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Procrastination. It’s a condition that’s plagued humanity for so long that the ancient Greeks even had a word for it, akrasia, meaning the state of acting against one’s better judgement. It’s doing one thing even though you know you should be doing something else.
In this post, I’ll cover why we procrastinate and share some tried and tested ideas to beat it so you can work more effectively, finish your tasks, and conquer your goals.
Why we procrastinate
A common misconception is that procrastination is about laziness. In fact, it’s linked to avoiding feelings, particularly negative ones. A pending task may illicit lack of confidence, feeling insecure, boredom or any number of emotions.
Further, although we all have long term goals, our brains value immediate rewards more than future rewards. This draws us towards the activities that give us an instant payoff. You might want to start exercising to ensure good health but find you keep busying yourself with other tasks. This is to either put off the pain of exercising (avoiding the feeling) or because the other tasks are more fun (short term reward).
How to stop procrastinating
One way to overcome procrastination and turn plans into actions is to bring future consequences into the present moment. This occurs naturally when a task has a deadline and when that deadline, instead of being sometime in the future, is immediate. Relying on these deadlines to motivate you might be okay for tasks that have deadlines but what about those that don’t, like starting a side business or reading more?
Generally, the anticipation leading up to the task is worse than doing the task itself. The issue is not with doing the work itself but getting started. So, to stop procrastinating you need to make it as easy as possible to start and trust that you’ll gain momentum once you do.
I find an effective way to do this is to commit to just doing a small part of the whole activity. If it’s exercising, say you’ll just do the warm-up. If it’s writing, commit to writing for just 10 minutes. Once the committed period is over you’re allowed to stop but I find that once I get started it’s much easier to keep going.
To build on this, an idea to get things done from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits is temptation bundling.
Simply, the strategy is to bundle a behaviour that is good for you in the long-run with a behaviour that feels good in the short-run.
The basic format is:
Only do [THING YOU LOVE] while doing [THING YOU PROCRASTINATE ON].
Ideas include:
- Only listen to audiobooks or podcasts you love while exercising.
- Only get a pedicure while processing overdue work emails.
- Only watch your favourite show while ironing or doing household chores.
- Only eat at your favourite restaurant when conducting your monthly meeting with a difficult colleague.
This is an effective way to start habits that don’t have a deadline or that rely heavily on internal motivation.
You don’t have to fight temptation if you remove it
It’s easy to procrastinate if you make it easy to procrastinate. Remove temptations and you won’t have to rely on your will power to stay focussed.
Recently, I’ve been experimenting with leaving my phone in another room while working. When I used to have it nearby, every time I got stuck or wanted a pause to think, I’d reach for it without even realising. I found this kept breaking my concentration making it harder to get back into the flow of work. However, I can report that since having my phone out of reach I’ve better-maintained focus and have seen my productivity increase massively.
Similarly, think about what temptations you have in your environment that pull you away from your goals. Try and remove them if you can.
Plan your day and use the Pomodoro technique
Prioritise your to-do list for the day and commit to the top 5 tasks. If you commit to nothing, you’ll get distracted by everything.
Use the Pomodoro technique to get more done. While the 25-minute-work and 5-minute-break cycle is a clichéd recommendation for getting more done, I’ve found a way to apply it to my to-do list to combat procrastination.
I’ve started using a productivity planner that gets me to prioritise and commit to my tasks. It has space to list 5 activities of differing importance. I look to tackle the most important task first (‘eat the frog’ as it were) and only move down the list when the previous task has been complete. The magic is that for each task there is a box to estimate how many ‘Pomodoro chunks’ it will take and I can track them as I go.
This process of planning and estimating gives me clear direction on what needs to be done and how much time I’ll need. There’s the added benefit of receiving feedback on how accurate my estimates were, helping me plan future tasks more effectively.
It’s also a handy way to hack Parkinson’s Law which I’ve mentioned before. Work will expand to the time given so by setting a Pomodoro target for each task, I work more efficiently to meet that target.
I would highly recommend grabbing a productivity book or making your own. I’ve found it to be super helpful in increasing focus and warding off procrastination.
Tip: To easily track the Pomodoro cycle on your laptop I would recommend the apps Be Focused for Mac and Powerpom on Windows. Both free.
Create an alter ego
Create an alter ego that is everything you aspire to. Focussed, motivated, loves doing [insert procrastination inducing task here]. By becoming this persona you can actually take on the qualities they possess – and this can be anything! Your alter ego can be activated by your environment, your attire, or by coming in contact with a totem.
The power of an alter ego, and how to build your own, is too big a topic to discuss in detail here but is covered in ‘The Alter Ego Effect‘. The author, Todd Herman, has helped all manner of high profile individuals in sports, business and entertainment create their own alter egos to achieve greatness.
For example, Margarete Atwood created her alter ego, Peggy, when writing her bestseller, The Handmaid’s Tale. Peggy was strong-willed, diligent, and got her to sit down consistently to write.
Creating an alter ego is a fun process and once you slip into yours your very nature can change. It’s not just limited to beating procrastination either. You can expand your alter ego’s capabilities to accomplishing anything you desire. Check out The Alter Ego Effect for the full process of creating your very own. It’s basically like a superpower.
The last word on procrastination. Don’t feel guilty about it. Procrastination is part of the human condition and everyone succumbs to it once in a while. By forgiving yourself, it’ll be easier to move on and focus on ensuring you don’t procrastinate the next time. Take the time to reflect on your habits and try and implement the strategies above, or any others you know of.
Now get out there and get stuff done!
Other related posts
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- Achieve your goals by effectively building your habits
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