NLP Articles

Research suggests that 24 per cent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. Presumably this figure underestimates the scale of the problem, given that it can only be based on the people who completed the questionnaires on time. Regardless of the actual figure, it is obvious that procrastination can be a major problem, causing people to fail to pay bills on time, not complete projects within deadlines and make inadequate preparations for important exams and interviews. Procrastination is a surprisingly complex phenomenon, and can steam from a variety of causes, including the fear of failure, perfectionism, low levels of self-control, a tendency to see projects as a whole rather than breaking them into smaller parts, being prone to boredom, feeling that life is too short to worry about seemingly unimportant tasks and an inability to accurately estimate how long it takes to do things.

However, the problem can be overcome using a technique first uncovered during an informal observation of waiters. According to research lore, in the 1920s a young Russian psychology graduate named Bluma Zeigarnik found herself in a Viennese cafe taking tea with her supervisor. Being students of human nature, they were watching how the waiters and customers behaved, and happened to notice a curious phenomenon. When a customer asked for the bill, the waiters could easily remember the food that had been ordered. However, if the customer paid the bill, but then queried it a few moments later, the waiters struggled to remember anything about the order. It seemed that the act of paying for the meal brought a sense of closure in the waiter's mind and erased the order from their memories.

Zeigarnik was curious, and returned to the laboratory to test the idea. She asked people to carry out a number of simple tasks (such as stacking up counters or placing toys in a box), but for some tasks she stopped the participants before they had finished. At hte end of the experiment, the participants were told to describe all the tasks. As with her observations of waiters, Zeigarnik found that the unfinished tasks stuck in people's minds and so were far easier to remember. According to Zeigarnik, starting any activity causes your mind to experience a kind of psychic anxiety. Once the activity is done and dusted, your mind breathes and unconscious sigh of rellief, and all is forgotten. However, if you are somehow prevented from completing the activity, your anxious mind quietly nags away until you have finished what you started.

What has this got to do with procrastination? Procrastinators frequently put off starting certain activities because they are overwhelmed by the size of the job in front of them. However, if they can be persuaded, or can persuade themselves, to work on the activity 'just a few minutes', they often feel an urge to see it through to completion. Research shows that the 'just a few minutes' rule is a highly effective way of beating procrastination, and could help people finish the most arduous of tasks.

It is also a perfect application of Zeigarnik's work - those few minutes of initial activity create an anxious brain that refuses to rest until the job is finished.

This article is excerpted from Prof. Richard Wiseman's new book 59 seconds: Think a little, change a lot. Professor Richard Wiseman is based at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, and has gained an international reputation for research into quirky areas of psychology, including deception, humour, luck and the paranormal. You can read more about him by visiting his website www.richardwiseman.com

Experience NLP - One Day Interactive Introduction!

Whilst you can learn a lot about Neuro - Linguistic Programming by reading, you will agree that nothing can substitute experiencing NLP for yourself. Come and join us for the next Introduction to NLP course -  this one day event is open to everyone who has open mind and willingness to learn!

“I found this course very enlightening, even some of the basic techniques will prove extremely useful in both my personal life and professional life. I've already tried some of the techniques on my family and passed on some of the knowledge. The course was value for money, allowing me to get a better idea of NLP without breaking the bank.” Martin B., Watford, Hertfordshire