![]() Getting started on something forces a subconscious reappraisal of that work, where we might find that the actual task sets off fewer triggers than we originally anticipated. That’s because the tasks that induce procrastination are rarely as bad as we think. What about 30 minutes? Shorten the amount of time until you find a period with which you’re no longer resistant to the task - and then do it.ĭo something - anything - to get started. It’s easier to keep going with a task after you’ve overcome the initial hump of starting it in the first place. ![]() For example, could you focus on reading for an hour? No, that period of time still seems unpleasant. To find your resistance level, consider the effort you commit to that task along a sliding scale. Let’s say you have to wade through a dense piece of research for an upcoming project. But just how resistant are we? You and Your Team Series Staying Focused Work within your resistance level. When a task sets off procrastination triggers, we resist doing it. Or if you find a work task ambiguous and unstructured, create a workflow that lays out the exact steps you and your team should follow each month to get it done. If you find this boring, you can turn it into a game: see how many words you can crank out in a 20-minute time period. Then try to think differently about the task, making the idea of completing it more attractive. Reverse the procrastination triggers. Consider which of Pychyl’s seven procrastination triggers are set off by an activity you’re dreading. Here are the best ways I’ve discovered in my research to do that. When you notice an approaching showdown between logic and emotion, resist the impulse to procrastinate. This article also appears in:īut there’s a way you can give the logical side of your brain the upper hand. The logical part of your brain surrenders the moment you choose Facebook over work, or decide to binge another episode of House of Cards when you get home. On a neurological level, procrastination is not the slightest bit logical - it’s the result of the emotional part of your brain, your limbic system, strong-arming the reasonable, rational part of your brain, your prefrontal cortex. Not intrinsically rewarding (i.e., you don’t find the process fun).Bring to mind something you’re putting off right now - you’ll probably find that task has many, if not all, of the characteristics that Pychyl discovered makes a task procrastination-worthy: ![]() In his research, Pychyl identifies a set of seven triggers that make a task seem more averse. The more averse you find a task, the more likely you are to procrastinate. And I’d argue the remaining 5% are lying.Īs for the phenomenon of putting stuff off, it’s “a purely visceral, emotional reaction to something we don’t want to do,” says Tim Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle. About 95% of people admit to putting off work, according to Piers Steel, author of The Procrastination Equation. One of the first things I learned was that procrastination is a human condition. The advice I gathered became the foundation for part of my book and, fortunately, I discovered that a lot of it works. To answer these questions, I spoke to researchers, and spent time digging through dozens of academic journal articles. This got me thinking: why do we procrastinate, even though we know it’s against our best interests? How can we overcome it, preferably without hating ourselves or the techniques we use in the process? In one time log I kept, I found that over the course of one week, I spent six hours putting off tasks - and that’s just the procrastination that was apparent from my time log. In becoming hyperaware of how I spent my time, I noticed something: I procrastinated a lot more often than I had originally thought. Maybe you’re even reading this article to do so.Ī while back, I took a year to experiment with every piece of personal productivity advice I could find. Chances are that at this very moment you’re procrastinating on something.
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