Beat procrastination!

A quick guide to beating procrastination by Nic Streatfield of the University's Open Door Team. 

 

Be playful – Scribble down some unstructured notes, draw a mind-map or brainstorm ideas. Write everything you can think of on the topic for 3 minutes ignoring your mistakes.

Ready Unsteady Go - Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start. Begin before you are absolutely ready. Open up a new document on your computer for each task or questions or chapter or idea and give the document a name. Close down the document and feel pleased with yourself that you’ve started.

The Clock - Does a full day of work seem overwhelming? If so, just procrastinate until evening, and start working when there is only little time left. Or use a timer. Set your timer for fifteen minutes: that's how much time you have to do your work. When the timer rings, stop work immediately, restart the timer for a fifteen minute break. Repeat lengthening the durations of work.

 

For your eyes only – Go back to your documents or get a blank page and write, in an unstructured way, your ideas. Open up a new document and call it The Plan. Create a plan of your work and think about the small tasks you have to do to achieve this. Remember this is for your eyes only so it doesn’t have to be perfect. Notice how when you work without pressure your brain begins to connect bits of your thoughts with your task and you begin to get into the work.

 

The next step – From your plan always keep track of what the "next action" will be. This is because the mood, the energy, required to decide on the step is different than the mood and energy required to perform that next step. We can think of it as programming first, executing second. The example of the next step must be actionable.  Finding that book from the library is not the next step. The next step is getting dressed. The next step is leaving the house to go to the library. Really small steps are important as they mean you are moving forward building momentum.

 

The Log Book - The Log Book records your next steps and is an excellent way to gauge whether the next step is small enough. Use any medium to keep an exact record of your plans and to write down exactly when you procrastinate. If you have two weeks left till deadline day create 14 folders for the next 14 days (numbered 1 to 14.) Write down what you have to do each day. Each morning, you open the next folder and find all that you need to do that day. The log books helps you to be able to restart exactly where you left off, is tangible proof that you are working and allows you to be impressed by what has been accomplished, and can help avoid complacency.


Writing a log book like that may seem like an incredible waste of time. You need to compare this time spent with the time you have wasted procrastinating. Seen this way, the log book might be only a small amount of extra work, and it provides an excellent record for you to learn better how you procrastinate, what works and what doesn't. As you become less of a procrastinator, you will have less to write in any case.

 

Prioritising – If you have a number of tasks write down a list of what you need to do then rewrite the list in order of priorities and then write another list in order of achievability. Enjoy it when you tick off the completed task.

Scheduling 1 - Set aside some time every day at the same time of day when you will work on that particular task.

Scheduling 2 – Schedule some time to worry about your work. Do this just before something that will help you stop worrying. e.g. do this just before meal time or meeting a friend or before a favourite TV programme.

Braided work - Do you work very well with other people, but as soon as you are alone, everything stops? Working with other people helps because it provides a way to use the energy that your generosity is ready to generate, and redirect it towards selfish means. It also introduces a social element to your individual endeavors.

Playtime 2  - Print out all of the information on your documents. Arrange them into piles of relevant materials – cut bits out and move them around. This ‘playing’ is a good way of tricking your brain to get you started into work. Experiment with other playful ways that can help you piece together your work so far.

Be honest - Make honest decisions about your work. If you only want to spend a minimal amount of time on a piece of work just accept that and don’t waste time feeling guilty. Devote only that amount of time which is appropriate for each part of the task. It is better, especially in exams, to do all the questions fairly well than one question perfectly and the rest too rushed. As you do the tasks on your to-do list, try to stay aware of the balance between how important the task is and how much time you're spending on it. If you devote time to each item in proportion to its importance you may discover many extra hours in your day.

Avoid perfectionism - Be reasonable in your expectations of yourself. Perfectionist or extremely strict expectations may cause you to rebel or may sabotage your progress.

Energise yourself physically – Jump around, shake your arms and legs, do a headstand. It is very hard to be anxious when you are doing something a little silly. Doing this will break the physical manifestations of your anxiety.

Monitor your negative self talk and catastrophic thinking - Write down your catastrophic train of thoughts to rationalize it. If you’re putting yourself down, stop it. Our self talk – the words we use to ourselves are important. They have feelings attached to them which influence our experience of the work ahead. If you groan and sigh and say to yourself ‘I have to do this piece of work’ you are more likely to rebel than if you say to yourself ‘I am choosing to do this piece of difficult work because it will help me get to my goal.’ After all you don’t have to do the work for your degree but you do it because you are choosing that you want a degree. You could choose that you don’t want one.

Reward yourself – plan a treat for when you have accomplished a task.

Eat well, Sleep well, Relax well, Play well – No-one can just work all the time. To be effective people need to look after themselves physically and that means scheduling time for food, for friends, for enjoyable activities and to have plenty of sleep.

Find your mantra – Think of a helpful phrase that motivates you to beat the procrastination habit. Examples might include; It is worth producing something rather than nothing; If you don’t shoot you wont score; Most jobs need completion not perfection; If the minimum wasn’t acceptable it wouldn’t be called the minimum; Every journey begins with a small step.

Page Created: 17th Apr, 2008
Last Updated: 5:29pm on 17th Apr, 2008 by Tom Scott