03 Mar 2024

You are your own worst enemy

I was listening to an audio book last week and one of the chapters was all about procrastination. This resonated with me tremendously because I am a chronic procrastinator. I learned that I put off doing whatever needs to be done, as a way to change my mood. I don’t want to complete the work so I’ll do something else and for the time being I’m happy. In the long run, I end up with less time, more stress and the feeling of regret. “Why didn’t I start sooner? I had so much time beforehand, now I have none.” I hate to admit it, but I’ve asked myself that countless times. I only have myself to blame. I’m sure many others have experienced something very similar and if you’re a programmer then you 100% have. The purpose of this post is to share some of the techniques I’ve learned and currently use to beat procrastination and get more done.

1. Start Now

Whatever the task may be, start it now! Don’t wait thirty minutes or after just one more YouTube video. Do it now because starting is the hardest part. It’s easy to continue kicking the can down the road. You can make more excuses and the task remains off in the distance rather than in your face causing stress and unhappiness. However, these are merely lies you tell yourself to alter your mood and make you feel good. Do not wait, get going now.

I recommend you sit down and set a timer for twenty-five minutes. Look at the task at hand and start working on it. Usually, the work isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. If twenty-five is too long then do ten or even five minutes. The important part is you are working. After the timer is up, take a short five minute break. This is not a new idea, it’s called the pomodoro technique and I highly recommend it. I use it especially when I’m struggling to start a task. I’ll set a goal of X amount of 25 minute intervals (pomodoros) and begin working. That way even if I feel completely lost or hopeless, at least I’m putting in time and effort. More often than not, I tend to go beyond the original pomodoro goal.

If you can get moving, you can quickly gain momentum which can then fuel your motivation to keep going. Your progress will push you to continue because you’ll notice it’s not that bad and your progress will compound. Simply starting can do wonders.

2. Break It Down

This is a very simple idea, not that any of these three thoughts are complex, but break the task down into small bite size chunks. I like to create a list of all the tasks I need to do for a project. Then order them in importance and only move on to the next task once the previous one is completed.

This technique helps you make a large amount of work appear smaller. Rather than simply saying, “I’m going to create a website.” Create a checklist of all the things you need to do to create that site. The first item may be, create the index.html file and then the styles.css. If you don’t know what to do then you better be searching the internet until you find something, anything that can help guide you. The internet is a beautiful place especially when you’re a programmer.

3. Bet On It

The last idea, is make a bet with someone. If you want to complete dry January but know you’ll cave halfway through, bet someone $100 or whatever amount of money you’d hate to lose and I guarantee you’ll be sober for 31 days.

Now dry January has nothing to do with procrastinating, so a better example is say you’re not working on your side project as much as you’d like to. Make a bet that you’ll commit X amount of git commits each day. I personally made that very bet, one commit a day on my side project in the month of December 2023. Some days I did the bare minimum but most days I went beyond one commit because I had gained so much momentum and progress, which coincides with the first idea. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. If you’re struggling to find the energy and motivation to do something, money can be an excellent way to get you going. I just hope you don’t lose the bet!

Conclusion

I hope these three ideas help you and maybe even gave you some new thoughts on how to beat procrastination. You only hurt yourself in the long run by putting off tasks, so save yourself some stress and be temporarily unhappy right now. Your future self will thank you.