Turn "later" into a set time: a practical way to procrastinate less

"Later" is not on your calendar

"I'll reply later." "I'll call them sometime." When you decide that, you fully mean it. It still does not happen, because "later" is not a time that exists anywhere. Unplanned time fills up with other things, and when the task finally comes back to mind, you are busy again.

One useful thing you can do about procrastination comes before motivation: decide in advance when you will do it.

Deciding when, where and what makes action more likely

The psychologist Peter Gollwitzer called plans of the form "when situation X arises, I will do Y" implementation intentions, as distinct from simply intending to reach a goal. In a 1999 paper in American Psychologist, he drew on a program of research to argue that such plans help people get past common obstacles: failing to get started, getting distracted, or falling back into old habits.

In 2006 Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran published a meta-analysis that pooled research on implementation intentions. Across 94 independent tests, they found that forming implementation intentions had a positive effect of medium-to-large magnitude (d = .65) on goal attainment.

According to this research, deciding in advance "in this situation, I will do this" makes the situation easier to notice when it comes and makes the action easier to start. You no longer have to decide "now or later?" all over again each time.

Write tasks with a time attached

Applied to everyday tasks, an implementation intention looks like this:

• "Call the dentist" becomes "Tomorrow at 12:10, after lunch, at my desk: call the dentist"
• "Reply to the email" becomes "Today at 5:00 PM, before leaving work: reply to the client"
• "Go for a run" becomes "Saturday at 7:00 AM, after getting dressed: run one lap of the park"

Three things matter:

• Include a clock time. Not "this afternoon" but "3:00 PM".
• Include a place or a trigger. Tying the task to something that happens every day, such as "after lunch" or "when I get home and put my bag down", makes it easier to remember.
• Pick a time you can actually use. A time that clashes with a meeting or a commute only leads to another postponement. Check your calendar before you commit.

For how to word the tasks themselves (start with a verb, one task per line), see how to write a To-Do list you will actually keep using.

Make the first step small

Even with a time set, a task that is too big is hard to start when the moment comes. So make the scheduled action just the first step.

• Not "write the proposal" but "open the proposal file and write three headings"
• Not "clean my room" but "gather the papers on my desk into one pile"
• Not "study English" but "open the vocabulary book to one page"

Once you have started, you will often keep going. On the days you do not, you have still taken a step. Deciding to "do just five minutes" works the same way.

Preparing tomorrow's first step the night before also helps. Put the documents you need on your desk, or leave your running clothes by the bed. Small preparations like these cut the effort it takes to begin.

Make sure you notice the time you chose

A time you do not notice does not help. Put the task on your calendar or give the reminder a time, so that something tells you when the moment arrives.

Many notifications, however, sound once and disappear, and on Silent mode or during a Focus they may make no sound or not appear at all. If you tend to miss notifications, use something that keeps ringing until you stop it, like an alarm in the iPhone Clock app, so the time does not slip past unnoticed. How to make an iPhone reminder that rings until you do it walks through the options.

If it does not happen, move it to the next time

Sometimes the time you picked does not work out. If you push the task back to "later", you are where you started. Instead, choose the next time right away: "5:00 PM today did not work, so tomorrow at 9:30 AM." Move from one time to another, never back to "later".

A task you keep moving usually has one of three problems: the time is wrong, the task is too big, or it does not need doing right now. A short weekly look over your list makes these easier to spot; see a 10-minute weekly review.

Summary

• Instead of "later", write down when, where and what
• Choose a time when you are actually free
• At the scheduled time, only the first small step is required
• Set up something that tells you when the time arrives
• If it does not happen, move it to the next specific time

Pick one thing you have been meaning to do "later" and give it a time today or tomorrow.

Sources

• Peter M. Gollwitzer (1999), "Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans", American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503 — doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
• Peter M. Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran (2006), "Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta-analysis of Effects and Processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119 — doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1 (abstract: University of Konstanz repository)