Perhaps a bad habit? Relationship between lists and self

[wishgtd]

A couple of things I read about procrastination, which is all about resistance:

Firstly, switch your focus from completing the task, to starting the task. See how many times you can start in a day, and don't worry about completing, which can feel daunting. Decide what defines starting in this context. Maybe it's five minutes sitting at the desk, not thinking about anything else. You can do that then go do something you like.

Fascinating pxt I did that yesterday for some tasks but I never phrased it as such. I think I am going to do just what you mentioned and start viewing it from that perspective to make it easier on myself.

Secondly, you mention the feeling of 'have to'. Instead of trying to schedule in time to work on your have-tos, with the reward of doing what you feel like; schedule in the things that you feel like, so they become your have-tos, then your mind may flip to wanting to get something done in the gaps in-between.

This is where my biggest issue is: I am not sure what to consider an appropriate reward for that period of time. I suppose it is a manner of experimentation.
Any suggestions as to what you or anyone else uses are appreciated.

Schedule in 10 minutes for reading fun related stuff perhaps? I think I will go with that.

With regards to the GTD workflow, I find that high quality processing makes everything else work better. So as you go through your collector, slow down and really put in the time to specify an atomic next action, with say a ten minute duration to guaranteed success. I enjoy picking these off and it makes me want to press on with the next steps. Looking at an action list full of items you are not sure of is very off-putting.

These help me and I read about them in a book recommended by people on this forum. It is Neil Fiore's 'The Now Habit'.

High quality processing is definitely something that has been missing in my repertoire for a while now.
I will start putting in times to encourage myself.
I did read that book a while ago, implemented for a week, felt great, figured I could continue without it and never went back to using that tool.