1 tip to beat procrastination (don’t read this later!)

Let’s be honest: procrastination is an important life skill, one that most of us become highly accomplished at over time, but it’s not always the most productive use of our energy (and make no mistake, it takes a LOT of energy to procrastinate). I finally began exercising in earnest when I realized one night that I’d been arguing with myself and feeling guilty for three hours about going for a run that would have taken a half-hour at most. What a bloody waste of time and energy!

The highly useful Positivity Blog has a simple tip that offers payback far beyond what it demands of you, and that is how we like our tips ’round these parts.

What is this golden rule, this magic meme?

Do the worst first.

That’s really it.

If you aren’t thrilled to the core of your being to write your weekly report, deal with the dentist, or do the laundry, get it out of the way first and go ahead and feel smug the rest of the day; you’ve earned it. This builds a simple feedback loop, conditioning your brain to associate “Eating the Frog” with good feelings and a state of accomplishment, and killing that horrible “but I should/but I don’t wanna” background loop in our brains that saps so much of the energy we could use for saving the world, or at least separating the recycling.

Yes, it has that air of “oh just think happy thoughts!” advice to depressives, but setting the goal of accomplishing this one thing on this one day is within your grasp, no matter where you are in your life. Think of it this way: doing the worst first isn’t a gateway. It’s not going to suddenly obligate you to get every single other thing accomplished. Just get this one thing done and then see how it changes your daily experience. My bet is that you’ll be surprised how much clearer-headed, masterful, and present you feel in your own life.

via Lifehacker

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