Imagine Starting

Although I am not sure I agree with the author's analysis, I have found the following trick for handling procrastination somewhat valuable:

Imagine yourself starting, not finishing.

What is the first, smallest, shortest, and least effortful task you can perform to get started? Say you need to clean your flat: then it could be to ... take 1 plate and put it in the sink.

That simple act has now set you in motion. [format edits]

Anyone familiar with David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology will recognize the value of breaking big, intimidating tasks up into smaller, more doable steps, and this certainly is consistent with that methodology. But I think that finding a way to get past inertia can be at least equally important for certain kinds of tasks. This seems true for well-understood and simple ones, like having to catch up on cleaning. Regarding such tasks, I have found it to be the case that once I start, I quickly get into a flow and work very efficiently. Getting past the many temptations that seem to come from nowhere just beforehand seems to be half the work as far as my mind is concerned. Perhaps it might be the case for yours.

-- CAV