I have writing to do. The house needs to be cleaned. Then I have to get groceries, run errands, go through some boxes full of things I no longer need, and start to get my tax stuff together.
And all I want to do is sit here and eat a cookie.
What do you do when you don’t want to do anything? I can procrastinate as good as anyone, but I found something that works. I treat myself like the child that I am being by using the oldest trick in the book – bribery.
Instead of plunking down and turning on the TV, cookie in hand, I make a deal with myself first. If I want the cookie, first I have to do something. I look at my list of things to do and pick one that is the most urgent. No groceries in the house? That becomes priority number one. And while I am out, I may as well run around and do the other things that are on the list that I can’t do from home.
Until that is finished, no cookie. No TV. It’s a bargain that I make with me, and by turning myself into an adult talking to a child, I get things done.
I even talk to myself after, telling me what a good job I did, pointing out that it wasn’t that bad and declaring how good I should feel that I completed a task. I feel proud. Adult-me approves of child-me, even if only for a moment. Either way, things got done and I am enjoying my cookie.
Yes, it’s stupid. Yes, it works. Positive reinforcement always works better than negative punishment. I can force myself to do what needs to be done, but if there is a reward to look forward to, the doing becomes much more pleasant.
Figure out what you need to do, and separate it from what you would rather be doing. One is the work, the other is the reward. Want to play video games? Clean the house first. Want to binge-watch Netflix? Work on your budget or get your accounting done before you sit and zone out.
Putting things off takes up a tremendous amount of energy and doesn’t make you feel good about yourself. We all do it, it’s just that some of us are better able to resist the lure of immediate gratification and tackle the unpleasant necessities first. This process becomes easier the more you practice it.
Breaking down big projects into smaller pieces is also a very effective way of getting started and getting something done. When faced with a project that is going to take me 20 hours to do, often I don’t even want to start. But if I work in 20-minute intervals with a short break in between each one, suddenly the whole thing doesn’t seem so impossible.
We all have things we need to do that we don’t want to do. Try using the work-reward method and see if it helps you to get motivated. It’s also a great tool to use for big projects that you say you would like to do but keep putting off. Thinking of writing a novel? Start by writing for ten minutes a day, every day. It’s better than nothing, and it’s amazing how quickly the pages start to fill up. You can break down any big dream into smaller segments that become easier to accomplish.
Reward yourself when you finish something, and you will be more likely to start the next project. It works for me. I figure I may as well treat myself like a child when I am acting like one.