Summary

The article presents a strategy for overcoming procrastination by combining the approaches of starting the day with the hardest task and breaking it down into a manageable first step.

Abstract

The author of the article discusses the common struggle with procrastination, particularly when starting the first task of the day. Traditional advice suggests either beginning with an easy task to build momentum or tackling the hardest task to get it out of the way. However, the author found these methods ineffective in isolation. The proposed solution is to start with the hardest task of the day by identifying and committing to the smallest doable step within that task. This approach is likened to disguising vegetables in cake, making the unpleasant task more palatable. The article emphasizes the importance of aligning work with personal energy levels and removing barriers to starting tasks. It encourages readers to adapt the strategy to their own routines and personalities, advocating for a flexible and curious mindset in finding what works best for them.

Opinions

The author believes that starting with the easiest task can lead to loss of momentum later in the day.
They also suggest that starting with the hardest task can be intimidating and may lead to avoidance behaviors, such as checking emails to delay the task.
The author's personal experience indicates that combining the two methods—starting with the hardest task but breaking it down into the smallest doable step—is most effective.
The author values working during one's best hours and suggests scheduling the hardest tasks for these times.
They emphasize the importance of making the first action as simple as possible to overcome initial resistance.
The author encourages a trial-and-error approach to productivity, suggesting that learning how to work smart is key to avoiding burnout.
The author shares a personal anecdote about typing the article with a missing keyboard keycap, highlighting the importance of perseverance and adaptability in the face of challenges.

A Realistic Way to Overcome That Procrastination Hump

Cake is involved 🎂

Is starting that first task of the day difficult for you? You’re not alone. Whether it’s the first task in the day, or first task after a break — oh, especially after a fulfilling lunch — my biggest weakness is diving right back in.

If anything, once I get into the groove of something, it happens. The trouble is getting into the groove.

There are two prevailing pieces of advice for this initial motivation hump:

Reduce your resistance to starting that first task by making it a bite-sized task — something easy.
Start your to-do list off with the hardest task of the day, so that as you move forward in the day, it gets easier and easier. This taps into scheduling your toughest tasks at your best, which for me as an early bird, is the morning.

For the longest time, neither piece of advice worked for me. Starting with the easiest task of the day meant that I did start it at the beginning of the day, but I lost steam later in the day.

Starting with the hardest task of the day sometimes worked because I working on the toughest task right away, but it came at the expense that most days I was actually too intimidated by that first task — and I never start. These are the days I spend aimlessly “checking one more email, just in case” to delay the looming task.

Do you know that feeling where you hook one corner of the fitted sheet and think you’re doing great, but then you hook the second corner and the first corner unhooks, in a never-ending unhooking war?

This is what it felt like for me for these two tips. Following one of the hacks frustratingly unhooked all the benefits of the other one.

Try this for the best of both worlds

Like a parent disguising vegetables in a cake, my way out of this was to disguise the hardest task as an easy first step by:

Committing to tackling my hardest project of the day, because that’s the best, most energetic part of my day.
But also starting with the smallest doable step of that project.

For me, writing for my Ph.D. is the hardest task, and if I don’t schedule it as the first task, it’ll never get done. Following this piece of advice, I start with something definitely a doable, sometimes even seemingly silly or trivial.

This could look like perusing the manuscript and quickly fixing typos underlined by that red squiggly — something almost mindless and automatic. This is the cake part, the palatable, simple task.

The hidden vegetable is that in perusing my manuscript, I get all the benefits of having already started. My passion for my project comes back as I read what I’ve written, and my brain is in the mindset of considering all of the pieces of the project.

I now have the motivation because I’ve acted (rather than waiting for motivation before acting). I’ve also made the first action the most simple bite-sized possible. The best of both worlds.

How to make this fit for you

I can see how this piece of advice might need to be adapted based on your own strengths and weaknesses, routine and personality, so the most important questions to reflect on from this productivity hack are:

What are your best working hours? What are the things that are most draining to you? How can you adapt your schedule to fit these hardest things during those timeslots? Try to do your hardest work during your best hours.
When you’re procrastinating on work, what are the biggest barriers? What is your biggest worry when it comes to starting (i.e., mine was that “it’s not enough time to do this big task” or “this is too much”, which is why I focussed on making the first step as do-able as possible)? Remove potential barriers to that initial step, so that you make it so easy to ease into that task.

Like Ms. Frizzle says:

Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!

Be curious about what works and what doesn’t. Learning about how to work smart and fit things into your personality and style has been the best way to avoid burnout for me.

Lucy (The Egg Girl) wishes you the best of luck on using this hack! She’d be excited to hear how you’ve adapted this to work for yourself, so please feel free to tweet her. She also wants to share that she typed this entire article with a missing n keyboard keycap, so yes, every word you see containing this letter has either involved her a) pasting the letter n, or b) her touching the naked silicone bit cautiously because it’s 35C out and her computer is quite fiery hot.

Which rabbit hole will you jump down next? 🐇

🔁 A random article: The Price We Pay for Being Here (a poem inspired by Hasan Minhaj)
💖 An article that deserves more love: This framework changed my perception on conflicts with my partner
🔊 A voice I want to amplify: Why I’m No Longer Talking To Muslim Men About Equality by Wardah Abbas