Procrastination - Understanding and Overcoming it

It's been more than a month now since I've put out content. There's no running away from this, no hiding space. But this has to stop.

So what went wrong?

To be honest, not much. Procrastination happened - and it was different reasons on different days:

• Had too much work today and I'm really tired. Guess I'll write tomorrow.
  

• There's this new Netflix series that's out. Better watch it before anyone puts out spoilers. Guess I'll write the next day.
  

• Too sleepy now. Guess I'll write tomorrow when I'm feeling fresh.
  

• It's the weekend now. I deserve some rest and chill time. Guess I'll write something on Sunday.
  

• It's too little time now to put out something good. Guess I'll skip this week and get back to it next week. and on and on.....

I think it is safe to say that no matter how many productivity books we read or how many motivational videos we watch, we all struggle with procrastination.

So now that we know the problem, let's try and understand it better.

Solving (or resolving) a problem is a rather trivial exercise - once we know what the problem is.

Understanding Procrastination

Procrastination is not something new. The ancient Greeks even had a word for it:

Akrasia

n. the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgment through weakness of will

But despite its ancient history, it's more prevalent today as we live in a world filled with distractions and quick dopamine hits.

As put forward by psychologist Tym Pychyl:

Procrastination is the primacy of short-term mood repair over the long-term pursuit of intended actions

In simpler words, procrastination is choosing to avoid managing immediate negative moods and pushing the problem away, instead of dealing with the task/problem in the present moment.

We see this play out all the time, and it is abundantly clear in the excuses that I came up with above.

Overcoming Procrastination

"You're not a procrastinator, you have a habit of procrastinating" 
- Mel Robbins

And because it's a habit, we can use science to break it.

So how do we go about doing that?

There are different ways in which one can approach this, but this video by Ali Abdaal really struck a chord and made the most sense to me. And in his video, he talks about this formula that he uses to overcome procrastination.

We can break this formula down into understanding two key concepts:

1. Motivation

2. Momentum

Understanding Motivation

Motivation isn’t something you have. It is something you get, from yourself, automatically, from feeling good about achieving small successes.

This is what Jeff Haden points out in his book The Motivation Myth. So motivation is not the cause of action - it is the result of action. So action comes first, and motivation follows.

Understanding Momentum

The key insight here is that most of the resistance we feel when thinking of doing a task is just in the act of starting. As soon as we take some sort of action, then the pain of procrastination begins to fade.

Think of it like having a giant ball at the top of a hill and you are tasked to push it down the hill. The ball will not move unless you physically push the ball down. But once the ball starts rolling, the momentum will carry it forward. So whenever we struggle with procrastination, usually the real problem is just in that initial push.

If you're struggling with the first push too, here are 3 rules that will help you start:

1. The 2-minute rule: If you go through your list of tasks (that you're putting off) and notice any task that can take less than 2 minutes to do, go do it. Now! It can be anything from making your bed, refilling your bottle, or just watering your plants. If it takes less than 2 minutes to do, just get up and do it.
   

2. The 5-minute rule: Usually most of our tasks take well over 2 minutes. In this case, convince yourself to get up and do the most minimal version of the task for 5 minutes. Usually, the 5 minutes act as a hook, and the actions that you take then will act as the step board for you to keep going (momentum). Let's say you have to write a 3-page article for work. If you find yourself procrastinating, say you will write just the introduction - which will take about 5 minutes. The rest will follow!
   

3. The mind activation rule: When you feel like you can't be bothered to do anything, do something that stimulates your mind. Go make coffee, solve a puzzle, play wordle?! This should activate your mind and help get you out of your slump.

I'm looking forward to using these techniques to limit and put an end to my procrastination. Hopefully this helps you too :) Let me know what you think and/or if you have any hacks of your own to break free from procrastination.

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