#81 Getting Started vs. Getting Finished

A Good Idea on How to Deal with Procrastination

If you’re feeling a little less than motivated and tempted to procrastinate on stuff, you might find this distinction helpful.

There’s a big difference between getting yourself started and feeling like you need to get it finished.

Tal Ben-Shahar is a teacher and, essentially, a professional writer. Yet, many days when he sits down to write he doesn’t feel like writing.

On those less-than-inspired mornings, he doesn’t say to himself, “Oh, well. I’ll just hop online and find something more interesting to do.” (As tempting as that is.)

Nope.

He goes for something he calls his “5-minute ramp-up.”

He basically tells himself to just get started. For five minutes. That’s it.

And guess what?

With that simple, non-intimidating, doable micro action we create momentum. And, as we’ve learned from Sir Isaac Newton, an object in motion tends to stay in motion and those 5 minutes often turn into 50 minutes of some of your best work—all on a day when, if allowed to, that whiney voice that didn’t “feel like it” could have derailed the whole show.

That’s today’s +1.

Anything you need to get started on?!

Let’s get started!!

(Again and again and again!)

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