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The Power of Delay : zen habits
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."
Thomas Paine
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Key Ideas
Postponing Things With Little Value
We often have an urge to do things that have no productive value, but we still do them due to the forces of habit or when we cannot say no to others.An effective way to deal with such tasks is to delay them.
Whether it is snacking, playing a video game, browsing videos, or even smoking, one can delay the desire for doing the activity by keeping oneself intentionally busy.
Listen To Understand
While listening to others speak, a million thoughts come to our mind, about how we have handled similar situations, and how many mistakes the other person has made in what is being stated. We normally blurt out at the first chance and criticize the other person, or boast about our superhuman abilities.
A better way is to delay that, keeping quiet and simply listening to the other person, focusing on one's breath if needed.
Things That Should Not Be Delayed
Do not delay with stuff like appreciating someone, building something great, helping people, supporting someone in need and other positive things that need to be done right now.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
The Habit Dip
While pursuing a new habit, or eradicating an old one, we often experience a dip in motivation, focus and energy. This is due to many factors, like loss of motivation due to any in...
The Learnings Of The Habit Dip
The habit dip and other dips in motivation teach us the following:
- Facing our difficulties, and not avoiding them.
- Self-encouragement.
- Letting of the false beliefs and ideals that make us discouraged.
- Dealing with frustration and fear.
- Self-nourishment.
- Self-compassion.
- Avoiding the usual excuses for quitting.
- Avoiding self-pity or self-concern when things get hard.
Tips For When You're Experiencing Habits Dips
Anyone who has overcome the habit dip (like a marathon runner) will testify that the feelings of discouragement and boredom are temporary. Like everything else, these temporary feelings are waypoints and not endpoints.
- One has to come with a learning mindset, bringing genuine interest, encouragement and curiosity, letting go of the old beliefs and ideals.
- One can bring mindfulness and awareness into each body sensation, and the minds many discouragements.
- A continuous learning experience can make one embrace the difficult areas.
It takes practice to get good at anything
Feedback is essential when you learn a new skill. However, when people learn the skill of 'creating new habits,' they think making mistakes is a sign of being a failure and...
Committing to actually starting
Overcome your mind's resistance to get started by saying, "I'm all in. I'm going to start today." Then get moving. If you're not good at this, commit to making a small habit change this instant.
Many people want to learn a language or start exercising, but then don't take action. It is because they haven't really committed to getting started.
Focus on starting
The skill to master is getting started. You don't have to exercise for half an hour; you only need to start.
Often, we're supposed to do a new habit, and we procrastinate, turn to distractions, and rationalize our resistance.
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Moving Away From Pseudo-Work
Pseudo-work is when one works just for the sake of work, and is productive on paper but hasn’t really achieved anything substantial, or contributed to one’s core objective.
Focusing on Meaningful Work
- When the focus is on the essential, we start to work on what matters to us the most. It makes us avoid the urgent work shoved in our faces which may not be important at all.
- Focusing on meaningful work helps us prioritize our day in the order that aligns with our purpose and mission. It makes us less stressed out and more joyful.
- Productive work, which is challenging and even discomforting is welcomed as it is important and meaningful to our lives. The distractions then no longer disturb us as we are giving the work our entire focus.
Keys To Essential Meaningful Productivity
- Be clear on what matters to you, and focus on that.
- A lack of structure makes the entire day random and accidental. It is good to have a certain structure for all your tasks while keeping it flexible.
- Remind yourself the reason for it being important to you, and then give it your heart and soul. Keep yourself in a playful, relaxed mode.
- Move towards any fear you encounter, and not away from it. It may be a small obstacle but our psychological fears make us feel discomfort or groundlessness.
- Batch out small errands into specific, time-bound activities, leaving time for more important things.