A Message for Dawdlers
Weโve all dragged our feet at the thought of a scary, looming project deadline ahead of us. This mental paralysis generates incremental stress and anxiety that would otherwise be resolved by action. Fear of the impending deadline often prevents us from completing a task until the very last minute. The last-minute flurry of activity leading up to a deadline usually means you donโt have time to enjoy the satisfaction of completing a task.
This article provides you with four strategies to eliminate the mental roadblock to project completion.
Make Your Bed
Keep it simple. Make the accomplishment of basic tasks routine, so you have the confidence to tackle bigger, more complex tasks. In a 2014 graduation speech at the University of Texas, US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven said,
โIf you want to change the world, startโฆ by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the [day's first task]. It will give you a small sense of pride andโฆ encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you canโt do the little things right, youโll never be able to do the big things right. If, by chance, you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed thatโs made. That you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.โ
Donโt Provide a Room for the Unwanted Squatter
Quick action at the onset of a project assignment provides you with time to revel in your accomplishment. Dawdlers have the misfortune of missing the period of enjoyment upon task completion because it occurs at (or perhaps past) the due date. The Economist describes the procrastination paradigm as this:
โProcrastination lies between logic and emotion, between ambition and achievement. Bridging that gap can be difficult, even when you know full well that if you do, the dreaded task will no longer lurk at the back of your mind like an unwanted squatter. Quick progress is difficult but rewarding, offering a high that is undiscoverable to those who leave things till the very end.โ
Donโt Give Yourself A Deadline
Although it may seem impractical, develop a list of projects that need to be done - but donโt assign deadlines, at least not long ones. Prioritize the tasks in a way that makes sense to you (even if itโs in order of easiest to hardest!), and proceed. A Harvard Business Review article summarizes the surprising results of a survey to study the psychology of procrastination, and provides us with this conclusion:
โR.I.P.โ New Yorker Cartoon by Drew Dervanich
โDeadlines motivate us to do things we might otherwise put off, but the relationship isnโt always clear-cut. For example, although a long deadline theoretically gives us more time to finish a task, it often means that we postpone it over and over until eventually, we forget all about itโฆ A deadline signals the importance and urgency of a task, so not surprisingly, people often interpret a long deadline as permission to delay. You might assume that the lack of a deadline would be viewed in much the same light. But in fact, people tend to interpret it in just the opposite way, as meaning โGet this done as soon as possible!โ The urgency and pressure are implied.โ
Practice Self-Compassion
Self-awareness is part of the reason procrastination drives us crazy. At the same time we are avoiding a task, we know that inaction is a bad idea. Itโs an irrational cycle: โThe thoughts we have about procrastination typically exacerbate our distress and stress, which contribute to further procrastination.โ
Break down your task into manageable parts and think about what each incremental step will yield in terms of success. Reframe negative thoughts into positive, โcan doโ thoughts. Remove temptations or distractions that might impede your ability to accomplish the discrete goals that youโve set for yourself. Make sure your tasks, whether self-assigned or given by others, provide you with meaning and happiness. (If they donโt, read our article about Finding Your Ikigai.)
When you receive a phone call and continue working on your current project, youโre probably not doing either activity very well. Successful monotasking, or focusing on one task at a time, requires you to ignore the myriad of distractions around you.