Let’s start with practicing not procrastinating for just 10–15 minutes a day.
What is procrastination?
Procrastination is one of the most common problems people have when they work — we know what we should be doing, but we put it off. That means we play games, go to time-wasting websites, check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social sites, check the news, watch YouTube, check our email and other inboxes, do a bunch of busywork and smaller tasks (…) everything but the tasks we know we should be doing.
For example, I know I am supposed to write and publish this article today (…) and yet, I find a thousand smaller tasks to do before the actual writing, even though I know there is nothing more important than the writing and publishing about business management. If I keep this up, my website will never get written!
Why do we do this? Because focusing on the important is often uncomfortable — difficult, unknown, unfamiliar, pushing beyond our comfort zone. We turn to what we are comfortable with. So, we will focus on getting comfortable with not procrastinating.
How to unprocrastinate?
1. Set aside some time every day for unprocrastination. Start with 5 minutes on Day 1 and Day 2, and 10 minutes on Days 3–Day 7. Set it at a specific time — let’s say 9 am.
2. Before your start time, have an important task picked out. Just one task. You only need to do the first 5 or 10 minutes of it.
3. Clear distractions. Turn off the Internet, close all programs not needed, plug in some headphones and music if needed. Do all this before your start time.
4. When the start time comes, focus on just getting started. Nothing else in the world matters more than getting started at that time.
5. When you notice the urge to switch to something more comfortable, pause. Do not act, just watch. It is fine to have the urge, but what’s important is learning that the urge does not control you. You can just watch it, even if that is a bit uncomfortable. Watch the urge, breathe, and then return to your important task.
6. Repeat. Repeat the above step as many times as necessary.
7. Enjoy the process. When we dread something, we put it off — but instead, if we can learn to enjoy it, it will not be as hard or dreadful. Put yourself in the moment, and enjoy the task. Let go of the dread, and focus on the pleasantness, funness, joy of the doing.
At the end of the 5–10 minutes, stop and go do something more comfortable. If you feel like repeating this during the day, feel free to do so. You are practicing being comfortable with unprocrastination, and as you do so, you are less likely to procrastinate. This takes practice, so feel free to continue this after the week is over.
