I know you might be looking at the title of this post and thinking to yourself “I’ve seen this before” or “there is no solution to procrastination”. I’m here to tell you otherwise

Now I’m not going to lie and tell you that I don’t procrastinate because I do, a lot. But I also know how to not procrastinate. 

I consume a lot of self-help content; I’ve read so many books and articles and watched so many ‘how to stop procrastinating’ videos and none of them seemed to work until I got to the one I’m about to tell you about.

The 5 Seconds Rule

The 5 seconds rule is a concept I learnt from Mel Robbins which basically says, for you to stop procrastinating, you simply have to count down from 5 to 1 and when you get to 1 you get up and do whatever you’re procrastinating on. 

It might seem so simple, and that’s because it is. One thing we do when we think about the things we have to do is think that at some point we will want to do them. The truth is that you are never going to want to study for that exam. You’d rather lie on your bed and scroll through Instagram 

What the 5 seconds rule does is, it forces your brain to think about something else (counting backward) which stops your brain from trying to convince you to put whatever you have to do off, and then from there you take action. Usually, that first slump is what most of us struggle with. After the initial start, then it all depends on momentum from there

When I tell you I have tried all the methods you can think of, all the challenges in the world and nothing works as well as this. I have read so many productivity books and this is by far the one method that I can guarantee works. There hasn’t been a time when it didn’t work.

Even though I’ve explained this, I still think it’s better to hear it from Mel Robbins herself

For the longest time, reading the Bible was a foreign concept to me. I simply never knew how to read the Bible and that affected my Christian life so much. I was lukewarm for the most part because I didn’t know much about God, only things I learned from watching sermons. 

This can’t be the way we live our Christian life. It shouldn’t be a religion full of rules that we struggle to follow, because it is much more than that. It is a special relationship between you and Christ.

And believe me, when you finally consistently read your Bible, pray and have enough faith, it will look like things in your life are just falling into place. 

The soap method is a simple method of reading the Bible that I discovered and it changed how I study the Bible. The focus is usually a scripture that you want to focus on during that session.

This method is divided into 4. The SOAP abbreviation stands for:

S: Scripture 

O: Observation

A: Application

P: Prayer

Scripture 

This is the part where you choose the scripture you are going to be dealing with. Usually what I do is I read a chapter in the Bible and the scripture that sticks out the most, is the one I use. 

What I’m currently reading is Matthew and the scripture that stuck out was Matthew 6:34. This is mostly because I deal with a lot of angst at times so anything that helps ease that is a win.

 The scripture can be a topic want to understand more, a verse you relate with at the moment with what you are going through, or it could be the verse of the day

This is what you would write in your journal

Scripture: Matthew 6:34

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring it’s own place worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today

Observation 

This section is for the things you understand and don’t understand about the scripture. You basically take it down, strip it apart and try to understand exactly what it is trying to say to you, in the simplest terms possible

You would write this in your journal

“This scripture is telling me to stop worrying. Worrying brings nothing to me other than more worrying. Therefore it is important that I just worry about what is currently happening. Thinking and overthinking things that are going to happen in the future won’t help me, so rather focus on today”

Application

Here you focus on how you can apply the scripture in your life. This is very important because most of the time we are readers of the word but not doers.

You have to evaluate exactly how you are going to put what you have read into action so that it makes a change in your life. Because that’s what the Bible is for, to help us navigate this thing called life in a way that glorifies God

Example

“I am going to apply this by always being intentional about not overthinking. One way of doing this is to only focus on the things I’m trying to accomplish today because those are the most important and the only ones that matter. I am going to start writing things down and planning ahead so that I don’t stress about how things are going to play out in the future. I don’t have control over that so I am going to stop worrying to much about it”

Prayer

This is the part when you pray about the scripture you just read and the application you just put down. All those things you said you will do, pray to God that he will help you do them consistently and to remind you of this scripture when you are in a similar situation

This part will also help you remember when you are in the future and God has answered your prayer. You will realize just how amazing He is because the prayers you put down have come true and it brings you so much gratitude

I usually write it down and then read it out loud. 

Example

“Father God I pray that Matthew 6:34 sticks in my brain. I pray that every time I face worry or stress, I remember your instruction that I should just worry about the present moment and to stop overthinking. I pray that I implement everything I said I would do very well and that the stress I am constantly under is eliminated in the name of Jesus”

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For me, passively reading the Bible like a textbook never works. I have to write, highlight and comment on what I read to make it resonate with me. That is why this method works for me. Let me know if this helped you and also how you read your Bible.