I've discovered that separating maintenance tasks from my main to-do list prevents overwhelm and helps me focus on what's truly important.
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I learned to define "done" more clearly in my personal projects after discovering many unfinished tasks. By checking if a project is truly complete before starting the next one, I avoid accumulating almost-finished work and reduce mental clutter.
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I've seen over and over that we procrastinate on something because deep down it goes against our core beliefs or because we know it's a waste of time. I think there is a third type of procrastination: where we procrastinate because at some level we can't accept the larger meaning of our actions.
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Random numbers are often used in math-heavy fields like machine learning and cryptography. But random numbers are also a great tool to bust through resistance to tasks that lead to procrastination.
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There are many different ways that you can use to beat procrastination. In fact, whole books have been written about ways to get going. Here are the 5 techniques I use most often to get me going:
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One form of procrastination that I fight frequently is what I call Newton Procrastination: a body at rest will remain at rest. It’s the main reason I can’t get moving on things. And the key to fighting this is to make the barrier to motion so small that it takes almost no effort to get past it. We’ll talk about this today in Episode 79: Lowering Resistance.
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I struggle with procrastination, especially if the list of items seems overwhelming. But Mark Forster really hit a home run by bringing relative difficulty into it.
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Every now and then I take a long look at my to do list and I realize that drastic action is called for if I am gong to significantly cut it down. I schedule a "clear the deck" day. I never thought this would be a useful method for anyone, because honestly, how many people get that behind on their tasks? Apparently, a lot of us.
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In this episode, we talk about when procrastination is a lack of clarity; approaches to stopping procrastination; and ten specific anti-procrastination methods. Support me at Patreon: You can find all the episodes over at Patreon.
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Sometimes it is hard to get going. Like a battery left too long inactive in the cold, we can't get started on what we need to do.Here are my six favorite ways to jump start a task:
