We’ve all been guilty of procrastination at one time or another, postponing or delaying a task that – for whatever reason – we simply can’t get started on.
Often, getting going is the hardest part. But even then, you’ll want to stay focused and know just the right time to stop.
Here are five top tips for finding motivation, staying absorbed, and walking away.
1. Lean on Isaac Newton to get started
You’ll likely have found that getting started on a task is the hardest part. It’s a problem that Isaac Newton wrestled with too, eventually forming part of his first law of motion.
He stated that a stationary body will remain stationary until it is acted upon by an external force. The same is true of a body in motion.
Put another way, if you are at rest and struggling to get started on a task, you’ll need to exert some energy. Once you’re up and running – and have momentum – maintaining motion is much easier, as long as you can avoid the external force of distraction.
2. Keep your mind and physical space distraction-free
Distractions play a key role in procrastination, either by preventing you from getting started or tempting you to become sidetracked mid-flow.
Try to focus on the task at hand and keep your working environment free from distractions.
When you intend to tackle a long-delayed task, put your phone on silent and turn off email notifications. Set aside some dedicated time and even set an alarm, so you can check your messages once you’ve committed to your task for a set period.
3. Shorten deadlines to focus your mind
If you find you tend to leave things to the last minute you might have convinced yourself you work better under pressure. This might even be true.
Either way, try manufacturing this pressurised environment by setting yourself false deadlines.
This tactic also makes use of a Paradox known as “Parkinson’s Law”. This states that your chosen task will expand to fill the length of time you allot to it. So, give yourself less time and you should find you complete your task faster.
Not only will you avoid procrastination and complete your current task, but you’ll also give yourself time to get started on the next one.
4. Combine the “2-minute” and the “5-minute rule”
If you’re procrastinating to avoid starting a difficult task, try breaking that task down into smaller parts. Do this until you’ve got several simple tasks that should take around two minutes each, then start on one of these.
Once you start, set yourself a very short deadline – say, five minutes. Set an alarm too. By the time your alarm goes off, you should be halfway through your third short task and well underway.
And as Isaac Newton tells us, once you’re in motion, it will take an external force to stop you.
5. Don’t be afraid to congratulate yourself on a job well done
Completing a whole task might be its own reward but be sure to treat yourself each time you achieve a minor victory too.
Small wins provide instant gratification and continued motivation.
Whether you celebrate with a cup of tea, a walk with a friend, or a trip to the cinema, be sure to acknowledge simple milestones.
6. Take a leaf out of Ernest Hemmingway’s book
Ernest Hemingway had his own sure-fire way to avoid procrastination.
When he was writing the books that would go on to earn him a Nobel prize for literature he adopted a strict writing schedule. It involved stopping mid-sentence at the end of each day.
He said: “Write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”
Stopping midway through a task allows you to hit the ground running the next morning.
7. Give yourself “nothing” as a deceptively tempting alternative
Finally, you might take inspiration from another best-selling novelist, hard-boiled detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler.
If Chandler lacked motivation during the writing process, he would allow himself to stop writing altogether. The alternative, though, had to be doing nothing at all.
He might stare out of a window and sit and think, but he couldn’t do anything remotely productive. This helped him focus on writing, if only as a way to avoid boredom.
When you’re struggling to start or complete a task, remove all distractions and give yourself “nothing” as an alternative. You might find it really focuses your mind.
