Overcoming Procrastination: Understanding and Solutions

Ali Aluli, a systems engineer at NASA, addresses the root causes of procrastination and offers practical solutions for fear, interest conflict, and overwhelm.

### Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination: The Procrastination Trident and Solutions
* 😓 Ali Aluli, a systems engineer and post-doctoral fellow at NASA, shares his experience of being a **chronic procrastinator** throughout his academic and professional journey.
* 🧠 Procrastination is often rooted in **fear, incongruence of interests and values, or overwhelm**.
* ❓ When procrastinating, ask yourself which of these three reasons is **most likely causing your procrastination**.
* 🎯 To overcome overwhelm, think only of the **first step required to start the task**.
* 😴 When the reason for procrastination is **boredom or a conflict of interests and values**, find ways to make the task **more enjoyable** or **delegate it if possible**.
* ❌ If procrastination stems from the fear of failure, create a "**Vzer**" step that has **no risk of failure** to get started.
* 🚀 To enhance these solutions and promote continuity, seek **external accountability** from friends, family, or a community.
* 📈 Extrinsically accountable individuals can provide **consistent pressure and expectations** to help you **overcome procrastination**.

hey guys, my name is Ali Aluli. I'm a systems engineer and a post-doctoral fellow at the NASA Propulsion Lab. In this video, I'm going to show you how you can figure out why you're procrastinating, specifically, and how to put an end to that. So, this video is going to be attacking the root cause of procrastination, and it's not going to be one of these cookie-cutter like, Oh, nine tips on how you can be more productive, or like, Six tips on how you can stop, like, no. This is actually going to help you figure out what the hell is going on inside your brain. Now, to give you some insight, although I am currently working as a full-time engineer at NASA, I did my Ph.D. when I was 26 years old. I have grown this YouTube channel, as well as my other engineering YouTube channel, to almost 40,000 subscribers, and I've always been a chronic procrastinator. I've struggled with procrastination my whole life, high school, college, even during my Ph.D. in the beginning of my Ph.D.

especially, I would give my PhD adviser heart attacks. Not literal heart attacks, but I would make him panic because I would have to wait till the very last minute to do things. And when I came near graduation, I started realizing like, Man, why do I do this? Why do I do this? So I figured I would use my skills as a systems engineer to actually figure out what's going on, diagnose the problem, and that's the system that I'm going to walk you through. And by the end, not only am I going to show you how to diagnose the right cause of procrastination for you, but also what to do about it. So basically, before we talk about procrastination, which is basically like the hurdle to execution, execution is only the last step in a proper productivity system, any type of productivity system, especially if you're someone who has ADHD or higher up on the ADHD Spectrum, must give you clarity. You need to get crystal clear on what is

your goal and why if you don't have a goal how are you going to have be productive or or or not procrastinate because your brain is constantly going to be like why are we doing this why what what is this working towards you know so you definitely need to have a clear goal you definitely need to learn how to prioritize how to pick what the right task is I need to understand when to do the right task and then finally sitting down and doing it is going to be the part where is tend to procrastinate right that's the execution um so there are two things that people struggle with continuing and starting procrastination is really a problem of starting so people who are not who are are procrastinating are really struggling with starting a task and from my experience that comes down to three different uh reasons and you can next time you procrastinate you can ask yourself like which one of these three is it most likely one is fear right you very often you'll notice that you're going to procrastinate on either a big

project or something that's important or something that's very, very important. For example, not many people procrastinate on like walking to the fridge and picking up something to eat or like going to the mail and and grabbing something to grabbing your mail from the mailbox. These are things we don't really procrastinate on because they're not like really that important. They're things that are like automatic; we just do them. There's nothing really at stake. Something that you may procrastinate out of fear is like a project or like a YouTube video they have to make or like a presentation for your business or something like that, something or or like a dissertation for a PhD like things like that. There's there's definitely a lot of fear of like, Oh man, what if I do it and it comes out to be not good enough? Very often that there's there's internal self-talk around the fear, but there's also two other causes why procrastination may happen. One of them is simply the in congruence of

interests and values, and I'll tell you a story. When I started my first Consulting business, I hired a business coach who was very, very talented. Very, very, very talented guy. I learned a lot from him, but when it came down to sit down and write my ads, my paid advertisements, we had to write them in a style that he told me, and it just, it just, I don't know, it didn't sit, it didn't sit right with me. I didn't enjoy that style. I like to be more direct, more honest, more like, I have this thing, do you want it or not. The style in which the ads were supposed to be written was kind of more like the very typical salesy, like markety, which I really cannot stand. And when he would check in with me and say, hey, did you have time to write the ads, I would always say no, no, I haven't, no, I did this other think, no, this other thing came up. I was procrastinating it, and it's not necessarily because I was

fearing that the ads would not come out to be good. It's just because the way that task was set up, uh, it did not, it did not align with my values. So I kept just putting it off. Very similarly, if something you're just not interested in doing at all. For example, if you're like a product engineer and you have to sit down and write copy for like an ad, you just don't really care that much about marketing usually. And because you don't care about it, you just keep putting it off because it's not fun. So this is another reason why you may be putting things off. But I would say especially for people with ADHD, the most common one is just overwhelm, right? It's like, Oh man, I have to start this big thing. I have to like sit down and do this thing. Oh my God, I have to work on this project. Like, it's just whenever you think of a task and like there's like a mini, like, Oh my God, like panic, like that accompanies it or like

something of that nature. That's usually like your brain signaling that okay, I have a big thing that I need to tackle, and I don't know if I'm quite ready to tackle it yet. Um, this is where overwhelm can be a big problem, and this, again, relevant for projects sitting down, writing at copy, doing things that nature. So, these are things that will definitely, um, affect you when it comes to procrastinating. Now, very, very important, herisk you can perform is next time you find yourself procrastinating. Again, right here, we're not talking about Solutions yet. We still, we haven't addressed how to solve these problems in practical ways. But next time you sit down and you try to do something and you can't do it, uh, instead of thinking, I got to do this, why am I procrastinating? Shift the self-talk to just asking why. What out of the three reasons, why am I procrastinating? Am I fearing that the that I might fail or the outcome may not be good enough? Um, am I just not

interested or this something that I just like really really don't want to do, and I'm avoiding for some reason, or am I overwhelmed and by overwhelmed like I haven't really fully thought through all the steps needed to like um improve um upon what I got to do and sit down and do it. And this is where I introduce you to the three different solutions. So the reason we touch on this again is because procrastination is not a one-size fits all. You have to understand why you're procrastinating right, whether it's overwhelm, whether it's fear, whether it's like conflict of interest values, um obviously there could be other like minute minuscule reasons but I generally think from my experience those three um are kind of like the main, the 99% of procrastination. That's why I call this the procrastination Trident because very often in my case it's one of these three things. So in the case of overwhelm, it is very very simple think only of the first step right there's a very common

mistake I see especially with people who have ADHD is when they when they think about what they got to do. They say, oh, I got to write a proposal. Oh, I got to make a video. Oh, I got to do all these things. But you don't actually need to do that. All you need to tell yourself is, what is the first step I got to take? Like in my case for a YouTube video, if I tell myself, oh my God, I sit down and record a YouTube video, like and they're a typical person that that may be fine with them but someone higher up on the ad Spectrum you'll just keep putting it off because especially if your brain has not processed like all the steps or visualized all the steps necessary you you're just going to put it off but if instead you replace that self-talk and tell yourself, oh, I just got to sit down and uh write an outline for the video. I don't need to. I don't need to record the whole video. I just need to write an outline. What is the first step? Well if I

don't have outline, then I don't have a video. And then you sit down, and you, and you, and you write an outline. Or you write the first part of the video, or you do, or you do something. And then that's going to give you the momentum to keep going. And then, before you know it, you'll turn on the ring light, you'll, you'll start talking, you'll set up your microphone, whatnot. So if you're, if you're overwhelmed, think only of the first step that you got to take. That's basically the, the, the cure to that. Um, if you are someone who is like having a conflict of interest or values, ask yourself, um, once you verified that this is something like that is congruent with your values. If it's something completely incongruent with your values, then maybe you should not do it. Like sometimes procrastination is good. Sometimes procrastination is you, like, like telling yourself, Oh, I really, I should not be doing this, right? Maybe this will put my, my, like, like, this is just something

that I don't feel comfortable doing right uh. But if it's the other case of, of which is which is fun, which is boredom, like the reason you're putting it off is because you get bored and you're just not interested in that thing, find ways to make it fun. There are so many things in my life that I have to do that are just not fun, and my, my hack for that is music. I put on music that I really, really enjoy. For example, if I have to sit down and do paperwork, I can't stand paperwork, but if I put on like a really nice song that gets me in Flow State and gets me kind of moving what on, then all of a sudden the paperwork is not so bad because I'm at least enjoying um the music. Find, find whatever, maybe it's like having someone they sit down and do the work with, whatever it is that can make the task more fun will definitely help you solve the boredom or interest problem. In an Ideal World, the things you don't want to

do you just delegate them? But if you're not at that stage yet, then you have to find a way to make it fun. And if the case, um, is of procrastination is fear failure, then what you need is something called Vzer. And this is something I have, uh, learned to do, which is I tell myself, Okay, I'm maybe there's a bit of fear, maybe this thing needs to be good, and I'm afraid that it's not going to be good enough, right? Maybe there's a fear of failure there or a fear of effort wasted. Oh man, what if I sit down and like do this and it turns out to be not good? That tends to be a very, very strong cause of procrastination. Something that I, that I, that I, that I do is I say, Well, before I even sit down and make a V1 or the first version of my thing, and then maybe iterate on it later, what I should do a V0o. And Vzero is like, let me just do a very quick check of like

everything I need to do. For example, if I once sit down and record a YouTube video, V1 would be make the first version of the video. And if it's crappy, that's fine. V2 can be a better one, V3 can be an even better one. I can iterate that way. But Vzer is like, Well, how about I just clean my room, turn some lights, turn the lights on, make sure my camera's in the right place, do a camera check, do a mic check, do a computer check. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to actually record the real video, which means I'm not going to fail. It's impossible for me to fail because I'm not going to record the real video. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down and do all the steps, assuming that I'm going to record and turn it on without actually posting it. And there's zero fear associated with that step. And it kind of feeds into this idea of the first step is you want this.

thing to be like low stake low consequence because then once I sit down and I clean my desk, and then I, I, I clean my environment, and I do all these things, and I have my camera, and I test my microphone, then again from a self-talk perspective, it's a lot easier for me to say, oh dude, I mean, okay, now I have the setup, what is it really that screw it, let me just record the video, let's just see what happens. Like if it fails, it doesn't fail, like sometimes the problem is not so much in the belief that the thing is going to fail and that you're going to be bad for having it fail, but rather that combined with the overwhelm induced in, in this case. So if you're someone who's like really, really sensing that the reason why you're procrastinating is fear of failure and you're like afraid to get started on this task because it may not be good enough to your standard, tell yourself, okay, I'm not going to ship this thing.

I'm not going to deliver this thing. I'm not actually going to. I'm just going to sit down and do the V zero, like the bare minimum, just to get some type of functioning thing working, just so I can take, make, make some progress. And then, if I feel like actually shipping it, and, and, and continuing and shipping the, the thing that is done, I'll do it. If not, that's, that's, that's fine too, but what I've, what I'll have at least done is I've at least made some progress, which is going to make me feel good about myself, is going to boost my self-esteem. And the moment you, you, you like let go of this need to deliver something great on first try, you're going to feel this like weight lifted from your shoulders, and then you'll be able to get started with a v0, and the v0 will turn into a V1, and the V1 is usually very often good enough to be shipped. If not, you go ahead and re-record it a second.

time again in the case of a YouTube video. So again, this kind of a very uh um simple way way to overcome it. Now, if you want to kind of amplify this on steroids, which is power also for continuing, is you can go and find some accountability. If you can find other people that basically hey bug you and ask you hey did you do the thing did you do the thing or maybe they can help you better diagnose why why why you're struggling with it um or or why why you're not doing the task. Accountability is very very important from a friend, from a family member, from a certified coach, from a from someone who knows what they're doing. If you have like some no one in your life that you think can hold you accountable on a consistent basis I'm going to go ahead and put a link below to our community where you can come hang out with me other like min entrepreneurs who can hold you accountable where I also go over some of this stuff in detail as well but you

want to make sure that you have some type of accountability involved in your life because if you don't have extrinsic accountability like at all uh even if you're addressing the fear of failure the fear the like lack of having values and interests and the overwhelm issues you're still not going to have that extrinsic pressure that like good weight on your shoulders to deliver and that expectation of other people especially if you're someone who has like people pleasing tendencies and you can use that to your advantage because then you don't want to disappoint other people well at least you don't want to disappoint them in showing them that you haven't done your stuff which can be productive for yourself but anyway that's a discussion for another video um if you enjoy this content stick around for my channel for more videos and I'll see you the next one Peace Love

How to actually stop procrastinating (by a NASA engineer)

Ali Alqaraghuli, PhD

Overcoming Procrastination: A System Engineer's Guide

Ali Aluli, a systems engineer and post-doctoral fellow at NASA, shares his personal struggle with procrastination and his journey to overcome it.

He offers a unique approach to tackling procrastination by diagnosing the root cause, providing clarity on goals, learning how to prioritize tasks, and addressing the struggle of starting and continuing tasks.

Aluli's system is especially helpful for those with ADHD, offering a comprehensive method to increase productivity and reduce procrastination.

Understanding Procrastination: Causes and Impact

Procrastination is often driven by fear of failure, but can also be caused by a lack of interest or conflicting values in the task.

This can be seen in the example of avoiding a specific style of writing ads due to personal values.

Additionally, procrastination is common among people with ADHD, often due to feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand.

Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is often a result of feeling overwhelmed and is influenced by fear, lack of interest, or conflicting values.

It is important to understand the specific reason for procrastination before finding a solution.

When overwhelmed, focus on the first step of the task to avoid getting paralyzed by the big picture.

Overcoming Procrastination and Finding Motivation

Break tasks down into small steps to build momentum and overcome feeling overwhelmed.

If a task goes against your values, it's okay to procrastinate, but if it's just boring, find ways to make it more enjoyable, like listening to music.

Overcome the fear of failure and perfectionism by starting with a rough draft or a "Vzero" to ease the pressure.

Overcoming the Fear of Failure in Productivity

Taking the V zero approach allows for low-stakes and low-consequence initial steps in a task, reducing the fear of failure.

This method helps in building momentum, boosting self-esteem, and alleviating the pressure to deliver a perfect result on the first try.

By starting with V zero and progressing to V1, it becomes easier to overcome procrastination and self-doubt in completing a task.

The Significance of Accountability in Overcoming Obstacles

Accountability is crucial for overcoming obstacles, whether it comes from friends, family, or a certified coach.

Having external pressure and the expectation of others can be productive, especially for those with people-pleasing tendencies.

Joining a community can provide the necessary accountability for addressing fears and overwhelm.