Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 130th day.

Today's topic is: The Procrastination Treatment Pills - Part 2.

Today, I continue to talk about the second method to treatment procrastination - a simple but not sustainable method, which I called - the procrastination treatment pills.  The method breaks up the task into parts and uses delay in a meaningful way in order to promote efficiency.

"Breaking up the whole into parts" means reducing the difficulty of the task by break it down into the small units which are each completed in a single day. The idea is to continue to break down the activity into smaller and smaller parts until they are small enough that you are willing and able to do them.

This is also known as the "Swiss Cheese Method." Think of the small holes in swiss cheese as small fragments of time that we use to complete small pieces of the task we want to complete.  I'll call it fragments of time. The Swiss Cheese Method is explained in a book called "How to Get Control of Your Time and Life" by Alan Lakein.  Lakein, the author, suggests that we "make good use of every bit of space" in a larger task, that is, to make good use of fragmented time, rather than waiting for enough time to complete the whole task.

Think of it this way ..... Finding 3 hours to complete a large project is almost impossible in our busy schedules. But what about finding 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there? Do you think you can find that? This is like poking holes in a big block of cheese and finding fragments of time here and there.The purpose of this method is to break down the big task into small tasks, and ultimately complete the entire task through a series of small accomplishments.

Previously, I said that forming habits begins by doing small but meaningful things. When you break down your large task into small but purposeful tasks, it is not so difficult to achieve. So, break down your task into small parts that you are willing to do and then complete another small part at later time.

If you decided to use this method, and I recommend you do. You must make sure you do not spend an infinite amount of time perfecting each small task.  Complete it and move on. I call it: Bad Start, Good Results! It's more important to start than it is to have a great result.  Consistency is more powerful and more important than quality at this point.  Over time, you will get better and better at the task.

For example: Let's say you decided to run a marathon one day with no previous experience doing this. In your mind, you think this is impossible. Imagine standing at the starting line and looking out over 42 KM or 26 miles, you will be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.  You'll give up before you even begin.

If you can change the way you think about the task and poke holes in the great big block of cheese, so to speak ......

    1) You can break down those enormous 42 KM into a much more manageable span, say 3 years.  You've just broken down one enormous task into 3 years.

    2) After breaking down this goal, then think about what you can do in one year? Perhaps half a marathon or 21 KM or 13 miles.  Then go and run half of the marathon.

    3) Break it down even further.  What can be done in 3 months? Perhaps just getting out and walking and then jogging and then running.

    4) Then break your down your task into individual days.  Smaller and smaller pieces. Perhaps you walk 10,000 steps a day.  If you think 10,000 steps are too much, then just 5,000 steps.

The important piece is that you must break down the task into you feel they are manageable. You must feel that you can succeed in each individual task. The amazing thing is, if you can remain consistent and devote your energy to just getting out there, whether it looks terrible or feels great, slowly you will find the that success will come faster than you imagined.

Remember: Bad Start, Good Results!

Imagine running until you turn a corner on the trail and you can see more beautiful landscape, each successful win will inspire you to run even further. If you do not move forward, you will only live in your own imagination forever.

This is idea of breaking down your task into several parts or poking holes in your cheese. This is called the Swiss Cheese Method. This method can be used in many ways. 

For example, you can use it to remember 10,000 English words. 10,000 words is a lot but what if you split the task into three years. 3 years is about 1000 days. So if you learn 10 words a day, and then use the fragmented time each day to learn new words and rehearse previously learned words, you will find yourself succeeding more and more and the task will become easier and easier.

The fourth method of the Procrastination Treatment Pills is to make good use of delay. "Make good use of delay" means using large delays to resolve small delays.

For example: On the night before a large exam, you may suddenly begin to procrastinate a bit by cleaning up the table, cleaning up your room, or organizing music or files on your computer. In the end, you will find that your home is much cleaner, but you didn't learn the material needed to pass the exam.

Of course, this doesn't solve your exam problems. But even though you delayed your large task of studying for the exam and instead completed several small tasks throughout your home, if you think about it from another point of view, you did get things accomplished.

And there you have it – 4 procrastination treatment pills that don't solve the problem of procrastination but help to alleviate the harmful effects of it while still proving beneficial in small ways.  These, again, are simple methods but not sustainable, because they don't get at the root cause of procrastination.

In review, these 4 methods include: the time alternating method, the quadrant integration method, the Swiss Cheese method and make good use of large delays.

In the next lesson, I will explain the most difficult but the best method for the overcoming procrastination.

Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!