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How to Beat Procrastination: A Quick and Dirty Tip

by Harri Jussila · 0 comments

The Problem: Beginning Something Too Late

The problem of how to beat procrastination is often acute.  Let’s say you are given an assignment and you have two weeks time to do it. How do yo handle this? For many of us it goes like this:

  1. Two weeks in advance – it is too early: you cannot bring yourself to starting the task just yet
  2. One week in advance – it would be the optimum time: you should start now but you can’t… don’wana
  3. One day in advance – the deadline is apporaching: you must start now or you get in trouble, so you do it

We all know this effect. This does also not mean that the final product will be bad; many times the adrenalin rush and the forced creativity of a pushing deadline result in fairly good deliverable products…

And yes, did I mention the adrenalin rush – or rather the dependency of it – yet?

The second main culprit for not being able to start in time is our inner perfectionist. The inner perfectionist whispers in your ear: “Don’t start yet, or else everybody will see that you cannot produce perfect results even if you are given the optimal setup… start late so that you have an excuse for your lousy mediocre work”.

Is this optimal? Short answer: No. In the eyes of time management this kind of  behavior is for amateurs .

Still, we are all human and sometimes we need to trick our mind. Below is one solution on how to beat procrastination that works. It is an application of one of the tips we outline in our article fast tips against procrastination.

How to Beat It Tip #1: Use a Timer

Our practical suggestion is that you use a timer. Like the one at www.meditationtimer.net. It looks like this:

Meditation time as procrastination tool

(that one is a picture, it doesn’t work)

The settings in the pic above also shows the setting I use: 20 minutes of dedicated time. I also like the timer to give a beep every 5 minutes. You will be surprised how fast 20 minutes goes by.

So, the solution goes like this:

  1. Start your task in time, preferably at the the one week before “don’wana” stage
  2. If you feel resistance, use this tool to force yourself to start!
  3. Set up the timer and just start working
  4. Don’t let yourself be disturbed, just work
  5. See what you achieved in 20 minutes
  6. You are now possibly “in the mood”, if so take a 5 minute break and do it again
  7. Re-iterate stages 3-6 as many times as you feel like it

Be effective! Have fun!

Time Management Solutions – Main Page. Learn different time management solutions and be more efficient in everything you do. Increase your personal productivity and discover more free time!

The Now Habit and the Unschedule

by Harri Jussila · 3 comments

Unschedule: An Upside Down Calendar

Have you ever stopped to think about how little time there actually is for REAL work during a day?

In his book The Now Habit: A strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-free Play, the author Neil Fiore encourages you to turn your calendar around and to create an unschedule.

The principle of Neil Fiore's Unschdeule (from The Now Habit)

The unschedule – one of the tools suggested by Neil Fiore for overcoming procrastination and achieving better time management (click on image for bigger picture)

You can create an own one week unschedule right in your calendar. Just pick some week a few weeks ahead. The idea is simply that you first mark down all the activities that are fun, related to free time and leisure, or that you just otherwise happen to enjoy. In real life these are normally exactly the "appointments" that are left out of calendars: sports, eating, friends, hobbies, and heck, even watching TV.

When I made this exercise, I couldn't stop wondering how I ever manage to achieve anything… Do I really get all my work done during those small chunks?  It gives comfort to realize that the time available for efficient work is limited. What would happen if I would work just a little bit harder during those few hours?

Do one for yourself now! It only takes 5 minutes.

When you are ready, study it. Do you get any ah-aaa's?

After my own unschedule experiment I actually started to get some guilt out of NOT starting efficient working after the obligatory morning coffee. This is however something like a positive guilt feeling.

The idea of the unschedule is to keep all the rewards – pauses, hobbies and friends – ON your mind. This way you might better get the mental power to drive at full throttle at work, which again makes it easier to enjoy more your free time – the "guilt free play" part.

What's my take, does this improve your time management?

It might be somewhat extreme to constantly update your calendar with both your schedule and unschedule content. It might also look funny in a shared calendar environment (by the way: please use the "private appointment" if you don't want to brag with your family's baby swimming sessions or such…).

In my opinion this it is a valuable exercise to do. It really might give you some ideas on how to improve your time management. You might even achieve a small paradigm shift in your relation to work time. I know I did.

Conclusion

When you're at work, work hard and enjoy. If you live a balanced life, you will soon be doing something fun anyway! You might as well get some extra stuff out of your table, before your next break.

Time Management Solutions – Main Page. Learn different time management solutions and be more efficient in everything you do. Increase your personal productivity and discover more free time!