also responsible, among other things, for our creativity and that we study well. A student motivated in this way is not very creative and studying consumes him considerably more time than for his colleagues who sees sense in the field. During my studies, I myself met many people who, in their studies, did not see any sense at all. Studying for tests was much more time-consuming for them than for others and many of them have not even finish their education. Do you have a similar feeling of your studies? Have you come to school only because you were told by your parents? Are you studying a filed which, in fact, you have no relationship to? Then you should change something in your approach. Many people make this change by defining goals in their lives for which they do these actions. They use a so-called "goal-directed intrinsic motivation." They do things in order to be able to buy expensive cars, houses, to gain recognition and status in society. (GOAL-DIRECTED INTRINSIC MOTIVATION) The principle of this motivation is setting a goal to which one's actions are directed. This vision drives us forward. This motivation, however, has a number of disadvantages. Since the person does the actions because they lead to some goal, while doing these actions he is not happy, as he has not yet had the dream goal. He is struggling with the same problems as with external motivation. Another disadvantage of this motivation is that even if a person achieved the goal, his happiness lasts for only a short period of time. In his brain a single dopamine dose is released, which is scientifically known as "JOY." The level of dopamine in the brain drops quickly. Professionally, this phenomenon is called "hedonic adaptation," which is the ability of human brain to adapt to any positive situation in human life. Since human emotions do not last long, he needs to define another, ideal a bigger goal, because achieving the same goal would not produce the same response in the brain. Thus, people say: "It was not in the Audi, it will be in the Porsche." The quest for goals continues. People who use this kind of motivation for long, grow into so-called "goal junkies." They need to set bigger and bigger goals, so that their emotions were alike. scientifically, this phenomenon is called "AROUSAL ADDICTION." This addiction can be compared to *** addiction. The phenomenon of hedonic adaptation may affect all of us. Nobel Laureate in Economics of 2002, DANIEL KAHNEMAN in one of his interviews said, that awarding the Nobel Prize was just one of the worst things that have happened in his life. He was, of course, excited when taking the price over, but a few weeks later media stopped writing about him and he fell almost into oblivion. His emotions have neither been the same as at the prize takeover. This example demonstrates that the human brain is able to adapt to almost any life situation. Whether you win an Olympic gold, get the Nobel Prize, or achieve your dream university degree, these things will have no effect on your long-term satisfaction. How to get out? How to motivate yourself when even goals do not work and do not lead to long-term satisfaction? The latest research in the field of human motivation shows that people are the happiest not when there is a stick behind them and not when reaching some goals, but when they see some sense in the actions themselves. This third motivation is called "VISION-ORIENTED INTRINSIC MOTIVATION." The principle lies in the person doing the actions that he or she wants to do and that lead to the ideal image of his or her life -- namely to one's personal vision which is unattainable, unlike goals. Since the person does actions that he wants to do, he is happy in that process, his brain releases much dopamine, which leads to the fact that the person learns well and is more creative. Creativity allows him to invent still more effective procedures, which results in being more successful in his work or life, releasing even more dopamine, which in turn leads to increasing creativity again. That may give a rise to a feedback loop which is called "FLOW" and which, unlike the "joy" emotion arising in achieving the goals, does not fade out so easily. A research by Hungarian psychologist Csikszentmihalyi indicates that most of the successful athletes, scientists or entrepreneurs were able to get into a state of "flow" and use it in practice, while studying or working for their benefit. There is a huge difference between studying because I want to have a degree, or because the very process of studying makes sense to me and this process fits into my personal vision. Likewise, there is a huge difference in studying medicine between studying in order to reach the degree and the social status, or to treat people. Generally, people who see sense in their actions fall into the trap of procrastination less than others. This entire view of human motivation turns the generally widespread belief that at first one needs the results and he can be happy then. (RESULTS, HAPPINESS) It is exactly the opposite. (RESULTS, HAPPINESS) First, one must be happy and then the results will come. (RESULTS, HAPPINESS) Or, as said by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 1952, Albert Schweitzer: Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. (ALBERT SCHWEITZER) If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. So the question is: Do you like the field you are studying? Do you see the sense in your further education? Have you ever considered your personal vision or where to direct your life further? The previous minutes served only to pass a few tips and information beneficial for long-term procrastination defeating. For more information and tips, see the book "Ending procrastination" or the website www.KONEC-PROKRASTINACE.CZ. I would like to say good-bye to you with a Japanese proverb: VISION WITHOUT ACTION IS A DAYDREAM. ACTION WITHOUT VISION IS A NIGHTMARE. THE VIDEO WAS CREATED WITHIN THE PROJECT: CENTER OF INFORMATION EDUCATION: DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION LITERACY AT MU, PROJECT REG. NO. CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0241.