![]() How to Beat Procrastination - Wait But Why. This is Part 2. You won’t get Part 2 if you haven’t read Part 1 yet. I’ve spent the last two weeks being. I’m still in a total battle with my own habits, but I have made some progress in the last few years, and I’m drawing my thoughts from what’s worked for me. This post was posted late, not only because it took me 2,0. I decided that Monday night was an urgent time to open Google Earth, hover a few hundred feet above the southern tip of India, and scroll all the way up India to the top of the country, to “get a better feel for India.” I have problems. Alright, so last week we dove into the everyday inner struggle of the procrastinator to examine the underlying psychology going on. But this week, when we’re actually trying to do something about it, we need to dig even deeper. Let’s begin by trying to unwrap the procrastinator’s psychology and see what’s really at the core of things: We know about the Instant Gratification Monkey (the part of your brain that makes you procrastinate) and his dominion over the Rational Decision Maker, but what’s really happening there? ![]() The procrastinator is in the bad habit, bordering on addiction, of letting the monkey win. He continues to have the intention to control the monkey, but he puts forth a hapless effort, using the same proven- not- to- work methods he’s used for years, and deep down, he knows the monkey will win. ![]() He vows to change, but the patterns just stay the same. So why would an otherwise capable person put forth such a lame and futile effort again and again? The answer is that he has incredibly low confidence when it comes to this part of his life, allowing himself to become enslaved by a self- defeating, self- fulfilling prophecy. Let’s call this self- fulfilling prophecy his Storyline. The procrastinator’s Storyline goes something like this: For the Have- To- Dos in my life, I’ll end up waiting until the last minute, panicking, and then either doing less than my best work or shutting down and not doing anything at all. For the Want- To- Dos in my life, let’s be honest. What do the right habits even look like, and where exactly will the procrastinator run into trouble? There are two components of being able to achieve things in a healthy and effective manner. Let’s start with the easy one: Planning. Procrastinators love planning, quite simply because planning does not involve. A procrastinator’s planning session leaves him with a doer’s nightmare: A big list of icky, daunting tasks and undertakings. A big list of vague and daunting things makes the Instant Gratification Monkey laugh. When you make a list like that, the monkey says, “Oh perfect, this is easy.” Even if your gullible conscious mind believes it intends to accomplish the items on that list in an efficient manner, the monkey knows that in your subconscious, you have no intention of doing so. Effective planning, on the other hand, sets you up for success. Its purpose is to do the exact opposite of everything in that sentence: Effective planning takes a. And the item that wins should be the one that means the most to you. If urgent items are involved, those will have to come first and should be knocked out as quickly as possible in order to make way for the important items (procrastinators love to use unimportant but urgent items as an excuse to forever put off the important ones). Effective planning makes an icky item un- icky: We all know what an icky item is. Most Common Text: Click on the icon to return to www.berro.com and to enjoy and benefit. Quiver de Yoann Bourquin (copyright Ruddy Bardel) Citadins en manque de surf, de snow? Sk8ters en quête de nouvelles sensations glisse : plus fluides, plus libres? About the Author: Peter Attia, M.D., is a physician in private practice in NYC and CA. His practice focuses on longevity and healthspan. His clinical interests are. Let me start by saying that I DEEPER INSIGHTS INTO THE ILLUMINATI FORMULA. Important Explanation of Contents. An icky item is vague and murky, and you’re not really sure where you’d start, how you’d go about doing it, or where you’d get answers to your questions about it. So let’s say your dream is to make your own app, and you know that if you build a successful app you could quit your job and become a full- time developer. You also think that programming ability is the literacy of the 2. Learn how to code” the winning item on your list. ![]() Exciting, right? Well, no, because “Learn how to code” is an intensely icky item. It’ll never end up happening. To un- icky the item, you need to read, research, and ask questions to find out exactly how one learns how to code, the specific means necessary for each step along the way, and how long each one should take. Un- ickying a list item turns it from this: Into this: Effective planning turns a daunting item into a series of small, clear, manageable tasks: Icky combines with Daunting into an Instant Gratification Monkey steroid potion. And just because you un- icky an item, it doesn’t mean it’s still not horribly big and daunting. The key to de- dauntifying an item is to absorb this fact: A remarkable, glorious achievement is just what a long series of unremarkable, unglorious tasks looks like from far away. No one “builds a house.” They lay one brick again and again and again and the end result is a house. Procrastinators are great visionaries. A 4. 5- minute gym visit is the brick of getting in great shape. A 3. 0- minute practice session is the brick of becoming a great guitarist. The average day in a wannabe author’s week and a real author’s week looks almost the same. The real author writes a couple pages, laying a brick, and the wannabe author writes nothing. But a year later, the real author has a completed first draft of a book and the wannabe author has. ![]() But bricks do require scheduling. So the final step in planning is to make a Brick Timeline, which slots bricks into the calendar. The slots are non- negotiable and non- cancellable? ![]() The most important date is the first one. You can’t start learning to code “in November.” But you can start learning to code on November 2. Now you’re effectively planned. Only thing left is to do. They look at the bricks on their calendar and they think, “Great, this will be fun.” And that’s because when they picture the moment in the future when they sit down and knock out a work session, they picture things without. Procrastinators’ visions of future scenarios never seem to include the monkey. But when the actual moment arrives to begin that scheduled brick- laying, the procrastinator does what the procrastinator does best. Let’s examine this specific challenge of laying a single brick: So this diagram represents the challenge at hand anytime you take on a task, whether it’s making a Power. Point for work, going on a jog, working on a script, or anything else you do in your life. The Critical Entrance is where you go to officially start work on the task, the Dark Woods are the process of actually doing the work, and once you finish, you’re rewarded by ending up in The Happy Playground. You occasionally even end up super- engaged with what you’re working on and enter a state of Flow, where you’re so blissfully immersed in the task that you lose track of time. Those paths look something like this: Sounds pretty simple, right? Well unfortunately for procrastinators, they tend to miss out on both The Happy Playground and Flow. For example, here’s a procrastinator that never even gets started on the task he’s supposed to do, because he never makes it through the Critical Entrance. Instead, he spends hours wallowing in The Dark Playground, hating himself: Here’s a procrastinator who gets started on the task, but she can’t stay focused, and she keeps taking long breaks to play on the internet and make food. She doesn’t end up finishing the task: Here’s a procrastinator who couldn’t bring himself to get started, even though a work deadline was approaching, and he spent hours in The Dark Playground, knowing the looming deadline was drawing near and he was only making his life harder by not starting. Eventually, the deadline got so close, the Panic Monster suddenly came roaring into the room, freaking him out and causing him to fly through the task to hit the deadline. After he finishes, he feels decent because he accomplished something, but he’s also not that pleased because he knows he did an underwhelming job on the project because he had to rush so much, and he feels like he wasted most of his day procrastinating for no reason. This lands him in Mixed Feelings Park. So if you’re a procrastinator, let’s look at what you need to do to get on the right path, one that will leave you much happier. The first thing you. This means stopping whatever you’re doing when it’s time to begin the task, putting away all distractions, and getting started. It sounds simple, but this is the hardest part. This is where the Instant Gratification Monkey puts up his fiercest resistance: The monkey absolutely hates stopping something fun to start something hard, and this is where you need to be the strongest. If you can get started and force the monkey into the Dark Woods, you’ve broken a bit of his will. Of course, he’s not going to give up anytime soon. The Dark Woods is where you are when you’re working. It’s not a fun place to be, and the Instant Gratification Monkey wants nothing to do with it. To make things harder, the Dark Woods is surrounded by the Dark Playground, one of the monkey’s favorite places, and since he can see how close it is, he’ll try as hard as he can to leave the Dark Woods. There will also be times when you bump into a tree. They both suck to be in, but the big difference is the Dark Woods leads to happiness and the Dark Playground leads only to more misery. But the Instant Gratification Monkey isn’t logical and to him, the Dark Playground seems like much more fun. The good news is, if you can power through a bit of the Dark Woods, something funny happens. Making progress on a task produces positive feelings of accomplishment and raises your self- esteem. The monkey gains his strength off of low self- esteem, and when you feel a jolt of self- satisfaction, the monkey finds a High Self- Esteem Banana in his path. It doesn’t quell his resistance entirely, but it goes a long way to distracting him for a while, and you’ll find that the urge to procrastinate has diminished. Then, if you continue along, something magical happens. Make Your Own Homemade Greek Yogurt. Homemade organic Greek yogurt with Colorado honey and granola. I first had Greek yogurt when we visited Aunt Sara and Uncle Myron at their beautiful home on the Chesapeake Bay. Each morning Aunt Sara would lay out a big breakfast buffet with fresh melons, cereals, crispy bacon, eggs, juices, pastries, breads, jams, and all manner of tempting treats. One morning she put out a big container of Greek yogurt, and I was completely hooked at the first bite. Greek yogurt compares to regular yogurt like home- grown tomatoes compare to February tomatoes in the grocery store—about a kazillion times better. Greek yogurt—even the nonfat version—is thick, rich and creamy. However, it also costs substantially more than regular yogurt—a 3. FAGE is $7. 4. 9 at my grocery store, and it’s not organic—which is why I decided to try and make some myself here at the urban homestead. I spent $2. 6. 9 for organic milk and 9. I already had cheesecloth) so I saved over 5. When I make the next batch, I’ll use 2 tablespoons of the yogurt from this batch for the starter so the cost will be even less. This project was one of my most successful culinary experiments, and if you’re a fan of Greek yogurt you’re going to love making your own. After some online research, I mostly followed the basic yogurt recipe in the Joy of Cooking cookbook. I started a batch before we went to bed last night, and awoke to fresh yogurt; it was almost as exciting as Christmas morning! Here’s what you need to make 3. Greek yogurt: 1/2 gallon milk* – fat content of your choice (I used organic 1% milk)2 to 3 tablespoons plain prepared yogurt (make sure it contains live, active cultures)cooking thermometercheesecloth to fit 4 layers in a large strainer*I prefer to prepare this recipe with organic milk, which is produced without any synthetic chemicals, hormones or antibiotics. It’s often on sale there at my store, so the cost savings is even greater. If you’re using non- organic milk, for best results try to use regular pasteurized milk rather than ultra- pasteurized. To begin, pour all but 2 tablespoons milk into a double boiler or heavy- bottomed pan and turn the heat to medium. If using a double boiler, cover the milk. If the pot is directly on the burner, stir it and watch it very, very carefully so you don’t burn the bottom. Heat the milk to 1. F. It helps to have a candy thermometer so you can carefully watch the temperature, but when I went to fetch mine I remembered that the kids broke it the last time they made frosting so I used an instant- read thermometer instead. Heat the milk to just 1. F. Immediately remove the pot from the stove and carefully pour the hot milk into a glass or ceramic bowl or casserole dish. Put the dish on a cooling rack uncovered, and let the milk cool to between 1. F. In our kitchen, this took about 5. If your oven doesn’t have that setting, turn it to 1. F. Combine the 2 tablespoons of milk you saved with the prepared yogurt in a small bowl and reserve. Resist the temptation to add more than 3 tablespoons yogurt. According to the Joy of Cooking, “you may wonder why so little starter is used and think that a little more will give a better result. The bacillus, if crowded, gives a sour, watery product.” I used 2 1/2 level tablespoons of prepared yogurt and the resulting yogurt was thick, mild and creamy. Combine the yogurt starter with 2 tablespoons milk. Once the milk has cooled to between 1. Just the light from the oven should keep the dish warm enough to enable the yogurt- making process. Put the towel- covered dish in the oven, making sure that the towel isn’t near the oven lightbulb, and leave the oven light on. If your oven light doesn’t emit any heat, you can alternately put the towel- covered dish on a heating pad set on “low,” or put it in a cooler with a snug- fitting lid and several jars of hot water to maintain the heat. Leave the yogurt undisturbed for 7 or 8 hours, or overnight. In the morning, carefully take the dish out, unwrap it and remove the lid, and check to see whether the milk has turned to yogurt. After eight hours, this is how our yogurt looks: The milk miraculously turned to yogurt overnight! If your batch isn’t quite thickened, return it to the oven and check on it again in an hour. Once the yogurt is sufficiently thickened, you can stop at this stage if you want regular yogurt. Just stir the mixture and refrigerate it; you may need to pour off a little of the watery liquid. Don’t forget to turn off the light in your oven! For creamy Greek yogurt, refrigerate the yogurt for at least three hours to allow it to completely cool and thicken. Line a large strainer with four layers of damp cheesecloth and find a bowl that the strainer will fit inside: Put the strainer inside the bowl and pour the yogurt in; refrigerate for one hour. Pour out the liquid that has accumulated in the bottom of the bowl; this is the whey – that’s right, the very same delicacy Little Miss Muffet ate while she was sitting on her tuffet. You can save the whey and use it for cooking (a common use is as a liquid in homemade bread recipes) or discard it. Return the bowl to the refrigerator for one more hour, strain the liquid again and the yogurt should now look thick and creamy – like this: Fresh Greek yogurt. Spoon it into a container and refrigerate for up to six days. I find most store- bought plain yogurt is too tart for my liking so I usually buy the vanilla- flavored variety, but you’ll discover that this homemade yogurt has a very mild flavor. You can enjoy it as is, add some fresh fruit or jam, or do what we did and serve it with raw wildflower honey (we love Colorado- based Madhava Honey) and homemade granola. Remember to save a couple of tablespoons of your homemade yogurt so you can use it as starter for the next batch! After many successful batches of homemade yogurt, I recently had a big FAIL. The only thing I’d done differently was to use our smaller, upper oven to incubate the yogurt instead of the lower oven I usually use. When I pulled the yogurt out the next morning it hadn’t thickened at all; it was simply a big bowl of warm milk. I was so disappointed! At first I suspected the milk, because I’d used the big- name brand of organic milk that is known to be ultra- pasteurized. But when I measured the temperature of the milk, it was 1. I decided to experiment with the failed batch, and let the milk cool back to 1. Then I added 2 more tablespoons of yogurt mixed with 1 tablespoon of milk. In fact, it was one of the thickest batches I’ve ever made. The consistency was a little sticky, but after I strained the yogurt it was fine. So if you ever have a batch that fails, you may want to try again and try to find the right spot where you can keep the yogurt at that ideal temperature of about 1. F. If your oven light doesn’t emit any heat, you can alternately put the towel- covered dish on a heating pad set on “low,” or put it in a cooler with a snug- fitting lid and several jars of hot water to maintain the heat. If you liked making your own Greek Yogurt, you might also enjoy this Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe. Eliza Cross is a full- time writer and the author of a dozen books about food and home design. She has been blogging about simplicity and sustainable living since 2.
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