Just do it... for five minutes.

Once the time is up, you either would give up or continue your task to completion. Either way, you had progress.

One thing that works is finding ways to make achieving small tasks part of your routine. I have a to-do list and in my lunch break at work I often pick off one or two things and decide okay, that's what I'll do when I get home. And so that way the selecting of the tasks and the doing of the tasks are things that have their own specific times and the decision is already made.

What also works is to create some external motivation.

I might not feel like cleaning the house, for example, but if I have friends coming over then I'll enthusiastically clean everything because I want it to be nice for them.

And so sometimes I intentionally weaponise that by inviting a friend over just to give myself that extrinsic motivation.

• Pomodoro timers (hit a keybinding, a 25min timer will start. Within that time, do something productive. After that time, you can do a 5min "break". Then probably start the next timer. You can also adjust the timings of course)
• Treat the thing you want to do instead of your task as the thing you can do as the reward after having done the task first (kind of a gamification mechanism maybe)
• Develop a habit of always doing something productive (from your backlog) each day, unless you're sick or so
• If the task seems so big or hard that you don't even start, split it in parts. You rarely have to do everything at once. Splitting it into parts also allows you to not over-exert yourself, so you'll have more time for the things you'd rather want to do afterwards

I'll save this post for later to read

I can definitely relate to what you’re describing. There was a time when work felt more self-evident, but today, a lot of work is more abstract and ambiguous, which brings its own kind of exhaustion. For me, procrastination often stems from not being entirely sure what I’m supposed to be doing or what my real target is. It doesn’t help when management just says, “fix the problems,” without providing clear guidance.

One thing that has helped me is acknowledging that this uncertainty and anxiety are part of modern work life, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed. The key is to remember that you’re a human being, not a machine. The work you’re doing isn’t necessarily easy, and that’s alright. Instead of rushing or being paralyzed by perfectionism, I try to slow down, break things into smaller tasks, and remind myself to relax. Clarity will often come in the process, not before starting.

I stopped trying to do optional things.

For me, the biggest first step was recognizing my habits in letting it start and pushing myself to not let it. I had to look at my own habits, learn to recognize when they were starting, and actually push myself to get up and do.

With that last bit, though, came the why I was struggling to do in the first place. Sometimes it can be that it's something we don't enjoy, and with that, it helped to remind myself that just getting it done meant it was over with. I can get back to whatever comfort I was in when it's done, and make myself do it.

Sometimes it's more, though. My depression and anxiety heavily fed into my lack of motivation and energy, and even the perfectionism I struggled with was fueled by anxiety that I'd somehow get it wrong.

That took getting help, medication, and changing a lot of my own thought process. Making a schedule definitely helped me with feeling like I wasn't getting done "on time" or early enough. If I know something takes me 30 minutes, I schedule it out for 45 so if I take longer, I'm still not "behind", and if I get done quicker, hey, I got some free time!

Learning to give myself some slack really helped, too. I had to tell myself it was okay if everything wasn't perfect, if something came up, because we can't plan for everything. The only thing we can do is try. Sometimes we give it our all, but something outside of our control goes wrong.

Learn to recognize and break negative thought processes. Don't ignore mistakes or accidents, and don't just bottle up negative emotion, but recognize when the thoughts are becoming a block.

Find what motivates you. Sometimes it's easier to get through the rough when you know there's something worth it at the end.

Man, Lemmy sure is good at not answering (just) "later" like Reddit would repeatedly. It's a weird level of restraint for the internet.

I create routines. Try to establish habits of doing a certain thing at a certain time. The key is to start, even if you get yourself to do it for only a few minutes at first, and then over time you can build up and do more. The key is to make sure you start each day consistently. I often put a recurring calendar reminder at first that nags me to do the thing, and then as I start forming a habit I get rid of it.

I don't ... Yeh I will explain it further.... Later. now I have to keep scrolling never found the end yet ...

The first step for me was recognizing that procrastinating created more work for me in the future. Also, having those swords of Damocles hanging over my head robbed me of my mental health.