Drink More Water, Waste Less Time — A Pavlovian Tale;

Part of the #BasicAndBusy Blog Series

Alternative titles:

-I Can’t Do Anything Without Getting Distracted: Solutions

-How I Stopped Procrastinating: Life of an Entry-Level Yuppie

Tl;dr - Take a sip of water whenever you want to procrastinate, soon you’ll feel dehydrated whenever you want to check your phone and productivity abounds:

1. Distractions are dangerous.

I’m in the middle of writing a work email when I get bored/frustrated and turn to FB for a second. I see something that reminds me of a friend. In the middle of typing a post, I get an Instagram notification. I instantly click and start perusing multiple accounts until I get a Snapchat notification. I start Snapchatting back and forth with a friend.

AND BOOM. I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE. I can’t get anything done. Not only is getting distracted a time-suck. It keeps me from doing my best work, from brainstorming, from giving my undivided attention to tasks at hand.

2. Identify the Trigger, Curb Your Instincts.

In Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, he discusses how habits, like checking social media, are triggered by something. For me, and many others, the trigger is frustration, boredom, or wanting to do something anything else. However, I also know that it’s much more efficient to just get my work done instead of like, liking someone’s new profpic.

Identify your trigger — it’s probably a feeling or knee-jerk reaction to check your phone and IMMEDIATELY begin to take a sip of water. If you succumb and start looking at your phone,try and get yourself to put it down to take the drink of water, making it easier to get back to work.

3. Results.

According to Pavlov, from now on, every time you have the urge to procrastinate, you should just start getting thirsty. You’re welcome.

HAHA JK, Idk if this actually works that way, but I found myself able to effectively reroute my social media-checking tendencies. I also found the frequent bathroom breaks helpful for when I actually needed a break and to get the creative juices flowing (HA among other juices). For me, just getting off my phone once I get on it is tough, and if I have a cup of water, then I usually have to take my eyes off my phone to pick up the cup without spilling all over my laptop. This seems insignificant, but is actually huge for me in terms of breaking the procrastination spell. It doesn’t have to be water — it could be anything!