How to Beat Procrastination...

We've all been there - staring at a blank document, an empty notebook, or an uncompleted essay, paralyzed by an invisible force that stops us from starting. This force, which prevents us from typing that first word, writing that first page, or finishing that first assignment, is what Steven Pressfield calls "the resistance" in his book "The War of Art."

As a student struggling with procrastination, I found this book game-changing when I first read it. It completely changed how I approach my schoolwork and helped me overcome chronic procrastination. In this post, we'll explore three key points from the book that have personally helped me beat procrastination and hopefully can do the same for you.

Point 1: Know Thy Enemy

So the first question we need to address is what is resistance? Resistance is the negative force that's actively working against us to stop us from doing the things we want to do. It doesn't stop us from watching TikTok or from playing video games, instead, it prevents us from doing anything that we know in our hearts is gonna level up our grades and our lives.

What is Resistance?

Resistance isn't just the feeling of not wanting to clean your room or do the dishes. That's resistance with a small 'r'. Resistance with a capital 'R' is the force holding us back from tackling challenging assignments, studying for big tests, or anything that requires effort and putting ourselves out there.

And whenever we try and do any of this stuff, we always have to go up against this hill of procrastination that's a constant battle. And there's a nice quote from the book where he says, "We don't tell ourselves, 'I'm never going to write my essay,' instead we say, 'I am going to write my essay, I'm just going to start tomorrow.'"

I've heard this many times, of classmates being like, "You know what?" "I wanna start studying for the SAT at some point." "I'm gonna join the debate club, but you know the timing's not quite right." "Oh, I haven't quite got the skills, I haven't quite got the confidence, why would anyone care what I have to say?" This is all resistance, it's all that procrastination that's building within us.

The Role of Fear

But what really fuels resistance is fear. Resistance is activated by fear and gains strength whenever we give in to that fear creating a cycle that we fall into and which leads to resistance becoming even stronger as our fear becomes even greater.

But as he says in the book, fear is actually a very good thing, because when we feel scared about doing something, it usually means we should just do the thing. He writes, "Remember one rule of thumb, the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it."

Resistance as a Compass

And in a way, resistance is that compass that points towards the thing in our life that's actually most important for us to do. Like I never feel any resistance towards sitting down and doing math but I do feel resistance towards sitting down and working on my college applications, and that tells me that sitting down to work on my applications is currently the most important thing I need to be working on.

And the key rule of thumb here as Steven Pressfield writes, is, "The more resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art or project or enterprise is to you."

And since I first read this last semester, I've actually started using this as a model for... In a way a model for decision-making. Like if I feel scared about doing something, then more often than not I will try my very best to actually do the thing, and so far in my high school life, I have never regretted doing something that I'm scared of but I've always regretted not doing something that I was scared of.

Point 2: Becoming a Professional

Now, Steve says, that the only way we can deal with resistance is if we become a "professional" with our work rather than an "amateur." And I think it's interesting how he doesn't define professionalism as being someone who gets straight A's from the thing because you can wanna get straight A's from a thing but still treat it like a complete amateur. But instead, a professional is someone who does it for the sake of doing the work and takes pride in the work itself.

And there are a few other traits that professionals have when it comes to doing their job. Like if you're a professional student, then you'll show up every day to class no matter what, you wouldn't just skip class because you don't feel like it. If you're a professional, you work through tough assignments and you're open to criticism because you always wanna improve.

Whereas if you're an amateur, then you feel like... If you turn in an essay or give a presentation and someone gives you constructive criticism or you get a low grade, you get like really kind of woe is me, and like it hurts your feelings and it ruins your day because you're treating it like an amateur. Whereas if you treat it as a professional, you would be more inclined to actually grow from the feedback.

A professional as well will understand that fear is just part of the work. Like if you're a star athlete and that's your thing, you know that you're gonna be stepping outside your comfort zone. Whereas if you approach things with an amateur perspective, like joining a new club or whatever, as soon as the going gets tough, then you're gonna fold like a cheap suit, as they say.

And finally, if you're a professional with your work, you recognize that facing the resistance is a daily battle. When I'm working on a tough subject, when I wake up in the mornings and I think, "Oh, I don't really feel like studying," I do it anyway, it's part of the daily battle, it's just what you have to do. When you're a serious student and you... Someone asks you to solve a difficult problem or write a complex essay, that's resistance, you're like, "Oh, I don't wanna do this," but it's part of the work, it's part of the job, this is what I have to do. And we wanna be kind of taking that sort of attitude towards our other like academic and extracurricular stuff.

And obviously, there is some level in which you can take this too far like being so focused on treating your hobbies as a professional to the point where you're doing it for eight hours a day is probably a little bit excessive, and there's certainly something to be said for not turning all your hobbies into academic pursuits or at least not trying to make them your main focus, because like for me, a hobby is fun when it complements my studies. Like playing in the school band, if I could get extra credit for playing in the band, that would make it fun. But if I was relying on playing in the band for all my grades, I'd be failing my other classes and it would also make playing music a lot less fun.

So treating our academic and extracurricular stuff as a professional doesn't mean it takes over our life, it just means that we're approaching it with a bit more of a professional mindset rather than the mindset of, "Oh, I'll do my homework whenever I feel like it," cause that doesn't really work if you're treating something like a pro.

Traits of a Professional

Showing up every day: A professional doesn't skip studying just because they don't feel like it.
Working through challenges: Professional persistence even when subjects get tough.
Open to feedback: They're always looking to improve and can handle constructive criticism from teachers and peers.
Understanding stress is part of learning: Just like an athlete knows they'll face challenging workouts, a professional understands that stress and discomfort are part of the learning process.
Recognizing resistance as a daily battle: professionals know that facing resistance is an ongoing part of their academic journey.

Point 3: Banishing Our Ego

Key point number three, is we need to banish the ego. And he said that once we've become a professional, the next thing we need to do is recognize the ongoing battle between the self and the ego.

The way I see this is that our ego is more focused on external events and how other people see us, whereas the self is this inner calm that we have which is about the way that we see ourselves. When we're led by our ego, our main priority is to maintain our status in school, and we're just focused on how external events affect us, and everything is very superficial and surface-level.

Then we've got the self, which is made up of the individual and collective unconscious areas of our minds, which include our dreams, intuition, visions, and aspirations. It encompasses the deepest form of who we are, and when we sit down to study or create, we're attempting to channel the self because it's through the self that we can beat resistance.

Now some of this stuff is a little bit woo-woo for my liking, Pressfield goes on about like how creative endeavors are like a new plane of existence, and we're all striving for that plane of existence, and resistance is like the devil that gets in the way, it kind of got a bit woo-woo at times.

It's kinda similar to the growth mindset and fixed mindset stuff we learned about in Psychology class. When we have a fixed mindset, and we get negative feedback or something, or we do something that we know is not very good, it really shakes us to the core because it damages our ego. Whereas when we have a growth mindset to something, we recognize that if we fail a test, it's just part of the process of improving over time.

And another way that I think of this is when it comes to goal setting, so I found that for me, I get a lot more resistance, i.e., procrastination when I've got goals that are based on outcomes that are outside of my control. So for example, if I'm working on my GPA, which is an easy example, one way of thinking about my goals for school is to think about, "Okay, I want to get a 4.0 this semester," or, "I wanna be in the top 10% of my class," that's a very outcome goal, and it's very outside of my control.

The only thing in my control is studying and doing my assignments, but if I have a goal that, "I want this essay to be perfect," then that's when perfectionism takes hold, that's when I feel the resistance, that's when I procrastinate so much to the point that I don't even start the essay, and I've seen this basically with every student who's been through exam season with me.

Anyone who's trying to improve their grades or starting a new challenging course or getting better at a subject or taking it seriously, if you start thinking that, "This assignment needs to be perfect," as defined by what other people think of it, it makes it really hard to actually do the work. Whereas what I prefer, is to have most of my goals being input goals, i.e., they are entirely within my control, they're entirely based on inputs that I control.

So, "I'm gonna study for two hours every day after school," is an input goal, it's something that's broadly within my control. "I'm gonna write the best essay that I can or... An essay that I'm happy with," is an input goal, it's a goal within my control. Whereas, "I'm gonna write an essay and I want it to get an A+, which is what I've been thinking about recently," that's very much an output goal and it's broadly outside of my control.

And I find that when it comes... Again to writing my essays, any time I even think of that outcome goal, I feel the procrastination, I feel the resistance, I feel the pain, whereas when I think, "You know what?" "My job is to just write the best essay that I can," it becomes a lot easier to do. And now I've realized that for basically whatever I do in school if I'm struggling with procrastination, usually it's the resistance getting in the way. Usually, it's because I have some kind of outcome goal associated with the thing which for me personally is bad, it works for some people, but I don't personally like it.

Ego: Focused on grades, class ranking, and how others perceive our academic performance.
Learning Focus: Our inner motivation to understand and master subjects, regardless of external validation.

Wrapping Up

Overcoming procrastination is a daily challenge, but armed with these insights from "The War of Art," we can make significant progress. Remember:

Recognize and name the enemy: resistance.

Approach your studies with a professional mindset.

Focus on learning rather than just grades, and set process-oriented goals.

There's a lot more really good stuff about this in the book, "The War of Art," which as you can see is quite small. It doesn't take very long to read, and in fact, it only takes two hours to listen to, or one hour if you're going at double speed like I do when I'm listening to audiobooks for English class.

I wanna end with a quote from the book where he says, "Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on resistance."

So, what's that assignment or subject in your school life that you've been resisting? What's that project or goal that scares you a little? That's probably exactly what you need to be working on. Take that first step today, show up like a professional, focus on the learning process itself, and watch as you begin to overcome procrastination and unlock your true academic potential.

If you're interested in diving deeper into these concepts, I highly recommend reading "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. While it's not specifically about studying, its ideas can have a huge impact on how you approach your schoolwork and other important tasks in your life.

So what do you think? Have you experienced resistance in your own school life? How do you deal with procrastination on your assignments? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!

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