The approach I describe is definitely not procrastination. It’s a powerful technique to get the ball rolling and overcome inertia.

First, by creating the list of how-to steps will make the work EASIER and you will be able to do it FASTER.

Second, by doing 2 minute interval of work, you will probably then do much, much more – maybe even finish it. When you feel resistance to work, it’s not question of 2 minutes vs. doing it all; it’s usually question of 2 minutes or not doing anything. 2 minutes is better, especially if you consider that you will probably do way more in the end anyway.

Even when I am not feeling a resistance to something, I will often write the how-to steps, as it helps me to do the task faster and better. Writing the steps is structured thinking, and it’s actually doing the task – it just might not feel like it.

The best way to overcome resistance to work is to do more work?
Don’t DO the work, make a list of HOW you are going to do the work… then do it in 2 min intervals.

1.) The advice your giving will make this task take longer.
2.) This is even more time and brain power spent on the very thing I didn’t want to do in the first place.

Here is my 1 step process for overcoming resistance to work- Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Im sorry, Ive just heard enough of all this bed-side manner approach to work ethic.

Baby steps to Microsoft Word. Baby steps to typing. It works!

Good post by the way

I do a lot of custom web development consulting, and some side projects of my own.
Some new projects I really enjoy diving in and coding as rapidly as possible [eg. treeblurb.com/doctorx was pure fun to develop ].

I recently had a commercial project where I did a lot of work, made big gains initially but then just got a bit bored I guess with the long tail of adding and tweaking features… then I kind of applied the technique you mentioned of just taking a tiny piece of functionality and toying with that.. it kind of worked and got me back into the right mindset where I was having fun experimenting.

Another time I just sat back and thought.. ok, I may not like this gig, but Ive got to finish it.. and on the plus side Im using a technology stack I really love [ node.js + mongo + javascript/jquery ] .. man, if I was writing this in Java it would be 25x larger.. As I work from home and largely decide the stack and tools, I can enjoy the craft.

Thanks for the tips!