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Overcoming Procrastination
by Steve Pavlina, CEO, Dexterity Software
Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute,
can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Missed
opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt
are just some of the symptoms. This article will explore the root causes of
procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.
Replace "Have To" With "Want To"
First, thinking that you absolutely have to do something is a major reason
for procrastination. When you tell yourself that you have to do something,
you're implying that you're being forced to do it, so you'll automatically
feel a sense of resentment and rebellion. Procrastination kicks in as a
defense mechanism to keep you away from this pain. If the task you are
putting off has a real deadline, then when the deadline gets very close, the
sense of pain associated with the task becomes overridden by the much
greater sense of pain if you don't get started immediately.
The solution to this first mental block is to realize and accept that you
don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Even though there may be
serious consequences, you are always free to choose. No one is forcing you
to run your business the way you do. All the decisions you've made along the
way have brought you to where you are today. If you don't like where you've
ended up, you're free to start making different decisions, and new results
will follow. Also be aware that you don't procrastinate in every area of
your life. Even the worst procrastinators have areas where they never
procrastinate. Perhaps you never miss your favorite TV show, or you always
manage to check your favorite online forums each day. In each situation the
freedom of choice is yours. So if you're putting off starting that new
project you feel you "have to" do this year, realize that you're choosing to
do it of your own free will. Procrastination becomes less likely on tasks
that you openly and freely choose to undertake.
Replace "Finish It" With "Begin It"
Secondly, thinking of a task as one big whole that you have to complete will
virtually ensure that you put it off. When you focus on the idea of
finishing a task where you can't even clearly envision all the steps that
will lead to completion, you create a feeling of overwhelm. You then
associate this painful feeling to the task and delay as long as possible. If
you say to yourself, "I've got to do my taxes today," or "I must complete
this report," you're very likely to feel overwhelmed and put the task off.
The solution is to think of starting one small piece of the task instead of
mentally feeling that you must finish the whole thing. Replace, "How am I
going to finish this?" with "What small step can I start on right now?" If
you simply start a task enough times, you will eventually finish it. If one
of the projects you want to complete is to clean out your garage, thinking
that you have to finish this big project in one fell swoop can make you feel
overwhelmed, and you'll put it off. Ask yourself how you can get started on
just one small part of the project. For example, go to your garage with a
notepad, and simply write down a few ideas for quick 10-minute tasks you
could do to make a dent in the piles of junk. Maybe move one or two obvious
pieces of junk to the trash can while you're there. Don't worry about
finishing anything significant. Just focus on what you can do right now. If
you do this enough times, you'll eventually be starting on the final piece
of the task, and that will lead to finishing.
Replace Perfectionism With Permission To Be Human
A third type of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is
perfectionism. Thinking that you must do the job perfectly the first try
will likely prevent you from ever getting started. Believing that you must
do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you'll associate that
stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. You then end
up putting the task off to the last possible minute, so that you finally
have a way out of this trap. Now there isn't enough time to do the job
perfectly, so you're off the hook because you can tell yourself that you
could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no
specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay
indefinitely. If you've never even started that project you always wanted to
do really well, could perfectionism be holding you back?
The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human.
Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in
every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is
always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely. Perfectionism is
also closely connected to thinking of the task as one big whole. Replace
that one big perfectly completed task in your mind with one small imperfect
first step.
Your first draft can be very, very rough. You are always free to revise it
again and again. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, feel
free let your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started.
That's less than the length of this paragraph.
Replace Deprivation With Guaranteed Fun
A fourth mental block is associating deprivation with a task. This means you
believe that undertaking a project will offset much of the pleasure in your
life. In order to complete this project, will you have to put the rest of
your life on hold? Do you tell yourself that you will have to go into
seclusion, work long hours, never see your family, and have no time for fun?
That's not likely to be very motivating, yet this is what many people do
when trying to push themselves into action. Picturing an extended period of
working long hours in solitude with no time for fun is a great way to
guarantee procrastination.
The solution to the deprivation mindset is to do the exact opposite.
Guarantee the fun parts of your life first, and then schedule your work
around them. This may sound counterproductive, but this reverse psychology
works extremely well. Decide in advance what times you will allocate each
week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and
personal hobbies. Guarantee an abundance of all your favorite leisure
activities. Then limit the amount of working hours each week to whatever is
left. The peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and
work shorter hours than the workaholics. By treating your working time as a
scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up
every other area of your life, you'll begin to feel much more balanced, and
you'll be far more focused and effective in using your working time. It's
been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours.
Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on
productivity and motivation that less real work is done in the long run.
What would happen if you only allowed yourself a certain number of hours a
week to work? What if I came to you and said, "You are only allowed to work
10 hours this week?" Your feeling of deprivation would be reversed, wouldn't
it? Instead of feeling that work was depriving you of leisure time, you'd
feel you were being deprived of work. You'd replace, "I want to play" with "
I want to work," your motivation for work would skyrocket, and all traces of
procrastination would vanish.
I also strongly recommend that you take at least one full day off each week
with no work whatsoever. This will really recharge you and make you eager to
start the coming week. Having a guaranteed work-free day will increase your
motivation for work and make you less likely to procrastinate. If you know
that the next day is your day off, you'll be less likely to put off tasks,
since you won't allow yourself the luxury of allowing them to spill over
into your day off. When you think that every day is a work day, however,
work seems never-ending, and you always tell yourself, "I should be working.
" Thus, your brain will use procrastination as a way to guarantee that you
get some form of pleasure in your life.
Use Timeboxing
For tasks you've been putting off for a while, I recommend using the
timeboxing method to get started. Here's how it works: First, select a small
piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward
you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if
you simply put in the time; it doesn't depend on any meaningful
accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a
movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk,
or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you'll be
working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending
pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how
unpleasant the task, there's virtually nothing you can't endure for just 30
minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.
When you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very
interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much
longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a
difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know
it, you've put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your
reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you're ready to
stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying
about the difficulty of the task and towards finishing the current piece of
the task which now has your full attention.
When you do decide to stop working, claim your reward, and enjoy it. Then
schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward.
This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing
that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working
towards distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating
as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in
the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you'll be eager to
return to work on your task again and again, and you'll ultimately finish it
. You may also want to read my blog entry on timeboxing.
The writing of this article serves as a good example of applying the above
techniques. I could have said to myself, "I have to finish this 2000-word
article, and it has to be perfect." So first I remember that I don't have to
write anything; I freely choose to write articles. Then I realize that I
have plenty of time to do a good job, and that I don't need to be perfect
because if I start early enough, I have plenty of time to make revisions. I
also tell myself that if I just keep starting, I will eventually be done.
Before Istarted this article, I didn't have a topic selected, so I used the
timeboxing method to get that done. Having dinner was my reward. I knew that
at the end of 30 minutes of working on the task, I could eat, and I was
hungry at the time, so that was good motivation for me. It took me a few
minutes to pick the topic of overcoming procrastination, and I spent the
rest of the time writing down some ideas and making a very rough outline.
When the time was up, I stopped working and had dinner, and it really felt
like I'd earned that meal.
The next morning I used the same 30-minute timeboxing method, making
breakfast my reward. However, I got so involved in the task that I'm still
writing 90 minutes later. I know I'm free to stop at any time and that my
reward is waiting for me, but having overcome the inertia of getting started
, the natural tendency is to continue working. In essence I've reversed the
problem of procrastination by staying with the task and delaying
gratification. The net result is that I finish my article early and have a
rewarding breakfast.
I hope this article has helped you gain a greater insight into the causes of
procrastination and how you can overcome it. Realize that procrastination
is caused by associating some form of pain or unpleasantness to the task you
are contemplating. The way to overcome procrastination is simply to reduce
the pain and increase the pleasure you associate with beginning a task, thus
allowing you to overcome inertia and build positive forward momentum. And
if you begin any task again and again, you will ultimately finish it. |
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