As a writer, I am intimately acquainted with the pain of procrastination.
Every day, I battle two things: my natural resistance to work that requires intense concentration, and the more subtle yet equally paralyzing fear that I’m not good enough to produce anything worth reading.
Procrastination is pitched mental warfare between a voice urging us to choose pleasure over pain, and another voice, which chastises us for our laziness and inability to follow through on important goals.
The key to beating it over the long term is knowing how to kindly and gently manipulate your unique mind into doing something it knows is hard and instinctively wants to resist.
Here are 3 tricks I use in my ongoing quest to stop dithering and making excuses, and actually get things done…
1. Productive procrastination. One of the most painful parts of delaying important things is the mental torture of hearing our minds tell us how irresponsible we are. I counteract this by accepting that I will always spend some time procrastinating before starting work, and making that time worthwhile: I set a timer for 5-10 minutes and either do something easy but useful (like loading the dishwasher, or deleting emails from my Inbox) or purely fun, like an online game of mahjong or the mini crossword. When the timer goes off, my brain feels satisfied, and it’s easier to begin that first task. Lindsey Stanberry also practices a version of this, starting her mornings with two cookies and a TV favorite show in bed! It’s a twist on the well-known Pomodoro technique, which consists of short bursts of work followed by breaks.
2. Prime your time. Studies have shown that doing hard things is easiest when you work with your natural inclinations, not against them. For example, I am naturally most alert in the morning, so whenever I can, I arrange my schedule to do tasks that require intense focus then. In the afternoon, I switch to things that require less cognitive load, like meetings, exercise, and running errands. This shift has been game-changing: when I followed standard advice and exercised in the morning, then attempted to force myself to do hard-thinking tasks later in the day, my mind would rebel, resulting in hours of wasted time. For others, it’s the exact opposite.
3. Leave breadcrumbs. To write a book, authors are often advised to end each day’s writing with a plan for the next day’s work by noting 3-4 bullet points or a few sentences about where the scene/action goes next. This strategy can be applied to any multi-step task and alleviates the initial, brain-draining work of figuring out, “Where was I?” It’s a practical application of what psychologists term “implementation intentions” and serves as a powerful tool for bridging the gap between intention and action.
📺WATCH. Margo’s Got Money Troubles, the TV series based on the bestselling book, is out today! I loved this quirky, heartbreaking, and heartwarming novel and have high hopes for the star-studded series, starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Nick Offerman. More to watch: the fifth and final season of Hacks, about the relationship between a boomer standup diva and a millennial joke writer; Rooster, Steve Carell’s “coming-of-middle-age” comedy set on a college campus; Imperfect Women, a soapy melodrama/thriller starring Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara; Scarpetta, a TV series starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis based on the bestselling Patricia Cornwell books; and season 2 of Your Friends and Neighbors, with Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, and James Marsden.
📚READ. I devoured Yesteryear, a satirical thriller about “tradwife” culture, within 24 hours. The story follows a Harvard dropout-turned influencer and is clearly inspired by the Instagram sensation Ballerina Farm. Not far into the book, our heroine, who proves to be a tricky, unreliable narrator, finds herself mysteriously living in the 1800s, and I was desperate to know why! This novel is great book club fodder: there’s much to discuss, including women’s life choices, influencer and tradwife culture, the perils of social media, and more. I’m now toggling between The Ending Writes Itself, a Clue-style mystery, and Go Gentle, Maria Semple’s latest novel, about a middle-aged divorcee finding love.
1.🤣Tennis season will soon be upon us!
2. I had given up on ever finding flattering, comfortable white pants when I stumbled upon these from Madewell. The fabric is soft with the right amount of stretch, is not see-through, and I love the low-to-mid-rise cut (not tight on my belly!). I wore them nonstop on a trip to visit my daughter last weekend (see first image), and can’t recommend them enough! I’m seriously considering getting another pair in navy.
3. An eye-opening interview with two experts on Parkinson’s disease, the environmental factors that contribute to it, and what we can do to prevent it. I had no idea that living within 1-3 miles of a golf course increases your risk, which scientists suspect is caused by pesticide use.
4. Daily “horizontal lay time” is an essential element of every vacation.🤣
5. Speaking of vacation, who wants to go on a reading retreat? I love this very low-key idea for a trip with friends. It would work with relatively new acquaintances, too!
6. I have a thing for tiny apartments, and this one in Paris is truly dreamy!
7. This super-easy Quinoa Tabbouleh complements the lovely, warm spring weather we’re having around here. For crunch, I added a handful of pistachios on top.
1. 23 Inspiring Newsletters for the Well-Read Woman
2. How To Stop Doomscrolling: A Trick That Really Works!
3. 51 and Flourishing: 13 Habits That Make Midlife Better!
4. How to Make New Friends in Adulthood
I was thrilled to notice an influx of lovely new subscribers over the past week, which I tracked down to a link to last week’s issue in Caroline Chambers’ newsletter, What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking. Welcome, everyone, and thank you, Caroline!
Have a wonderful week and weekend. Coming up, genius micro-habits, a trick to ease hosting anxiety, and a bumper issue on hobbies!
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