You will unstick three delayed tasks with a first step and a written plan for when to do it.
Every task system has a few items that never move. You have probably noticed yours while working through module 2: the ones that get carried from week to week, the ones you skip past when you read the list. This exercise uses everything from module 6 on three of them at once. It takes about 20 minutes now and a five-minute check three days later.
You need your task system, a sheet of paper or a note, and your calendar for the next three days.
Write down three tasks you have been avoiding for more than a week. Look in your next actions list for items that have been there the longest, in your projects list for anything with no progress, and in your head for the things you feel a small drop in mood thinking about.
Choose a mix if you can: a work task, a personal admin task, and something tied to a goal that matters to you. Make them real. "Exercise more" is too broad. "Book a health screening" or "reply to the landlord about the lease renewal" will do.
Set up your sheet with five columns: the task, the feeling behind the delay, the smallest first step, the if-then plan, and progress after three days.
For each task, fill in the feeling column first. Use the list from lesson 6.1, Procrastination is about feelings, not laziness: is the task boring, unclear, difficult, or tied to fear of being judged? Then write the actual feeling in your own words. "Anxious that my manager will think my achievements are weak" is more useful than "fear".
Then fill in the first step. Apply lesson 6.2: shrink it until it seems almost too easy, and if the task is unclear, make the first step the question that would clear it up. The first step should take under ten minutes.
For each first step, write an implementation intention, as in lesson 6.3: if a specific situation happens, then I will take this step. Make the situation a real moment in the next three days, with a time and place if you can, because a plan for "sometime this week" gives you no moment to act on. "If it is 1.30pm on Tuesday and I'm back at my desk from lunch, then I will open the lease and write down the renewal date and rent."
Check your calendar to make sure the moment exists. If Tuesday afternoon is full of meetings, pick another slot. Then add the first steps to your calendar or your next actions list, so the plan sits inside your system and not only on this sheet.
Here is Priya's sheet. She had already finished the appraisal form in lesson 6.2, so she picked three new tasks.
Her first task was updating her portfolio of past campaigns, delayed for five weeks. The feeling: fear of judgement, a worry that her work looks ordinary next to colleagues'. First step: create a folder and copy in the files for three campaigns, without editing anything. If-then plan: "If it's Monday at 8pm and I've finished dinner, then I'll make the folder and copy the three campaigns into it."
Second came booking a dental appointment, delayed for two months. The feeling: boring and slightly unpleasant. First step: open the clinic's booking page and pick the first Saturday slot. If-then plan: "If I'm on the MRT home on Tuesday, then I'll book it on my phone before my stop."
Third was a hard email to the agency about a missed deadline, delayed for nine days. The feeling: unclear and awkward, since she didn't know whether to raise the cost of the delay. First step: ask her manager one question about what she can say. If-then plan: "If I see my manager at Wednesday's team meeting, then I'll ask him afterwards whether to mention the cost."
Three days later, her progress column read: folder made and two campaigns written up, kept going for 40 minutes; dentist booked for the 22nd; manager said to mention the cost, email drafted but not sent.
Two out of three fully moved, and the third was further along than it had been in nine days. You are looking for movement on each task, and a sheet with every box ticked is a bonus.
Set a reminder for three days from now. When it goes off, fill in the progress column for each task. Note what happened: done, started, or not started. For anything that did not move, look at why. Was the first step still too big? Did the if-then moment not happen? Was the feeling stronger than you expected? Adjust the plan and set a new moment.
A finished sheet has three delayed tasks, each with the feeling behind it, a first step under ten minutes, a specific if-then plan, and a note on progress after three days. Hold on to the sheet, since the same five columns will work on the next stuck task too.
Start by writing down the three tasks you would least like to put on the list.
Complete the stuck-task sheet for three tasks with a feeling, a first step and an if-then plan, then record progress after three days.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).