Procrastination is frustrating.

It stands between you and your goals like a brick wall. You need to climb over it, but there are no immediate rewards on the other side, just more work. To make things even worse, the more you worry about it, the less energy you have left for climbing. You know you need to get to the other side, but your brain is telling you that it might be too difficult, and you don’t even try.

Sounds familiar?

Don’t worry, a lot of people feel the same way. Today I will share one simple, but very effective tip on dealing with procrastination.

Here’s the challenge:

Get yourself to start! Identify one task that you’ve been putting off, and work on it for 15 minutes. Do it right now if you can. Otherwise, schedule a 15 minute block in your calendar. If after 15 minutes, you feel like you want to continue working, great! If not, take a moment to realize that you resisted the temptation to procrastinate and that you’ve gotten closer to your goal, so celebrate!

Here’s the reason why this simple technique works: When we procrastinate, we tend to exaggerate the pain we’ll endure while doing the activity, and understate the pain of not doing the activity. 15 minutes seems easy enough to do (which translates to less pain), and it makes you feel good about making progress on your goal (and you experience more pleasure).

So take action right now, and share in the comments what it is that you are trying to do. Let’s support each other and beat procrastination once and for all.