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Having been diagnosed late, I had never realized my procrastination wasn’t laziness, but executive dysfunction. Now, as an adult, I often find myself delaying things that I would actually love to tackle – cleaning up my apartment, getting stupid tasks done at work, and sometimes even things that I really enjoy doing like reading or playing the piano. This often forces me into situations where I have to get things done in minimal time and under a lot of pressure. And while I do function well under pressure, I really want to get to a state where I function well without the pressure.
Do you have any strategies that worked well for you that you would be open to share?
If I sit on the sofa e.g. I’ll count to three if I have to do minor tasks that are uninteresting.. 😅
Else, I usually schedule myself some time to do it but then it also depends on my energy, not an easy one but e.g. I schedule admin like paying bills, doing paperwork generally on a Friday afternoon, shortly before weekend. That gives me motivation to have it done and a small moment of pride that’s I was productive before enjoying my weekend ☺️
Great topic!
I can really relate to what you wrote about procrastination and executive dysfunction. One thing that has helped me a lot is doing certain tasks together with someone: a friend or my partner. Somehow, once I’ve committed to doing it with someone, it becomes easier to start and stay focused. Even if we’re each working on different things, just having someone there creates a kind of gentle accountability and shared motivation.
xx
I have a few different things that I employ:
- 2 minute rule – If it takes less than 2 minutes, and I have 2 minute now, I have to do the thing now. This works great for emails that take a simple reply, sorting mail, checking accounts, etc.
- Use wait time – Half of the reason why I don’t want to do stuff like the dishes is because I feel like it takes forever. So, I use time where I would otherwise be standing around to do these tasks. Waiting on the microwave for 1.5 minutes? It’s a great time to start putting away dishes. Waiting for my coffee to brew? Time to wipe down the stove.
- Body doubling – This has already been mentioned, but boy howdy does it help. I recently introduced a student to Focusmate, and she actually uses it! (yay!)
- Do the tiniest step possible – Have to respond to an email? Open it. Read it. Make bullet points for what I need to respond to or what info I need to gather. Sometimes I stop there, but now I know what I need, and a good chunk of the time, not knowing is what prevents me from doing it.
- Set a timer – Do this for the least amount of time you’re willing to do the thing. Put in 5 minutes of tidying up your space and once the timer goes off, you have permission to stop. You’ve done your due diligence for the day. Half of the time, I still have it in me to keep going, though, and so I do.
These are all super helpful when I’m either procrastinating or I feel like the task is too big (or I hate it enough that time warps to make it feel like it’s taking 100 years when in reality it takes 10 minutes).
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