How to overcome procrastination

1. Make the first step tiny

“Write the report” is a project. “Open the file and write the title” is a step. A popular version of this is the two-minute rule: if something takes less than two minutes, do it now; if it takes longer, just start the first two minutes. Starting is usually the hardest part, and a tiny step lowers the bar.

2. Decide when and where, in advance

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer called these “implementation intentions”: plans in the form “when X happens, I will do Y” (American Psychologist, 1999). “At 9:00, at my desk, I open the report” is more concrete than “I will work on it tomorrow”.

3. Forgive yesterday's delay

In a study of first-year university students, those who reported forgiving themselves for putting off studying for a first exam reported procrastinating less before the next one (Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett, Personality and Individual Differences, 2010). The authors linked this to less negative mood after the first exam. It is one study, based on what students reported.

4. Use productive procrastination on purpose

Productive procrastination is doing a useful task to avoid a harder one: tidying the desk instead of writing. It can be used on purpose for warm-ups, but set a limit, for example ten minutes, and then move to the real task.

5. Fix the start with someone else

A start time that only you know is easy to move. One that another person has booked is not. Here you book a 25 or 50 minute session, a real person joins the same video call, and you both say what you will do before you begin.

How it works here

1. Pick a time. A slot starts every quarter hour, day and night. Sessions last 25 or 50 minutes.
2. We try to match you. If someone picked the same time and length, we put you on a call together.
3. Say what you are working on. At the start each of you says it out loud, in one sentence. Then you work in silence. There is a chat if you need it.
4. Tell each other how it went. That is what the last two minutes are for. Then the session stays in your calendar and you can go.