I’m still only somewhat recently down this particular path, but it’s proven to be one of the more profound realizations I can remember:
You can’t guilt yourself into doing things you want to accomplish. You’ll always resist and make excuses. The only way is to enjoy the act of doing them.
Fighting procrastination, whether by guilt or rewards, is a losing game. Instead, cultivate an appreciation of the task you’re resisting, however complex or banal it may be. Learn to enjoy the micro-accomplishments of each moment. Instead of the dopamine hit of procrastination, train yourself on the dopamine trickle of sustained action.
It’s not an all-at-once change, but for me, at least, it’s had a very concrete effect so far.
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a really good book to that effect. And has some practical tips on how to learn to enjoy doing things you might not otherwise.
You can’t guilt yourself into doing things you want to accomplish. You’ll always resist and make excuses. The only way is to enjoy the act of doing them.
Fighting procrastination, whether by guilt or rewards, is a losing game. Instead, cultivate an appreciation of the task you’re resisting, however complex or banal it may be. Learn to enjoy the micro-accomplishments of each moment. Instead of the dopamine hit of procrastination, train yourself on the dopamine trickle of sustained action.
It’s not an all-at-once change, but for me, at least, it’s had a very concrete effect so far.