procrastination

Don’t Decide Anything Until You Do This

/ Stuart Danker / 49 Comments

Woman sitting on stairs with hand on her mouth, thinking.

Here’s a rundown of my typical morning: I’d wake up, make myself some coffee, sit on the couch, then just stare off into space while I finish the coffee. Once I’m done with that, I start exercising.

What usually happens during coffee time is me pondering the day ahead, thinking about what I’d like to achieve. But somewhere in the back of my mind—like Instagram running in the background on your phone—is me convincing myself that I deserve a break from working out.

I used to listen to that voice. A lot. Thankfully, through lots of trial and error, I’ve discovered a better alternative: to delay all my decisions until I’ve started on the activity in question. Hence this topic.

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Don’t Just Procrastinate. Make It Do The Work For You Instead.

/ Stuart Danker / 61 Comments

A hand sticking out from under the sheets, with

I’ve always used procrastination as a power tool. For example, I use it as motivation to clean the house. All I need to do is start writing and the laundry will magically take care of itself.

Which brings us to the topic of productive procrastination (that shall henceforth be known as PP, hee hee). Can we actually leverage our lazy tendencies to get more done? Or is it doing us more harm than good?

Let’s find out.

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This Is How You Fail At Overcoming Procrastination

/ Stuart Danker / 88 Comments

A photo of someone slipping on banana peel with the text overlay saying: The best ways to (badly) overcome procrastination

Procrastination is like a credit card: fun until you get the bill. It’s also the art of keeping up with yesterday.

I wish I could say I came up with those insights. Alas, they’re credited to people much smarter than I am. Who, you ask? I’ll get back to you on that. Tomorrow. Maybe.

Look, I wish I could tell you I have the answer to procrastination, and that there is a surefire way to getting things done, but every time I think I’ve solved the problem, I wake up the next day and have to fight the battle all over again.

But just because I don’t have the answers doesn’t mean I don’t have the answers, am I right? So here are ways to fail at beating procrastination (which I excel at). And if you’re looking at actually being productive, all you’ll need to do is the reverse.

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How I Overcame Procrastination

/ Stuart Danker / 54 Comments
Woman doing sit ups

Photo: Jonathan Borba

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: I stopped procrastinating by turning tasks into habits. 

There, that’s the entire article summed up in one sentence. Now you can close the window if you’re the TLDR type, because you won’t be finding that one magic tip here.

But while I don’t have the magic solution, I think I’ve experimented enough to safely say that we’re all quite capable of rewiring ourselves.

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NON FICTION: You’re Different, It’s Okay

/ Stuart Danker / Leave a comment

Woman playing piano

I tend to watch the days pass without doing anything, out of nothing but the sheer desire to not do anything. Public holidays would come and go, and it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to come out of long weekends achieving fuck all.

Friends have recommended I schedule a mental checkup, but I think I’m more lazy than depressed. After seeing some of the things people go through, I’d say I’m pretty mentally sound, as far as I’m concerned.

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