Procrastination Breaker Framework

# Work Procrastination Breaker

The following is my personal framework for breaking through procrastination.
www.friendlyskies.net/intj

- Review this entire framework.
- Do not sit down at the computer. If you are at the computer, move away now.
  - Couch or a different desk is fine. Take a paper notebook with you.
  - Review the computer lock framework and assess your work motivation levels as
    precondition to computer use.
  - If you have the time for a walk, the public library is great.
- Really late? Set a timer for about 10 minutes. Otherwise, 30-40 minutes can be great.
- Say a simple prayer for what you need. Nothing fancy.
  - Typically: I need courage to extravert myself toward the problem
  - Courage to confront fears head-on in a rational way
  - Help to recognize avoidant behavior and thinking and reduce my emotional response in
    favor of a more rational response
- Pick a healthy _thinking_ archetype that may help. Examples:
  - Lt. Cmdr. Data
  - Mark Watney
  - Spock
  - Can you converse with them? What would they say in this situation?
- Are your physical comfort levels OK?
  - Address all bodily needs first
    - Bathroom (pee, or shave, brush teeth, etc.)
    - Food, water levels
      - Sometimes 100 to 200 calories can help a lot
      - Staying hydrated helps get you out of your chair on the regular
  - Other boosts needed?
    - Exercise
      - Remember this will use your strength, so do it early in the day to give yourself
        time to rebuild momentum.
      - Use the time to circle back to the problem you are avoiding or procrastinating.
    - Caffeine
      - For large projects go straight to the 100mg tab and 20 oz. drink
  - Room Temperature
    - From 67-70 degrees is optimal.
  - Additional helps
    - Put on a background TV show (familiar shows mainly)
      - If you are getting lost in the show instead of working, pick a different show.
    - Put on some music
- Do you know your highest-anxiety, procrastinated activity?
  - Write it down. Or them, if there are several.
  - Aim to identify the following:
    - The first 3-5 steps requiring less than 5 minutes of effort each
    - The easiest steps on which you can start first
  - Understand what's going on
    - Review the project framework.
    - Review any project meeting/call notes from last time.
    - If you have a bunch of emails, combine them into a text file and make it into an
      outline. Download attachments to a folder and add folder to file manager favorites.
    - Start a text file from scratch if the existing information is too overwhelming.
- Casually make this writing activity a more fun list.
  - Start adding fun, easy stuff to your list to pad it out. Like:
    - Watch funny Youtubes?
    - Read a library book you've been putting off?
    - Check these off as you do them; they are part of your to-do list so you can build
      up task momentum.
    - Aim to have about 1:1:1 easy fun stuff to hard stuff to medium stuff.
- If you can't go somewhere else, and are at the computer, you're in big trouble,
  but things will probably be OK because you found the courage to open this text file.
- Make a compact.
  - If I'm not motivated by whenever the timer goes off, I'll... (list things)

## If it's still not working

- Negotiate with yourself out loud: Be both sides.
  - Verbalize yourself as the procrastinator who wants out of this.
  - Verbalize yourself as the negotiator in your head who wants it done.
  - It may help to watch a professional negotiator on Youtube and then imitate him/her.
    This helped in the past.

### High emergency situation

- Signs
  - Over-the-top sensory binging of any kind (food, loud music, websites, etc.)
  - Multiple hours of planning passing without any work done toward goals
- Responses
  - Re-read this.
  - Talk to someone else about what's going wrong.
  - Just start writing about the issue and how much it is blowing you away.

## Later

- Add what you learned to a framework
- Consider that you procrastinated because stress was too high. This indicates an area of
  severe weakness. How can you reduce the likelihood of needing to do this sort of work
  in the future? It is usually best to maximize career exposure to your gifts, instead of
  your weaknesses.
  - Typical INTJ career mistake:
    - Too much detail work, too many "doing" or "making" things and not enough
      conceptualizing, theorizing, cognitive model-making, metacognition, etc.