Six Triggers

Our highest-impact tasks are typically so valuable that they're often also quite intimidating. They almost always require more time, attention, and energy than our lowest-impact tasks. They're typically also more boring, frustrating, difficult, unstructured, and sometimes lack intrinsic rewards — all of which act as a trigger for procrastination!

It is ironic that as I sat down at my desk to tackle two tasks that have been on my plate, instead of actually engaging with them, I decided to write this essay on procrastination (call it productive procrastination haha). As I engaged with my procrastination-busting toolkit, I thought that it'd be a good idea to write an essay for two reasons:

  1. It'll force me to think more deeply about the toolkit
  2. I thought it'd be nice to share it with people who might find it useful

Procrastination is less of a logistical problem and more of an emotional problem, and it is pretty straight-forward: the more unattractive a task or project is to you, the more likely you are to put it off. There are six attributes that make procrastination more likely:

  • Boring
  • Frustrating
  • Difficult
  • Unstructured or ambiguous
  • Lacking in personal meaning
  • Lacking in intrinsic rewards (is it intrinsically fun/pleasurable?)

"Sometimes procrastination is just a symptom that your life just doesn't match what you're interested in and...maybe you should do something else" — Tim Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle

The more of these attributes a task has (+ intensity of the attributes), the more likely you'll be to procrastinate on that task. Especially if you have other attractive tasks on your periphery which do not have these attributes (such as me writing this essay). In order to get yourself to actually work on these high-value tasks, your prefrontal cortex (the logical part of the brain) has to fight and win over the limbic system (the emotional part of your brain).

Pro Tip: igniting your prefrontal cortex to think and process things is one way to help tilt things into your favour

Now that you're cognisant of six procrastination triggers, you'll need to come up with a plan to flip those and make them as attractive as possible. Below are some ways how I commonly deal with these triggers:

  • Boring: I head over to a co-working space with a day pass to work from a well-lit and air-conditioned desk (+ commutes can sometimes be quite pleasant when you're not in a rush/meet someone on the way)
  • Frustrating: I set a timer on my phone to limit myself to working on the task for 30 minutes, and I'll continue working through it only if I'm in a flow state and let the momentum carry me forward
  • Difficult: I research the background or related (but helpful) things pertinent to the task at hand
  • Unstructured or ambiguous: I break down the task into smaller steps (preferably atomic) to add structure and lighten the cognitive load on my brain
  • Lacking in personal meaning: I hype myself up to make it the world's most important and meaningful thing ever (don't do this for the wrong things, your body keeps score — don't self-deceive)
  • Lacking in intrinsic rewards: I either find fun ways to do the task or sometimes outright bribe myself by saying that I'll treat myself with X after completing the task (personal recommendation is to do less of this, save it as a last resort so you don't build tolerance/start bargaining too much)

Pro Tip: you can tap into productive procrastination by creating a list of meaningful and high-impact tasks to take on the next time you procrastinate on something. Sometimes it's nice to have an alternative choice to whatever it is that you're procrastinating on, such as me writing this essay.

Applying My Toolkit

So what was I struggling with, and what happened to them?

  1. I have to create a presentation on Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle) to showcase at a meetup
  2. I have to revise and better understand user authentication for my FastAPI backend

Below is how they stacked up against the six triggers:

  • Boring: both tasks were pretty interesting to me
  • Frustrating: given that I spent time both socialising as well as writing this essay, I'm left with only ~2 hours before I have to head for my MMA class. I plan to use this time constraint to deal with my frustration
  • Difficult: both tasks are complex but I keep reading on adjacent topics each time I run into a block (coincidentally I'm reading Nicomachean Ethics to better understand Thomas Aquinas)
  • Unstructured or ambiguous: fortunately both tasks were fairly structured (Nicomachean Ethics had chapters and my codebase in modules)
  • Lacking in personal meaning: both tasks are deeply important to me. Although I couldn't care less about presentations, I can still link it to my deeper need to understand Aristotle to keep me motivated
  • Lacking in intrinsic rewards: understanding user authentication will allow me to more confidently build web-app backends with AI and my presentation will help me socialise with my friends (there's also sponsored snacks haha)

Given that frustration and a bit of difficulty were my primary triggers to deal with, I decided that at this point I do not have much to do as my remaining 2 hours became the motivating time constraint and me writing this essay ignited my prefrontal cortex enough to help it fight my limbic system. This should be good enough, time for me to go tackle my codebase!

Additional Resources

  1. The Productivity Project — Chris Bailey
  2. Solving the Procrastination Puzzle — Tim Pychyl
  3. Procrastination Research Group