Waves of Productivity
Another reality is that energy and productivity come in waves. Although those hyper-productive days feel great, there is no substitute for steady output if you really want to move forward. However, I do suspect that those hyper-productive days are probably also the cause of the low-energy weeks that will follow. It are these low-energy weeks that are plagued with procrastination (in all sorts and shapes).
I wrote about procrastination before, this time I’ll tell you what I found out doesn’t work:
“I’ll do it tonight” – Although it seems a good idea (and feels good at the time) to fix a time to do a task in the near future, it’s actually the worst idea and it is the essence of procrastination: postponing things you could and should do right now.
There is an exception: urgent tasks that come in while you are already really actively working on another task. However, make sure that you commit to it, by telling the other party as well that you WILL do it today.
Other times I try to trick myself in doing something: I tell myself I will do project A after I’ve finished (hard) project B, because B is more important. However, instead of speeding up B, this will usually result in feeling very busy and besides B still moving forward slowly, nothing happens on A either. So: if you are not really actively working on B RIGHT NOW, there is no reason not to work on A as well. There is just no way that you are dedicating all your effective time to that single important project, unless you are really close to a deadline.
Tags: GTD, procrastination, tasks
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