The Science of Getting Started: How to Beat Procrastination, Summon Productivity, and Stop Self-Sabotage

by Patrick King

One of the biggest weapons you have against procrastination is its natural enemy: making tasks almost impossible to skip over in the present moment.

I pulled multiple all-nighters in college and never seemed to learn my lesson.

For me, this was mostly in High School, but it continued on into college and beyond.

It’s actually about understanding the cycle of laziness and disrupting it before you get sucked into it.

Identifying which tasks you are likely to view as intimidating if not handled right away, like responding to messages.

Once you’re in the cycle, it’s hard to get over the increasing inertia keeping you from getting the task done.

And the discomfort / guilt of not having completed a task and the amount of intimidation grows.

“I want to do something more pleasurable than that right now.”

Especially when the deadline is far off and you can tell yourself that you have plenty of time.

You need X, Y, and Z to start properly. You have to be in the mood. All of these so-called requirements were conjured by you; none of them actually reflect reality.

Like telling myself I don't have the energy to do it right now.

I probably won’t do it right, so I just won’t do it at all.

Late night work due to lack of sleep and increase in likelihood of mistakes and poor quality.

“I’m just too tired tonight. I’ll start working on that goal later.”

“I’ll do it right after I finish this other task.”

And those other tasks are less important and I keep finding more of them.