New tasks or experiences might seem daunting at first. A lot of this changes once one has a place to start and a rough plan. Telling you just to get started to deal with procrastination seems like ridiculous advice, but it really is what I tell myself to get going (read my article on why I make sure to read a book for 1 minute every day). It is like jumping into cold water: once one has committed to the jump, the rest is just a matter of trajectory.
Recently my partner and I moved from Germany to France. Obviously, the corona-situation made things more complicated than usual and much needed to be done. Because leaving also meant saying goodbye to my friends and family, I had a hard time getting started with the actual move as it meant concluding on what was a very enjoyable part of my life.
Thankfully, I started planning early, and a little bit of procrastination did not mess up my overall plans. One day my partner came over, and she helped me sort out some of our clothes into boxes, finally getting the first major bit of work done. That really helped me get going. Seeing things progress made the entire move seem less scary and overwhelming because I could see things getting done. I finally felt like this was a manageable task that could be finished.
Another big help was my father repeatedly telling me to make a ToDo list. It took me a while to heed his advice, but once I actually started creating a checklist, the seemingly large task of moving got broken down into manageable sub-tasks. Not to say that I was not aware of the sub-tasks beforehand, but just writing them down, making sure I won’t forget them, helped me be more at ease.
Having a deadline for the move obviously played a big part in reducing procrastination. Using several appointments with myself and my partner, I created further deadlines to keep myself accountable and increase the chances of everything working out fine.
Thankfully, I had amazing people around me to help me get going. Once the tasks had been started, scheduled, and broken down, the work was much easier to complete as much of the uncertainty had been removed. I successfully traded in a huge, daunting, and scary task into many small, manageable, planned, and sometimes even enjoyable sub-tasks.
There are many ways to help with procrastination, but there is one that always works: start NOW. The typical excuse – “I will start [insert important task here] next week, when [insert rationalization for not doing anything here] is done” – is one I have often used. There are always a million reasons to procrastinate or be lazy, but there is one remedy for all of them…