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With the training by my NLP coach, @ronnyfr from Sinergy Lintas Batas, I now am a Licensed NLP practitioner. When you have learned and understood the foundations and basics of NLP, you get to cook up your own recipes of NLP techniques.
I first used this recipe before I had undergone licensed NLP training without knowing it was similar to a NLP technique. Here, I have polished this recipe using proper NLP techniques. Proven it works for me, I hope you get to benefit of it in your own way.
To view any unwanted feeling as a small unimportant event in the past. Uses the following NLP Techniques:
1. Place yourself in the present on your timeline while casually describing submodality parameters of your present state. Associate.
2. Visualize your goal in the future. Dissociate.
3. Step into your goal in the future. Associate.
4. Look back at your past. Dissociate.
5. Laugh at your unwanted feelings in the past while thoroughly describing submodality parameters of living your goal. Associate.
So just for fun, following our article How Procrastination Works and How to Beat It, @fannyms and I decided to poke fun at procrastinators with a flowchart to cure procrastination!
Please, treat it with an easy-going mood. It should make you giggle with some serious tips to take home.
When I heard my friend @dennysantoso was going to launch a coffee product for fat loss, I was like WHAT! And of course, I told my coffee lover bestie @febbytan about it. She immediately got excited! I wanted to order some for her and my mom as well. So I went ahead and asked Ko Denny for some and he got me some as free samples for us! Isn’t he cool!
My tray just arrived today and I am very impressed! From the packaging and the taste!
Now, I’m not so much of a coffee lover and I don’t take coffee daily but recently I’ve had an ice cold Good Day Vanilla Latte in the mornings and this new Java Prime could easily replace it as my occasional morning drink. I had a bit of a thought that it was going to taste like broccoli juice since it was for fat loss but it tastes just like any other delicious instant coffee! Plus it leaves a nice after taste in my mouth 
And in fact right now, I feel adrenaline rush after drinking it. I really feel like I could run through a wall, if I could.
I’m impressed with the packaging as well! I’m a sucker for vintage packaging so the outer natural cardboard cup definitely worked for me.
Java Prime is still a very, very new product as @dennysantoso just launched it a couple of days ago. You can get buy them per cup, per tray, per box or per can but since they’re new, photos and product description aren’t up yet but stay tuned for them!
AWESOME! I’m actually being active on my website and posting new stuff!!!
A huge, HUGE thanks to @febbytan and @fannyms for your eternally thanked contributions in getting this site up and running.
Special thanks to @febbytan who guided me through from start to finish, from helping come up with what the hell I’m going to put on here, just work or personal thoughts too, to picking out the Pocket theme, purchasing the theme with your ThemeForest account, to WordPress setup, you walked me through it all!
A squeeeeezing thanks to @fannyms who has been constantly writing out your wonderfully thoughtful posts (I told you that you can write!!!). Hopefully we’ll get a dedicated website up soon for all her incredible, honest and encouraging writings.
A brotherly thanks to @dennysantoso for posting YouTube videos too so I feel like when I’m posting videos, someone I know closely is doing it too and I don’t have to feel so awkward about it!
A sisterly thanks to @salsabeela for being so inspired by my new website and updating hers too! It really pays off to see that another person is benefitting off it! It makes it all worth it!
A shoutout to @budi and @toramichan for cursive logos!
I hope to chill and enjoy every moment of all my journeys in here. I hope to be as honest and inspiring as I can. I hope to show that there is always another person to relate to in any kind of situation.
Seize every momentum!
This is a guest post from my lovely friend, Fanny Marcellina. Her primary role is Management and Planning for creative projects. She is @fannyms on Twitter.
“I wrote this post for current design students all over the world to help them develop a more natural and honest flow when giving presentations to lecturers in their universities (I remembers how hard it was).”
- Fanny
1. I don’t know how to start.
Starting off something is never easy. When faced with a blank piece of paper/ canvas a lot of people (especially students) could suddenly feel overwhelmed “Oh God, look at this—I have no idea where to start!” What happens then, you wait—either for the right mood or the right idea to strike.
The truth is there are no such thing as “The right mood” nor “brilliant ideas”. Most people wait for something to motivate them to start, but actually starting a task is the real motivator, you just have to dive in and do it without even the slightest motivation involved. Just start with writing down everything that you know about this project (or sketch) and move from there (research, research and research).
“Oh God, look at this—I have no idea where to start!” What happens then, you wait—either for the right mood or the right idea to strike. The truth is there are no such thing as “The right mood” nor “brilliant ideas”.
When you finally get started and started to gather some ideas on how you want your project to look like you are prone to feel overwhelmed. “There are too many things to do!!! This is impossible!”
Try this to overcome this irrational fear, break up your projects into small do-able parts, then focus on finishing those little parts instead of picturing the finished result just yet.
The beauty of this method is that you can always break down the pieces even further, and just start to do it one by one, small bits at a time. Those broken up pieces will look more manageable and hopefully will ease your burden.
At some point during every project you’re bound to feel stuck, either you got no idea how to proceed or someone criticize your work and make you feel down. What happens next is your brain telling you, “Well, I suck at this.” and you sort of giving up the project, postponing it for later.
But my dear, perseverance is the key here! If you are stuck, then do more research, make more mood boards or just sketch randomly. The key point here is to keep on going.
If it’s still not working try go somewhere or change your environment! Different environments tends to have some impact on our productivity and creativity!
However if you’ve got some critique and they suggest that what you’re doing now isn’t good enough, instead of giving up or procrastinating, how about try to listen to what they have to say and decide for yourself whether you should trust their judgement or not. In case of confusion you can also turn for constructive criticism from some other people that you can trust and then act accordingly.
People get lazy every once in a while, of course there are times when you start to quietly count in your head on how many days is left before the deadline. Then you start to comparing how many hours it took you to do other tasks before. Then if you still have some days left (even if it’s not actually ideal) you going to feel a temporary relief and start to procrastinate instead of finishing your project now.
To tackle this unwanted procrastinating all you have to do is to work like there’s no tomorrow!
It is indeed true, we don’t know what the future hold, do what we can today, because tomorrow is uncertain.
I know some people who came up after the deadline saying, there are some emergency at the printing station or their computer crashed because the sudden overload of tasks. Well, hopefully this can all be avoided by having a few extra days of just in case.
And how to have those extra days you might ask? Don’t procrastinate
You start to make some excuses so you could procrastinate. The seriousness of this step may vary to each and every individual.
The less serious case included ” I worked out too much today, now I can’t think because I am too tired”, “I am not feeling well today, therefore I cannot do what I am supposed to do today”.
This is the beginning you started to lie to yourself, to make YOU feel better. The next and more acute state is to start lying to OTHER people for justification about your reasons to procrastinate.
This is dangerous, and if you continue to tell people all these little lies, you can become a pathological liar. and you don’t want that!
One way to avoid this is to never ever lie to yourself!
You, yourself, are the one who knows you best, and if you’re feeling anxious because of your deadline date, then instead of lying to yourself to make you feel a little better, how about do the right thing instead and finish off your responsibilities.
This is the beginning you started to lie to yourself, to make YOU feel better. The next and more acute state is to start lying to OTHER people for justification about your reasons to procrastinate.
This anger part of procrastinating usually came near the deadline date. “How can he (the lecturer) possibly wants me to write 3000 words in just 1 week! This is just crazy!” or “They want me to create at least 30 pages of sketches! Isn’t that impossible?!”
You then uses this anger as another excuse to delay things further, in your mind you have this right to be angry at this situation, thus you earn the right to just “leave it for now”.
In this case, you need to understand your responsibilities. Of course there are sometimes an odd case of rushed projects (usually when you do some freelance work), however in case of university work, the lecturer always going to match the deadline with the amount of works needed to be done. So instead of complaining at the last minute, you need to get motivated instead and try to finish off your work as well as you can within what’s left of your timeframe.
This is a guest post from my lovely friend, Fanny Marcellina. Her primary role is Management and Planning for creative projects. She is @fannyms on Twitter.
I wrote this post for current design students all over the world to help them develop a more natural and honest flow when giving presentations to lecturers in their universities (I remembers how hard it was).
- Fanny
The most basic and fundamental thing in starting any kind of project is to understand what is being asked of you. A lot of problem arises when you present your work/ design/ idea without fully understanding what the brief wants.
Some ways to avoid this mistake are:
At the presentation your lecturer/ client will always refer to their brief, and if you understand them and use it as a guide throughout your project, then everything should work out well.
Alexis’ Sidenote I learned a lot from my mistakes during this process in university. Why? Because I always jumped straight to my own conclusion instead of asking and clearing out with my lecturer what should actually be done. Don’t fall into this trap and if you do, pray that your lecturer will give you extra time to get it right.
Research is one of the most important part of your project. It’s gathering information, informing yourself with many useful knowledge to solve the problems and back up your project.
After you understand your brief completely, you next need to conduct an extensive research to understand and get real facts about the product/ problem that is in your project.
Research requires effort and time and most people skip them! What most people don’t understand is that the more information we have, the easier it is for us to make our decision or come up with new solution.
During the presentation, a well researched project, backed up with facts and theories will looked more credible and believable.
Alexis’ Sidenote Some people love research (like me and Fanny), some hate it to the bone. Think of research as you are getting on your spaceship, exploring and discovering a whole new planet out there. Think of it as a chance for you to roam free in the wild to discover all the possibilities out there. Research is not a burden, it’s your time to run wild.
You need a visual aid to help your case. I am not talking about regular slides straight out of power point program, I am talking about beautiful custom PDF pages which compliment your project nicely.
AS A DESIGNER, YOU CANNOT JUST USE YOUR WORDS TO BACK UP YOUR IDEAS OR THEORIES.
Alexis’ Sidenote This can be really tedious to do and time-consuming. You may hate it and you may think it takes too much time. But trust me, if you don’t do this, then you’re going to hate it even more when the audience asks you for visual evidence and you don’t have any simply because you were too lazy to finish your visual aids. Which one would you rather pick?
Include some of your crucial sketches/ mockups and failures throughout the project in your slide.
This will give them a better understanding to your project and reduce the chance of many unnecessary questions at the end of the presentation.
Alexis’ Sidenote I already know most of you hate doing this. You just want to jump straight into Photoshop. But it will show that you have actually worked really hard! Just draw sketches! People will see your hard effort. Show it off!
Practice your presentation with your trusted friends, the one that you know can give you a honest and constructive feedbacks.
Rehearsing your presentation with audience is always better than doing it alone, even if the person you’re presenting to doesn’t understand anything about design or your particular project, it is giving you the opportunity to test your idea and presentation method, is it going to be clear enough to understood by the client/ end customers later?
Alexis’ Sidenote Don’t be scared. Don’t be shy. Don’t be afraid of criticisms. You can take it. Come on. Just ask them. You don’t have to take anything to heart. It’s just their own opinions not facts. What they say may be false. Practice accepting criticisms with love. It will make you tough and indestructible.
During your presentation make sure you are calm and confident (with enough preparation above, you should feel confident enough now). Speak with calm clarity, make sure your voice is clear and loud enough for everyone.
Don’t forget to pay attention to your talking speed, you wouldn’t want to speak way to fast or way too slow.
(This is why practicing beforehand with an audience is always helpful.)
Alexis’ Sidenote Don’t bullshit. Don’t ramble. Don’t waste your time or anybody else’s time. Stick to 1-3 points in your head and find different words to communicate that across.
Having a printed or written cheat notes in hand will help to keep you on track and not rambling everywhere. You can highlighted the important part that you need to emphasize.
It will help you from forgetting important information/ idea that you need to point out.
(Sometimes the mind can go blank during a presentation due to over anxiety).
Alexis’ Sidenote Stick to 1-3 main points. Not 20. If you write too much on your cheat note, you won’t use it at showtime.
Always maintain a good eye contact (not too strong, or you could come off as rude/ offensive) and smile.
Feel confident about your presentation (don’t spend your time looking at your piece of paper/ the projected slides)
Use hand gestures to emphasize your points and make your presentation less boring.
Alexis’ Sidenote Dress well. Stand up straight. Smile. Be honest. You don’t have to be confident but be honest (in fact, showing vulnerability is the strongest way of showing confidence). Answer from the heart. Don’t be fake and don’t try to sound smart.
Don’t leave your presentation hanging, create a strong closure that convince people of your case, and always leave them with a clear solution or a thought.
Alexis’ Sidenote Well said, Fan.
Try to suppress your own emotions and never get offended during presentation because all the questions and feedbacks are not personal and you can use them to help you grow to be a better designer.
USE THE RESEARCH YOU’VE DONE TO HELP YOU ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS THROWN, DON’T PANIC WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER AND TRY TO ANSWER EVERY QUESTION HONESTLY AND CALMLY.
Alexis’ Sidenote What Fanny said.
