Beating Procrastination
I’m writing this post even though I’d rather be at the beach. It’s a lovely day, but I have set a goal for myself to post at least every other week. I want to model how to beat procrastination to my colleagues, and employees and kids. I want to show them how I can do something even when I don’t want to.
There are three main reasons why people procrastinate:
- They are afraid they will mess it up.
- They don’t “feel” like doing it.
- The task is hard, boring, or otherwise unpleasant.
It’s too scary
If you are procrastinating about starting a task because you are afraid you might make a mistake, the author of “How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To” suggests that instead of motivating yourself by thinking about all the good things that could happen if you complete the task successfully, you focus on the what might go wrong if you don’t. As she puts it, “there is probably no better way to get over your anxiety about screwing up than to give some serious thought to all the dire consequences of doing nothing at all.”
It’s too hard
If you are procrastinating because you don’t feel like doing something or because it’s boring, hard or unpleasant you should try setting a schedule. One of the best ways to do this is to stick to a schedule. Many of the most prolific people maintain strict work routines. These routines require them to work a certain number of hours a day, no matter how uninspired they feel.
Make lists
But let’s get practical. The first thing to do is to write down all your tasks. I’ve tried many tools for tracking tasks, but have found that best tool for me is my Day Timer. I can keep notes and lists next to my calendar and plans and carry it almost everywhere I go. There is something about physically writing it down and checking it off that is deeply satisfying for me.
I’ve adopted some Bullet Journal practices that are helpful. I use the following key for tasks:
- Check mark for completed tasks
- Asterisks for tasks
- Arrow for migrated tasks
- Strike though for canceled tasks
- Initials for assigned tasks
Prioritize
Once you have a list of tasks, it’s important to assign each a priority and urgency. Then you can focus on your high priority and urgent tasks. Save the low priority, low urgency tasks for later (or never). I find if you can safely ignore a low priority, low urgency task for a year, then you probably don’t need to do it at all. I’ve instituted a process at work where we periodically review all open development tickets and close anything that was created over a year ago and that has no recent updates unless there is a very good reason not to close it.
Estimate and break it down
Now that you have a prioritized list, you should estimate the effort required to complete the high priority and urgent task tasks, breaking the large tasks into smaller, actionable pieces. Start by completing the easiest, quickest and fun tasks from this organized list. This way you can quickly accomplish a group of important, small tasks (or sub-tasks).
Use deadlines
Give yourself deadlines, but make sure your personal deadline is shorter than any external deadline to give yourself time for review or fixing mistakes.
I migrate uncompleted tasks from day to day in my calendar or to project specific lists in the back of my portfolio.
Still stuck?
If you still can’t get started, break your paralysis by completing a super easy task from anywhere in your list – don’t overthink what that should be just do it. Congratulate yourself for each small accomplishment and take satisfaction in completion. Forgive yourself for past procrastination and don’t deal on the past. Treat yourself when you reach a milestone or complete a large hard project.
Further reading:
- Forbes: 10 Scientifically Proven Tips for Beating Procrastination
- PickTheBrain: 8 Steps to Breaking Your Procrastination Habit
- Psychology Today: Learning to Manage Procrastination
- Harvard Business Review: How to Beat Procrastination