What To Do When You Don’t Feel Like Working

There are days when your resistance to work is going to be stronger than other days. Sometimes procrastination is easy, especially when the work has no pressing deadline. Even though you don’t feel like working, you have work you need to do. Here is what to do when you don’t feel like working.

Don’t Do This

Don’t clean your desk. Even though it can feel like you have accomplished something, unless you get paid for cleaning desks, this isn’t the right place for you to put your time and attention.

Don’t open your browser. Whatever you do, don’t dive into the rabbit hole that is the Internet and social channels. There is nothing there that is going to move you any closer to your goals, and it is too easy to lose yourself in cyberspace.

Don’t pick up your smart phone. The tiny device of infinite distractions is more powerful than most people’s will. If the statistics are correct, the average person picks up their smart phone 110 times a day (if you sleep for 8 hours, that means you are picking up your phone every ten minutes, making this an addiction to give smoking a run for its money).

Do This

Choose the most important outcome you need to achieve, the one that is going to move the needle on your goals, your mission, your purpose, or the role in which you find yourself. Ignore the tasks that seem more interesting, more pleasant, or easier. Don’t allow yourself to drift away from what is most important to something that isn’t going to matter nearly as much in the long run.

Start working on what is most important. Just begin whatever task it is that needs to be done, without hesitation, and without the negative self-talk and internal complaining. Notice how the resistance to the work is diminished in the very moment you begin to take action. If what is most important can be done in 90 minutes, work until you finish the task or produce the necessary outcome. The second task is easier now after you moved through the resistance.

Resistance to work fades the minute you start doing the work. Taking action is the only way to beat procrastination.