Solid tactics for understanding (and beating) procrastination

Overcoming Procrastination Through the Pull Method

Excellent, Neil Fiore-esque advice on unpacking why you’re procrastinating and rewiring the crummy thinking that supports it.

Advice such as “just buckle down and do it,” “get organized,” and “try harder” are based on a dysfunctional definition of procrastination. What they’re really saying is: “If you weren’t such a lazy bum you could do this. No fooling around. Life is dull and hard. There’s no time for fun. Work is a horrible thing to contemplate, but you have to do it anyway.” Most procrastination happens because through procrastinating we are temporarily able to relieve fears: fear of failure, fear of being imperfect, fear of impossible expectations. Most of these fears, in turn, are ultimately based in the idea that work and life are awful struggles which we must somehow get through and that this whole horrible process will somehow make us better people in the long run.

A weird way I have...

A weird way I have helped some of my procrastination is to turn everything off and NOT do anything for a timed 10 minutes. No books, magazines. TV, radio, computers, no index cards.

After about 7 minutes I feel like I have to do something or explode. The feeling of time slipping away gets to be unbearable.

That does get me back on track if I notice myself doing dumb things like surfing slashdot or 43folders:) when I should be doing work.