How to Stop Procrastinating When You Have a Big Assignment
Sara Kim · · 2 min read
Procrastination on a big assignment usually isn't about time. It's about discomfort. Your brain reads write the 3,000-word essay and registers a small spike of dread, then offers a more pleasant alternative: anything else. By the time you sit down, the discomfort has been building for days.
Telling yourself to be more disciplined doesn't change the dread. Shrinking the start does.
Make the start ridiculous
Don't open the assignment with the goal of finishing a section, or even starting one. Pick the smallest action that counts as engaging with the task.
- Open the document.
- Read the prompt once.
- Write the title at the top.
- List the headings you think the essay will have.
Each of these takes less than two minutes. None of them require you to be smart, prepared, or motivated. Each gets the assignment from imaginary thing I'm avoiding into actual thing I'm looking at. That shift is most of the battle.
The first sentence is a lie
You don't need a strong first sentence to start writing. You need any first sentence. Write the worst, most obvious version of the opening paragraph. Don't reread it. Don't edit it. Move to the next paragraph.
A bad draft is a working document. A blank page is a wall. The activation energy to fix a sentence is a fraction of the activation energy to write one, so the trick is to give yourself something to fix.
Lower the stakes on the session, not the work
The assignment matters. The session does not have to. Make a deal with yourself: this session is just to get the first page down, terrible draft included. The session has no quality bar. The next session can edit.
The session-level low bar is what lets you start. The work itself can be as high-quality as you want once you're in it.
Set up tomorrow before you stop today
The single best anti-procrastination move for a multi-day assignment is to leave each session with a specific, small next action written down. Not "keep writing." Something like finish the methods paragraph or outline section 3.
When you sit down tomorrow, the resistance comes from the size of the next step. If the next step is one sentence, the resistance is small. If the next step is do the assignment, the resistance is huge. Define the next step while you're still warm.
When you've already procrastinated for days
Don't try to make up the lost time in one heroic session. That session triggers the same dread that started the problem. Do the ridiculous-start version: open the document, read the prompt, write the title. The first hour after a long stall is the highest-leverage hour of the project. Don't blow it by aiming too high.