Kill Procrastination - Level 1

Yes, procrastination. You know it. There's something you want to do but, for some reason, you can't.

I remember having to do my final thesis in to get my MSc diploma in Computer Science it took me 3 month to code the algorithms needed to obtain the results, but then I got another *6 months* to start writing the thesis document.

Even worse, the longer I take to start writing, the less I could remember about the complex algorithms I developed. What was happening to me? I loved computer sciences, and that topic, but definitely found writing a long document a boring and tedious task.

I always found an excuse to delay what I was supposed to do. I didn't felt well. I had my work. I felt tired or had a party. It never minded because I could always "do it later"... until it did. The month before the deadline my supervisor was serious with me and telling me I would probably not make it and will fail my final thesis... That worked well, she help me and I finish my document in a rush, in just one month.

I eventually realized it was not that hard... but also not that easy.

Procrastination - What causes it?

There are many reasons to procrastinate, but for me, clearly, I was impatient for getting the final result, the product. I wanted it, and quickly. But writing a long technical document can be a very laborious task. It might even take months to review and correct it until the supervisor gives the OK. This caused me some anxiety, so I tried to distract browsing the Internet, watching a show episode or looking for any other excuse to avoid doing my work.

I now realized I should have concentrated not on the result, but on the process (writing the document). If only I had dedicated a single 25 to 45 minutes session every day, I would have broken that initial wall that impeded me to flow as I later did.

After finishing my work I realized I had overestimated the difficulty of the task (it was hard, but not that much). I should have tried a different approach: try to divide this daunting task in smaller pieces, and even try just to advanced a little a single piece during one session.

Also when sitting at my computer my twitter or Facebook beeped about news. This distracted me but also triggered my curiosity about what such news were. When I realized I was just wasting my time and went back to my work, several hours had passed. This caused more anxiety which eventually led me to more procrastination. It felt like trapped until my supervisor pushed me to do my work.

CRRB - The Procrastination Cycle

According to Barbara Oakley the procrastination habbit is a process that can be summarized as follows:

• Cue: This is the stimulus that triggers your procrastination habits. I was sitting in my desktop, not wanting to do my work, and suddenly tweeter beeps, or someone texted me a message. I then had an excuse to abandon what I was doing.
• Routine: Ok. This is what we want to change. Whenever a cue appears we enter in automatic mode. Sometimes we don't even realize we're procrastinating! I remember my self browsing the Internet just for a minute and got shocked to see an hour or more had passed when I went back to my work.
• Reward: Procrastination is based on short-term rewards. I looked for immediate reward and delayed my long-term one (my degree actually!).
• Belief: We must believe we can do it. Research studies suggest that our own belief about or willpower really affects it (see references below). So if you believe you can't do it chances are that you really can't... because you have told yourself not to do so.

Tips

So, for this Level 1 fight against procrastination, I've figured out this tips:

1. Think in the process of doing something, not in the final result (product). For example: I'm going to study for 25 minutes instead of I'm going to learn this in 25 minutes.
2. Don't try to do too much nor too little. Try just a single 25 minutes session (e.g. a pomodoro). I will talk about this in later posts.
3. Identify my cues (What cause me to distract from what I'm doing?) and write them down... maybe here, in this blog!
4. Change my routine: This is were my willpower comes into play. Only this is what I have to change. If my routine is done subconsciously without even realizing of me doing it, also write it down to see how can I tackle this problem better. Once I realize of my routine, go back to my work (Focus on what I'm doing).
5. Reward myself after the work done. Yes, watch that show episode, or eat that piece of chocolate... yum...
6. Believe that I can really achieve it! This will reinforce my willpower. 

Let's see if they work or not...

References

- 10 rules of Good Studying [In the loop]
- It matters whether you believe in Willpower [Psychology Today]

Image Copyright Creative Commons [Source]