Trick your brain into beating procrastination using this simple hack

You have an important project to complete. Might be a report, a set of code for a new software, a presentation to an audience or maybe you just need to tidy up your desk or organize your closet. But you find yourself procrastinating every time the task occurs to you. Before long, you feel stressed as deadlines loom and your closet looks more and more like there could be something living in its dark corners.

In this article, I will let you in on one easy but very effective tip to trick your brain past procrastination to action and ultimately productivity and the sense of fulfillment that comes with it. Let us begin.No need to delay—the trick is this—focus on the process involved in completing a project but NOT the completion of the project. That’s it.

Sounds easy enough but to understand and execute this method effectively in tricking your brain and beating procrastination, you must understand a little bit about how your brain works.

Process not product

You can view your brain as made up of two sides: a thinking logical side and a feeling emotional side. Or the famous left brain-right brain model.

Your thinking logical side (left-brain) tends to work in a linear step-by-step process. It likes clear instructions, dotes over defined boundaries and hates watercolor.

Your feeling emotional side (right-brain) is more wholistic and likes to see “the big picture”. Naturally, it doesn’t much fancy algebra.

Your left brain likes lists and will probably enjoy the three-step process near the bottom of this article.

Did you just scroll down?

It is also the part of your brain most engaged in reading—following a linear sequence of words. Your right brain is having a great time learning this information and piecing it all together with the picture that is your world view.

Together, left and right brain work in harmony to keep you balanced, sane, productive and employed. Except when they don’t. And that brings us to procrastination.

Image by aytuguluturk from Pixabay

Here’s the tricky part

When faced with a project, you need right-brain to give a big picture of how completing the project will make you feel good. How it fits into your overall happiness and fulfillment. How you will earn the respect of peers and perhaps contribute to the greater good. But right-brain is bad with details. You need left-brain for that.

The problem is left-brain is easily overwhelmed when faced with the “big picture”. It needs steps and clearly defined instructions.

Quite the pickle.

Here’s the trick

To overcome procrastination and successfully complete a project you have been putting off, embrace it as a whole—something that will add value to your life and, possibly the lives of others. Right-brain, check.

But when you come to execution, forget about the whole and focus on the present activity. Don’t even focus on the completion of the activity. Simply focus on the process of doing it. Left-brain will thank and reward you with its best work. And hey, don't be surprised if right-brain whispers a few neat ideas while you are at it. Just note them and press on.

It may sound crazy but it works!

An example of how I focus on process

A lot of the work I do with individuals and companies requires that I create and curate a lot of content. Sometimes these become blogs and articles or defined intervention strategies. Or they may become workshops, speeches, keynotes or seminars. Each one of these is a project. And you might be surprised at how many tasks are involved in getting something from an identified need or idea to an hour-long presentation, a half-day workshop or even a 1000-word blog.

It is easy to procrastinate with this kind of work. Often, there is no urgency, until there is. And a lot of it too! To make things even more difficult, a lot of the tasks involved with pulling these projects together are not particularly sexy. Procrastination - 1. Me - 0.

How do I trick my brain into getting these tasks completed? I focus on process. Specifically, putting the time in.

Just putting in the time in can be a good thing

Perhaps you have heard the expression "just putting the time in" to describe a person who shows up for their job but is disengaged from their work. This is probably not what you want as a life philosophy but it can be a powerful frame of mind when the goal is to beat procrastination on certain tasks.

Here is what I mean: when you are faced with a task you need to complete but find yourself procrastinating, decide on a time and place when you will spend a set amount of time working on the task.

Notice the phrasing. Let us dissect it to see why it works.

Quick wins are critical to overcoming procrastination because quick wins create momentum. And momentum weakens procrastination.

• “Spend a set amount of time”: The timing is specific. Left-brain loves this. “10 minutes”, for example, is more concrete than “some time”. Left-brain can work with this. The scheduled time should also be short. This is important too. You should pick a time range you are absolutely sure you can manage, then cut it in half! This eliminates the tendency to make excuses.

• "working on the task": Notice this does not say "completing x" or "designing y". By making the standard simply "working on" you eliminate performance anxiety and raise the odds of you succeeding.

These strategies are aimed at securing a quick win. Quick wins are critical to overcoming procrastination because quick wins create momentum. And momentum weakens procrastination and strengthens enthusiasm. Read this article on the Pomodoro Technique for an immediately actionable way to apply this principle.

How I put in the time to beat procrastination

When I enter a project, say an article I have been procrastinating on, in my task list, I will write one of these two statements below:

Complete one blog post draft Or

Spend 25 minutes on a draft of a blog post.

The difference is subtle but immensely important. Which one do you think works better? You guessed it. The second works better. It works because it focuses on the process—spending 25 minutes on the draft—rather than the result which is a completed draft. As long as I spend twenty-five minutes actually working on the task, I win! I may not have a completed draft but I would have made a lot more progress than if I ended up browsing YouTube or mopping my garage.

Left-brain is happy because it had clear instructions and defined time boundaries. Right-brain is happy because there was no pressure or anxiety. Also, the win—completing the process—was achieved.

Me- 1. Procrastination- 0

I cannot tell you how many seemingly gigantic projects I have completed with this simple brain hack. Try it. It will likely help you too in beating procrastination.

Three-step process

Here is an easy three-step blueprint to deploying this trick

• Determine what the project is (a lack of clarity might be the cause of your procrastination. Learn more in this article)

• Break it down into smaller steps or actions

• Set time aside using the technique above to "work on" the different steps. Focus on the process, not the result and chip away at the task in short but regular time bursts.

If you procrastinate a lot more than most, you might need to use the technique to even get you out of the gate to perform step one. If that is the case, well, what are you waiting for?

Until the next post, be your best and do your best.