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Key points
- Simply starting a project can make you more likely to complete it, even if you walk away before it’s finished.
- When it comes to skill-building, single out specific elements you’re having trouble with for improvement.
- Hold yourself accountable by taking note of what you’ve accomplished within a certain time frame.
Are you determined to quit procrastinating and be more productive? Even when you’re motivated, it can be tricky to stick with it—especially once your calendar fills up with deadlines.
“Procrastination is a very complicated psychological process, sometimes used as self-preservation because it can lead to a potential failure (e.g., a low grade). You can accept [the failure] because you finished it all in one night and didn’t give your 100 percent effort,” says Puneet S., a third-year undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, Canada. “However, this can be an exhausting cycle that’s best broken as soon as you recognize you’re doing it.”
Here are three evidence-based ways to beat procrastination and increase productivity. These techniques will have you getting things done more efficiently with fewer anxiety-ridden, late-night study sessions. Harness their power and set yourself up for a productive year from start to finish.
In the 1920s, psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that it’s human nature to strive to complete a task we’ve already started. That’s why cliffhangers in TV shows work so well: We come back because we want to know the conclusion.
Zeigarnik developed her theory based on her professor’s observation that servers at a busy restaurant were better at remembering a table’s order before their meal was complete, but that once the check had been paid, the server no longer remembered the details of the order. Zeigarnik tested her theory in the lab and found that the same was true in other contexts. She assigned random tasks to study participants and learned that when a person was interrupted from their task, they actually became more eager and more likely to complete it.
In other words, you might have an easier time getting that assignment done if you can convince yourself to just start it, even if you walk away before it’s finished. Students agree: In a CampusWell survey, more than 71 percent of respondents felt that just beginning a project made them more likely to come back and finish it.