I can get every single one of my daily 10,000 steps in by just walking in circles around my desk, avoiding what I know I’m supposed to be doing.

I literally wrote verbatim on my new years resolutions list (this is a direct quote) “do less lollygagging, stalling, walking in circles.”

I owe my toned quads not to deadlifts at the gym, but to pacing back and forth for miles, in my own home, in pretend oblivion to the to-do list that I myself just wrote.

So why is it so hard to sit down, focus, and get things done?

Why the unconscious mental dread that makes me walk a half marathon around my work station every other day?

Ali Abdaal, productivity YouTuber extraordinaire, recently released his book, Feel Good Productivity.

The title speaks very clearly to the theme.

It’s all about making your work energizing and fun, so it’s something you enjoy vs dread.

That whole premise got me to thinking…

What does my personal version of “feel good productivity” look like?

Knowing that when my work feels good, I procrastinate less, what conditions are present when I enjoy work vs dread it?

Here are 11 ways to make productivity feel good, and beat procrastination so procrastination doesn’t beat you.

01 / Ease in.

I’m the type that likes to tip-toe into the pool instead of jumping in.

(I actually poke fun at myself about this in my book, Challenge Accepted, which is about the universal life lessons I learned from my misadventures learning how to swim as an adult, told with a dose of humor 😉.)

But the same way I don’t like to jump straight into a pool, I don’t like to jump straight into work.

I prefer to leisurely start my morning.

And leisurely end my night.

In the morning, this looks like:

Workout – To get blood going and get physical energy moving after a full night of the body being still and at rest.

Meditation – To help settle and focus the mind, and bring focus to the physical energy stirred up by the workout.

Slow breakfast – A delicious breakfast I can take my time to savor, outside exposed to nature if weather/location permit, and sometimes accompanied with a book/audiobook related to mindset or spirituality.

In the evening this looks like:

Getting in bed an hour before I want to go to sleep, and…

Reading – To turn my brain off and shift its focus away from my business or creative projects.

Journaling – To get out my thoughts and process emotions stirred by events that happened in my day.

Having chill routines to bookend my work makes it more enjoyable for me.

02 / Think small.

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Weird saying.

Not sure why anyone would eat an elephant.

But the point remains–

Big, seemingly overwhelming things are possible with small, mentally palatable chunks.

I like to have 1-3 things on my to-do list each day.

If you focus on the biggest needle-moving task(s), 1-3 daily to-dos is enough.

I like to keep my work time blocks at 3-4 hours of work a day.

You can get just as much done in a laser focused 4 hours as you can in a distracted 8.

Dream big, but think small.

03 / Assign meaning.

When your work has meaning to you, you will feel pulled to do it, rather than feeling like you have to push yourself to do it.

Make work feel like it matters by:

1-choosing work that matters (we’ll touch on that in the next section)

Or

2-attaching your work to a larger goal

When I had a job that I wasn’t thrilled about, I had the bigger goal in the back of my mind of saving money for my first investment property.

So every day was more money earned towards that down payment.

Back then, I was excited about my work, not because of the work itself, but because it meant I was earning my way towards my freedom and the realization of the ideal vision I had for my life.

Even when the work itself didn’t have inherent meaning to me, what the work unlocked for me did.

Now that I have a business, each task I do works towards a larger business or creative goal, so that again, each task feels like it’s getting me closer and closer to my big ideal vision for my future.

04 / Seek sovereignty.

Sovereignty is a birthright, but it doesn’t feel that way because we are born into a system that indoctrinates us with the idea of dedicating our lives to working for someone else.

But feeling like you have control over your life in the macro, and your tasks in the micro, makes you more excited to get to work.

It’s motivating to work on things that you choose–to choose what you do rather than others choosing for you.

This is a privilege that most obviously comes with embarking on the path of a freelancer, creator, or entrepreneur.

But, this privilege of the feeling of sovereignty can come with a job as well, to a degree, so long as you choose a job that is in line with your passions, working for a company/manager that is in line with your values.

05 / Leave room for inspiration.

As a writer, my well of ideas sometimes feels as dry as the Sahara desert.

And sometimes it feels like Niagara Falls.

The former does not feel good.

But the latter does.

There’s nothing like receiving a flow of inspiration so intense that I can’t move my hands fast enough to capture the ideas flowing out of my head.

So when that happens I like to make sure there is time to indulge in the enjoyment of following the flow of creativity and seeing where it takes me.

I don’t want to feel restricted because I only have 47 minutes and 23 seconds to finish a specific article on a specific topic.

There are two things I do to allow for inspiration:

1 – Have broad deadlines and moveable time blocks.

I arrange my schedule such that whatever I have on my to do list for the week, could in theory be done on any day that week.

That way, even though I scheduled myself on Tuesday to redesign my website  and on Friday to write…if inspiration to write strikes on Tuesday, I’ll just switch things around and write on Tuesday and redesign the website Friday.

2 – Have 1-2 days every week committed solely to creating (for me, that’s writing).

When there are no other business tasks to do on a day, and the only thing I have to do is write an article, I know I have time during that day to finish the particular article I wanted to finish, and also take notes on ideas for others if inspiration strikes.

With these two practices, when I get into flow state, I can see it all the way through–guilt-free, and stress-free.

I can take advantage of inspiration when it strikes, instead of feeling burdened by it being a distraction.

06 / Have flexible structure.

I like to have a flexible work structure that:

1 – allows for life to come up

2 – allows me to say yes to life

This way, there is contingency built in if:

• I get sick
• Someone else gets sick and I want to take care of them
• I have a mental health day–or days, let’s be real–where I just can’t deal
• A friend invites me to do a hike in the middle of a Wednesday
• There’s a festival, concert, or awesome event that goes really late at night and will make me wake up late the next day and push back my normal work start time

A flexible work structure allows for all of the aforementioned things to happen, while still getting my work done. 

To allow for this balance, my ideal work structure is scheduling for myself 3-4 hours of work a day, 4-5 days a week.

This gives me enough time to make meaningful progress on any given day, plus if something comes up, I can skip a day and “double up” on work another day without it feeling too overloaded.

07 / Keep it simple.

Don’t overcomplicate things.

The simpler things are, the less overwhelming they’ll be.

When things are needlessly complicated and require too much cognitive load, you’re going to put them off because of their perceived difficulty.

Create systems, processes, and templates that are simple, and allow you to streamline your work.

This will reduce the mental friction (and emotional dread) required to execute and get things done.

When in doubt, keep it simple.

08 / Create clarity.

I idiot proof every task.

Not because me or my team members are idiots.

But, because clarity is yet another thing that reduces the friction to start a task and reduces the cognitive load required to execute it.

In order to have small work time blocks, you must make the most of every minute.

When it comes time to sit down and get to work, I only have time and energy for the task itself–not figuring out the task, not strategizing the best way to execute it, not deciding which part to do first, not fumbling through folders and files for documents and templates…

So when I create tasks (I use project management software for this), I include links to any necessary templates, and break the task down into a few brief subtasks, in the correct order.

Nothing too extensive.

But just enough to bring clarity to the task and keep my mind from wandering.

Prepare your work in advance in such a way where when you sit down to work, you don’t have to think, you can just do.

09 / Outsource your pain.

There are some tasks that I hate.

But there’s someone else out there who loves them.

There are some tasks that I am unreasonably slow at.

But there’s someone else out there who can breeze right through them.

There are some tasks that make me feel like I have the IQ of a banana.

But there’s someone else out there, who’s a genius at them.

Identify parts of your work that give you energy and make you look forward to them. 

And as quickly as you can, eliminate things that don’t by using automation, software, partnership, or outsourced assistance.

This increases your enjoyment of work in two ways:

First, it gives you more time for the parts you love.

Second, it increases your perception of your overall enjoyment of your work, because by eliminating more of what you hate, the parts you love start to represent a larger and larger percentage of your overall work responsibilities.

10 / Make it special.

Set up the conditions for your work in such a way that you have something unique to look forward to.

Get a special tea that you love that you only drink during your working sessions.

Make a special music soundtrack that you love that you only listen to while you work.

Get a special comfy chair that you only sit in when you work.

The environmental conditions in which you work can make all the difference in your experience of that work.

11 / Make it finite.

If I feel like a task can go on forever, I don’t even want to start it.

Before I even sit down to work, I have to know that the task is finite.

I give myself this assurance by writing next to each item on my to do list how much time I’m giving myself to do it.

The joy of productivity comes from checking things off your list.

So you have to set things up for yourself in a way where you can actually do that.

“Work” is a word that has come to be synonymous with torture.

“Work” is the antithesis of play, and therefore it is assumed that work is not something that we can expect to enjoy, and we are soft and immature if we do expect to enjoy it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

In my own experience and observation, there are times where I can be doing the same task, but under different conditions, and have a completely different emotional and mental experience.

The same task I enjoy, I can also dread under different circumstances.

You can intentionally create the circumstances under which work feels good.

It is possible to “take the edge off” the things that you call work, to make work feel light instead of heavy, and to look forward to work rather than dread it.

The tips on this list have tremendously helped me, and I hope they can also help you.