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9 Things I Learned About Productivity This Year

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In 2021 I began to dissect my lifelong problem of severe procrastination, instead of just wrestling with it.

I used to see it as a simple character flaw, a ball and chain hanging from my wrist as I tried to fulfil life’s requirements. Now I think of my capacity for getting things done (or not) more as a semi-functional Rube Goldberg machine. Instead of metal chutes and springs, its parts are interconnected habits. It runs smoothly in some places, gets hung up in others, and all of the parts can be studied, understood, and adjusted.

One thing that helped a lot was distilling my observations about the machine into a dozen or so single-sentence “laws” that describe how productivity and procrastination seem to work, at least for me.

It was intended to be a personal reference, taped to the wall near my desk, but every time I look at it I realize other procrastinators could benefit from some of it.

So here are a few of these proposed laws of overcoming procrastination, adapted for public perusal.

1. To-do lists and other self-regulatory messages are more effective if they are appealing to the eye.

(aka “The Law of Tidy Lists”)

Almost invariably, I complete more items on a to-do list if that list is neatly written. I believe this effect arises from certain deep human instincts: we trust things that are clean and presented respectfully, and we dislike messes and halfhearted efforts.

When you feel repulsed by your own to-do list, you don’t want to look at it and you don’t want to do what it says. When the list is easy on the eyes, it feels more like the guiding star it’s supposed to be.

This principle extends to other written forms of self-instruction, such as sticky notes on the bathroom mirror reminding you to floss.

The mind recoils from chaos

2. Likelihood of progress with psychologically difficult tasks increases as the Actual Start Time moves earlier in the day.

(aka The Law of Start Time)

Procrastinatory forces feel like reverse-polarity magnets. You approach a dreaded task, having decided to tackle it first thing. When you get physically close to it, however, you slide sideways and fail to connect, instead snapping onto some other nearby thing — opening email instead of Word, reading a webcomic instead of a textbook.

That means you often don’t begin the work when you think you do. Sure, you got to the desk at 9:00 (actually 9:08), but ended up orbiting the task rather than landing on it, only making true contact at 9:47, 10:31, or just after lunch.

This true point of contact is the Actual Start Time. For me the pattern is now perfectly clear: the later I come at the task, the more time I’ll spend dancing around it before beginning in earnest. If I can make contact at an earlier hour, the urge to dance away from it is diminished, because I only have so many dance moves, and I’ll run out long before lunchtime.

3. Tasks that look grim or painful from the outside usually do not look that way from the inside.

(aka The Law of Getting Inside)

There is a great mirage the career procrastinator eventually recognizes and must remember to challenge. Tasks that look horrible from the outside usually aren’t like that on the inside.

It’s easy to balk forever at starting an unpleasant task. You feel bad enough, so you certainly don’t want to climb inside the unpleasantness by starting. Yet you’ve probably discovered again and again that you feel better shortly after you start. That’s the illusion procrastinators must learn to see through: you don’t need to finish the task to feel better, you only need to finish not doing the task.

Once inside the task, the main source of pain associated with the task — the shame and powerlessness of not acting — is over with.

Inside each task is something concrete and finite

4. The distance between two very different states — Feeling Unable to Begin and Having Begun — seems vast but is actually very small.

(aka The Law of the Paper Wall)

Starting a task –- penetrating its thick hide to get at its guts — seems like it requires a vast amount of energy. You’ll want to take a good run at it, so you’d better do it first thing tomorrow. Better yet, Monday – take a weekend-long run-up at it. January 1st is even better.

This is another mirage. The agonizing state of procrastination and the empowered state of doing appear to be continents apart, but they’re actually adjacent, separated by a hallucinogenic curtain I call the Paper Wall.

Before you’ve started a task, it looks like it’s bounded by barbed wire, thorny vines, or some other vicious material, but it’s really just a paper skin, painted like a desolate battlefield. You can punch through by simply getting your hands onto some physical component of the task –- the required tools, applications, or materials. You’re never more than inches from the better of the two realms.

5. When you’re struggling with the intended task, it’s usually better to work on something else than to let the session grind to a halt.

(aka The Law of Productivity Over Plans)

The typical productivity advice is to be unwavering in your intentions. When the going gets tough, stick to the plan and compromise nothing.

I don’t think this is good advice for everybody. Part of what keeps procrastinators procrastinating is the belief that working is more painful than avoiding work. This is usually untrue, but it becomes true when you grind away fruitlessly on a task just because you happened put it on your list today. If your wheels are really spinning, it’s usually better to switch to another productive (but less miserable) task.

In other words, choose productivity over loyalty to your original intention. Do something else, get the momentum up, and by the afternoon, or tomorrow, the task will seem less impenetrable.

Sometimes a hard deadline makes task-switching unfeasible, but when you have the flexibility, it’s usually better to be productive instead of uncompromising.

Sisyphus running errands instead

6. The day’s productivity is determined not by how well you execute the plan, but by how well you adjust to difficulties in executing the plan.

(aka The Law of Adaptation)

Even though I make a plan for each day, I basically never have a day go according to plan. There are too many variables. Computers crash, tools break, moods and priorities shift. By afternoon my original to-do list is usually laughable. An alternate timeline.

Still, some days are far more productive than others, and the difference is how I respond to those unexpected factors as they come. An urgent email or a malfunctioning printer can derail the current plan in a second, but whether it derails the day depends on what the word “productivity” seems to mean at that moment.

Sometimes I’m caught up in the notion that productivity means making my plan a reality. These are the days that get torpedoed by a website error or misplaced USB stick. Other days I remember that productivity is all about adaptation –- at every juncture, reassessing what the plan should be from here, and executing that one next thing.

7. There are no small diversions, because nearly all diversions result in other diversions.

(aka The Law of Proliferating Diversions)

Even though I know checking Instagram takes me only 45 seconds, I’m never back at work on that 46th second. It always, always, leads to more ostensibly negligible diversions – checking the mail, skimming an article, or sending a text. Yet the only way I can rationalize the “quick check” (as Cal Newport has named it) is by somehow believing it will only create a sterile 45-second hole in the workday.

There are probably no holes that small. Diversions lead directly to other diversions, because whatever force it was that got me to stop working for 45 seconds is the same force that will deflect me from getting right back to it afterward. The procrastinatory mind will react the same way to restarting as it just did to keeping going.

This is not to say diversions are intrinsically bad, only that there are no small ones. A diversion is always a full stoppage of play, never the quick glance away it purports to be.

Shortly after checking Instagram

8. Getting a task 100% done today is twice as valuable as getting it to 90% done.

(aka The Law of Finishing)

When you’re nearing the end of a big task, a great danger lurks.

By this time you’re already glowing with accomplishment, it’s 4:25, and there’s nothing left of your task but easy finishing touches — giving the document a last once-over, exporting the PDF, and writing a two-line email to send it along.

Since nothing remains but pure ease – almost fun, really! — it can be tempting to pat yourself on the back, and leave the final formalities for your bright and caffeinated morning self.

In my experience, if you leave that last 10% of a big task for later, it will take most or all of the next morning. I don’t know how it grows overnight like that, but it does. It’s some kind of black magic, a curse for leaving today’s final mile to Tomorrow You.

Don’t tempt the black magic. Spend fifteen minutes on it today instead of ninety tomorrow.

9. An unplanned day will never go well, unless it’s a day off.

(aka The Law of Clear Intentions)

This may not be true for everyone, but I suspect it will be for most procrastinators.

Even though the daily plan virtually always mutates into something else, I’ve never had a productive day that didn’t start with a plan.

Without clear intentions, you’re riding on instincts from moment one, and the procrastinator’s instincts are to squirm away from doing important things using any rationale it can come up with.

Abstract depiction of a day without a plan

The written to-do list is a physical record of what your rational intentions once were, before the emotional heat of the workday began to draw you to more appealing pursuits. You can disagree with this document, but if it exists, at least someone (You of the Past) is still offering a persistent, rational opinion that you’re better off outlining your term paper than reordering your cookbooks or finally learning to moonwalk.

There’s another problem with going planless. If you don’t articulate your intentions in words, your responsibilities appear to the mind as a homogenous glob of “work,” and which has no entrance, no checkpoints, and no end.

Since one of the deepest mammalian impulses is to avoid touching dark, amorphous blobs, that’s almost certainly what you’ll do. Better to have a light to move towards, wherever the day happens to wander.

***

Need help getting stuff done?

I wrote a little book for people like you and me, called How to Do Things: Productivity for the Productivity-Challenged.

You can read it in one sitting and be getting more done by sundown.

[What is How to Do Things?]

***

Photos by Isaac Smith, Zoltan Tasi, Beth Macdonald, Helena Yankovska, and Nathalia Rosa. Drawing by David Cain.

Bene December 17, 2021 at 4:38 am

David, you’re on your way to becoming the foremost expert on the Philosophy of Procrastination (which is probably one of the most important areas in the 21st century!) Thanks for illuminating the process for me – I find it much easier to handle when I know what’s going on in my crazy little head

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 9:47 am

Thanks Bene. I’m glad it’s helpful I don’t know if expert is the word, but I am a veteran of the trenches

JJ December 17, 2021 at 6:53 am

This feels different than what 99% of productivity gurus preach which is almost a copy of the same mindless advice circulating everywhere. I really like how you get into our heads here and understand the psychology behind each point.

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 9:48 am

Maybe by greatest insight this year is not to get all my productivity advice from exceptionally productive people

Rocky December 17, 2021 at 7:36 am

Very nice presentation David! I particularly liked “orbiting rather than landing on a task”. This will be my new mantra. “Am I chopping wood? Am I carrying water? Or am I orbiting?”
Many thanks! Keep up the good work!

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 9:48 am

Hey Rocky. I am naturally inclined to orbit rather than land. I think my natural trajectory towards work is to move tangentially at escape velocity.

Mary-Ann Owens December 17, 2021 at 9:01 am

I love number 3. I have been putting off cleaning up some really old files. It was a delight to read old letters from friends and find a file filled with old stamps. It is amazing what you can learn about a country by looking at its stamps. Who knew? So want to remember number 3 for the rest of my paper organization!!!

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 9:51 am

It is a very interesting mirage, how we see only our greatest fears in the task, and not any of what’s interesting about it. Tasks *never* look the same once you’re past the paper wall.

Jill December 17, 2021 at 10:23 am

Long time reader here. I was diagnosed with ADHD this year at 45. What if we are less productive- is that so bad? Is it more about the angst associated with the so called unproductive time?

Being highly productive is like our biggest status symbol as a culture. I think it is overrated. When I do a root cause analysis -climate change is because of all the damn productivity. The relentless pursuit of productivity will destroy us.

Don’t worry I am employed and pay my taxes. I think I hit my max productivity for the week and need to walk, to cook, to make, to create something and have ideas. Thanks for all you do, it matters. I guess that is the point of producing. Take care.

David December 17, 2021 at 3:42 pm

For me, not getting enough done is very very bad, yes. I don’t have a lot of angst around downtime. I love downtime. I wish life were all downtime. Not getting enough done has been a scourge on my life. It creates immense stress and pain, not just for me but for other people in my life. I’m not trying to be a superman, just a functioning adult who isn’t constantly letting people down. For me it is not in the least bit mindless, it’s a matter of being able to really live life or miss it completely.

I know a lot of people get caught up in a never-enough mentality when it comes to productivity. We hear about that end of the productivity spectrum all the time, because as you say our society is a little productivity obsessed. But some of us really struggle just to meet very modest standards, and it is extremely painful to always be falling short.

MLS December 17, 2021 at 10:29 am

“Orbiting a task” – that’s so great. I’m finding the idea of those blocks of time, with timers set, and binaural beats in my headphones, to really help with shaking off the dread of a seemingly grinding task. Hey, I only have to do it for 25 minutes (or 10 minutes if we’re talking vacuuming). Then I get to draw a block.

Still waiting, waiting, waiting, endlessly it seems, for my ADHD assessment appointment to be set. At least I’m on a list at a clinic. In the meantime, thank you for sharing your revelation this year because it set off my own revelation, which has lead to my being kinder to myself for my difficulties and choices (eating crunchy food for stimulation – now that I realize why I’m doing it, it’s helping me do it less and not beat myself up for it when I do it and enjoy it).

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:45 pm

I’m going to try binaural beats while I work — I just bought noise canceling headphones and they seem to have an almost magical benefit to focus. I find background cacophony extremely distracting (I don’t think I realized how badly) but I also want to avoid music that’s too busy/stimulating.

Best of luck with the assessment. That’s what began this whole dissection process for me, and things have become a lot better.

Dora December 17, 2021 at 11:18 am

Here’s another one for you David. You may have touched on it in previous posts. I have discovered that the main reason I procrastinate is fear of failure. As long as I have not started a project it is there in the future for me to do successfully. But what if I can’t do it ??????? As long as I don’t start, success is still possible. If I fail, what do I have left? I know this makes no sense but it paralyzes me.

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:47 pm

I can totally relate. I’m used to feeling intense aversion to challenging tasks, but when I examine it, it’s usually not to the doing of the task itself. It’s the possibility that I actually can’t do it — that I will hit a wall and then there I will be stuck for good. I don’t have an answer for that one yet, but in the meantime I can say you’re not alone.

Irfana January 10, 2022 at 3:16 pm

The fear of failure is also the biggest challenge for me. Throughout my life, I found that I can do most of the things if tried. But when I fail, I take it harder than needed. The acceptance that I can NOT be good at everything and the hope that if I do everything in my power, I will succeed, has helped me overcome this fear to some extent. So, I try to keep on working unless I succeed or until I’m done with everything I can think of to proceed with OR I just accept some of my failures as I am but a mere human.
I hope this could help you as well.

Leia Smith- December 17, 2021 at 11:28 am

I kept saying “yep, that is true, Yep that is SO true…” Thank you for this!

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:53 pm

That is the reaction I’m always going for :)

Greg Ashcroft December 17, 2021 at 1:38 pm

Hi David, Thank you for this great article! It describes exactly what happens to me and ways to move forward. I never really thought of myself as a procrastinator, but I often have trouble starting things. Once I get going, I don’t have too much difficulty getting things done, unless i get stuck then the Law of Productivity over Plans kicks in. I have actually been using this technique, but you have said it so well. For me though it is the starting that is a problem, so thank you for some great advice.

I hope that the 9 things becomes one of your classics, it certainly is for me.

Greg

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:50 pm

We are all very complex Rube Goldberg machines, with different problem areas. I’ve learned how much resistance there is at the start for me, and how I tend to drag out finishes, so that’s where these laws came from. If you have some of the same sticking points in your machine, I hope they will help :)

Renee S December 17, 2021 at 2:50 pm

I have been reading the book called Atomic Habits by James Clear and it has been SO helpful! I really recommend it to anyone trying to form good habits and stop bad ones. Thanks for the post–very eye opening!

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:51 pm

Atomic Habits is a great book. Just a few of those principles can go a long way, depending on what your particular trouble spots are.

Renee S December 17, 2021 at 2:56 pm

hahaha OMG. Literally on the next page that I was reading they talk about AND QUOTE you! hahaha Synchronicities!

David Cain December 17, 2021 at 3:52 pm

That’s hilarious. I’m everywhere! I think I was talking about “fairweather meditators” in this case?

Daniehl December 17, 2021 at 5:22 pm

Love the “orbiting” metaphor – like a helicopter methinks – because I feel like the ultimate orbiter. It’s been forever since the last time I was able to set down and just enjoy the quiet that comes with beginning work on a new and enthralling project. Thanks for your lack of cynicism. Looks like it comes from a close peek at emotional reality from a person capable of loving just being yourself.
Daniehl

Melinda Rusaw December 18, 2021 at 5:23 am

This is not just good, it’s great! I love your writing. This subject has been approached and looked at and analyzed often-to us who see the problem as mainly our husband’s-we can enjoy identifying and discovering hope in the tidy, yet clever, without blame or shame, availability of not procrastinating. Thank you.

Christina December 18, 2021 at 5:48 am

You just nail it every time. I have rarely had so many good insights into various areas of being a better human than with you.
I thank you from my heart!

Mark December 18, 2021 at 7:57 am

Rule 3 is certainly a big one. A lot of things seem emotionally icky or just difficult and I find one of the reasons can also be because you can’t see the whole picture, I struggle to get started or moving with things if I don’t fully understand it, but i’ve noticed often with these tasks that they are more simple than I thought, just impossible to fully predict before hand, so what you just need to do is figure out a next step and do that, get it moving and the path will open up with time, rather than just waiting because it leads to procrastionation.

I’ve also taken to just capturing everything I need to do or might want to do and keep that as a list of options, rather than a fully on todo list and then I pick things from that which seem worthwhile to do, what happens here though is you tend to skip on those important tasks that are simular to what you mentioned, so for this i’ve started asking myself questions like ‘What is the most emotionally difficult task?” it tends to highlight those particular tasks you mentioned and then I just get going with that, along with ‘What’s something I have put off for too long?”.

Creating a list of options and allowing myself to do whatever I Feel like doing but then kicking my own ass and keeping it in track with those two questions from time to time helps to make sure I am not just doing easy things or not just putting off what I should do.

David Cain December 18, 2021 at 11:52 am

That is a part of the hesitation for me — I don’t understand the task so I don’t start. I’m not sure what kind of can of worms I’m opening, and I feel like I need to. Of course, you never can, so you never start :)

Charlie December 18, 2021 at 8:00 am

These are all good insights, and #3 and #4 especially hit home with me. Once I start a dreaded task I find that it’s not so bad, in some cases even enjoyable. And the relief I feel is wonderful.

Petru December 18, 2021 at 8:05 am

I really resonate with the article, this is my struggle too. I tried to buy the book but all I get are errors, when trying to make the payment (with debit, PayPal, Google Pay). It seems to be a problem with my bank. Wish you would accept crypto…

David Cain December 18, 2021 at 11:55 am

Nine times out of ten one of the following will resolve the issue:

1) Try using an incognito window in your browser
2) Try on a different device (mobile, laptop, tablet, etc)
3) Try on a the same device but a different browser
4) Try a different card / payment method

Note that you can download the book to any or all of your devices, so you don’t need to read it on the same device.

Sharon Hanna December 20, 2021 at 1:30 pm

Pretty sure My Thing is “fear of death”. Lots of reasons for this – and sometimes or much of the time, ‘completion’ = death. Lots of unexpected death pre-natally for me (in the womb) and then afterwards, leading to my being adopted. And, resonate as usual with everything you said, David. Often I need to ask for help from a friend to just be with me as I’m doing things. Thank goodness it doesn’t include cooking or baking! Very OK with that other than minor procrastination issues with cookie baking this year. Thank you for being so diligent in many areas.

Calen Horton December 24, 2021 at 3:46 am

David,

Here’s another law to explore. A psychologically difficult task will become easier to sink into, each time you try to attempt it.

This is one that I only noticed after a dear friend explained. She was one of the most productive people I ever met, and amazingly self-aware. She told me that every time she started on a new project she needed two or three days to get into it.

I never noticed because I never allowed myself that time, uninterrupted. If I couldn’t do one thing I would bounce to others. But it works – if I have a psychologically difficult task and I can bring myself to approach it three to five times over the course of a few days, and sift through the complexities of it, then some part of my psyche relaxes and the task starts to yield itself to that state of flow.

I’ve called it a couple things but the Law of Momentum sounds nice

C

Pipsterate December 26, 2021 at 12:23 pm

I think these are all helpful rules. The only one I think might not apply well to me is #8, The Law of Finishing, because I’ve heard a theory that it’s better to save a bit of easy work to start the next morning, so that you can start the day with momentum. I’ve found that when a task is related to a larger project, this method can help me maintain my energy levels in the long term. Maybe this could be the Law of Chaining, a backup law for when a project takes so long that the Law of Finishing starts to break down.

…or could this possibly just be my excuse for not wanting to finish things? Maybe a little bit!

Asel February 24, 2022 at 4:19 am

Maybe you will still sleep better if there is no things left from your day behind) And you can start your day from the new to do list? Just thinking out load

Elizabeth March 10, 2022 at 5:10 pm

I used parts of The Now Habit to help me get myself to write my MA thesis, and that is exactly what that author recommended for big projects–to never end at the end of a section, but start a new one to pick-up from b/c it would keep momentum of thought you were working on vs coming in cold & having to warm-up/drum up to get a new section going. Probably, as you sd, different things work for different projects/people, etc. It worked for me for writing b/c I’d get stuck too long on that 1st sentence.

باربری فردیس January 9, 2022 at 8:31 am

It’s great. Thank you.

باربری گلشهر کرج January 9, 2022 at 8:33 am

sehr gut. danke.

Asel February 24, 2022 at 4:17 am

Hello,
Maybe we just have to many things to do so procrastination just pop up as a natural defence system? I just noticed that when I work and I like this work – there is no place for procrastination, I nearly need to stop myself of doing things…

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