The Power of Focus

Two major roadblocks that prevent most people from taking action are procrastination and fear, say the book’s authors Les Hewitt, Andrew Hewitt and Luc d’Abadie.

“Procrastination is doing things that bring you immediate pleasure instead of focusing on your priorities,” the authors explain. “By rationalising and justifying reasons to do pleasurable activities first, the important things don’t get done. Stress soars and the quality of your work goes down. In the end,  procrastination prevents you from reaching your goals and leads you into a world of ‘if only.’”

Playing ‘the woulda, coulda, shoulda game’ will destroy golden opportunities that life brings your way, caution the authors. It’s very easy to let the ‘years of procrastination fly by and end up with deep regrets, remorse and guilt, knowing you could have done more.’

To fight procrastination, the book prescribes four ways. One, become mechanical with the task you usually procrastinate. That way, you will take action before thinking about whether you like the task. For example: “Get up at the FIRST sound of your alarm EVERY morning; study at the SAME time every day; and if you think of a question to ask, ask IMMEDIATELY or forever hold your peace.”

Two, try the sausage method. “Imagine trying to wolf down a foot-long sausage in one bit. It would be hard to swallow, wouldn’t it?” the authors tease. Ditto with assignments, they analogise. “Sitting down to start a 40-page paper is a daunting, hard-to-swallow task. The solution is to break the large task into smaller pieces, or subtasks.”

The third method is the to-do-today list, with prioritisation. “Begin your day with the most important task on the list and do not start the next task until the first is completed.” The authors advise you against succumbing to the many things that may come up during the day appearing to be urgent.

“When you review your list at the end of the day, you’ll be amazed at how much you completed. Sleep soundly, guilt-free, and snore all you want as a reward for your accomplishments.”

And the final method to fight procrastination is to reason why, by considering the bigger picture and visualising the consequences of inaction. “Make the negative consequences of your inaction a vivid picture in your mind,” the authors counsel.

For example, “If I put off studying another hour (your procrastination) I will score a lower grade on my chemistry final, which will reduce my GPA (grade point average) along with my chances of getting into medical school (the big-picture consequence – your reason why).”

Different types of procrastination will require a different fighting style, the authors guide. “Keep yourself armed by remembering the four fighting styles… and choose the method that stands the best chance against the procrastination villain you are fighting.”