The blog

Some­times when the dead­line is fast approach­ing, some of us are tempt­ed to pro­cras­ti­nate the task due soon for just a lit­tle while longer since we still have a lit­tle bit of time left before it is final­ly due.

Hav­ing some set­up-time is fine, but most often than not, the pro­cras­ti­na­tion is not help­ing us. The lat­er we get start­ed, the more stressed we will be and again promise our­selves that we will nev­er ever start a task at the very last minute.

So, we need to get around our old habit of pro­cras­ti­nat­ing and if this all sounds famil­iar, then per­haps the tip I will relate to you today might help you get start­ed soon­er with tasks you oth­er­wise invol­un­tar­i­ly postpone.

Just a lit­tle won’t dis­cour­age you
With a lit­tle inspi­ra­tion from a well-known children’s book char­ac­ter (name­ly, Alfie Atkins) I call it the ​”I’m just going to …”-method.

You may regard it as a way for you to in a friend­ly man­ner lure your­self into get­ting start­ed with a task loaded with anx­i­ety which is urgent and des­per­ate­ly needs to get done.

When you catch your­self tak­ing every oppor­tu­ni­ty to do some­thing oth­er than the task that needs your atten­tion (such as Face­book, social medias, get­ting anoth­er cof­fee, or what­ev­er else that attracts and dis­tracts you), tell your­self: ​”I have no rea­son not to get start­ed with the task I am avoid­ing since I am not going to do all of it now. I’m just going to …” and then you think of some real­ly sim­ple, small and quick­ly done aspect of the task which you could ​”just do” to begin with.

Nine short ones
Do you want ideas of what this small, sim­ple and quick thing might be (which would make it eas­i­er for you to think ​”I’m just going to …”)?
Here are nine sug­ges­tions of things we could do as a short ​”I’m just going to …”-task.

1. Cre­ate a new doc­u­ment and name it


2. Google the con­tact information


3. Write down five quick points I want to include in the e‑mail


4. Quick­ly sketch out what my thoughts at the moment are (and not my final con­clu­sions) on the con­tent of the ten episodes


5. Quick­ly skim through the cur­rent week in the cal­en­dar to see what meet­ings or com­mit­ments I still have left


6. Spread out the mate­r­i­al I have so far on the desk just to get an overview of where I stand with it


7. Make a quick list of what I think needs to be done before I turn some­thing in


8. Open the fold­er and remove any mate­r­i­al I know is obsolete


9. Call your col­league just to see how far he has got­ten with some­thing. If he were to ask how you are doing, you can respond ​”I’m work­ing on it as we speak” with­out lying.

Now do what­ev­er ​”you are just going to” do, enjoy know­ing that you have got­ten start­ed and do not be sur­prised if you sud­den­ly feel like con­tin­u­ing work­ing on what you pre­vi­ous­ly felt such reluc­tance towards. Get­ting start­ed and final­ly doing what you have been putting off for a long time can eas­i­ly moti­vate you to continue.

Deceive your­self a little
If you make use of a method such as the ​”I’m just going to …”-method, you will even­tu­al­ly get what you have been post­pon­ing done. You trick your­self into get­ting start­ed with baby-steps in a sim­ple and play­ful way. You could call it a healthy and use­ful form of self-deception.

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?
How do you get your­self to stop post­pon­ing and pro­cras­ti­nat­ing? Com­ment below and tell us!