How to Stop Procrastinating in 15 Minutes
By: Moreno Zugaro
Tags: Work, Procrastination, Advice, Productivity, Self Improvement

The Everlasting Battle of Motivation vs. Resistance

Whenever you decide if you’re going to do something or not, there’s a tug-o-war inside your brain between two opposing forces — motivation and resistance.

Motivation is everything that pushes you towards action. Your bad conscience, the good feeling afterward, and the promise you’ve given your accountability partner.

Resistance is everything that holds you back. Your warm bed, your desire to relax, all the other fun things you could do, and the horror you experience when you think about the huge mountain of work that seems impossible to dig through.

If motivation is greater than resistance, you act. If resistance is greater than motivation, you don’t.

In my roommate’s case, his resistance was bigger than his motivation. He knew he needed to get things done, but the thought of spending the next four hours glued to a laptop screen instead of enjoying his weekend made him resign. You can’t blame him.

Motivation is a finite resource. You can boost it by watching an inspirational video on YouTube, but on some days even the “Motivational Speech Megamix Vol. 15” won’t do the trick. Plus, you’re stuck on YouTube again, a prime source of distraction. Instead, you have to lower the resistance.

When you’re stuck with a task you dislike or dread, even the tiniest bit of resistance can make the difference between action and avoidance.

How can you lower the resistance? By drastically reducing the amount of work you set out to do.

Commit to only 15 minutes.

You greatly reduce the resistance and turn the towering mountain of work into a molehill you can easily take care of. Even the most dreadful task will seem doable when you know it’s only for 15 minutes. I could even talk to my future mother-in-law for that time.

Now you’re of course wondering how you’ll get all of your work done since your two-hour tasks can’t just be cut down to 15 minutes. This is where the power of default options comes into play.

What physics has to say about procrastination

In physics, the resistance you have to overcome to drag an object over a surface is calculated using friction coefficients. The coefficient of static friction is always bigger than the sliding one, which means that giving an object the initial push is much harder than keeping it moving. If you ever pushed a dead car down the road you know what I mean.

Procrastination is much like physics — getting started is the hard part, staying in motion not so much.

Once you’re immersed in an activity, your default option is to keep going. When you watch YouTube or Netflix and have autoplay enabled, you’re much more likely to stay for “just one more video.” When you’re already in your PJs, you’ll go to bed instead of hitting the bars. And when you’re already working, you’re much more likely to go on even after the 15 minutes have passed.

My roommate took this to the extreme. He committed to doing just two minutes every evening — almost zero resistance. But on average, he ends up working for about 45 minutes and accumulates three solid hours of work on his thesis before the weekend even comes around. Good for him, bad for me — kicking his ass was fun.

Commit to small efforts and then keep going. It’s much easier than facing everything at once.