I trick my well-developed procrastination skills
I'm a master procrastinator. Mostly because I have so many things I could do that I have this background feeling that I'm neglecting everything else if I focus on one thing. And I get distracted easily and I hate trying to come back in the middle of something.<p>However, for some things, I have systems to cope.<p>I make -very- simple unbreakable rules.<p>I got fat, decided I needed to fix it, so now I set an alarm at 6am every second day and go to the gym.<p>No excuses, no fighting, the only thing I -have- to do is run for 10 minutes and then I can go home, if I do that, then I'm fine. I allocated an hour for training. What I find is that after I've started, I can continue without a problem. It's just the getting started.<p>I have other rules, if there's 4 forks in the sink, I stop everything and wash the dishes. No postponement.<p>If the milk is 1 day to expire, I stop everything and go shopping, I take the trash with me. (part of the rule)<p>If there are six or more t-shirts in the laundry I will remove my bed-sheets do a laundry load.<p>If the day is Sunday and I am about to eat I water my plants.<p>When I want to go to bed, I have to write down the first thing I will do the next day.<p>Incredibly simple rules that stop me in my tracks is the only way I can kick my own arse into doing something, otherwise I'll just let things go.<p>The simple rules thing only works because I convince myself that I cannot break the chain that I have set in motion. "all those other times I did it, I can't break it now, how pathetic is that". (alternatively when I start one: "I only lasted a week, wow, that's terrible, I have to be better than that")<p>--<p>caveat emptor: this does not work for my day job, because my job involves focus, and you might notice that most of my rules are about doing something mundane.