'Ugh fields', or why you can’t even bear to think about that task
I&#x27;ve adopted the following strategy for Ugh work.  I would love to hear other people&#x27;s suggestions, because while I have found that the below algorithm works, any improvement would be greatly helpful.<p>1 - Is the Ugh work so small, that if I just power through it, it can be done in ~15 minutes?  If so, give yourself an hour break or so, then just slam your head into that wall.  15 minutes is hardly any time at all.<p>Otherwise, follow the general below pattern:<p>2 - Document out the task.  Figure out exactly that needs to be done.  Most procrastination research I&#x27;ve seen, and personal experience validates, that just documenting out the task moves it from the theoretical (and easier to procrastinate) to something more tangible (and therefore less likely to be avoided &#x2F; less scary).<p>3 - Break the task out into small, concrete components.  The smaller the components, the better.  (procrastination research also strongly suggests this, as small concrete tasks are easier to visualize just doing and getting done, and feel less scary than big unknown problems).<p>4 - Out of all of those tasks you just broke out, can we throw any in the trash and ignore them?  Once this became an &quot;ugh&quot; task, we stopped trying to solve this task perfectly.  At this point, we just want completion, because this is holding up something more important (otherwise, why are we doing it at all?).<p>5 - Out of all those tasks you just broke out, are all of them ugh tasks?  Or are some of them neutral &#x2F; easy?  Often, just breaking things out into small tasks gets rid of the ugh factor, because now you can handle it in pieces.  Its the combination of trying to do all the pieces at once that gives it an &quot;ugh&quot; factor (for example, doing all of the chores on a Sunday can be an Ugh.  But having a list of chores I need to do in the next few days, and just do one or two now?  Not bad at all, provided I never have to look at the entire list and get overwhelmed again, and can just pluck one from the top and feel good about my progress).  Either way, do the easy &#x2F; neutral ones left.<p>6 - At this point, hopefully, the Ugh task is now just a fraction of the size it once was.  If we&#x27;re under 15 minutes, just brute force it, and have some ice cream &#x2F; whiskey &#x2F; outdoor time as a reward.<p>7 - If the remaining ugh task still exists, or is atomic, estimate the amount of time it is going to take you.  10X that estimate.  That is now the amount of time you must dedicate to that task, in order to get through it sanely and happily.<p>It was going to take you ~1-2 hours to look up that financial data that you really hate standardizing in excel?  Great, that&#x27;s what YOUR ENTIRE SATURDAY is now dedicated to.  Take breaks, play video games, do other things.  Because in reality, you&#x27;re going to work for 15 minutes, then take a break for an hour, then work for 30 minutes, then go to the store for 2 hours, then work for 20 minutes, then cook dinner, etc, etc, etc.<p>An Ugh task with an estimate of 1 hour is usually an annoying task with an estimate of 10 hours (9 of which are positive, happy activities).