The Anti-Procrastination Sheet
Last weekend Zac and I were enjoying a leisurely Saturday morning at a coffee shop. I started flipping through one of the gay weeklies, and I came across an incredibly helpful productivity article by a local psychotherapist, Tom Moon. He talked about David Burns’ book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, and something called the Anti-Procrastination Sheet.
Moon explains, “procedures like this one help people stop ruminating about their supposed internal deficiencies and start focusing instead on what specific actions they can do to address the problem at hand. When people stop asking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and start asking ‘What can I do differently?’ they’re already well on their way to overcoming procrastination.”
I tried the technique myself, and I was amazed by how distorted my perception was about the simple task of re-working my resume for the purpose of getting more responses to my job applications. The Anti-Procrastination Sheet showed me that I wasted a whole lot of time and energy avoiding a task that was a lot easier than I imagined. Here’s how it works.
Moon advises, “Break down a task you’ve been avoiding into a series of manageable steps, so that each piece can be completed in less than fifteen minutes. For each step, write down a prediction of just how difficult you expect each step to take, using a 0 to 100 percent scale. If you think the task will be relatively easy, write down a low estimate such as 10 percent; and for harder tasks, write down a larger number. In the next column, write down a number from 0 to 100 predicting how much satisfaction you expect to derive from the task. Once you’ve made these predictions, do the task and then record how difficult it actually turned out to be and how much pleasure you actually gained from doing it. This simple procedure usually helps people rapidly disconfirm their distorted beliefs that the task at hand will be painful and intolerable if they don’t avoid it.”
Let’s take my re-writing a resume example. I broke the task down into four manageable steps:
1) Review resume formats
2) Print current resume
3) Re-write resume content to fit new format
4) Type new resume content into new format
Then I charted predicted difficulty and satisfaction vs. actual experience. Here’s how it looked:
| Steps | Predicted Difficulty | Predicted Satisfaction | Actual Difficulty | Actual Satisfaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Review resume formats | 50% | 25% | 0% | 100% |
| Print current resume | 0% | 0% | 0% | 50% |
| Re-write resume content to fit new format | 100% | 0% | 25% | 100% |
| Type new resume content into new format | 25% | 75% | 40% | 100% |
The chart explains how deeply I was dreading to re-write my resume to fit a new format. I didn’t know that was specifically the step I most feared before I wrote out the chart. I just knew that I flatly wanted to avoid a whole re-write. I’ve been using the same resume since I graduated college, and I was reluctant to try something new.
However, when I actually started looking at other resume formats, I was excited to find one that would do a better job highlighting my transferable skills and record of delivering client satisfaction in a wide variety of industries. Apparently, the task wasn’t nearly as dreadful of an experience as I predicted. My fear of re-writing my resume content was blinding me to the fact that I simply needed the right resume format at my disposal. Once I found that, finishing the task was incredibly easy.
In total, it took me less than an hour and a half to create a stellar final version of my resume that is sure to get me the results I want. Sure, The Anti-Procrastination seems like more work than necessary, but I’ve certainly wasted more than an hour and a half procrastinating on getting my new resume done. The Anti-Procrastination Sheet was actually worth the effort. Give it a try, and you may be surprised by what’s been stopping you.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Great post! I did Burns’s book for a few years in college to help me get through a period of really bad depression. That and some anti-depressants helped me pull through.
I should really whip it out again and see which parts are still useful even though I’m not so depressed.
Thanks!
-MM
October 6th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
[...] One final shout-out to Queercents blog contributor John. His post reminded me of David Burns’s Anti-Procrastination worksheet. I used it today to get myself to do the research. I did Burns’s Feeling Good as part of therapy in college, worked wonders for me. But I add an element to the sheet, a reward for each task completed (at least the ones I really don’t want to do). So a guilt-free chapter of a favorite book, a television episode, whatever gets me motivated. And that helped today. So thanks, John! [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 8:32 am
John, you Anti-Procrasination worksheet is really cool and I think more job seekers could use this simple tool for support. One of the hardest things about writing a resume is the “fear” that it’s going to be hard. As a professional resume writer for many years, I’ve liked hearing this remark by my clients when the resume is completed: “Gee, that was painless!” It told me how much they dreaded writing their resume. But with the help of a good tool — and I believe your worksheet could be a good one — it really can be painless.
My website, http://susanireland.com/resumeguide has more techniques that job seekers might find useful for writing their resumes. The advice is free, so take a peek!
January 26th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[...] final shout-out to Queercents blog contributor John. His post reminded me of David Burns’s Anti-Procrastination worksheet. I used it today to get myself to [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
This sheet has helped me out!
Last night, my brother had a copy of David Burns’s book and I did it when I was procrastinating on my fiction work.
Thanks David Burns!