And the award for the most inane utterance heard this week goes to the psychologist on NBC's Today Show yesterday morning for her advice on curbing procrastination. Her biggest tip? "Set priorities."
How stupid is that? Doesn't the term “procrastinate” pretty much imply that the items not being done are important? I mean, when was the last time you heard a guy apologize for not getting all of his TV watching done?
The Blank Page Syndrome
My personal procrastination demons are usually of the fuzzy-goal species. It's hard for me to get things done when I'm not even sure what "done" looks like. Whenever I realize that that is what's happening, I use a trick that they teach to budding novelists. “Write the ending first,” the professionals say. "Then, go back to the beginning and write to that end, changing it, if necessary, when you get there."
This trick works for all kinds of tasks. For example, in software maintenance I usually have to document the changes I make, explaining to the end-user what each bug fix or enhancement means to them and how to take advantage of it. I find that when I start with writing that documentation, pretending that I've already implemented the change, it really helps to clarify in my mind the specifics of the end result that I'm trying to achieve. Then, as I do the work for real, it gives me an acid test to know if I'm on the right track. In other words, does the software now work as advertised? A side benefit of this end-first exercise is that it often reveals latent issues and questions for which I have no answers. It also helps me to enumerate any assumptions that I've been making, which perhaps ought to be validated.
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