MBA Application Enemy #1? Procrastination. How to end it - right now!
With business school deadlines nearing and the atmosphere in the air possibly becoming more stressful every minute, the last thing you want is to feel stuck. Are you procrastinating working on your MBA applications? Timothy Pychyl from Psychology Today has four tips to stop procrastinating, not tomorrow, not next week, and definitely not next month, but - right now!
Use time travel to counteract the irrationality of human nature.
We are predictably irrational according to the temporal motivation theory and affective forecasting. We tend to discount future rewards as less important than a task that we are currently doing in the present moment, especially if it’s a more enjoyable task. Time travel could help. According to Pychyl, “Using concrete mental images of the future more often and more accurately, to represent the future as though it were happening in the present” could help spring you into action today.
2) Short-term gain is long-term pain.
Don’t give in to that fleeting feel-good moment. According to Pychyl, “When self-regulation fails, it’s often because short-term emotional repair takes precedence over our long-term goals.” For example, doing the desired task right now (in this case working on your MBA applications today) may make us feel anxious and overwhelmed. Therefore, we may seek immediate emotional relief, so we walk away and leave it for tomorrow. Don’t give in to the feel-good feeling. Rather, learn to recognize that we have negative emotions and stay put. Be comfortable in that uncomfortable feeling. Get started on working on those MBA apps despite and inspire of those negative feelings.
3) Reduce uncertainty and distractions.
We can all agree that planning is one thing but acting on those plans is another. According to Pychyl, we are most likely to procrastinate on tasks that lack structure. Therefore, in addition to making your tasks more concrete, it’s important to reduce the uncertainty about how to proceed. Designate a couple of hours every day to work on your apps. Schedule it into your calendar and stick to it. On top of that, when it’s time to get to work, reduce as many distractions as possible.
Shut off your e-mail
Isolate yourself as much as possible
Put yourself in a working environment that will strengthen your willpower to focus and not undermine your efforts.
4) Make the most of your willpower muscle.
Recent research clearly shows that willpower is like a muscle. You can exhaust it more quickly than you think. And when you do, you lose the ability to self-regulate your behavior. According to Pychyl, one immediate method to strengthen your willpower muscle is to remind yourself of your values. “This process of self-affirmation bolsters our flagging reserves of willpower.” Another self-regulatory boost can come from mindfulness meditation. According to Pychyl, “Attention is the first step in self-regulation, so learning to keep focused attention will help you procrastinate less by strengthening self-regulation.”