My experience of dealing with procrastination
Imagine you were invited to work on an exciting creative project. Its topic is close to what you actually do and what you like. So you agree. You are full of enthusiasm! Just like at the beginning of any new creative project. That’s what happened to me last year. I was invited to create a massive open online course (MOOC) on marketing analytics :) A thing that I like.
Gradually, the enthusiasm begins to fade. Routine tasks appear (for example, when you just had to collect material or proofread the text). You face many requirements. It turns out that there are deadlines too! And a vast amount of questions… Questions that you just don’t know how to answer.
Eventually, you begin to procrastinate. You start missing deadlines. You just can’t get to work again, I mean physically. By the following reason: you don’t understand what should you do next and how. You have a rough idea of the outcome, but you’re afraid of doing it wrong or making mistakes. And so it goes on and on for several months. You may be even close to giving up everything.
That’s my story. That’s me who was close to giving up everything. And I’m sure that you understand me.
Having finished this project, I’d like to describe a few observations, key ideas that helped me dealing with procrastination.
1. You should clearly understand what to do next
The main problem was that I simply didn’t know how to solve the issues I was facing. I didn’t have a plan or even an idea of how to do it. So I decided to understand ‘what exactly should I do?’.
I started to get out of procrastination using the Pomodoro technique. Surprisingly it was almost impossible for me to work even 25 minutes. So I started with… ‘eating’ a 10-minutes-tomato. Yes, exactly. Such a small tomato. Just 10 minutes of work. 10 minutes during which I was answering only one question — how exactly could I solve this problem?
Suddenly, I started to produce ideas. I began to understand what I need to do, in what order, how I can implement it, and even how long it will take. Furthermore, the tomato size increased little by little — 10 minutes, then 15, 20, 40. Then I reached 6–7 hours per day “flows”.
When you just can’t get to work, when you just don’t understand what exactly to do — start by eating a small tomato.
2. You should have a plan
Yes, as simple as that. You need to divide the project into sub-tasks. I’m not talking about creating a project in Microsoft Project. But just a list and an approximate sequence of steps are already great. I ended up with 80 tasks. This approach increases the specificity of your problem. It increases clarity.
3. Consistency is the key
Thinking that you will get to work on Sunday, work for 6–7 hours, and have it all done by Monday isn’t a great idea. Most likely, you’ll run into several new problems, or just “burn out”. The progress after one day of work is hardly noticeable. But if you work for 1–2–3 hours every day, you will see tremendous progress in a week or two. I won’t dig into mechanisms behind that (you probably know that yourself). I’ll just say that it really works that way :)
Therefore, relax and do your work steadily every day.
4. Just start now
The primary advice on beginning a large, complicated and unclear project is starting right away, eating a tiny tomato. During this tomato, try to understand what needs to be done, what specific result should be produced. Praise yourself for doing that. Take a break. And continue eating another tiny tomato. I guarantee that after a few tomatoes, the overall picture will become much clearer. And you’ll be able to start implementing it.
Eventually, I finished this project. I spent nearly 223 hours on it (yes, I count my working hours). That’s a lot. But if you distribute it over several months — then it’s just a couple of hours per day.
It was a fantastic experience. I’ve tried a lot of new things. And now I’m grateful for this opportunity. In general, the project perfectly follows the picture from the book “Steal Like an Artist”.
PS: Yes, and here’s the link to this course: marketing analytics. I will be happy to answer any questions, and I wish you always complete your creative projects!
