Latest news with #procrastination
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
French fries, sleep supplements and happiness: The week in Well+Being
You're reading our weekly Well+Being newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Thursday. We all know what it feels like to procrastinate doing tasks you dislike. No one is champing at the bit to declutter that closet, deep clean the bathroom or finally tackle that inbox stuffed with thousands of unread emails. But did you know that you might be putting off doing things that can make you happier? It seems counterintuitive, but this week we looked at why people delay experiences that could bring them joy, and asked experts how we can break out of the cognitive trap that's holding us back. But before that … Do you struggle to fall asleep at night, or find yourself routinely waking up at 3 a.m.? Many people experience bouts of insomnia at some point in their lives, often because of anxiety, writes nutrition reporter Anahad O'Connor. When these sleep issues persist for several months or longer, it's usually a good idea to visit a doctor to see if you have an underlying condition, such as depression, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea, that requires medical treatment. But for occasional periods of insomnia that leave you feeling bleary-eyed, experts say there may be some dietary supplements and even foods that can help. It's important to recognize that no dietary supplement is going to radically improve your sleep. Supplements shouldn't be viewed as a long-term solution. And almost all supplements carry the risk of side effects. To find out more about what works and what doesn't, read our story here. Usually, when we think about procrastination, we think about delaying the hard, boring or unpleasant things in life — paying bills, doing laundry or meeting work deadlines. The bulk of scientific research focuses on why we delay pain, not pleasure. But we can also put off things we enjoy — catching up with a friend we haven't seen in a while, visiting a nearby attraction or opening that expensive bottle of wine, says brain science reporter Richard Sima. A recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus explored this hidden side of procrastination. And it found a surprising pattern — the longer we put off doing something we enjoy, the more likely we are to continue putting it off. Learn more here about how to break out of the cognitive trap of putting off things that bring you joy.. Our Ask a Doctor columnist is Trisha S. Pasricha, a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. In hot weather like the kind we've seen this summer, fans are everywhere: They're inexpensive tools that help us feel better in the heat. The key word here is 'feel.' In temperatures of around 90 degrees and higher, which much of the country has been experiencing this summer, fans do very little to help us beyond tricking our brains into believing we're not entering heat exhaustion. In extreme heat, fans may paradoxically make you hotter. This is especially concerning for older adults who, studies have found, experience greater stress on the heart when using electric fans during high temperatures. Your best bet is to seek out air-conditioned spaces during heat waves. But you can make your fan more effective, try this: Wet your skin first. Read more tips and advice about how to stay cool here. And use our Ask a Doctor form to submit a question, and we may answer it in a future column. Here are a few things that brought us joy this week. Let's keep the conversation going. We want to hear from you! Email us at wellbeing@ Want to know more about 'joy' snacks? Reporter and former neuroscientist Richard Sima explains what they are and how they can make you feel happier. You can also read his advice as a comic.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Science
- Washington Post
Why we procrastinate on joy — and how to stop
Usually, when we think about procrastination, we think about delaying the hard, boring or unpleasant things in life — paying bills, doing laundry or meeting work deadlines. The bulk of scientific research focuses on why we delay pain, not pleasure. But we can also put off things we enjoy — catching up with a friend we haven't seen in a while, visiting a nearby attraction or opening that expensive bottle of wine.
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
How To Use LinkedIn To Become The Most Followed Coach In Your Niche
Most coaches wait until they feel ready while their dream clients hire someone else. They hide behind procrastination and perfectionism and leave posting until the last minute, or not at all. The cycle repeats until they're so far behind they think there's no point sharing online. But there is. No one is better than you. But they grab more attention and take up more space, and that counts double. LinkedIn doesn't care about your certifications or years of experience. It cares about how often you show up with something valuable to say. When you post sporadically, hoping each piece goes viral, you miss the point. Building expert status happens through repetition. Your next client needs to see your name attached to your expertise multiple times before they even consider reaching out. Experts don't wait to be recognized. They show up like they already are. Here's how to do it. Pick one transformational belief about your field and make it yours. Every week, find three different ways to express this same idea. When a productivity coach posts "Done is better than perfect" in Monday's article, Wednesday's client story, and Friday's framework breakdown, readers start understanding their perspective. They begin quoting it in comments. Eventually, they can't think about that concept without thinking about that coach. Be memorable or else. Your audience won't remember your brilliant insight from three months ago. But when they see your core belief expressed through client wins, industry observations, and practical frameworks week after week, you become the voice in their head. Choose your belief carefully. Make it something that challenges conventional thinking while offering hope. Generic advice makes you invisible. "Set clear goals" could come from any coach on the planet. But "The 3R Revenue Framework" or "The Permission Ladder Method" is sticky. Now you own something. Your frameworks should organize common wisdom in a way that makes implementation obvious. When you share your framework, break it down completely. Show the three steps of your 3R Revenue Framework in detail. For example, Review (audit current pricing), Realign (match prices to transformation delivered), and Reinforce (build systems that maintain new rates). Give enough that someone could start implementing immediately. Yes, give away your best stuff. Coaches who guard their methods stay small. Coaches who teach their methods freely become the obvious choice when someone needs deeper support. Your dream clients follow experts who take stands, not people who hedge every statement. Stop hiding behind safe, agreeable posts. When everyone posts about work-life balance, share why you believe it's an outdated concept. When coaches preach niching down, explain why you help entrepreneurs build portfolio careers. Your opinions, especially the unpopular ones, attract the people you actually want to work with. Frame your opinions through lived experience. "After watching 47 clients burn out chasing balance, I found integration creates sustainability" is far stronger than "I think work-life integration is better." Back your stance with what you've witnessed, tested, and proven. LinkedIn thrives on practitioners sharing real insights, not theorists sharing concepts. Make your opinions impossible to ignore by grounding them in undeniable results. Proof builds expert positioning fast. But most coaches share case studies rarely or reluctantly. Shift to weekly transformation stories on LinkedIn. Monday's post: "Joanna doubled her speaking fees in 6 weeks." Include the exact steps, the mindset shifts, the specific moment everything clicked. Make it so detailed that readers see themselves in Joanna's journey. Format these stories for maximum impact. Start with the struggle your client faced. Paint it vividly enough that your ideal prospects recognize their own situation. Move through the process you used, highlighting one key insight that changed everything. End with specific, measurable results. "More confidence" means nothing. "Landed three $10,000 speaking gigs within 30 days" makes people pay attention. Stop being someone with ideas and become someone with a track record. Every qualifier you add dilutes your positioning. Phrases like "In my opinion," "I could be wrong but," "This might not work for everyone" scream amateur. Experts state their position clearly and let readers decide if it resonates. When you believe something works, say it works. When you've seen results repeatedly, share them confidently. Being inflexible or arrogant should not concern you. Undermining your own expertise should. Replace "I think this might help" with "This works. Here's how." Swap "In my limited experience" for "After guiding 30 clients through this process." Give your audience the certainty they crave. They follow experts who know their stuff, not people who constantly question themselves. Give them confidence by demonstrating your own. Make expert LinkedIn positioning your competitive advantage Show up consistently with valuable insights, named frameworks, strong opinions, and undeniable proof. Let others overthink, because that's not your jam. Pick your core belief and share it weekly in different ways. Name your methods and teach them freely. Share your strong opinions backed by experience. Document client transformations religiously. State your expertise without apology. Six months from now, you'll either be known as the go-to expert in your space, or you'll still be waiting for permission. Get the LinkedIn profile structure that wins you coaching clients.
Forbes
5 days ago
- Forbes
5 ChatGPT Prompts To Break Creative Blocks And Publish Great Content Faster
Being creatively blocked is no fun. While others are prolifically producing, growing online and publishing books, podcasts and videos, you're waiting for the perfect idea and staring at the blank page. While you get stuck in procrastination or perfectionism, they're collecting feedback and improving. Really, there's only one difference between successful creators and everyone else. Those at the top hit publish before they're ready. Most people treat creative block like a medical condition. They wait for inspiration to strike, for the muse to visit, for conditions to be perfect. They don't realise it's just fear. It's your ego protecting itself from judgment. ChatGPT can help you get over creative blocks and show up with confidence by the end of the day. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through. Break creative blocks with ChatGPT: prompts to launch faster You already know enough to help someone. But that knowledge trapped in your head serves no one. Every day you don't share it, someone struggles with a problem you've already solved. Stop hoarding your insights because you don't know how to talk about them. They're gifts to be given, and meant to be used. "Based on what you know about my expertise and experience, identify 5 pieces of knowledge I take for granted that could genuinely help my target audience. For each one, create a simple framework or step-by-step guide I could share immediately. Don't let me overthink this - give me actionable content ideas I can execute today." The drafts folder on your social media accounts and the word documents on your hard drive are a graveyard of good ideas. Half-finished posts, abandoned projects, concepts that never saw daylight. These raw materials are waiting for you to take the next step. And it's easy. Quadrupling your online presence could happen by repurposing content you already created. Nothing new. Just better packaging. "Look at these draft documents I never published. For each one, turn it into the complete piece of content - whether that's a post, article, or product. Ask me questions about it first (purpose, format, audience desired outcome), until you have enough information." Perfection is the enemy. It's procrastination in disguise. And done beats perfect every single time. Your audience needs the solutions only you have. They'd rather have your rough ideas today than your refined thoughts never. Launch ugly. Fix it later. "Based on what you know about my current project or idea, help me create the minimum viable version I could share today. Strip away everything that isn't essential. What's the core value I can deliver right now? Create a simple outline or framework I can launch within the next 2 hours." What you're most afraid to share is probably what your audience most needs to hear. Those vulnerable truths, controversial opinions, and hard-won lessons are your competitive advantage. Your past holds lessons that could transform someone's world. Your everyday mantras could bring breakthroughs for potential clients. Everyone else is playing it safe. And that's your opportunity. "Analyze our previous conversations about my work and challenges. What topic or opinion have I mentioned that seems to make me uncomfortable or hesitant? Create 3 ways I could share this perspective that feel authentic but bold. Help me frame it in a way that serves my audience while pushing my comfort zone." Momentum beats motivation. Action beats analysis. The faster you move, the less time fear has to catch up. Journal, meditate and reflect, sure. But call it a day when you have the epiphany. Build your creative confidence through repetition. Ship something every day for a week and watch your creative blocks disappear. "Create a 7-day rapid creation challenge for me based on my expertise. For each day, give me a specific prompt or challenge that takes no more than 30 minutes to complete and share. Make day 1 the easiest and gradually increase the boldness. Focus on quantity and speed over quality." Stop overthinking and start shipping: ChatGPT prompts for creative momentum Your creative blocks are self-imposed prison walls. They exist because you let them. Stop waiting for permission to create. Go through your drafts for hidden gold and ship the rough work so you learn fast. Lean into the fear and let speed become your secret weapon. Creative confidence comes from creative action. Access all my best ChatGPT content prompts.
Fast Company
31-07-2025
- General
- Fast Company
Emotionally intelligent people use the 2-week rule to motivate themselves and reach their biggest goals
What's your elephant? Maybe you've heard that old saying: 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.' The idea is that the best way for tackling large, overwhelming tasks or projects is to break them down into smaller, more manageable steps. But that doesn't address the obvious problem: Nobody wants to actually 'eat the elephant.' So, how do you motivate yourself to actually get started? I learned a great trick some years ago from fellow Inc. columnist Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth. It's a technique founded on principles of emotional intelligence, the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions effectively. Best of all, it's far simpler than you might expect—as you can tell from its name: The Two-Week Rule. What's the Two-Week Rule, and how can it help you beat procrastination, find motivation, and reach your biggest goals? It all comes down to the psychology of how motivation works, and how that knowledge can help you manage your emotions. (Sign up here for my free email emotional intelligence course.) How to use the Two-Week Rule to reach your biggest goals Over the years, Haden's had the chance to interview successful people like Shark Tank investor and billionaire Mark Cuban, NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal, and professional tennis great Venus Williams. Through those interviews, Haden learned some interesting things about the psychology of motivation. 'Motivation isn't something you get from the outside, nor is it something you find within,' Haden told me in a recent interview. 'Motivation is something you create through a cycle of a little bit of effort, a little bit of success that feels good—because it always feels good to get better at something—and that gives you enough motivation to get you to the next day.' 'That cycle just continues to repeat, and it can take you a really long way,' says Haden. In other words, while motivation is part of the cycle, it's not the beginning of the cycle. And here's where the two-week rule comes in. The two-week rule is about as simple as it sounds: Commit yourself to a project for two weeks. Then, evaluate your progress and decide whether you want to move forward. To illustrate, Haden uses the following example: Let's say you want to run a marathon. At the beginning, you may only be able to run a mile; still, you commit to training for two weeks. After day one, you're thinking there's no way you're ever going to be able to run the full race. This thing is hard, much harder than you anticipated. That fact alone is so overwhelming, you're tempted to give up. But you've committed to a full two weeks, so you force yourself to keep going. After a week, you still haven't seen much improvement. 'I'm sore,' you think to yourself. 'I'm tired. My knees hurt. I don't really enjoy this.' But you also think: 'Thank God I only have another week to go.' At the end of two weeks, though, things look different. You're a little faster. A little fitter. You've developed a new routine and you've found your flow. Now you say to yourself: 'Hey, I've actually gotten somewhere. I'm not at 26 miles yet, but I'm much better than when I started.' And that progress may be all you need to keep going. Why the Two-Week Rule works The beauty of this rule is you can commit to almost anything for two weeks. At the end of that time, you'll have data you can actually use to make a decision about moving forward—and many times, the motivation you need, too. But what if you can't even get yourself to commit for two weeks? Or, what if you try, and discover it's not really something you want to do? 'Then it's probably not a goal you wanted to achieve anyway,' Haden says. 'And that's a good thing—because if you try it and find out you don't really want it, it comes off your list of things you want to do. You get rid of the guilt associated with not doing it.' 'And now, you can focus on some of the things you really want to do instead.' So, whatever major project you're trying to tackle, try the two-week rule: Commit to doing it for just two weeks. Once you do, you'll finally have gotten started eating the elephant. And at the end of those two weeks, there's a good chance you'll have improved your efforts, you're starting to see progress, and most importantly, you've found the motivation to keep going.
