Stewie's Toolbox for Beating Procrastination
Hey, friends!
My name is Stewie, and I help people overcome procrastination.
Best tools for beating procrastination
When I struggle with procrastination, I ask myself these questions
I Procrastinate When I Lack Certain Information/Resources — Here’s How I Handle This
How I Use an Emotion Color Wheel to Combat Procrastination
The 27 Causes of Procrastination—Which of Them Apply to You?
Get Tested for ADHD, Depression, and Vitamin D Deficiency
How to Beat Procrastination With Time Blocking
I Procrastinated Because of Hidden Expectations
Overcome the Resistance With 5-Minute Sprints
Some distractions are too powerful and need to be eliminated
How I Get Myself to Do Boring Work
We mistakenly believe we need more motivation to get started. But motivation is a reward that comes after we make a tiny bit of progress. So here's the solution…
I love this quote from Chuck Close:
Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.
It’s a good reminder that inspiration and motivation come from doing the work. Motivation is a reward that comes after we make a small amount of progress.
But how do we force ourselves to get started? By making it stupid easy to get started. How? By doing a 5-minute sprint.
5-minute sprints have three simple rules:
1. Eliminate all distractions
2. Set a timer for 5 minutes
3. Get to work
Afterward, take a short break. Personally, I might grab a drink, do a sudoku puzzle, or take a walk in my basement. But I avoid time sinks that suck me in for hours. (I’m looking at you, Candy Crush!)
That’s it. That’s the entire process. Work for five minutes and take a break.
If we can get ourselves to work for five minutes, it’s not that hard to work for another five minutes. If we can do this, we can make a tiny bit of progress and get a tiny bit of motivation. And everything else takes care of itself.
So try it out. Try working for five minutes on that thing you’re procrastinating.
You can do 5 minutes, right?
When I struggle with procrastination, I ask myself these questions
A) What's the smallest step forward that you could take?
B) What precise emotions do you feel when you procrastinate?
C) What problem does procrastination solve for you?
D) How does your procrastination serve you?
E) What are you scared of?
F) What would happen if you didn't procrastinate?
G) How do you feel in your body when procrastinating?
H) What specifically makes procrastinating so appealing?
I) Why is it important you stop procrastinating?
J) What would need to be true for you to not procrastinate?
K) What triggers your procrastination?
L) Are you making this task seem much bigger than it actually is?
M) When was the time that you didn't procrastinate? What made that time different?
What type of questions do you ask yourself?
When I feel overwhelmed by a project, I remember this quote: "Writing [a novel] is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
I work as a computer programmer, and I like my work, but sometimes I’m assigned large and complicated software projects, and I feel overwhelmed.
When this happens, I remember this quote:
Writing [a novel] is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. —E. L. Doctorow
During his life, E. L. Doctorow published 12 novels. His quote is a good reminder that I don’t have to do everything today or even this week. I don’t have to solve all of the issues and resolve all of the problems right now. I just need to break off one little piece, one small chunk, and focus on that.
And if I have the willpower to work on one small piece right now, I will make progress and have enough motivation to work on the next small piece in an hour. If I consistently tackle small pieces, I will eventually finish the project.
The “driving at night in the fog” metaphor focuses my attention on the next small thing and helps me manage my anxiety and procrastination.
I have other metaphors too. Like the one about eating an elephant one bite at a time.
And I love this metaphor from James Clear:
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. You don’t have to do it all today. Just lay a brick.
But that’s me. What are your favorite metaphors?
I Procrastinate When I Lack Certain Information/Resources — Here’s How I Handle This
Strategies I use:
A) I slow my breath and acknowledge my discomfort. Not having what I need makes me feel anxious. I might set a timer for five minutes and just sit with my feelings.
B) I remind myself that everyone feels this discomfort when they don't have what they need. Feeling this discomfort doesn't make me special.
C) I remind myself that every project begins with missing pieces. Filling in the gaps is part of the project. It's part of the process.
D) I remind myself that discomfort is not a sign to stop and give up. It's just a feeling.
E) I remind myself that the fastest way to reduce the discomfort is to make a tiny amount of progress.
F) I zoom in on one thing I'm missing. One bit of information, one requirement, etc. I pick one thing and make a plan.
G) I figure out who has the information I need. How will I approach them? What will I say?
H) I find my why. Why do I need this particular thing? What happens if I don't get it? Knowing this makes it easier to speak up and ask for what I need.
I) When I reach out to the person, I'm specific about what I need and include my why because they're more likely to help me.
J) I try to trust that most people are reasonable and want to help me succeed.
K) I try not to worry about the project as a whole. I try not to worry about how to get all of the missing pieces. Instead, I set a timer for five minutes and work on getting one piece of information for just five minutes. Afterward, take a short break.
L) I might talk to a friend and talk through the situation.
How I Use an Emotion Color Wheel to Combat Procrastination
Last Friday night, I was mad at the world. Everything felt terrible, and I was unmotivated to do anything productive or healthy.
Did I read for 25 minutes? Nope! Did I bike for half an hour? Absolutely not! Did I comfort myself with a chorizo breakfast burrito and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting? Hell yeah!
I was kind of a mess. But looking at an emotion color wheel helped me identify how I felt.
(View a color wheel here or Google emotion color wheel
and view images. Look at a bunch and see which resonates with you.)
So what did I feel? Anger and frustration. Who was I angry with? A close friend had trespassed boundaries. Again. Once I labeled these emotions—and identified their source—I was ready to start processing my feelings.
I worked through this in two ways:
1. Talking to my wonderful wife #EmotionalUnloading
2. Writing down a plan to deal with my friend
By Saturday evening, I felt better. Was I still mad? Yes, but the anger was less intense. I knew what the problem was and how I'd handle it. As a result, I made better decisions: I read for 25 minutes, rode the exercise bike, and declined leftover carrot cake.
So here's my advice to you: When you procrastinate, use an emotion color wheel to clarify how you feel. Is it anger or loneliness or something else? The sooner you can label feelings, the sooner you can process them and feel better about the world.
And feeling better about the world is one antidote to procrastination.
The 27 Causes of Procrastination—Which of Them Apply to You?
Once we identify the underlying causes of procrastination, we can take steps to resolve them.
So which of these apply to you?
1. We don't have everything we need, e.g., information, resources, etc.
2. We're tired, overwhelmed, frustrated, and/or burnt out.
3. We're waiting until we have more motivation. Future me will be brimming with motivation and get so much done
4. We lack urgency. This can wait until tomorrow.
5. We lack a big enough why. Why does this project even matter?
6. We've hit the project's boring/tedious/difficult bits.
7. We're surrounded by tantalizing distractions
8. We struggle to get started because we'll just be interrupted in a few minutes, breaking our flow.
9. We feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the project.
10. We struggle with perfectionism
11. We get sucked into distraction spirals. A 5-minute Reddit break turns into two hours.
12. We do many urgent but unimportant tasks, so there's no time/energy for the important stuff.
13. We seek distractions to quiet the monkey brain. (If we could snap our fingers and silence the mental chatter, we'd be more productive.)
14. We dream of creating something amazing and perfect. Once we start the work, the ability to create something perfect disappears. As long as we don't start, perfection feels possible.
15. We talk about projects and daydream a lot. These feel good and feel like progress. But these good feelings diminish our motivation to actually get started.
16. We dream of doing so many things. It's hard to commit to one project because it means saying No to a dozen others. Not starting on a project means we're keeping our options open.
17. We seek out distractions to soothe negative emotions.
18. We fear judgment and criticism.
19. We fear making mistakes.
20. We fear failing
21. We have imposter syndrome.
22. We have too many concurrent projects/responsibilities. This causes us to constantly switch contexts and/or feel overwhelmed. This kills any chance of getting into a flow state.
23. We feel like other people don't have to work as hard, and it's not fair that things take so much effort for us.
24. We don't have anyone to cheer us on, celebrate tiny wins and small victories, etc
25. We don't have anyone holding us accountable.
26. We're surrounded by people who procrastinate, so it feels normal to put things off. Who wants to be the only person not procrastinating?
27. We feel lonely, so it's hard to find the motivation to do stuff.
Get Tested for ADHD, Depression, and Vitamin D Deficiency
In my 30s, I hit a brick wall. My personal energy tanked, and I was chronically exhausted. Focusing on projects at work was nearly impossible, and I struggled to learn complex software systems. Exhaustion killed my short-term memory, and I couldn't recall discussions, details, and decisions from the day before.
I felt like a black hole had siphoned my energy, and a thick fog had enveloped my mind. The result? I was much dumber than before, with my mental acuity ranking higher than a goldfish but lower than a turkey.
So guess what I did? I procrastinated! After all, why exert all that effort to learn a new software system if you're just gonna forget everything in ten minutes?
This went on for months with no relief.
I tried many things, all to no avail. Eat more fruits and vegetables? Check. Go to bed earlier? Check. Watch motivational videos and read inspirational stories? Check, check, check.
Nothing seemed to work, and I felt kinda hopeless. Would this be my life going forward, being exhausted and unmotivated to do all but the bare necessities?
At some point, I saw my doctor for a routine physical and told him about my symptoms. He ordered some tests, and we discovered a vitamin D deficiency. (Turns out, this is common for people who work indoors or live in northern latitudes. I check both boxes!)
I started a daily supplement, and it helped. Slowly, my energy began to return, and the mental fog began to lift. This motivated me to make other healthy choices.
Now, my energy levels are like a battery. When it's at 100%, I'm cheerful and enthusiastic, and I feel unstoppable. And when it's at 0%, I can't pull myself out of bed, and no one wants to be around me!
When I had a vitamin D deficiency, my battery couldn't go above 30%. It had a permanent dampener on it. I could pull myself out of bed and drag myself to work, but that was it.
When I started taking a vitamin D supplement, my battery could go up to 45%. Then, I made other healthy choices—like homemade smoothies with blueberries and leafy greens—which nudged the limit higher.
Nowadays, I feel much better. Granted, my battery won't go to 90% most days, and I'm still working through lingering issues, but I'm in a much better spot than I was before.
So here's my advice to you: See your doctor. Tell them about any struggles with focus, procrastination, fatigue, sadness, etc. Some treatable ailment—like ADHD, depression, sleep apnea, or a vitamin deficiency—may lurk behind your procrastination.
But you can't fix what you don't even know about. So make an appointment and see your doctor.
How to Beat Procrastination With Time Blocking
Hey, friends!
My friend, Alice, is an anthropology major. As she starts her junior year, she has three goals:
- Maintain a 3.7 GPA (and keep her scholarship)
- Minimize studying time
- Quiet that nagging feeling that she should be studying
Getting good grades seems to be at odds with minimizing studying time. But Alice feels confident she’ll achieve her goals with time blocking. (She stole this idea from Cal Newport.)
Alice breaks her day into 1-hour chunks for studying, going to class, etc.
Example schedule
Alice’s Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule is as follows:
6:00 am - study
7:00 am - study
8:00 am - breakfast and getting ready
9:00 am - study
10:00 am - class
11:00 am - class
12:00 pm - lunch
1:00 pm - class
2:00 pm - free time
3:00 pm - job
4:00 pm - job
5:00 pm - job
6:00 pm - dinner
7:00 pm - free time
8:00 pm - free time
9:00 pm - free time
(Alice sleeps from 10 pm - 6 am.)
Benefits
Let’s look at how time blocking helps Alice achieve her goals.
Goal 1: Maintain a 3.7 GPA (and keep her scholarship). Time blocking ensures that Alice spends enough time studying so she’s always prepared for exams. She even gets feedback on research papers—and revises them—before turning them in. As a result, Alice got straight A’s last semester.
Goal 2: Minimize studying time. Alice studies first thing in the morning when her energy levels are highest. Because she gets enough sleep, Alice’s studying time is wildly productive, and she spends less time studying than her classmates.
Goal 3: Quiet that nagging feeling that she should be studying. Every time Alice completes her morning study session, she feels a sense of accomplishment. Every time she walks into an exam, she feels confident and prepared.
Alice feels confident she’ll maintain her GPA, keep her scholarship, and graduate in four years. Consequently, Alice feels less stress and anxiety than her classmates. She enjoys her free time (watching foreign films with friends) without that persistent feeling, “You should be studying.”
Downsides
Time blocking has a downside that proponents seldom talk about: We give up some freedom. We can’t stay up late, sleep late, and avoid studying until we feel like it. This is hard for our ego (it expects to do whatever it wants).
When Alice adopted time blocking, it took her a couple of months to adjust. It took time to adapt to these guardrails. The hardest part was when Alice had to limit time with a close friend. (The friend stayed out late, procrastinated, and pulled all-nighters). This chaotic lifestyle was incompatible with Alice’s desire to maintain her grades and lower her stress.
Alice misses her friend. She misses watching midnight movies and talking until dawn. But she doesn’t miss the anxiety that accompanies a chaotic life. She doesn’t miss studying late, turning in barely-finished papers, and always feeling exhausted.
She doesn’t miss feeling out of control.
(In the months since switching to time blocking, Alice made two new friends. They share her love of foreign cinema, and their lifestyles more closely align with Alice’s.)
Trade-offs
Time blocking comes with trade-offs. We give up some freedom, but we get better sleep and better grades. We boost productivity and reduce stress.
For some people, this isn’t worth it. For them, time blocking is a prison. They prioritize freedom and despise schedules. (If this is you, that’s OK.)
In the end, each of us decides how to structure our life. Each of us decides what’s important.
But if you want to increase productivity and decrease stress, try time blocking. Try setting clear boundaries for working, sleeping, and recreation.
If you’re like me, you’ll love it. And you’ll never go back.
I Procrastinated Because of Hidden Expectations
I work as a computer programmer, and parts of my job are tedious. Like when I make small changes to the code and wait 90 seconds for my tests to run. After doing this 100 times, I’m ready to pull my (remaining) hair out.
Ideally, I’d be proactive and complete the hardest task first. (I call this doing the “worst first.") This would make me an effective employee, advance my career, and yada yada yada.
But for the longest time, I didn’t. For the longest time, I procrastinated.
Why? Because deep down, I crave novelty.
My little brain wants everything to be exciting and entertaining and exhilarating. And I used to have this totally unreasonable expectation that all work should be interesting. If I ever felt a teensy-bit bored, alarm bells would sound telling me something was very wrong.
This expectation might be summarized as: I shouldn’t have to do boring things. All work should be exciting.
This expectation caused countless problems, but for the longest time, I wasn’t consciously aware of it. This hidden expectation lurked deep in my subconscious, driving me to procrastinate (and feel bad afterward). It whispered that boring tasks were akin to torture, and I foolishly believed this lie.
How did I solve this? With daily introspection.
I spend ten minutes thinking about my day and ask:
- When did I procrastinate?
- What’s one hidden expectation?
My goal is to identify one hidden expectation. Just one.
The most common hidden expectation, the one that wreaks the most havoc, is: I shouldn’t have to do boring things. All work should be exciting.
Once I saw this hidden expectation, once I was consciously aware of it, I could reason about it. The rational part of my brain knew this was completely unreasonable. All work has boring bits and tedious tasks.
My rational mind also reminded me of Kant’s Categorical Imperative and asked, “What if everyone avoided boring work?”
What if everyone repairing our roads skipped mundane tasks? What if every sanitation worker only did the exhilarating parts of their job? Nothing would get done! No Amazon packages would be delivered. And society would collapse.
The idea that “all work should be exciting” is a false belief I had about the world. And daily introspection made me conscious of it. Each time I became aware of this false belief, it lost some of its power. Gradually, I came to terms with the need to do boring work. I don’t have to like it, but I must tolerate it.
But that’s me.
What about you? What hidden expectations are driving your procrastination?
Overcome the Resistance With 5-Minute Sprints
Momentum is the antidote to procrastination. It’s that feeling, “Hey, I’m actually making progress here. Let’s keep going.”
With momentum, we can accomplish anything.
But what blocks momentum? Not getting started. What keeps us from getting started? The Resistance.
The Resistance whispers that working is the ultimate form of pain. Worse than a root canal (without anesthesia), worse than childbirth (without an epidural). The Resistance begs us to do something else, anything else, to avoid work. (Let’s alphabetize the spice drawer and scrub the toilet!)
Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art sums this up: "Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work."
Overcoming procrastination is a matter of overcoming the Resistance. If we can just get started, if we can just build momentum, progress will come.
My favorite way to overcome the Resistance is with 5-minute sprints.
Here’s how it works: Eliminate all distractions, set a timer for 5 minutes, and get to work.
(I often spend this time making a to-do list and then breaking bullet items into their own lists. Figuring out what needs to be done builds my momentum.)
Afterward, take a break. (I might grab a hot drink, do a sudoku puzzle, or take a walk in my basement. But I avoid time sinks that suck me in for hours. (I’m looking at you, YouTube, and Candy Crush!))
Now, will we accomplish a lot during the sprint? No. But that’s not the point.
Getting started is the hardest part. A 5-minute sprint is the best way to overcome the Resistance and get that first burst of momentum. It’s like that saying from Aristotle, “Well begun is half done.”
You can do 5 minutes, right?
(Seriously, stop reading and just do a 5-minute sprint.)
How about a second one?
Each sprint is easier to start than the one before. Each builds that feeling of momentum. And with momentum, we can accomplish anything.
Take action: Overcome the Resistance with a 5-minute sprint.
Have an essay due next week? Spend 5 minutes making an outline or writing down research questions. Break your assignment into chunks, and break those into smaller pieces. Then, focus on one piece for a 5-minute sprint, and your momentum will grow.
Have an upcoming exam? Spend 5 minutes making a list of topics that will be covered. Next, break topics into smaller pieces. Then, focus on one piece for a 5-minute sprint, and your momentum will grow.
With momentum, you can accomplish anything.
One last thought: You might think, “I’ll try a 5-minute sprint…in an hour…” Just know that’s the Resistance talking. If you can’t find the intestinal fortitude to do a 5-minute sprint right now, you won’t do one in an hour. The Resistance will be just as strong later on.
You might as well get started right now.
Some distractions are too powerful and need to be eliminated
Can I make a confession? I love the mobile game Candy Crush. The recipe is perfect: puzzle-solving, short feedback loops, and tiny rewards all serve to keep me hooked. For hours. Every time I get a match, every time I see the animations and hear the sounds, my brain gets a dopamine hit. Every time I complete a level, I feel a sense of accomplishment as I waste hours of my day and days of my life.
Five times I’ve downloaded Candy Crush. Five times I’ve ignored my work, my family, and my reading goals. And five times, I’ve deleted this game.
My desire to play Candy Crush, months later, still hovers at a 2 (on a 1–10 scale). I don’t imagine it’ll ever go away.
But here’s the interesting part: If I started playing it, my desire to keep playing would skyrocket to a 7. Playing just one round of this stupid game increases my desire to play more. Put another way, playing for one minute and then stopping requires more willpower than abstaining.
It’s almost as if it’s engineered to be addictive! (I have the same problem with potato chips—one bite, and I want moar!)
Candy Crush is, in short, bad for me. Modern society preaches, “There are no bad things—just use moderation!” Such nonsense. Some things are bad for me because they require more willpower to stop than abstain. Some things are bad for me because they guarantee procrastination.
We all have our own personal How to Waste Time and Feel Bad Afterward cookbook. For me, Candy Crush is on page one.
None of this should be surprising; my family has a history of addiction. So I keep Candy Crush (and Blossom Blast (and a dozen other addictive puzzle games)) off my phone. This one decision decreases procrastination and preserves willpower. Win-win!
But that’s me. What about you?
Which distractions are so powerful that they need to be eliminated?
How I Get Myself to Do Boring Work
I work as a computer programmer, and my average day is packed with tedious tasks and boring work. Parts of my day job are as exhilarating as watching paint dry or, worse, watching fishing on TV. (Sorry to fans of fishing shows, but they’re sooo boring, even more so than watching golf.)
For a long time, I struggled with procrastination. I struggled to get myself to do all of that boring work.
How did I get myself to do boring work?
I discovered a trick of sorts. And it has three steps.
Step 1: I stop fretting about the future and how horrendously awful these tasks are. Instead, I narrow my vision to just this moment and ask myself, “What’s the next step?” This moment is all that matters. All that matters is what I choose to do right now. (In fact, this moment is all that exists, but let’s not get too existential here!)
Now, this is easier said than done. My mind often wanders into future concerns or past regrets. But I can bring it back to the present by asking, “What’s the next step?” (I often have to ask this several times before my mind will cooperate.)
(Side note: This works because our brains love answering questions. Want to feel good? Ask your brain, “What’s amazing about being alive right now?” Seriously, ask this question several times, and your brain will answer it. But I digress…)
Step 2: I ask, “Am I willing to work on this next thing for 25 minutes?” If I am, then I set my cube timer for 25 minutes.
But sometimes, I lack the motivation to work for that long. Maybe I’m tired, hungry, or just angry because Jerry in DevOps is a giant jerk-face who makes me feel dumb for asking questions. In this case, I ask, “Am I willing to work for 5 minutes?” And I can usually find the intestinal fortitude to work for 5 minutes.
(Side note: Having gone through this cycle numerous times, I realized a fundamental truth: Boring tasks feel the most awful before I start them. Once I get started, they’re not so bad. Put another way, the only way to feel better is to start working.)
Step 3: I take a short break.
Take action
Next time you procrastinate, follow Stewie’s three-step process:
1. Ask, “What’s the next step?” (Keep asking this question until your mind focuses on the present moment.)
2. Ask, “Am I willing to work for 25 minutes? Or 5?”
3. Take a break.
This process is how I routinely overcome procrastination. It works for me, and it can work for you!
But beware of the temptation to say, “This is a good idea… I’ll try it tomorrow!” Today’s excuses follow us into tomorrow. If we can’t find the gumption to work for 5 minutes right now, we won’t do it tomorrow. Tomorrow, the Resistance will be just as strong.
So get started now.
More Great Posts About Procrastination
How I Use an Emotion Color Wheel to Combat Procrastination
35 Reasons Why We Procrastinate
4 Productivity Hacks I Used to Beat Procrastination
How I Get Myself to Do Boring Work
How Hidden Expectations Caused Stewie to Procrastinate
How Stewie Stopped Bingeing TV Shows
Mental Model: Make Life a Tiny Bit Easier for Your Tomorrow-Self
"Tomorrow Will be Different, Really" and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves
Struggle With Procrastination? Avoid the News & Protect Your Emotional Energy.
How Students Beat Procrastination: Digital Scorecards
Ask Stewie: How Do I Limit Facebook (And Study More) Without Going Cold Turkey?
How Students Beat Procrastination: Time Blocking
How Students Beat Procrastination: Ignore the Grumbler (For 5 Minutes)
How Students Beat Procrastination: Set Tiny Goals
How to Beat Procrastination: Link Studying With Specific Smells and Tastes
Get Motivated to Study: Location, Location, Location
Case Study: How Lila Beat Procrastination Using 5-Minute Sprints
Get Motivated to Study: Schedule 2 Hours of Focus Time
Get Motivated to Study: Overcome the Resistance With 5-Minute Sprints
Beat Procrastination With Elimination (Not Moderation)
Beat Procrastination With Strict Limits on Distractions
Why Does Stewie Procrastinate? The Accountant and the Squirrel-Chaser.
Beat Procrastination by Going to Bed by 9:30. Every Day.
Beat Procrastination by Working When Your Energy Levels Are Highest