Speaker 1: Oh hey there, thanks for joining us on the daily
Speaker 1: podcast and body and soul called Healthy Ish. I am
Speaker 1: your host of Felicity Hally. Now tell me do you
Speaker 1: procrastinate on perhaps the pesky everyday things and or life's
Speaker 1: bigger goals? Well, we're going to help you out today.
Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio is Alexis Fernandez Preksa. She's
Speaker 1: a neuroscientist turn podcast host of Do You f in Mind?
Speaker 1: And a best selling author, and she's here to share
Speaker 1: her trademark no nonsense advice on how to curb your
Speaker 1: procrastination tendencies, a theme in her new audiobook called How
Speaker 1: to Chase Change. Now, if you like what you hear
Speaker 1: from Alexis listening to Extra healthy Ish, our sister pod
Speaker 1: where she shares her mindset hacks for a bad US life.
Speaker 2: Alexis, welcome back to Healthy Ish. It's good to be
Speaker 2: bad that chat and in person? Yeah, which is ideal? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And with a new audiobook. Congratulations, thank you. Now.
Speaker 1: When I listen to Well the teaser for your audiobooks,
Speaker 1: there was one key word that just jumped out of
Speaker 1: me at me procrastinate less or two procrastination procrastinate less
Speaker 1: let's talk about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, it's not about laziness. No, what is it?
Speaker 3: No, well, procrastination Ultimately, I mean it sounds dramatic, but
Speaker 3: it ultimately comes down to it's an avoidance behavior. So
Speaker 3: it's fear based, but not in the sense of like
Speaker 3: I'm scared fear based.
Speaker 2: It's just your body kind of pulling the brakes.
Speaker 3: Because you look at any situation and you think, if
Speaker 3: I've got two options here, I'm going to take the
Speaker 3: one that's causing me the least amount of discomfort unless
Speaker 3: there's a real reason to do so. Because when you
Speaker 3: have a deadline, you're not procrastinaating on it. Like we know, ultimately,
Speaker 3: if we have no choice, we do it. You can
Speaker 3: apply that example to everything in your life. So it's
Speaker 3: only when we have the choice, which of the two
Speaker 3: is the least uncomfortable, and I'm going to lean into that.
Speaker 3: So I think when it comes to procrastinating, if you
Speaker 3: can learn to just curb that just the tiniest amount,
Speaker 3: you will see so much change in your productivity, in
Speaker 3: your overall happiness, and also a reduction in your stress
Speaker 3: because you're getting things done.
Speaker 1: So it's almost recognizing being self aware enough to know, Okay,
Speaker 1: this I am actually procrastinating. Yes, I'm not just putting
Speaker 1: it off. This is procrastination, and I can do something
Speaker 1: about this exactly.
Speaker 3: And you have to be honest with yourself, because we
Speaker 3: tell ourselves I won't do that now, I'll do that tomorrow.
Speaker 3: We think that there's a version of ourselves out there
Speaker 3: in the future that is willing to do what we're
Speaker 3: not willing to do right now, and there never is.
Speaker 3: So you've got a number one identify that, and then
Speaker 3: you've got to make it easy for yourself. So what
Speaker 3: I personally do is I say I'm going to spend
Speaker 3: ten minutes on this task, even if the task overall
Speaker 3: takes two hours, that doesn't matter whether it be. I'll
Speaker 3: organize it so it's easier to do it when I
Speaker 3: do it tomorrow, or I will spend ten minutes towards
Speaker 3: when I was at UNI towards just looking up reference lists.
Speaker 2: I don't have to do it. I don't.
Speaker 3: So you make it a really easy thing to do.
Speaker 3: And then most times, after the ten minutes was up,
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I'm already doing it. I might as
Speaker 3: well finish it. It's just the starting that is hard.
Speaker 3: It's that once you start the momentum, then it's actually
Speaker 3: relatively easy to stay on tasks.
Speaker 2: That is such a.
Speaker 1: Good example because often you'd be like, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get anywhere in ten minutes, what's the point exactly?
Speaker 1: But you're saying just do it, because then you're you're
Speaker 1: on your way exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: And even if it's let's say you've got to you
Speaker 3: want to change your super and you're you're putting that
Speaker 3: off something really boring, I'd really care about task.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you can't do that in ten minutes.
Speaker 3: But what I would do is let's get the phone
Speaker 3: numbers ready, let's get everything sorted. So then and then
Speaker 3: before you know, you're like, well, I'm here now, why
Speaker 3: didn't I just do it? It's not going to take
Speaker 3: that long. And if the ten minutes is up and
Speaker 3: it was that painful, well then you've done your ten
Speaker 3: minutes and then we can do another ten.
Speaker 1: Actually a great example is exercise. If you want need
Speaker 1: to exercise, yes, just do five minutes. Just get out
Speaker 1: the door and then you.
Speaker 2: Are never exercise.
Speaker 3: Put on your active wear and just walk around the
Speaker 3: block and then come home.
Speaker 1: Now your audiobook is all about chasing change for filling goals,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: What role does procrastination playing this? We and I think
Speaker 2: all of us can relate to this.
Speaker 3: We always do the urgent tasks now and the important
Speaker 3: tasks later.
Speaker 2: It's, oh, that's really hard. I'll wait till I've got
Speaker 2: a full day. I've wait till I wait, I'll wait.
Speaker 3: I think so many of us can relate to us
Speaker 3: having a goal or a dream that we've been talking
Speaker 3: about for at least five years. You know, you're capable
Speaker 3: of doing it, but the only reason you're not doing
Speaker 3: it is because it's a little bit uncomfortable. There's so
Speaker 3: much that we have right now, with the resources that
Speaker 3: we have, without needing extra money, without needing that much
Speaker 3: more time, that we could accomplish in our life just
Speaker 3: with basic, tiny tweaks that we don't purely because we
Speaker 3: put it off.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's I think a lot of the time people think, oh,
Speaker 3: but I've got to wait until this happens or until
Speaker 3: that happens. But it's like, no, just with the resources
Speaker 3: you have right now, you could be doing fifty percent
Speaker 3: more than what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Wait another year, then another year, goes, and then half
Speaker 1: time passes and then it's too late.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One thing when it comes to procrastination is distractions. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is you're sitting there, let's go back to the exam,
Speaker 1: because that's a great example. You've got it coming up.
Speaker 1: If you just spend ten minutes. Oh there's my phone,
Speaker 1: Oh what's going on on Instagram, what's happening on TikTok.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like there are more distractions around
Speaker 1: today than there perhaps well even five years ago.
Speaker 3: Definitely, definitely, And you've got to look at you know,
Speaker 3: when you look at the business side of those companies,
Speaker 3: they're designed to distract us. They're designed by the smartest
Speaker 3: people to distract us. So they're doing their job and
Speaker 3: they're doing it very well. But we've got to learn
Speaker 3: how to always say, learn how to use technology and
Speaker 3: don't let it use you. So one main thing that
Speaker 3: I always recommend is no social media for the first hour,
Speaker 3: if possible, two hours of the day because you've got
Speaker 3: to look at especially that kind of distraction where it's
Speaker 3: a quick, fixed distraction. So something that instantly makes me
Speaker 3: feel good with no effort, that's really dangerous when it
Speaker 3: comes to pulling our focus and also like lowering our
Speaker 3: willingness to do things. Because every time you look at
Speaker 3: your phone, you get a hit of dopamine. Someone liked it,
Speaker 3: someone sent me a message, someone whatever, and so then
Speaker 3: that hit of dopamine that feels good. Dopamine is our
Speaker 3: willingness to do things, and you get a release just
Speaker 3: before you open the app and when you open.
Speaker 2: The up and then it drops.
Speaker 3: There's certain ways that you can get dopamine where it
Speaker 3: doesn't drop, and that's things that require effort, So not
Speaker 3: checking your phone. That's things like exercise, getting outside in
Speaker 3: the sunlight, working on a task, that cooperating in a team.
Speaker 3: These things are like a good slow release of dopamine.
Speaker 3: So we've got to look at Okay, if dopamine is
Speaker 3: my willingness to do things, and me checking my phone
Speaker 3: is reducing my dopamine, I get a spike and then
Speaker 3: a drop below baseline, What does that mean for my studying?
Speaker 2: What does that mean for my effort at work?
Speaker 3: So it's not saying don't use your phone, but I
Speaker 3: if I've got a big thing that I've got a
Speaker 3: plan or work towards, I'm not going to look at
Speaker 3: my phone until after that time block is done, whether
Speaker 3: it's an hour or two hours, then I'll check my
Speaker 3: phone for ten minutes and then I put it.
Speaker 2: Do you put it somewhere else? Like? How do you
Speaker 2: manage that?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
Speaker 3: So what I do is, especially if I really need
Speaker 3: to drop into a deep focus zone, I will set
Speaker 3: a forty five minute timer on my phone, but have
Speaker 3: it away from me so it's not within reach, and
Speaker 3: there's forty five minutes in the zone where I can
Speaker 3: absolutely not grab my phone, and my phone's on silent.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: And then once the timer is off. Sometimes I'm just
Speaker 3: two in the zone and I'm like, forget the time.
Speaker 3: I'm still doing it. And when the timer goes off
Speaker 3: and I think, great, okay, I get I give myself
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes. I just total rest do it?
Speaker 2: Are you good at this? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I do this well not. The thing is
Speaker 3: you can start off with really small blocks. The beauty
Speaker 3: about time blocking is that it's easy from.
Speaker 2: The get go.
Speaker 3: So you can start off with twenty minutes on, five
Speaker 3: minutes off, or twenty minutes on ten minutes off, and
Speaker 3: then just you find your sweet spot. For me, it's
Speaker 3: forty five minutes. That's my sweet spot. Some people it's thirty.
Speaker 3: And I actually got taught this by a lecturer who
Speaker 3: used to do this during a lecture and in between
Speaker 3: she'd put on Modern Family and all our focus was
Speaker 3: just great because we'd be in the zone. Then she'd
Speaker 3: do something really fun in between, and then we'd be
Speaker 3: in the zone again. And I thought, I'm going to
Speaker 3: do that at home. And it's worked really well.
Speaker 2: What great I mean?
Speaker 1: I suppose your lecture would know the ins and outs
Speaker 1: of what's going on in the brain, so she knows
Speaker 1: how to manipulate her students exactly actually gets off. Now,
Speaker 1: studies have found self compassion can be one of the
Speaker 1: ways to overcome procrastination.
Speaker 2: Talk to us about this and perhaps some other.
Speaker 1: Ways that you overcome yours when it comes to setting
Speaker 1: the big goals.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, I think if you look, because because procrastination
Speaker 3: is about avoiding the uncomfortable, when you're really hard on yourself,
Speaker 3: you're making this thing bigger and bigger and bigger. It's
Speaker 3: like the elephant in the room that you're not addressing.
Speaker 3: So if you keep saying, oh, but I'm a failure,
Speaker 3: but it's going to be really hard of it. You know,
Speaker 3: I get anxiety. You really pay attention to your language,
Speaker 3: and if we're really self critical, if we're really catastrophic
Speaker 3: with our language, then that thing that we're avoiding becomes
Speaker 3: the source of more pain, more and more and more pain.
Speaker 3: If you can just be a lot kinder to yourself
Speaker 3: and say, the reason I haven't done this is purely
Speaker 3: because I haven't given myself the resources or I haven't
Speaker 3: looked at it in a different way. And I'm going
Speaker 3: to give my chance to try doing it in this way.
Speaker 3: You know I'm capable. I've done this before. I can
Speaker 3: surely do this. You start being a lot more specific
Speaker 3: with your language instead of being universal with this really
Speaker 3: negative phrase is that we say, so, if you're a
Speaker 3: lot kinder to yourself in that regard, then you give
Speaker 3: yourself more chances. And everybody procrastinates. I procrastinate all the time.
Speaker 2: You've got anything you particularly procrastinate about.
Speaker 3: Yes, anything to anything to do with like banking and
Speaker 3: budgeting and all that stuff. I definitely procrastinate on. It
Speaker 3: gets done, but it's something that I have to really
Speaker 3: remind myself that, you know, like practice what I preach
Speaker 3: and think okay, just thirty minutes or twenty minutes, you know,
Speaker 3: and then it's done.
Speaker 2: Alexis, thank you for coming on, help you. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Lexus is good, isn't she full of really useful, no
Speaker 1: nonsense information and wisdom. I will leave a link to
Speaker 1: her last chats with us in the show notes, as
Speaker 1: well as a link to her audio book called How
Speaker 1: to Chase a Change. If you did enjoy this chat,
Speaker 1: rate and review it, or of course, subscribe to this podcast,
Speaker 1: Jump online, Body andsoul dot com dot you is the
Speaker 1: place to go for lost and social grub our print
Speaker 1: edition which is out in your local Sunday paper. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening and stay healthy. Is