Strongweek is the best iOS Planner and Reminders app for procrastinators. It's engineered to tackle many of the problems that procrastinators face. In this post, we'll discuss:
1. Why you procrastinate.
2. Why other to-do list apps aren't working.
3. How the Strongweek Method can help you get more done by intuitively prioritizing your tasks and reducing anxiety.
It's Not Because You're Lazy
You're not lazy. There are some things that make you feel motivated. You can spend hours or days "in the zone" when you're working on something that excites you. You've accomplished a lot of difficult tasks in your life. But for some reason, there are simple tasks you just can't seem to do.
The crazy part is, the tasks you're procrastinating on probably aren't even that hard. You just have to get started. It might be as simple as making a phone call or paying a bill. But the longer you wait, the harder it gets, and the more it weighs on you.
These tasks pile up endless in your to do list or planner.
Am I right?
So if I'm not lazy, why do I procrastinate?
Imagine you live back in the days of cavemen and saber-tooth tigers. You're a "hunter gatherer" and you spend your days searching for berries or chasing gazelle. You're walking along in the woods, looking for berries, when suddenly, out of the sunny sky, lightning strikes in a clearing ahead of you.
There's a flash of light, and a time-traveler from the future appears.
"Hi," he says, "I'm from the IRS."
Then he hands you a long, complicated tax form.
"Don't forget to turn it in by April!" he shouts as he slowly disappears back to his own time.
Our ancestors spent millennia evolving to perform simple survival tasks. Find food. Run from tigers. Eat. Sleep. There was always a clear pay-off for doing things right. There was usually a deadly consequence for doing them wrong. But modern tasks like paying taxes don't fit that rubric. So we procrastinate.
Why your agenda or calendar app doesn't stop you from procrastinating:
If you're a procrastinator, you probably have lots of to-do lists. They might be mental, or they might be saved in your phone. You're relying on all those notifications to effectively guilt-trip you into getting things done. You're hoping that you'll see "do taxes" on your calendar or to-do list and then you'll get it done.
But instead, you watch reruns of The Office. You do the dishes. You do all sorts of chores to avoid doing the thing you really need to do. Guilt-tripping yourself doesn't help, because you've already got enough guilt. You're ever-expanding to-do list doesn't motivate you. It just makes you feel anxious and overwhelmed.
Reminders and lists don't work, because deep in our inner cave-person brain, we know we're not going to get eaten by a saber-tooth tiger if we don't get them done. There are no clear-cut rewards. So instead, we seek out tasks that give us a dopamine rush, like watching TV.
The Strongweek Method is different. Use Strongweek to stop procrastinating.
Strongweek doesn't try to guilt-trip you. Unlike standard to-do lists, it doesn't use overwhelm to push you to get things done. It doesn't nag you with annoying reminders you're just going to ignore. Instead, Strongweek is built for that cave-person part of your brain that just wants to know:
"What's really urgent? What do I need to get done now?"
For most of history, our to-do lists were dictated by major events and broad categories like the changing seasons. In the spring, you harvested berries. In the summer, you farmed or hunted. In the fall, you began to store food for winter. You never had to get an email in before 3:45 p.m. next Tuesday.
There was no need for procrastination.
Strongweek works with that part of your brain: the part of your brain that looks for what's most important and wants to let the rest slide.
How does Strongweek fight procrastination?
You're built to avoid saber-tooth tigers and seek quick rewards. You've evolved to batch long-term tasks into broad categories.
"What do I need to get done in spring so that I can farm in summer and harvest in fall?"
That's how Strongweek works. You assign each task a category like "this week" or "next month." You can even choose "next year." When you batch your tasks this way, you know what's urgent and what can wait. You don't have to feel guilty about waiting till next month to look at next month's tasks. You feel less overwhelmed. You get things done when you need to.
Don't believe me? The app is free. So why not try it? Download Strongweek for iOS today, so you you can take control of guilt and procrastination. "Putting things off" should be a natural part of getting things done. Let Strongweek show you how to turn procrastinating into prioritizing.