Kill Procrastination With These Sneakily Effective Productivity Techniques
Turn your activities into a game
Photo by Ernie A. Stephens on Unsplash
There I was, staring at the blinking cursor, filled with a sense of dread.
It was the night before my essay was due, but I hadn’t started it yet. Why do I keep doing this? It wasn’t the first time it happened, and it wasn’t the last, either.
No matter how hard I tried, I kept procrastinating. I didn’t know how to work effectively.
I needed techniques to help me be productive and kill my procrastination.
Over the years, I’ve learned a handful of effective productivity tips, and I thought they might be useful for you too.
Parkinson’s Law
You may have heard of Parkinson’s Law. If not, here’s the crash course.
Parkinson’s law states that work expands to fill the time available for completion. The amount of time you give yourself to do something is how long it’ll take to complete, no matter how quickly you may have gotten it done.
It’s a reminder of the importance of time management and setting deadlines. If you give yourself a week to complete an assignment, it’ll take you all week to get there. But had you given yourself a deadline of one day, you would have found a way to complete it in that timeframe.
This is important because chances are you could complete much more and be more productive. But you mismanage your time, so it takes longer.
To try and combat this, a clever trick you can use is to change the timeframe.
You can set the deadline on the calendar earlier, which will help you achieve results on time. Or if you have something due during the week or at a specific time during the day, you could change your clock.
Changing the time to an hour forward is a good way to trick your brain into thinking you have less time than you do.
This will create a sense of urgency and encourage you to work more efficiently.
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The Power of Mental Models
Mental models are powerful tools to combat procrastination. Mental models are frameworks that help you think and approach problems better.
They provide you with a structure for how to approach tasks and decisions in a more efficient way.
A popular mental model is the “Two-Minute Rule.” If you can do something in less than two minutes, you should do it immediately rather than put it off.
This helps prevent small tasks from accumulating and becoming overwhelming.
Another popular mental model is the Pomodoro Technique. This technique involves breaking up your time into blocks.
The idea behind the Pomodoro Technique is to work for 25-minute blocks and then take a short break (about five minutes) between each session. Every four sessions, take a longer break.
This way, you can sit down with the intention of finishing one task and get it done. It creates a sense of focus and productivity because you narrow in on one task at a time.
The Pomodoro Technique also allows for regular breaks to prevent burnout.
Using mental models will reduce the likelihood of procrastination and help you be more effective in your work.
Photo by Kerwin Elias on Unsplash
Gamification
One approach to productivity would be to gamify your work. Turn your activities into a game by giving yourself points and allowing yourself to level up when you hit a certain amount.
The goal of gamification is to increase motivation and engagement. It makes activities more enjoyable and rewarding, increasing the odds of sticking to them and accomplishing more.
You can use gamification in any context, from education to business, to health and wellness.
To use gamification well, you must know what motivates you and what games you enjoy.
For example, competition, collaboration, or personal growth might motivate you. Once you’ve identified what that is, you can incorporate elements into your tasks and activities to do.
Sometimes, I’ll use this model.
I’ll give my tasks numerical values and create levels I can hit at certain numbers. Then once I level up, I get to do (or have) something fun.
Some popular apps can turn habit-building into a game.
Habitica, where you create a character and earn rewards for developing good habits, like exercise or reading.
Forest, where you grow a little forest, the longer you focus.
Flora, which uses Pomodoro breaks for study sessions. It allows you to track your habits and build trees at the same time.
Earning rewards and leveling up motivates users to continue building good habits and completing tasks.
When using gamification, it’s important to set clear goals for success. If your goal is to exercise more, be specific. Say you want to work out five times a week for 30 minutes.
You create a sense of accomplishment by tracking your progress and rewarding yourself for meeting goals.
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation is another important factor in combatting procrastination. Intrinsic motivation refers to the desire to do something because it is rewarding or fulfilling.
You can find deeper meaning and purpose in your work by tapping into intrinsic motivation. This can help overcome procrastination. One way to foster intrinsic motivation is to align your goals with your values and interests.
By working towards meaningful goals, you can tap into your intrinsic motivation and overcome the temptation to procrastinate.
Harnessing the Power of Social Accountability
Another technique to be more productive is to harness the power of social accountability. This is a powerful way to increase productivity and overcome procrastination.
There are two main ways to harness this power.
You can:
Share your goals and progress online
OR
2. Use an accountability partner/group
I have an accountability partner I meet with every other week. We discuss our goals, what we’re working on, and what needs to change.
Thomas Frank, a popular YouTuber, leverages the power of the internet to do his goals.
When he was setting up the habit of waking up early, he would schedule a tweet to go out every morning that promised repliers $5 if it went out. It encouraged him to get out of bed to delete it and not be on the line.
Monetary investments are a good way to keep yourself accountable because nobody likes losing money. Tell your friend or accountability partner what you will do. If you don’t do it, you have to give them $20.
Or, if you’re feeling spicy, you have to donate money to a charity, organization, or political party you don’t like. That’ll get you to do something.
You could also opt to do Study-with-Me sessions, either recorded or live in real-time. Study with Me live sessions are popular on YouTube and TikTok.
One person will host the space and allow others to come and join them. They work in silence, but having other people encourages you to work too.
Social pressure can help motivate you to do more. Whether with a partner or others, social pressure can provide a creative solution.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Leveraging Your Environment
Your ability to be productive also stems from your environment. By optimizing your workspace for focus and efficiency, you can create a more conducive environment for getting work done.
Your workspace should be clear and set up to optimize your workflow, not impair it. Consider cleaning your workspace if your environment is messy, and you have difficulty working.
If that’s not an option, consider changing environments. You could go to a library or cafe and work there.
Remove any distractions from your workspace. Don’t look at social media. If you have to, turn off your phone. Heck, if you can, turn off your internet.
The more distractions you have, the harder it’ll be to be productive.
You can also use choice architecture, which is when choices are presented in specific ways to influence decisions.
There are several factors you can manipulate, like:
Default options: This option is chosen automatically if an individual does not make an active choice. Take organ donation, for instance. The default choice is not to donate. You have to opt-in to become a donor.
Framing: This involves presenting the same choice in different ways. For example, giving patients a 90% survival rate might lead to a different decision than a 10% mortality rate, even though statistically, these are the same.
Complexity: Research shows that when faced with too many options or too much information, people make poor choices. Sometimes they even avoid making a choice altogether.
Choice over time: People value immediate rewards over future rewards, even when the future reward is larger. This is often referred to as “present bias.”
Social norms: People are often influenced by what others do or perceive as socially acceptable behavior.
Conclusion
There are ways for you to get around your procrastination. If you have a problem with procrastinating, try some of these techniques, which may help boost your productivity.
Give yourself deadlines
Follow mental models
Gamify your activities
Use social accountability
Leverage your environment
Be ruthless in your execution. The most important part of your productivity journey is that you remain consistent.
You’ve got this.
Ready to level yourself up and become the best version of yourself? Download my free journaling guide now.
Maggie Kelly is a freelance writer who writes about mental health, self-help, and psychology. Contact at maggiepkelly@gmail.com
