Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from “Willpower” by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney.
Given our tendency to do everything except the most important task on our list, some writers and researchers have experimented with putting their most important task as task #2 just to trick their brain.
However, as far as procrastination hacks go, writer Raymond Chandler had an interesting process for writing that involved methodically waiting for inspiration. Chandler’s process had 2 simple rules –
1. He would set aside 4 hours every day to write
2. He could either write or do nothing. He was allowed to stand on his head or look out of the window but he couldn’t do anything that counted as a task (e.g. admin).
And, thus, we have a simple idea against procrastination – we set aside time to do one and only one thing. Justifying not doing important tasks by doing less important admin is no longer allowed. It’s all or nothing.
Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com
‘Anyone can do any amount of work providing it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.’ | Robert Benchley
A Learning a Day 