We’ve all been guilty of procrastination at one time or another. Postponing or delaying a task we really should be getting on with that – for whatever reason – we simply can’t start.
Often, getting going is the hardest part. But even then, you’ll want to stay focused and know just the right time to stop.
Here are five top tips for finding motivation, staying absorbed, and walking away.
- Bear in mind Einstein’s first law of motion
If you find it hard to get started on a new task, you’re not alone. It’s a problem that Isaac Newton was aware of more than 300 years ago.
His first law of motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
Exerting the force needed to get an object – even yourself – moving, can often be the hardest part. Once you start on a task though, you have momentum and it’s easier to keep ploughing on.
Bear this law of motion in mind and do all you can to make starting a long-delayed task easier.
- Use the five-minute rule to break down tasks and then make a small start
Sometimes, making a list of the things you need to do is easier than doing the things themselves.
Set yourself a short countdown to do just that, say five minutes. Pick a task you need to complete and quickly break it down into a list of smaller tasks until you have a single action that seems manageable.
Start with that – being sure you’re still well within your five-minute timer – and then see how you get on. You’ll likely find that once you’ve broken the spell and got started, you’ll have enough momentum to take you beyond your original five minutes.
Plus, your list of smaller tasks will give you plenty to get on with, with regular feelings of achievement and progress. A sure-fire win!
- Manipulate Parkinson’s Law to keep yourself focused
Parkinson’s Law was originally applied to bureaucrats and politicians and stated that the duration of an administration expands to fill its pre-determined timeslot, regardless of the amount of work to be done.
Or to put it another way, the more time we have, the less we’ll get done.
If you have a month to complete a project, you’ll likely work right up until your deadline. What’s more, you’ll probably cram a lot of the work into the last week or so.
But what if you cheated yourself (and Parkinson’s Law) but telling yourself that the deadline was just two weeks away?
You’d put added pressure on yourself, certainly, but that could be enough to break the procrastination barrier and get you started. It will also focus your mind and help to keep you working.
And when you’re finished? You’ll have an extra two weeks to find a new task and start back at tip #1.
- Gamify your task list to create rewards and a sense of achievement
A great way to compel yourself to complete a task is to treat a chore like a game.
As we’ve already seen, breaking a large task into smaller ones can help here, providing a regular sense of achievement and progress.
These hits of excitement can be easy to find at the start of a task. As the process rolls on, though, the end can sometimes feel like it’s receding rather than getting nearer.
Make sure each small win is acknowledged and celebrated. Give yourself a milestone to reach and then reward yourself. This might be with a cup of tea or a walk in the park. At the end of a particularly large milestone, you might go out for dinner or organise a trip to the theatre.
Use small wins and rewards to keep yourself motivated and you’ll start to form habits that will see you through to your endgame, and the joy of a task well done.
- Employ the “Hemingway trick” to hit the ground running
Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden had a strict writing routine.
Along with dedicated writing time, he had one rule: always stop mid-flow. Sometimes that even meant mid-sentence.
He once said, “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”
You can use this “Hemingway trick” too. Stopping a task midway through, knowing exactly what you need to do next – and how you’re going to accomplish it – means you can return to the task without the worry of a metaphorical “blank page”.
This allows you to hit the ground running and avoid that difficult period of procrastination the next day. The technique could even help you be more productive, a great habit to get into as the new year approaches.
Get in touch
If you have financial jobs you’ve been putting off, we can help you get motivated and engaged to tackle those tasks now. For help, email us at beyourself@murphywealth.co.uk or give us a call on 0141 221 5353.
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