Normal people procrastinate far more than they realize, wasting amazing amounts of time that could be spent working towards what they believe is more important. They avoid decisions as much as they can, delay decisions as long as they can, and put off actions as long as they can.
If you want to test how much time you waste, get a stopwatch and compare the time you claim you are working on something to your actual time on task. It can easily be a 10:1 ratio! Imagine how much more you would accomplish if you had ten times as much time. This is exactly what you stand to gain if you stop procrastinating.
Why do most people find it so difficult to immediately undertake the tasks that they truly believe are most important? It isn’t as if they are being forced by someone else to do what they are delaying. It is their own choice.
Procrastination is not the problem, but just a symptom of the actual issue. What is the problem? A person who procrastinates prioritizes the emotions of the moment in themselves or others over what they rationally believe is more valuable. A rational person will immediately begin what is most valuable and will diligently continue in the same while it remains the highest priority, even if it doesn’t immediately make them feel better than any option. Your life plan will help you be more rational through helping you determine the value of each task you need to accomplish.
Procrastination can stem from misalignment between action and purpose. Too often, we attempt to remedy procrastination through action, but only end up wasting time because the action we choose has no connection to our purpose. This kind of procrastination can’t be cured through action, but through thinking. If you feel like you do not want to do the task you know you need to, ask yourself why you need to do it. Your life plan provides an explicit connection between the tasks you execute, the goals they support, and the purpose they feed.
Efficient people aren’t motivated by what they have to do, but seek what they get to do. They actively look for beneficial changes they can make and immediately jump into what they need to do to make them. They seek to maximize the value of the time they spend, because they understand that will maximize how they feel long-term, and they are willing to sacrifice how they feel in the moment to that end.
At any time, you should be able to provide an exact answer to why you are doing what you are doing, and a defense for why what you’re doing is the best way to do it. Any time you are dragging in your task at hand, ask yourself why you are doing it, and remind yourself of the purpose.
Visualize micro-goals for each task you undertake, explicitly partitioning off the task and the reward mentally before beginning it. Think in terms of the expected reward, not the action.
Asking why has important effects even outside the context of a life plan. Consistent, intentional, sensible actions will yield surprisingly positive results, both in terms of what you accomplish and in terms of how you do it.