Structured Procrastination, with a dash of Physics!

Knowing how bad I procrastinate, my sister sent me an interesting article:

http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

The essay essentially teaches procrastinators, like me, how to become productive human beings. It starts by explaining that procrastinators don't simply sit around and do nothing, but rather, they do trivial tasks as a method of putting off more important tasks. The trick, he claims, is to obligate ourselves to tasks that seem important and urgent, so we avoid these tasks by working on things that are actually just as productive. He gives several examples that I painfully relate to, including:

"...making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it."

It's an interesting idea, and I'll probably give it a try. However, there are a couple of ideas that I think might complement this "Structured Procrastination."

First, I think at heart, procrastinators are perfectionists, or at the very least, we're optimizers. Part of the reason we put things off until later, or create diagrams of how to do things rather than doing them immediately, is this inexplicable need to do things right the first time. Rather than starting a large project that isn't clearly defined, we often gravitate towards the small, structured tasks that have no variability in it. Why? Because if we don't start the large projects correctly, we could spend a lot of time writing things that will either be low quality or will have to be redone.

Second, large projects typically don't have any type of instant gratification. While I enjoy movies that I watch, I will avoid watching movies because there is a large time commitment, and you can't reflect on a movie until it has ended. Video games, on the other hand, provide small tasks with a reasonable reward structure that can keep me playing for 8 or 10 hours straight. The incentive is that this is an incremental task with a very obvious system of rewards.

Third, there's a concept of inertia. Creating the requisite amount of "activation energy" needed for me to start a large project is the biggest challenge. Once I start on something, it's usually not difficult for me to stick to it. But to get started on a task, I usually consider how much time I would have to spend on it, how much effort I would have to put into it, and that mere anticipation of the work involved motivates me to do something else.

So how do I overcome all of the obsticles at the same time? Well, first, breaking tasks into sizable chunks. Rather than writing a novel, write in a blog. Second, provide myself with a systematic set of rewards, like a cookie when I finish this blog entry (Tasty!) Third, try to build up inertia, and don't stop. Once I finish the blog, I'm going to do some real work. Seriously.