How I Overcame Precrastination & Became More Productive by Doing Less
A true story from a teacher.
As a student, I was proud of having the habit of taking on all tasks as they came. I also felt proud whenever I noticed anyone less diligent than me. Checking another task as “done” gave me a powerful feeling of completeness and superiority.
I always took the initiative in group projects (as other people were never as ready to start right away). I answered emails from professors during friendly encounters with my peers. I even washed the dishes once they got dirty, never letting them wait until I finished my meal.
Do you think I was the best student of the tier and the hyper-productive performance monster?
Nope.
Instead, I developed anxiety issues and had a poor work-life balance that undermined my personal life and well-being. I checked things off my to-do list so as not to have them lingering on my mind later. But the number of incoming tasks cluttered my headspace and overwhelmed me too soon.
This text describes how I overcame precrastination with an “E.” It is a compulsive willingness to get things done, no matter how untimely or draining such activity may be.
The Bucket Research, or A Bit of Theory
David A. Rosenbaum from Pennsylvania State University described my mental anguish in his research, which involved students and buckets. In cooperation with Lanyung Gong and Cory Adam Potts, the psychologist told students to choose which bucket to carry: the one standing halfway to the finish line or the one farther away (but closer to the finish line).
Rosenbaum and his colleagues were surprised that most participants chose the former, adding to their burden! They preferred to do the work longer, provided they could start earlier.
Students chose to work hard, not smart. They prioritized an early start, even if it meant spending more energy. That’s how the term “precrastination” emerged, describing one of the coping mechanisms our brain uses to unburden itself.
But:
Is the coping mechanism healthy at all?
Is Precrastination a Big Deal?
Precrastination enabled me to focus on urgent but easy tasks.
But while I was picking the low-hanging fruit, I left the time-consuming and complicated pieces of work for later. Eventually, I never got to the sizeable high-hanging fruit or picked just a couple of them, as no more time and energy was left.
Have you heard of the Pareto principle, when 20% of tasks bring you 80% of results in terms of experience, personal growth, and money?
I left out those 20%, choosing quantity over quality. That’s why my progress in studies left much to be desired.
4 Methods That Helped Me Overcome Precrastination
I was so immersed in getting things done that I stopped asking myself why I was doing that. Serious challenges and complicated decisions never occurred to me in this turmoil of straightforward and doable activities.
Let me share my ways of overcoming precrastination with you.
I Set My Priorities
Precrastination is typical of people who already have trouble with prioritizing. For this reason, I started by listing the things that matter to me from the most to least critical. I tried to be utterly sincere.
I set my priorities several times, and my mental condition at each instance was very telling.
For example:
I was exhausted and sad when I did it for the first time. I wasn’t surprised to realize that personal well-being was my priority #1 at that point. Study results, career development, motivation, and similar goals lagged behind my desire to recover.
Based on the priority list, I planned my activities, focusing on sports, sufficient sleep hours, long walks, and healthy food. It took me a month to recover and re-set my priorities. Studies and career returned to their leading position.
If anyone needs detailed step-by-step instructions on priority-setting, enjoy the reading below.
- Make a list. Write down everything you want to obtain or achieve in life. Mention everything that occurs to you, and turn off your inner critic.
- Group the ideas. Decrease the number of the list items to make it more manageable.
- Number the groups. Which is the most desirable sphere, and which could wait for better times?
- Refer to the list. Do it daily, in the morning, before you decide how to plan your day. Scrutinizing your priorities affects how you distribute your time and how efficient you are.
- Compromise. Your priorities evolve, and unexpected problems arise. Some tasks are worth doing and forgetting about them, like you would do in your times of precrastinating.
- Start with the most challenging task. If you start with the most manageable tasks, you are tempted to lose your rigor before you get to the dragon.
- Reward yourself for the most productive days. Making the most productive days of the week the most work-intense is an excellent idea. But don’t forget to intermingle hard work with good rest.
I Learned Not to Overload Myself
I stopped to ponder my life and realized how much I complicate things. It was hard to postpone the easy but unurgent tasks for the sake of challenging but essential. However, I set the task to balance my work-life regime and improve my health. I was so decisive. Here’s what I did.
- I avoided unnecessary tasks at all costs.
Before this “beat-my-precrastination” challenge, I used to take responsibility for others. If we had a group project, I was the one who always distributed work and controlled its performance. I made presentations (and suffered the public speaking fear related to it).
Instead:
I decided everyone was responsible for their share of the result. Teamwork is not about one person doing 90% of the work. It is about equal sharing of responsibilities.
In addition, I dropped the self-imposed duties to clean the room every other day and cook complicated meals. Healthy food can be simple.
2. I made my to-do list realistic.
Trust me, the longer your to-do list is, the more distant it will be from reality. I never gave up making those lists (as a true precrastinator with years of experience), but I used the skill to my avail. I only included the tasks I knew I would complete. I added new items once my list was exhausted, but not sooner.
3. I took breaks more often than evidently needed.
My brain works better after a refreshing break, and I bet yours also does. I can write an essay for several hours without feeling exhausted, but making a 5-minute break every 20 minutes and a 15-minute break every hour proved more productive.
4. I delegated all the tasks I could.
As a student, you are at the bottom of the duty chain. There is little you can delegate, and few people are ready to undertake your tasks. But ordering food when I had no time to cook and sharing cleaning duties with my roommate 50/50 worked wonders. I plan to delegate more as soon as I become more independent.
5. I mastered the art of saying “No.”
What’s the use of delegating your tasks if you cannot say no when others drop their duties onto your shoulders?
I Overcame My Fear of Making Mistakes
I understood that my rush to grab every spare task was directly related to the fear of failure. I wanted to make my life less stressful. Completing small tasks eliminated my self-doubt and brought some satisfaction. But later, I understood that such an approach only lets me focus on large-scale projects that could get me more experience and emotional reward.
I preferred short and simple tasks because I was sure I would complete them at first take. More complicated assignments paralyzed me, as I was afraid to fail.
At some point, I learned about emotional intelligence, which eventually became a powerful antidote to my fear of mistakes. Look at how I approached it.
- I labeled my feelings. “I feel anxious because this assignment will take me a month to complete, and I don’t know some of the essentials yet.” I noticed that stating my feelings diffuses them, like a spotlight directed into a dark corner.
- I accepted reality. “Some parts of the task are beyond my understanding so far. I cannot grow while doing what I can do exclusively at the moment. I will think of the challenges once they arise.” This is only a brief excerpt of the truths I listed. They may sound like quotes from a cheap book on self-development, but the method worked!
- I acted on my values. “My precrastination means I am proactive. I will shift the focus and apply my readiness to rush into activity to the work that is worth the battle.”
Sometimes, we have to act without knowing the best course of action. The steps above helped me avoid my anxiety trap and not try to reduce uncertainty to zero.
I Started Practicing Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a broad term comprising much of what I have mentioned above. However, it deserves an individual tribute, particularly in terms of the following exercise.
- Stop everything you’ve been doing.
- Take a deep breath.
- Observe your physical and mental condition and identify it.
- Proceed to do what you were busy with at step 1.
This practice tunes me up so I can proceed with my day with more engagement and less validation of inaction.
What I’ve Learned
Procrastination and precrastination are the children of the same larger problem. We try to find shortcuts to being efficient and productive. My experience says it doesn’t work that way. There is no easy way to develop. Muscles grow when they are in pain from fatigue. And so does our brain.
Some of us take the pressure of last-minute deadlines as a boost. Others, like me, get addicted to the instant gratification of checking out tasks done.
However, mindful and strategic planning is the only practice that helped me (and will most likely help you) better organize your lives. Let us value quality over quantity in all aspects of our existence.