I was thinking about this in the shower and trying to categorize my approach and the things that I have found work for me with procrastination. At least for me, I feel like it can be broken down into two main parts. The first part is managing resistance, and the second part is managing mood. I'll try to briefly but effectively describe what I mean by those two things here.
I think of procrastination in its most basic manifestation of "I need to be doing [productive task] but I'm doing [distraction] instead." If I make it easier to start doing [productive task], or if I make it harder to start doing [distraction], then I'll procrastinate less. I use the the idea of resistance to describe how easy or how difficult it is to get started at a task. Here are some examples that I use personally:
- Using the program Freedom to block my Internet access for blocks of time makes it harder to fuck off on the Internet instead of working. (increasing resistance to a distraction)
- Having my desktop stripped down to just a few icons and a clock with a combination of Rainmeter and Stardock's Objectdock program makes it easier to get started on what I need while avoiding distractions since the icons for the tools I use are all that are on my desktop. (decreasing resistance to productive tasks)
- Avoiding installing games on my work laptop makes it harder to get distracted in those ways. (increasing resistance to distractions)
- Preparing a to-do list for the next day each evening makes it easier to start into productive tasks the next day. (decreasing resistance to productive tasks)
Regarding mood regulation, at the end of each session, I think for a few moments about how I'm feeling regarding anxiety, depression, sleepiness, etc. This is how I decide what I do during my breaks. I try to pick activities that will counter any negative feelings as an active approach to regulating my mood. This can also come down to a choice of what music I listen to, if any, while doing mundane tasks that just need to get done. Again, here are some examples:
- If I start feeling sleepy, then I usually take a shower. A shower usually wakes me up for a while, and there have been times that I've taken two short showers two hours apart during the day just for this reason. I also avoid eating if I'm feeling this way because it usually just makes it worse. I sometimes go for a walk if I feel sleepy as well depending on the weather.
- If I'm feeling kind of depressed or shitty, then I turn on high-energy music during my break and try to do something that's fun or exciting like blowing the shit out of some people on a video game. Depending on the weather, I might take a walk as well.
- If I'm feeling anxious, then I roll out an old yoga mat and get in the floor and stretch my body and focus on my breathing for a little while. It's worth looking into meditation and/or breathing exercises for this if you have trouble with it. It's the only thing that I have found that helps (granted I'm not going to try medication).
Again, this is just the stuff that works for me and how I organize it in my mind (resistance and mood regulation). If it works for someone else, that's great. I think the mood regulation stuff would need the most tailoring since some people trigger emotional states differently than others.
To the people who PM'd me talking about procrastination, I hope this is helpful.
