Despite being aware of many productivity techniques, I still struggle sometimes with procrastination. Here's a little technique I've found helpful when I've been avoiding a simple task for some reason: Schedule procrastination by scheduling the task.
Rather than saying, "I'll do this task today," which leaves me free to move it down the to-do list until it's too late, I say, "I'll do this task at 3 pm."
It may seem like I'm just scheduling the task, but I'm also scheduling procrastination at the same time. Between whenever I start work and 3 pm, I can be guilt-free about not doing that task.
To make it more likely that I'll stick to the plan, I combine this with micro-chunking by saying, "I'll do this task starting at 3 pm and ending at 3:15 pm."
I can stand just about anything for 15 minutes, and once I get going on the task I may well just continue, but knowing I don't have to makes a difference.
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