10 tactics that will help you stop procrastinating

• Be boring
• Be frustrating
• Be difficult
• Lack personal meaning and intrinsic rewards
• Be ambiguous (you don’t know how to do it)
• Be unstructured

1. Flip a task’s characteristics to make it less aversive
Try break task down into meaningful bits, and complete each bit in 10-20min intervals.

2. Know the ways your brain responds to “cognitive dissonance”

Pychyl identifies a number of unproductive responses people have when they procrastinate:

1. Distracting yourself, and thinking about other things
2. Forgetting what you have to do, either actively or passively (usually for unimportant tasks)
3. Downplaying the importance of what you have to do
4. Giving yourself affirmations, focusing on other your values and qualities that will solidify your sense of self
5. Denying responsibility to distance yourself from what you have to do
6. Seeking out new information that supports your procrastination (e.g. when you tell yourself you need to have more information before you get started on something)

3. Limit how much time you spend on something

4. Be kind to yourself

5. Just get started

6. List the costs of procrastinating

7. Become better friends with future-you

8. Disconnect from the Internet when you have to get something done

9. Form “implementation intentions”

10. Use procrastination as a sign you should seek out more meaningful work