Regardless of how many productivity books we’ve bought and haven’t read, or how many videos we’ve watched about better productivity and avoiding procrastination, we all struggle with procrastination, but procrastination is nothing new. Ten thousand years ago, the ancient Greek philosophers even had a word for it, a crazier meaning to act against our better judgement. By doing one thing, even though we know, we should be doing something else, despite its ancient history, it’s probably even more prevalent today as we live in a world full of distractions and perfect procrastination temptations. So how do we overcome it?
Procrastination is the perfect example of a thing called present bias. Present bias is this idea that I can set whatever goal? I want for my future self, but it’s my present self sitting here right now that has to actually do the action to get there and when it’s a choice between doing some exercise or watching something on Netflix. We can always say well I’ll do the exercise tomorrow and our present selves will always prefer the short term instant gratification of watching random anime, rather than the long-term goal of becoming a gymshark athlete a 2013 study by a famous researcher in the field of procrastination, Dr tim pitchell defines procrastination as the primacy of short-term mood repair over the long-term pursuit of intended actions. In other words, procrastination is more about being focused on the immediate urgency of managing negative moods and pushing the problem away, rather than getting on with the task in the present moment. The good news is, we can do something about it and there is a simple formula to overcoming procrastination.
1. Motivation
In fact, we used to think that we need the motivation to get something done, but actually it’s the other way around. We get stuff done and then the motivation naturally follows – and this is something that Jeff Hayden talks about in his book The Motivation Myt, we’ve got this idea of motivation wrong. He says that motivation isn’t something that you have it’s something that you get. He says that Motivation is not the cause of action. It is the result of action, so it’s like action comes first motivation comes second The way that I think about it is that I try and scrub the word motivation from my vocabulary and instead, I think about it in terms of either discipline or in terms of habits. Discipline is energy that we’ve put into the system we’re using our willpower. We are being disciplined, we are doing the thing, but then once we do the thing often enough, it becomes a habit and we don’t need willpower to do habits like I don’t need willpower to brush my teeth every night for the most part, but I do need a supplement to get up and go to the gym because going to the gym has not yet become a habit. So part one of this formula for overcoming procrastination was understanding motivation.
2. Understanding Momentum
The key insight here is that most of the resistance that we feel when doing a task is just in the act of starting. This idea of resistance is discussed by Steven Pressfield in his book, The War of Art. He describes resistance as a universal force that has one sole mission to keep things as they are preventing action, creativity and progress. In other words, resistance provides the beating heart of procrastination, but as soon as we cross this action line, then the pain of procrastination begins to go down, and so the idea is that it’s not doing the work that’s hard. It is starting the work. That is the problem it’s like if you had a ball at the top of a hill, you can’t get the ball moving unless you physically push it, but once you’ve pushed it, it starts rolling down the hill and then momentum carries it forward. So, if I feel like I’m struggling with procrastination, I know that the real problem is just in that initial push. It’s just in getting started..
3. The Three Rules
I’ve got three rules that I try to use. If I’m struggling to get started with doing Something.
Firstly, we’ve got the two-minute rule. The two-minute rule is a concept put forward by productivity guru, David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done, and the main idea is that if you have a pending task that can be done in less than two minutes, then you should do it right away, and so, if I’m procrastinating from doing something that I know is going to take less than two minutes I will try my very best to just do it and I will have this mantra that no no, I must follow David Allen’s two-minute rule. So if it comes to, I don’t know refilling my water bottle or you know putting a coffee, mug or a bowl away in the kitchen and washing it. I know all of that’s going to take less than two minutes so I kind of forced myself to just do it. It’s a two-minute rule, but if it takes longer, then I’ll write it down, but clearly there’s stuff that we’ve got to do. That’s obviously going to take longer than two minutes, so we can’t trick our brains into thinking. Oh it’s fine! It’s only going to be two minutes and that’s where the five-minute rule comes in.
Second, the five-minute rule is simple into that. If I’m finding myself procrastinating from something I have to do, I tell myself that I’m just going to do It for five minutes. Some people call this the thirty-minute rule twenty-minute rule ten minute rule it doesn’t really matter. The point is: we’re tricking, our brains into thinking that all we want to do is do the thing: do the work for a certain small amount of time because the problem isn’t getting started, not in continuing to do the work other than the two-minute rule and the five-minute rule.
Third, it is the mind activation rule. It is fine if I’m feeling like I’m in a slump which usually happens directly After lunch or in the evening when i’ve come home from work, and I really can’t be bothered to do anything. I’m procrastinating from doing my homework, reading a few pages of a book or whatever I need to get done. The mind activation rule is that when I recognize that feeling that kind of haze in my mind, that’s like, oh, I can’t be able to do anything at that point. I need to do something to stimulate my mind if it’s before 2 pm in the afternoon, Then I’ll make myself a cup of caffeinated coffee. But if it’s after 2 pm, I like to use a non-pharmacological method, and that is by watching an online course like on youtube that will stimulate me to get back to work on the subject.