In the Part 1, we looked at what usually causes a person to procrastinate and mentioned what Analysis Paralysis is. In the Part 2, we are going to look at the possible practical solutions to stop procrastination and Analysis Paralysis (Information Overload).

Solutions:

B) It is true that some feeling of anxiety can be linked to a particular task, action, or situation. However, there is a way to overcome that if you truly want to reach the end result you desire.

Would you agree that it is much harder to run a 20-mile marathon, than 500 feet (to get bread at Trader Jones)?

YES! Of course it is HARDER… BUT NOT HARD.

You don’t want to run 20 miles if you never ran more than 1 mile without resting. Of course you are not going to want to do a 20-mile marathon EVER AGAIN… because it is freaking painful, you will avoid it at any cost. Congratulations! You just linked pain and running together and the next time you hear anything associated with running a marathon, you are going to recall (remember) that pain.

In order to avoid scenarios like the one above, we need to apply what is called ‘CHUNKING’. The idea is to start from really easy tasks (500 feet run) and graduate to more complicated ones (2 miles, 4 miles, 6 miles,
etc.). This way, even if you already have anxiety associated with doing the task, you can start from a very small task that resembles the original and slowly but surely move to the actual task.

Principle: Break big tasks into many small tasks to get them done easier.

This method allows you to build little by little on the previous experience and become even better at doing the task than if you were to start doing what ‘other runners have practiced for 2 years’ and get discouraged.

Example: You procrastinate opening an account at RentACoder.com and posting a project even though other people have gotten tremendous results and saved a lot time.

1. At first, you just would go open a free account with RentACoder.com and Log Out. DONE

2. The next time, you would Log In and just look around and familiarize yourself with what is where, how do you post a bid request, what happens when you press this button, that link… and Log Out. DONE

3. Now that you are somewhat familiar with the interface and have an idea about how things work, think of the project that you would want to have somebody else do for you and write down as much detail as possible on a piece of paper (bullet points, visual representations, tables, etc.). DONE

4. Once you are done with that, simply Log In to RentACoder.com and create a bid request while following the details you wrote down (cheat sheet). DONE

5. Congratulations! You overcame the biggest barrier… now, simply ‘pick up the remaining small pieces’ (Go back to check how many people bid, choose the right person, message back and forth to further communicate your vision to the RentACoder Programmer) and go with the flow. DONE

6. Write down your accomplishment to make yourself more confident in your abilities to get things done and add to your mental strength. DONE

Metaphore:

“There are 10 stair steps in front of you. Is it possible to jump straight to the 10th one with one jump? Yes it is, but in order to that, others have practiced doing it many times before succeeding and possibly have broken one or two bones in the process.”

“Don’t try to jump to the 10th stair right away because you might never ever want to jump even to the 5th stair because of the possible injuries.”

“Instead, take one step (or two steps) at a time. By doing this you will get to the 10th stair much faster, with less effort and risk on your part.”

In the Part 2, we covered how to stop procrastination in the case of feeling mild anxiety associated with a particular task or situation.

In the Part 3 of this series titled: “How To Stop Procrastination and Analysis Paralysis,” we will discuss the solution for having Analysis Paralysis.