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I discovered this in my early 20s and it has been the key to my rarely if ever dealing with with issues with procrastination. When I think of something I don’t
by doctorhandshake 5y ago
I discovered this in my early 20s and it has been the key to my rarely if ever dealing with with issues with procrastination. When I think of something I don’t want to do immediately, one of the first things that pops into my head is both how quickly it will get done and how good it will feel to have it done, and so I do it right then and there.
The satisfaction of knocking off something you didn’t want to do is the corollary to the negative feelings holding you back, and it’s the key to establishing a positive feedback loop in place of the painful one you’re experiencing.
- hiptobecubic 5y agoFor that to work you need to be able to frame the problem as something that can be done immediately. If the problem has a blocking step, like "fill out this form, then in two weeks, check back to see if it worked," I find it much harder to see the joy in completing the task.
- doctorhandshake 5y agoI normally approach that mentally as advancing the task towards completion, and as a matter of framing I try to remember that larger tasks feel better to complete than bite-sized ones. The regular practice of this approach gives one reinforcing feedback loop of ‘momentum’ and a mental image of oneself as a person who gets things done, which reduces the feeling of inertia that contributes to the sort of shame spirals we’re talking about.
- cutemonster 5y agoThanks for that and this advice! I'll try (I'm a different someone) (Have the same problem, not too bad but still)