Behaviour = Motivation + Ability + Trigger. Missing any of the three can cause [[procrastination]]; a failure to reach a planned behaviour.
Motivation
Motivation must be built.
Motivation is felt[[qualia]] when we feel how an action is meaningful or valuable and we believe we can take it.
Remind yourself of the why. Try to remember in vivid detail why you thought you needed to do it.
Try to link the task to a personal goal that you want to achieve.
"Write a thesis" -> "Write a thesis to deepen your understanding of a subject and get recognized by others in your field."
Ability
When everything seems hard, it’s easy to succumb to procrastination. Email is (boring but) easier than work. But procrastinating won’t make task easier; perhaps it’ll achieve the opposite.
Focus on small steps to manage difficulty. Break it down. How is often not obvious. Identify the distinct parts that form the whole.
"Create a presentation" -> research topic + find images + create slides + rehearse.
Go back day by day, or week by week, and write down what you’d like to have done by then, until you arrive at today.
Put the timeline in full view.
Start working on the first item.
"Deliver a presentation" -> Day 10 rehearse and present; Day 9 list sources and add finishing touches, …, Day 1 make a list of at least 10 articles and resources to use.
Trigger
Sport coaches motivate, cultivate ability, and give triggers. Modern work often doesn’t have built-in [[triggers]].
You need to self-trigger. Often we just leave this to circumstance; the only default circumstance in most projects is the deadline. So the deadline becomes the only trigger we obey.
Add triggers. The key to an effective trigger is a sense of "I’m supposed to be doing this, right now."
Create a cue.
When you sit down to work, give yourself 5-15 minutes to decide which task to start with. If you don’t know which one you should take after the time expires, choose at random. Then start.
At the end of one work day, determine where you want to start the next day and put it in your calendar.
Be creative: leave things on your desk that serve as cues to start work on a project — meaning by default sitting down and deciding which task to start with.
Define a specific task to do, at a specific place, at a specific moment in time — and make sure you can’t miss the cue.
Build up motivation by finding meaning. Break down complex tasks and plan them in a timeline. Define concrete triggers that will help you start working.