Do you have work that you’ve been putting off and putting off? Do the tasks feel more daunting every single day? Often, the hardest part is getting started. The fear can become so intense and so ingrained (often, so disproportionate) that the work doesn’t seem possible anymore.
There is a system that can help. It asks you to start your hardest and most-feared tasks first thing in the morning, and it asks that you make it routine. You don’t think; you just go. You find something that you’ve been putting off or that you’re afraid to begin, and you start that task immediately, quickly, so that you don’t have time to think about it, or why you don’t want to do it, or why it isn’t possible anyway. You just have to wake up and work. You don’t even have to work on it for a long time. The best part of this method is that you don’t need to finish the task for it to work. Once you’ve generated some momentum, you’ll have the will to go back to the tasks. Once they’re started, your mind and body will take over, the fear will abate, and even your most loathed tasks will get done, eventually.
Here’s how to use the system:
The hardest part of any new task is to start, and university is full of new tasks. Try to make this method routine, so you’re used to just getting started, and you never leave yourself any time to get overwhelmed.
There is a system that can help. It asks you to start your hardest and most-feared tasks first thing in the morning, and it asks that you make it routine. You don’t think; you just go. You find something that you’ve been putting off or that you’re afraid to begin, and you start that task immediately, quickly, so that you don’t have time to think about it, or why you don’t want to do it, or why it isn’t possible anyway. You just have to wake up and work. You don’t even have to work on it for a long time. The best part of this method is that you don’t need to finish the task for it to work. Once you’ve generated some momentum, you’ll have the will to go back to the tasks. Once they’re started, your mind and body will take over, the fear will abate, and even your most loathed tasks will get done, eventually.
Here’s how to use the system:
- When you wake up, set a timer for fifteen minutes. Do it immediately. Before you brush your teeth or check your email, get up, find your timer, and sit at your desk. Don’t think. Just press your timer button.
- Choose one task you’ve been putting off (or that you’re preparing to put off), and work on that task. Put a pen to pencil, or start typing on that keyboard. It doesn’t matter whether your work is good or bad. It doesn’t matter whether you’ll be able to crack the problem, finish the reading, rewrite those notes. It’s perfectly fine if you end up ditching this first attempt entirely and starting from scratch later on. What matters is that you start. It’s not a task that you’re putting off anymore; it’s now firmly work in progress.
- At the end of the 15 minutes, you can either keep going, or not. Some people will stop as soon as they can. Some will finish the task in one sitting, just to get it done. But as long as it’s started, it will feel do-able, and it won’t produce the same fear.
The hardest part of any new task is to start, and university is full of new tasks. Try to make this method routine, so you’re used to just getting started, and you never leave yourself any time to get overwhelmed.
