ABCs of getting things done
C: The characteristics related to the task
Do you feel that the task with which you procrastinate is vague, difficult, vast, messy, abstract, or unclear? If so, no wonder that you feel you need to procrastinate with it and want to postpone getting started with it. The characteristics related to the task itself influence greatly how we get it done. It is easy to get started with a task that is small, limited, clear and concrete. With the following exercise, try to examine the tasks with which you procrastinate and try if you could get a better understanding of the task. Submit your exercises below in the folder below if you want feedback.
A: Writing down the relevant points
1) Write down on a piece of paper a task or the thing you procrastinate with
2) Describe this task. Is it unclear/ clear, difficult / easy, vast / narrow,
messy / straightforward, abstract/ concrete, limited / open?
3) Imagine for a moment that you are being interviewed by a journalist from the
local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Through writing, try to crystallize the task
you are trying to do for the journalist. Describe what it is about and what are
the most central or relevant aspects of the task.
4) Define one concrete thing, which you could do immediately concerning this task. It can be something very small and simple.
5) Do this one
thing now!
6) Return to 1.
B: Reading and writing techniques that increase your understanding and help you get things done
With larger study units, exams or theses, procrastination may be caused by the difficulty to understand what the most essential and important for learning is for the task. That is when this reading / writing technique can help with getting things done and may help you forward.
1) Find out first what exactly you should be studying. For example, can you get the course learning objectives, table of contents from the lecture slides, or the objectives for the thesis?
2) Write down the course contents into a form of questions. For instance, if the course is about a fish called pike, the questions could be: How are pike different from other fish? What is the living environment like for pike? What kind of food do pike eat? Where and how do pike breed? Why are pike fish?
3) Answer your questions with your own words at a calm pace. Do not consult a textbook but rather try to reflect and ponder this yourself.
4) Create questions for yourself: What do you know, what do you know about the subject matter? What is easy / clear for you and what is difficult / unclear? What should you focus on next and focus your energy on? à Decide on a short study task based on these answers. For instance, read more about the breeding environment of fish because it was not clear for you.
5) Complete
this task you set for yourself!
6) Return to 1.
C: Telling others about your own task
Asking for help. Messy things are often messy for oneself but can become a lot clearer if you discuss them with someone else. Who could you tell about this and explain what is difficult about it? Could it be a classmate, teacher, girl/boyfriend, study psychologist? Many things can seem very different if you can discuss them with another person.