You need to fill out paperwork. You need to clean out the garage. You need to pay the bills. You need to start a really challenging project that you’ve been putting off for months. You need to do some other dreaded task that you really don’t want to do but must be done.
And yet, instead of tackling that task, you’re scrolling social media, looking at photos of strangers or people you didn’t like in high school. You’re watching cute videos of cats (or dogs). You’re texting memes back and forth to your friends.
It’s so bad that you’re actually cleaning the kitchen, or scrubbing the toilet, or washing the dishes.
Yes, it’s that bad.
It’s easy to put off tasks we don’t want to do. After all, it feels good. Literally. That is, “our brains deliver a dose of feel-good chemicals when we choose something fun over something we should be doing,” said Maura Nevel Thomas, a speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance. Which, of course, today is easier to do than ever before thanks to technology. After all, distractions are—again literally—at our fingertips. You can’t get any more convenient than that.
We also tend to procrastinate on big tasks that have vague action plans, Thomas said. “We keep putting them off, because we don’t know where or how to begin tackling them.”
But even though it’s tough to complete certain tasks, and it feels like the universe is conspiring against us, we can absolutely accomplish the most frustrating, boring, mundane, or daunting things.
The key is to begin. As such, below, you’ll find a list of tools and tricks to help you spark your start.
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