Hi! If you’re here from my blog post from last week, welcome back! If not, be sure to check it out for the first half of my tips.
Here’s where some of the really big guns come out:
When you're procrastinating, it helps a lot to try and pinpoint exactly why you don’t want to do a task - is it too difficult or confusing? Does it trigger your perfectionism? Is it boring? Frustrating?
I’ve heard that there are 7 main reasons that cause procrastination, even when you really do want to be productive: your task is either boring, frustrating, difficult, ambiguous, unstructured, unrewarding, or meaningless to you.
So start by identifying which of those might be causing you to procrastinate.
Then it helps to think about why you DO want to do your task. Does it bring you closer to a goal, or do you just need to meet a deadline? Is it important to you? Why? (If your task is meaningless to you, do you really want to be doing it?)
All of these things are important to keep in mind to evaluate whether a task is worth doing, and to remind yourself of why you want to do it. From there, it’s all about bringing down your mental resistance to the task. Try just working on it for 5 minutes and see where you can get. You’ll often find that just getting started was the hardest part.
For boring tasks, just start! If you can, put on some music or a podcast or even a TV show if it won’t hurt the quality of your work, and just go. There’s no other way around it.
For frustrating tasks, it can help to make a game out of it. Reward yourself with candy or some other snack for every problem you get done, or something like that.
For difficult tasks, get some help! There’s no reason for you to be struggling alone. Get a study buddy, or ask a teacher or boss for help. And if that’s not an option, it always helps to break tasks down into smaller portions if something feels too insurmountable.
For ambiguous or unstructured tasks, figure out exactly what you have to do, and then make a plan. Think through what you have to get done and break them into small, doable tasks. And if you absolutely can’t straighten out what you have to do, write out the first couple of steps you’d have to take and keep planning as you get closer to the final idea.
For unrewarding tasks, build in your own rewards just like for frustrating tasks! Find a way to push yourself through to the end.
And finally, for meaningless tasks, think about why you want or need to do them. If you’re sitting here reading this blog post on productivity to procrastinate on this task, and it’s still weighing on you in your mind, then obviously there is some motivation for you to do it. Once you can identify a compelling reason to get started, getting it done will be much easier.
It’s also important to remember to take care of yourself first, though! Don’t overwork yourself, and take care of your mental health so you don’t burn out too quickly. I wish you the best of luck in your productivity endeavors.
