3 Borderline Absurd Ways To Finish Your Most Annoying Tasks
Non traditional tools to complete your tasks
Sometimes, you need something out of the box.
Some technique to push you to do things you’re postponing. Something apart from the usually prescribed ones like the 2-minute rule, setting a timer, etc. That is the motive behind writing this article.
Progress is an everyday thing, and all days are not the same. Stuff that works one day will not work on another. I want to add a few non-traditional and borderline absurd tools to your toolbox you can use when you’re bored of the normal ones.
All that matters at the end of the day is completing what you said you would.
So, let’s begin!
Aggravate the problem
Use this method for seemingly minor tasks.
The thing about minor tasks is that they accumulate over time and become a gigantic annoyance. To avoid this, you should definitely keep the number of minor tasks pending to a minimum and keep getting rid of them by either completing them or delegating them at least.
When you’re young, you can’t afford to delegate tasks much. Nobody will do your stuff for free, and you won’t have much money to outsource tasks. You have to do everything yourself.
Since you have to do everything yourself, you decide to not do a lot of minor tasks, and they become a huge problem.
Another reason why we keep pushing away these tasks is because they don’t bother us too much for us to take action toward them.
So, make the problem artificially bigger. For example, a few T-shirts and shorts are mixed in your closet. Most of the other clothes are organized well enough.
There is no incentive for you to clean your closet and restore its order. So aggravate the problem. Mix up a few more shorts and T-shirts such that it takes you visibly longer to pick out the clothes you want.
You now have a problem that is big enough to make you take action.
A point to keep in mind is to not aggravate the problem too much. This will introduce a new problem. If your task is too difficult, you’ll never start doing it.
Aggravate it just a little to make you want to take action.
Break a successful streak.
This is a ridiculous technique, but it works.
Let’s say you’re pretty health-conscious. It’s been 350 days since you last had a pizza. You’ve worked hard to build this streak by being in control to the point that it feels like you’re against every cell of your body if you eat a pizza. Not eating pizza is part of your identity now. Something you take pride in.
Now, let’s say you have a task you need to get to. You want to tally your expenses, but you feel like it’s a chore. You keep procrastinating. You hate it.
To start tallying your expenses daily, threaten yourself by saying you’ll order a pizza tomorrow and eat it if you don’t balance your expenses today.
You’ll tally your expenses because you dread losing such a long streak you’ve invested so much effort into building. This is similar to how people do anything to maintain their Snapchat streaks. They’ve done it so long that breaking it is never an option.
Admittedly, this pizza example might be a bit absurd, but gotta stick with the theme of this article!
A more realistic example?
I make my bed every single day and have done so for almost a year now. I threaten to end that success streak if I feel like I am procrastinating on something I need to do.
You might think, “Well, I don’t have a huge streak to threaten.” I say you do. Everyone does. You’re just not tracking it.
A case in point is brushing your teeth in the morning. You feel like you’re the dirtiest person in the world if you don’t brush in the morning. Threaten not brushing the next day if you fail to complete your task today.
I guarantee you’ll complete your task.
Create a minor annoyance for someone else.
Preferably someone really close to you.
Make them get mad at you. You probably don’t want to fight with the ones you hold dear. Unless you’re a psychopath, of course. Then don’t use this method.
If you have to fold your clothes, put the pile of clothes on your dad’s work desk. It’s sure to piss him off. He’ll yell at you, and you’ll either fold it or put it back in your room and not do it.
If you don’t do it tomorrow, place it on your dad’s desk again. The situation does not look good for you. Does it?
The idea behind this method is to create immediate undesirable consequences for not completing your tasks and push you to get them done and avoid those consequences.
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Thanks for reading! I will catch you guys in the next one.
