Tricks for Combatting Procrastination | Tim Ferriss | Big Think

Procrastination. Let's talk about it. It's a big topic. And by the way, we all face it. It is an ever-present, evergreen issue for a reason. Even the people you see on magazine covers—most of them, there are a few mutants—but they all have things they put off.

There are a few different tactics and approaches that I found very helpful, which I've borrowed from whether it's guests on the Tim Ferris Show or people I interviewed for Tools of Titans, my newest book. Here we go, so down the list.

One is to break it down into the smallest action conceivable. There are a few different types here. If you have a macro goal, which is to double the number of podcast downloads per episode, all right, I'm just giving that as an example. We need to modify that to make it really actionable.

The first is making it hyper, hyper specific. We need a timeline, at the very least. Let's say within six months—doubling, and this is a real example for me, doubling the number of podcast downloads. Downloads are ongoing, so by what point in time? All right, I want to double the number of podcast downloads per episode by week six after publication, and I want to accomplish that within six months.

Then, we can borrow from David Allen and just ask what are some of the prerequisites, the component pieces of doing that? Let's break it out into, say, content and organic. You could have it as paid acquisition; make a long list of these potential buckets of activities.

From there, you would look at next physical actions. This is directly from getting things done, and you could apply that to any number of these. Let's just say it's ten buckets, but you would ask yourself—this is a question I ask myself very often when I'm procrastinating because there is indecision, and this is a particular breed of procrastination.

In other words, if I have ten things on my to-do list or ten potential products I could pursue, what to do in that situation? What I ask myself is: which one of these, if done, will make the rest relevant or easier? This is a key question I ask all the time. Which one of these will make all the rest easier to do if done first, or all the rest irrelevant? You don't even need to do them.

That is how I will hone in on one piece of the puzzle. This can be applied all over the place. But let's just say it's doubling the podcast; it could be losing weight. You can see that's very, very amorphous. We need timelines. We need an amount to lose, and then you want to make it as small as possible.

So I'll give you a different example. If you want to start flossing your teeth, who likes flossing their teeth? Pretty much nobody. So how do you start flossing your teeth? Well, you want to make it as easy as possible to develop it as part of your routine, to make it as automatic as anything else that you do consistently.

You could borrow from, say, BJ Fogg, who's done a lot of research at Stanford and elsewhere: make it as small as possible, meaning in the beginning do less than you're capable of doing. This is another key when you think something is too big or onerous. It's too intimidating or it's too much of a pain in the ass.

So for flossing, you might say, "I'm only going to floss my front two teeth." That's three gaps. That's all you're going to do. Make it, again, as easy as possible. You might use a WaterPik or you might use those disposable flossing gadgets so you don't have to do tourniquets on your fingers, which is also one of the side effects of flossing that deters people.

Make it as easy as possible. Now, this applies to a lot more than flossing. I've talked to many of the people for, say, Tools of Titans—people who are eight-time New York Times best-selling authors or prolific musicians, prolific music producers like Rick Rubin, who is legendary. It all comes down to tiny homework assignments.

So, Rick, if he has a stuck artist, for instance, will say, "Can you get me one word or one line that you might like for this song that you're working on by tomorrow? Is that possible?" Many…