University professor and author Cal Newport approaches his tasks this way. Then, there's one other way to solve the problem of not knowing what to work next: Use a schedule instead of a task list. It's made me accomplish a lot more in a day, rather than wasting time in between the few time-sensitive tasks I know I have to get done. This has effectively put an end to my time-wasting that came from not knowing what to work on next. It doesn't matter what mood I'm in or which of the tasks on my list I'm avoiding-there's always something else on the list I can do right now. Having a long to-do list means I can always find something to work on. When I did this myself, I found my productivity increased. It might sound counterintuitive, but piling up your to-do list can be an incredibly effective way to get more done. John Perry, creator of and author of The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing, calls minimizing your to do list "a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being." Rather, it gives you nothing else to work on while procrastinating, so you end up doing nothing (or wasting time watching animal videos and reading listicles). That doesn't stop procrastination, unfortunately. It might seem that the best idea is to cut down your to-do list so you're forced to work on your most important task. While this won't work for everyone, it's surprisingly effective for procrastinators like myself. The first is to pile up your to do list by listing every possible thing you need to do. There are two things that can especially help with this roadblock. It's a lot easier to get started when there's no question about what to work on. Instead, I end up wasting time browsing social media or reading articles because I don't want to go through the effort of making a decision. I've often run into this problem: I'm ready to work and want to get things done, but am not sure exactly what to work on. I usually found running extremely boring, but would look forward to that run every week when I knew I'd get to listen to Serial. When the first season of the Serial podcast was being released weekly, I only listened to new episodes while running. I've also used this approach to encourage myself to exercise more. So, I stocked up on new stationery and started sketchnoting my research., That gave me a way to look forward to researching new articles, since I enjoy creating new sketchnotes, and article research is the only time I get to do it. I used to put off researching new articles because it's a very involved, time-consuming process. Those are the wrong reasons to drive a hybrid car, but doing so is the right thing to help stop global warming.įinding a "wrong reason" to enjoy your work can make a task more enticing. One way of doing this is what behavioral economist Dan Ariely calls reward substitution, or "getting yourself to do the right thing for the wrong reason." Ariely gives the example of driving a Toyota Prius because it makes you feel like a good person and signals to others that you're a good person. Anything you can do to make that task more enticing will ease the temptation to avoid it. To overcome procrastination, you need to focus on one goal: make the task seem less uncomfortable. So long as it's not that one uncomfortable task, we'll do anything else-even cleaning the kitchen. When we think a task is going to be unpleasant, we tend to look for more pleasant things to do instead, so we can avoid it-even if those things are other types of work. That could be boredom, frustration, or just the discomfort of doing something that's difficult. We procrastinate to avoid unpleasant feelings. When you're actively avoiding work, that's procrastination. When you really want to do your work but can't get started, that's a motivation problem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |