> Here's the magic — the next time you face a task that your whole body is screaming, "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," ask yourself: what's the next act

> Here's the magic — the next time you face a task that your whole body is screaming, "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," ask yourself: what's the next action? What's the next action I'd need to take to make some progress? Don't break the whole task down. That will be sure to overwhelm you. I think if most of us broke our whole task down, we'd realize that life's too short, you can never get it all done. Instead just say, "What's the next action?" and keep that action as small and as concrete as possible. I'm actually handling this area in my life right now, and I decided I'd use my intuition rather than my intellect to handle it (and analyze with my intellect if my intuition came up with something interesting). It did. Here is my idea: be playful about the tasks your procrastinate on. Don't cater to your intellect, cater to your emotions. I have 2 examples with flexibility training and lifting weights. Flexibility training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity, such as "how does this feel?" "what do I like about it?" "what do I dislike about it?" "will I think similar ideas the next day if I answer these questions (spoiler alert: I personally don't)" And then focus relentlessly on the fun (if you have some of it) and really indulge in it. I've likened flexibility training to a lot of things I find fun. --- Example 2 --- Strength training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity and fun! Such as "How does it feel fun?" "How does the pain feel fun?" "What is it that I don't like about it? Why?" "Are there moments when there's a part of the activity that I dislike or like and it flips to the other side, why?" In practice: I mostly ask "how does it feel fun?" and shamelessly focus on it. --- Some theory --- I'd want to ask the professor if he considered playfulness and curiosity as potential moderators or mediators that could enhance motivation to procrastinate less. I believe that playfulness and curiosity are related to the competency and autonomy aspect of self-determination theory, so to me it makes sense that those aspects heighten motivation in general and therefore reduce motivation. Another idea: talk with people about your workouts that you've done (then you also bring in the "relatedness" part of self-determination theory).