5 Quick Procrastination Hacks You Can Try Right Now
Use these 5 super easy, low-mental-effort quick procrastination hacks to help you achieve your goals in no time.
I have included simple techniques in this list that I have personally used and have built into my client’s productivity plans.
You don’t need complex notion dashboards, bullet journals or Excel spreadsheets to get started with these tips so you can put them all away. All you need is the desire to stop procrastinating and the belief that it is possible.
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1. The 5-Second Rule
This quick productivity hack was popularised by motivational speaker, Mel Robbins in her 2nd best-selling book titled ‘The 5 Second Rule’.
It is actually pretty simple and is NOT about picking up food off the floor:
- Count backwards from 5 down to 1 and then do the task.
That’s it. There are no additional gimmicks or mind tricks, you just do the task right after counting down.
No overthinking, no drama, just action.
As Mel even says in her book, “Hesitation is the kiss of death. You might hesitate for a just nanosecond, but that’s all it takes. That one small hesitation triggers a mental system that’s designed to stop you. And it happens in less than—you guessed it—five seconds.”
So, there’s no time for you to do anything else but take immediate action towards your goals because the mental resistance from perfectionism, doubt and fear don’t even get a chance to jump in.
So… 5…4…3…2…1… what task are you going to do?
Related Post: 8 Simple Steps To Be Anti-Hustle Culture And Productive
2. Impossible-to-fail tasks
This is my speciality, and it is the key thing I recommend to all of my clients who are struggling with procrastination. You just need to break down your task into the SMALLEST, smallest possible action.
So small that it feels stupid not doing it and it would be impossible for you to fail.
Small enough that you might as well just do it now to get it over and done with. That kind of small.
These micro-tasks require minimal time, effort, resources or brain power, for example, picking up a pen, opening your laptop, and putting your book on the bedside table. They’re so small that you don’t even feel overwhelmed just by thinking about it.
You just shrug and get it done.
Doing these tasks provides positive reinforcement and boosts your motivation because you’ve got evidence that you have taken a step towards achieving your goal. And besides, progress is progress at the end of the day.
It also utilises the Zeigarnik effect which is the idea that it’s harder to forget tasks you have started but not completed yet.
So, even doing a small impossible-to-fail task could motivate you to continue working on it until completion.
Related post: How to be productive every day – 13 ESSENTIAL mindset shifts!
3. The Done list
The done list is for anyone who feels overwhelmed and paralysed by their procrastination since it is simply a reverse to-do list—instead of writing down all the things you haven’t done yet, you write down all the things you have done already.
And the great thing is that the tasks you write down in your done list can be as big or small as you want. On low-energy days, making my bed is a big deal, and on higher-energy days, writing a blog post is also a big deal.
It shifts your mindset from shame to empowerment because YOU did that! It’s a great way to positively reinforce action, gratitude and self-compassion which are all things that help you break out of the perfectionism cycle.
You start your day at a neutral level rather than in a productivity debt (all the things you have to do but haven’t yet).
I’ve used this technique since my second year of university, which also happens to be the year I had a mental breakdown due to my perfectionism and procrastination cycles.
Lovely.
The done list genuinely SAVED my grades and enabled me to get moving despite feeling like doing everything and anything but studying.
Studies show that it increases your confidence in your abilities because you have written evidence of all you have achieved.
As time management expert, Laura Vanderkam, explained in this article “Sometimes people get to the end of the day and haven’t tackled various priorities, because stuff has come up, but you did something with your time,” a done list just helps you see that.
Related Post: What Is Mindful Productivity? The Cure For Hustle Culture
4. 2-minute rule
You’ve probably already heard of this technique detailed in David Allen’s incredibly popular Getting Things Done productivity system.
As David Allen succinctly puts it “If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s defined.”
So, rather than leaving your desk messy and scheduling a tidy sesh later in the day, you just do it right now since it takes less than 2 minutes (e.g. wiping the mug stain and putting old post-it notes in the bin).
Why waste mental effort scheduling, planning and avoiding when you can just clear your mind right now and do the task?
This method also utilises a popular psychological lifestyle behaviour change strategy called Implementation Intentions or if-then planning created by Gollwitzer. It’s the idea that a mental link is formed when you link a goal with a pre-determined situation which increases your likelihood of actually achieving the goal.
For example,
- if it’s 6 pm, then I’ll write a page in my journal
- If I feel like snacking late at night, then I will drink a glass of water first
- If it is a Sunday morning, then I will write a review of my week
Basically, the situation acts as a cue for your desired behaviour and takes out the mental fatigue of having to make decisions throughout the day.
IF a task takes 2 minutes or less, THEN I will complete it right away.
No decision-making necessary, you just get it done. So do you have any 2-minute tasks you’re avoiding?
Related Post: How To Make Decisions as a Perfectionist – 10 EASY steps
5. 10 minute timer – Pomodoro burst
This is the most fun procrastination tip on this list because it can be quite high-energy and competitive. All you need is a timer and a task yet to be completed.
Set the timer for 10 minutes and see how much you can do within that time.
I love this because I can get really competitive with myself and 10 minutes isn’t really a long time which means I can focus solely on one task without feeling the need to procrastinate.
This technique also follows Parkinson’s Law, the idea that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion” and it enables you to get into a mini-state of flow where your focus is solely on one thing and you become one with the task.
For example, I’m more likely to properly tidy my room if I challenge myself to do it in 10 minutes. All of a sudden, I’m not picking up random items and reminiscing about a random non-important, non-sentimental memory as a form of procrastination, I’m tidying up as if the mission-impossible soundtrack is playing in the background my life depends on having a floor that can be clearly seen.
It’s almost like I become one with my room, and space and time no longer exists. A bit dramatic, I know but life gets real when the timer is ticking.
Obviously, if you’re struggling with 10 minutes then feel free to reduce the timer to 5.
Related Post: 5 Simple Ways To Develop An Effective Productivity Sprint (Examples Included)
So what quick procrastination hacks are you going to try right now?
The procrastination techniques in this list are strategies that I use myself and advise my clients to use so trust me they definitely work!
You can use them right now and they require no planning, preparation or additional mental energy to get right so really, you have no excuse not to do the task you have been avoiding.
As Carl Jung once famously said in a letter ‘Do the next and most necessary thing’. That’s all you can do and eventually, you’ll chip away at your tasks and projects until one day you realise your goal is within touching distance.
Being stuck in the perfectionism-procrastination loop genuinely sucks but you can break it right now without having to exert too much effort.
Take one small, 5-second, 2-minute or 10-minute step in the right direction today.
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- 5 Simple Ways To Develop An Effective Productivity Sprint (Examples Included)
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