Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Get started
This is a design fix rather than a failure of discipline. Dull work asks your brain to stay somewhere that offers it no reason to stay. Pair it with a voice, music, company or a cafe and the whole thing rises to a level you can hold. Choose the pairing with a bit of care, since anything with words to read will take the attention rather than share it.
Seek help with steadfastness and prayer, though this is hard indeed for anyone but the humble (Quran 2:45). Help is expected to be sought, and the difficulty is admitted in the same line.
البقرة
وَٱسۡتَعِينُواْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلۡخَٰشِعِينَ
Seek help with steadfastness and prayer- though this is hard indeed for anyone but the humble
Qur’an 2:45read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review of gamified cognitive tasks asked whether making repetitive effortful work more engaging actually helps, which is this question in a different setting. The results there are mixed and the tasks were computer based, so treat pairing as a sensible experiment on yourself rather than a proven method.
Lumsden J, Edwards EA, Lawrence NS, Coyle D, Munafò MR. (2016). Gamification of Cognitive Assessment and Cognitive Training: A Systematic Review of Applications and Efficacy.. JMIR serious games doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Pairing something dull with something lively keeps you present without asking you to grind.
Instead of imagining consequences in general, remember one actual night you left it too late, and one actual time you started early. Your own memory carries a weight that a general warning never will.
There is a sort of avoidance that looks like getting things done. Sorting the drawer, clearing the inbox, any mildly useful job that is not the one you are dreading.
Not all delaying is the same thing. Some of it is wanting it perfect, some of it is expecting to fail the way you did last time, and some of it is being genuinely busy with everything except the one job.