How I Overcame Procrastination In Self-Isolation.
Photo by Matt Ragland on Unsplash

I think procrastination is something that we all deal with, and since we all deal with it, I think it’s fair to say that we all have our own experiences and challenges with it.

Being in self-isolation, I’ve found myself with too much time on my hands, and it had led me to start procrastinating the work I needed to do. My productivity has gone through the floor, I’ve stopped working out, I had stopped doing design work, I had stopped running my social media accounts. It had ended up making me feel like shit for getting nothing done. So, to beat it, I talked with some reliable sources and compiled a tonne of information together to create 4 steps I used to get over procrastination.

Step 0: Putting a Target on What You’re Aiming At.

It’s really important to understand what procrastination is before you go on tackling it. Having an actual tangible definition is the first step in overcoming it. If I were to give my own definition of procrastination, it would be:

“Putting off long term achievement in favour of short term pleasure.”

It’s the classic “putting off work to go play games, or talk to friends, or watch tv, or whatever it is you do.” Something really important to recognise is that procrastinating is a decision you make. It’s a decision to do something less important.

In your mind right now, you can probably think about something important that you procrastinate; whether it’s work, study, important decisions, exercise, we all procrastinate something. The biggest challenge, however, is making sure that it isn’t a constant habit. Even if you improve yourself to the point where you’re only procrastinating 50% of the time, that’s still a big win.

Step 1: Being Aware of When You’re About to Procrastinate.

This step sounds a little vague, I know! But it really is important to recognise the urge you have to procrastinate. You need to understand when and why you’re having the temptation and understand what you should be telling yourself instead. Stop me if you’ve heard this self-talk before:

“I have enough time to get it done.”

or

“I really don’t feel like it right now.”

Let me tell you now, that no highly productive person thinks these things to themselves and uses it as an excuse. It’s vital that we learn to change that self-talk in our minds to be something productive.

For example, changing “I’m too tired to do it now,” into “That doesn’t mean I can’t get something meaningful done.”

Changing “I don’t have everything I need to get started,” into “That doesn’t mean I can’t begin with what I have.”

Step 2: Sorting Truthful Justifications from Lazy Excuses.

This kinda relates to the last step in that you need to hear the self-talk inside your head and sort them into what’s truthful and helpful, and what’s hindering. For example, if you’ve had 3 hours of sleep in 3 days (a lot of students can relate), and your brain is telling you that you’re too tired to continue working, your brain is probably right. That’s a genuine justification on why you should be getting some sleep instead.

However, if your brain is telling you that you’ve got so much time on your hands that you don’t need to worry about it yet, that’s an unhelpful conclusion to draw.

Step 3: Applying Productive Strategies.

Now for the fun part!

There are a lot of strategies you can try and implement into your work habits, but you need to keep in mind something really important: Not every strategy works for everyone. I know that the idea of needing to trial and error different methods doesn’t seem like an immediate fix, but anything rarely is. Now, let’s go through a bunch of strategies!

Doing the Worst Thing First — Getting the hardest thing finished and out of the way almost immediately makes everything else seem a lot easier by comparison.

Using Momentum — On the other hand, a feasible strategy would be by building momentum by getting the more enjoyable stuff done. This way, you’ll already be in a flow by the time you need to get the hard work done.

Just 5 Minutes — Dedicate just 5 minutes to a certain task. A lot of the time with a task, starting is the hardest part. So spending just 5 minutes on something could be enough to get you into a flow and continue.

Setting Time Limits — Creating a block of time in which to work on a certain task makes the whole task seem a whole lot less intimidating. Knowing how long to work for and how long to break for can be extremely beneficial.

Working During Prime Time — Everybody has a time in the day when they’re the most productive. Find this time out, and dedicate your most important tasks to this time.

Working in Your Prime Place — Most people also have a place in which they get their best work done. Do as much work here as possible.

Remember Then Do — As soon as you remember that you need to do something, do it immediately. That way, there isn’t any chance of it slipping your mind later.

Using Reminders — Using visual reminders is one of the most classic ways of keeping productive. Use sticky notes, phone reminders, whiteboards, or anything else you can find to remind yourself to get some work done.

Visualisation — Visualising the task being completed is often enough to start getting some motivation going to actually start. If you try this, focus on how great you’ll probably feel when you finally finish whatever you need to do.

Meditation — Focusing on your breath without controlling it is honestly a fantastic activity to achieving mental clarity and focus. It’s been scientifically shown to help with productivity, so give it a try!

And finally, Planning Rewards — Rewarding yourself for working hard or achieving something makes the process of working for it more bearable. A positive motivation like that can be enough to push you over the line.

Step 4: Rethinking and Revision.

I find that a lot of people (me included) try out a new strategy that may not work for them, and they give up on bettering themselves in that area as a whole. When you write it out like that, it should be pretty apparent that it’s a really dumb thing to do.

It feels natural to stop doing something if there’s resistance to it, challenge is uncomfortable and unpleasant most of the time. Only through dedication to change can you improve. In order to improve your productivity, you need to keep persistent and motivated in order to beat procrastination. When you try something that doesn’t work, assess why it didn’t work, and what can change in the next attempt.

It’s a fantasy to be productive 100% of the time, procrastination will happen. The most productive people in the world still procrastinate from time to time, but what differentiates them from the rest of us is their dedication to improvement. It’s probably unrealistic to go from where we are to that level of productivity without a lot of time and dedication, but these steps are a good start.

Good luck in all of your productive endeavours!

~ Will
['William Gorman']
['Quarantine', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Self Isolation', 'Procrastination']