Beat procrastination with concrete tricks

You know you should get started, but you tidy your room, you scroll, you do everything but that. Procrastination isn't laziness: it's often a task that feels too big or too vague. The good news is you can work around it.

The two-minute rule

The hardest part is starting. So promise yourself only two minutes of work, just to begin. Once you're going, you almost always continue longer than planned. Movement creates the urge, never the other way round.

Cut the elephant into bites

A huge task paralyses you. Cut it into tiny concrete steps and tackle just the first. "Revise history" makes you flee; "read the first two pages" is doable right now. Each small step makes the next one easier.

Finally, remove the temptations from your path. Phone out of sight, notifications off, a quiet place. You don't have to be stronger than distraction: you just have to put it out of reach.