One thing we all have in common is that when we manage to start something we’re more inclined to finish it. Once we begin a job or a task, only in rare circumstances do we abandon it. Most of us do agree with this but many readers may think otherwise. It is because sometimes we don't quite start to begin with. It happens to the best of us. You’ve got a huge project and a looming deadline staring you in the face, and you have no idea how to even take the first step. And here is where procrastination bites worst, with a large task in front and we try to avoid starting.
Here I would like to share the “Zeigarnik effect.” All procrastinators lend me your ears please.
A young Russian in 1920s having tea at a café observed a phenomenon which she professed could be used to beat procrastination. The waiters at the café would remember very distinctly table wise orders and servings done by them. The uniquely different observation was if the same waiters were asked to recall the orders after they have settled the bill with the customer, they could not recollect the order/ serving. It seemed that the act of payment of the bill brought a closure to a job in their mind and hence they could not recall correctly.
To validate this curious phenomenon, Zeigarnik went to her lab. She assigned simple tasks to a group of people (stacking toys in a box in some sequence) and some of them she abruptly stopped midway while others were allowed to complete. At the end of experiment participants were asked to recall the actions / tasks. All those who were stopped midway could clearly recall as against those who had completed it.
Professor Richard Wiseman extends this research finding as a technique to beat procrastination. Procrastinators tend to put off certain things because they are overwhelmed by the size or nature of job ahead of them. If somehow procrastinators can be persuaded or persuade themselves to work on an activity for few minutes, they are more likely to overcome the procrastination and complete the job.
Keen to validate this research, I went ahead with a plan to beat my own procrastination. I wanted to write blogs & articles on my learnings in various forums and on my own blog, regularly. However I was finding it very challenging to get down to writing. Even when I did write, I would stop after a month of writing 2-3 blogs. I therefore used a technique to persuade myself. This helped me to be regular and giving me that push to write every week. So here is what I did !
Reflecting at end of each day, thinking about topics to write on, I would write these on a small piece of paper and next morning put it in the front pocket of my shirt and stuck one on my workstation. I would go on with my day of discussions & coaching sessions. This kept my mind anxious as whenever I would, at least 2-3 times in a day, put my hand in my pocket, I would be reminded of an unfinished task. So experiencing these intrusive thoughts about incomplete tasks bring us back to complete them.
I started writing “ sticky notes” on my desktop and every time I would see it , which was virtually , every 2-3 hours, It felt like an unfinished job , even though I did not even begin it. I started allocating time. Rather it was a matter of squeezing in time to write the subject or opening of the article. That’s when magic started happening. Rarely would my article or blog writing and completion go beyond a day.
Sometimes all we need is to get started, because humans have this instinctive drive to finish a task once they have begun it. It’s precisely what happens when we become engaged in a story in a compelling book, movie or a TV show - “we want to see how it ends.” It may sound like a cliché, but the first step really is the hardest. As writer Ernest Hemingway said about writing a novel, “it is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.”
Try this out, it worked for me. It can for you too. Your way of developing steps to be in it “a few minutes” would be unique to you.
