Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress  ## Metadata - Author: [[YouTube]] - Full Title: Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [procrastination, website-maintenance, productivity] author: Marieke van de Rakt source: WordCamp Europe 2024 reference: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg] date created: 2024-12-19 14:30 --- # 🏷️ Title: Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Set realistic, exciting goals for website maintenance — establish weekly routine #productivity - [H2] Break large tasks into smaller actionable steps — reduce overwhelm #planning - [H3] Create clean work environment and calendar reminders — build sustainable habits #environment ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [Progress Planner Plugin](https://progressplanner.com) - [WordCamp Europe 2024](https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/) ## 📝 Summary - Former Yoast CEO and scientist Marieke van de Rakt shares personal struggles with procrastination after leaving structured work environment - Explains why website maintenance tasks are particularly prone to procrastination despite their importance - Scientific research reveals procrastination stems from present vs future reward battles, poor time estimation, perfectionism, and potential mental health factors - Provides 5-step framework: set exciting goals, make detailed plans, use reminders, evaluate regularly, celebrate progress - Key insight: writers and developers procrastinate more due to cognitively demanding work and constant digital distractions ## 📖 Main Content Website maintenance is crucial for security, performance, and user trust, but it's inherently boring and lacks immediate gratification. This creates a perfect storm for procrastination among website owners and developers. The presentation combines personal vulnerability with scientific research to address this universal challenge. Van de Rakt's journey from structured corporate environment to solo work exposed her own procrastination patterns, leading to an ADHD diagnosis and deep research into the psychology of task avoidance. Her findings apply broadly to the WordPress community, where technical and creative work demands high cognitive load while offering delayed rewards. The solution isn't willpower but systematic approaches: breaking tasks into manageable pieces, creating environmental supports, and building sustainable routines that work with human psychology rather than against it. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=0) — [H1] Speaker Introduction - Key idea: Marieke van de Rakt, former Yoast CEO, sociologist with PhD, mother of four - Evidence: "Master in sociology, studied communication sciences, PhD on father-son conviction trajectories" #### ⏱️ [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=150) — [H1] Personal Procrastination Revelation - Key idea: Leaving structured work environment exposed hidden procrastination patterns - Evidence: "Ever since I stopped working at Yoast I noticed I had a really hard time organizing my work" #### ⏱️ [04:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=285) — [H2] ADHD Disclosure - Key idea: Recent ADHD diagnosis explains lifelong productivity struggles despite outward success - Evidence: "Only recently I discovered I have ADHD, this is the first time I'm saying it out loud" #### ⏱️ [06:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=375) — [H1] Website Success Requirements - Key idea: Successful websites need multiple components: design, security, content, performance - Evidence: "Good design, solid site structure, secure, up-to-date content, high quality copy" #### ⏱️ [08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=480) — [H2] Consequences of Poor Maintenance - Key idea: Neglected websites suffer hacking, outdated content, downtime, broken links, revenue loss - Evidence: "You could get hacked, content outdated leading to low trust, more downtime, slower website" #### ⏱️ [09:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=570) — [H1] Why Maintenance Gets Neglected - Key idea: Website maintenance is boring compared to exciting new projects and business activities - Evidence: "Website maintenance is not very exciting, it's rather boring, so we put efforts into other tasks" #### ⏱️ [12:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=735) — [H1] Procrastination Definition - Key idea: Procrastination is postponing tasks while pursuing lighter, more immediately gratifying activities - Evidence: "Putting off a task until very last minute, instead pursue lighter activities like social media" #### ⏱️ [14:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=840) — [H2] Personal Procrastination Examples - Key idea: Even productivity experts procrastinate in unexpected ways - online quizzes vs building plugins - Evidence: "I end up filling out online questionnaire about which Winnie the Pooh character I am - I am Tigger" #### ⏱️ [15:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=930) — [H1] Scientific Reasons for Procrastination - Key idea: Present rewards always beat future rewards in brain's decision-making process - Evidence: "Battle between present and future rewards and present rewards always win" #### ⏱️ [17:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1020) — [H2] Wrong Assumptions About Motivation - Key idea: People incorrectly assume they'll be more motivated tomorrow and underestimate time needed - Evidence: "We think we'll be more motivated tomorrow and we'll do tasks much quicker than we need" #### ⏱️ [18:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1095) — [H2] Perfectionism as Procrastination Trigger - Key idea: Fear of not meeting internal standards prevents starting tasks - Evidence: "Perfectionism, impostor syndrome, fear of not being good enough could be reason why you procrastinate" #### ⏱️ [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1200) — [H1] Writers and Developers Procrastinate More - Key idea: Writing code or content requires intense brain power, making procrastination more likely - Evidence: "Writing is hard task for your brain, asks for attention, concentration and creativity" #### ⏱️ [22:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1350) — [H1] Five-Step Anti-Procrastination Plan - Key idea: Systematic approach starts with setting realistic, exciting goals - Evidence: "Set goals that are realistic, think about what you want to reach with your website" #### ⏱️ [25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1500) — [H2] Making Detailed Plans - Key idea: Goals aren't plans - must schedule specific time blocks for website work - Evidence: "Make time in your calendar, put some time away and set room in calendar to really do that" #### ⏱️ [27:15](https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg?t=1635) — [H2] Celebrate Progress Over Perfection - Key idea: Acknowledging small wins provides dopamine rewards that sustain motivation - Evidence: "Give your brain this success feeling, cross off to-do list, show off blog posts on social media" ## 📚 References - [Progress Planner WordPress Plugin](https://progressplanner.com) - [Yoast SEO Company](https://yoast.com) - [Newfold Digital Acquisition](https://newfold.com) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Website maintenance suffers from procrastination because it's cognitively demanding work with delayed rewards, making it less appealing than immediate gratification activities - Procrastination isn't a character flaw but a predictable human response to certain task characteristics - understanding the psychology allows for better systems and strategies - Success comes from building supportive structures (planning, reminders, celebrations) rather than relying on willpower or motivation alone ## 📰 Newsletter **Conquering Website Maintenance Procrastination: Insights from Former Yoast CEO** Ever wondered why website maintenance always gets pushed to "tomorrow"? Former Yoast CEO Marieke van de Rakt shared vulnerable insights about procrastination at WordCamp Europe, revealing her own ADHD diagnosis and research-backed strategies for overcoming task avoidance. The key insight: website maintenance is particularly prone to procrastination because it combines boring, cognitively demanding work with delayed rewards. Instead of fighting human psychology, we can work with it through systematic planning, environmental design, and celebrating small wins. Her new Progress Planner plugin applies these principles directly to WordPress maintenance workflows, turning psychological insights into practical tools. Resources: [Progress Planner](https://progressplanner.com), [Learn WordPress](https://learn.wordpress.org/), [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/) ## ✅ Action Items #### WordPress - Core: Apply procrastination research to contributor onboarding workflows - Community: Develop maintenance-focused meetup content using 5-step framework - Training: Create lesson plans addressing psychological barriers to website upkeep - Documentation: Write guides connecting maintenance tasks to business outcomes - Design: Research gamification patterns that celebrate maintenance progress #### Community - Maintainers: Implement progress celebration rituals in project workflows - Contributors: Break large issues into smaller, dopamine-rewarding tasks - Sponsors: Fund research into developer productivity and mental health ## 🧪 Hypotheses - WordPress sites with gamified maintenance dashboards will have better security and performance metrics - Breaking website audits into 25-minute focused sessions increases task completion rates - Website owners who track and celebrate maintenance wins are more likely to sustain long-term site health - Developers with ADHD or similar conditions may need specialized productivity tools for maintenance tasks ### 📊 Methodology - A/B test maintenance dashboard designs with and without progress celebration features - Survey WordPress professionals about procrastination patterns and correlate with site maintenance frequency - Longitudinal study tracking site health metrics before and after implementing structured maintenance routines ### ❓ Questions - How can WordPress admin interfaces better support neurodivergent users' productivity needs? - What specific maintenance tasks are most commonly procrastinated and why? - Could AI assistants help break down overwhelming maintenance checklists into manageable steps? ### 🔮 Future Research - Investigate relationship between website maintenance frequency and business outcomes - Explore gamification patterns that sustain long-term maintenance behavior - Study effectiveness of peer accountability systems for website management ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Website agencies should account for procrastination psychology in client maintenance plans - Policy: WordPress hosting should provide maintenance reminders and progress tracking - Education: Developer training should include productivity and mental health components - Funding: Support tools addressing psychological barriers to technical work ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: 10th Grade (Flesch-Kincaid) #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Clear slides, website examples, step diagrams - Improve: Add procrastination flow charts, before/after site comparisons #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Full video presentation with clear narration - Improve: Audio summary highlighting key strategies #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Personal anecdotes, clear definitions, analogies - Improve: More metaphors connecting psychology to technical work #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Interactive audience polls, hands-on plugin demo - Improve: Workshop exercises, maintenance checklists to complete #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Scientific research citations, step-by-step frameworks - Improve: Decision trees for task prioritization, measurement metrics #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Q&A session, shared experiences discussion - Improve: Peer accountability partnerships, community challenges #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Self-reflection prompts, personal assessment - Improve: Individual goal-setting worksheets, private progress tracking #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Ecosystem metaphor for website health - Improve: Seasonal maintenance cycles, organic growth analogies ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear heading structure, descriptive content - Improve: Alt text for any slides, ARIA labels for interactive elements #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard video controls accessible - Improve: Timestamped navigation, transcript search functionality #### Contrast and readability - Present: High contrast slides, clear fonts - Improve: Ensure 4.5:1 ratio maintained throughout #### Media and captions - Present: Full transcript provided - Improve: Professional captions with speaker identification ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Dutch perspective on procrastination, international audience - Improve: Examples from diverse cultural contexts on productivity #### Inclusive language - Present: Open discussion of mental health, ADHD disclosure - Improve: More neurodiversity-affirming language throughout #### Neurodiversity support - Present: ADHD representation, practical accommodations discussed - Improve: Multiple strategy options recognizing different brain types #### Representation - Present: Female tech leader, mother perspective - Improve: Diverse examples of procrastination experiences ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Deductive strength: Scientific research → practical applications (strong) - Inductive strength: Personal experience → universal patterns (moderate) - Causal reasoning: Task characteristics → procrastination behavior (strong) #### Fallacies - Appeal to personal experience: Overreliance on individual ADHD journey, could acknowledge limits - Hasty generalization: Writers/developers procrastinate more, needs broader evidence base #### Tone of voice - Overall tone: Vulnerable, research-informed, practically focused with appropriate humor ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - No DARVO patterns detected - Presenter takes responsibility for own procrastination struggles - Maintains supportive, non-judgmental approach to audience challenges ## 🎯 Conclusion Procrastination around website maintenance isn't a character flaw but a predictable response to tasks that are cognitively demanding yet offer delayed rewards. By understanding the psychology behind task avoidance and implementing systematic approaches—goal setting, detailed planning, environmental design, and progress celebration—website owners and developers can build sustainable maintenance habits. The key breakthrough is recognizing that willpower isn't enough; we need systems that work with human psychology rather than against it. Van de Rakt's vulnerable sharing of her own ADHD diagnosis and productivity struggles provides both validation and practical hope for the WordPress community. ## 🧱 Refactor Appendix ### 📚 Literature Split Pad ### [H1] Present rewards always defeat future rewards in procrastination > [!quote] [Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg) by [[Marieke van de Rakt]] via [[WordCamp Europe 2024]]. Published 2024. Accessed 2024-12-19. > "Battle between present and future rewards and present rewards always win." Core psychological mechanism explaining why immediate gratification consistently overrides long-term benefits in decision - Document Tags: [[planning]] [[environment]] [[productivity]] - Summary: Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaafik66-Eg welcome back to the last phase of Work Camp Europe 2024 so did you enjoy your lunch yes all right very good my name is Shu and I'm the host or MC for this uh afternoon we have on stage in a moment Marik from the uh she's happily married and mother of four children and she has a master in sociology and studied communication sciences and obtained her social sciences PhD on the topic and that's very interesting like father like son the relationship between conviction TR trajectories of fathers and their sons now that makes me think uh but I'm not going to say anything about that she's going to talk us uh about procrastination and that's maybe a topic any everyone of us is familiar with and so let me see some hands who has a goal of or a professional change which they want to achieve in the next week month year or whatever um can be anything so like quit smoking become rich lose weight double business figures get me anything just raise your hand if you have a goal but haven't met that one okay that's quite a lot that's perfect so let me see Hands of those who have already taken action to meet that goal who took action oh that's less good now so be honest to me and to yourself raise your hand if you haven't taken any action yet to make that goal be honest okay I think that's your audience maika so I'm proud of those people who told that they haven't taken action yet maika we're super excited to have you on stage and please give her a big Applause Marika from the and she will talk about pivoting procrastination towards progress thank you these are not my slides but that's okay oh these are these are now it's okay thank you um oh I was already kindly introduced so this can be relatively short my name is Marik vak I am uh one of the owners of Emilia capital and Emilia capital is an investment company and we've invest in multiple WordPress Brands but also in Brands outside of the WordPress space before working at Emelia I was with yast I am the co-founder of yast and I was the CEO and the co-owner when we sold the company to new for digital in 2021 and before my life adj as sh just told you I was a scientist so before I begin this talk I would like to explain why I am doing this talk about procrastination because it's quite different from the talks I did before so ever since I stopped working at yo and that's about a year ago I noticed that I had a really hard time organizing my work I was very used to working in a team and now I was working alone and I noticed that I was procrastinating I was postponing things I was even forgetting about things and not starting things I missed my colleagues at Yo's that without them knowing kept me on the right track kept me in the direction of what needed my attention and what needed priority so I've done a lot of soul searching lately I found out a lot about my reasons for procrastin and for a lot of people that have worked with me this might seem surprising because I think I am highly productive I am efficient I never meet a deadline and I'm a reliable partner if we work together I'll do what we have agreed to do but just because I'm good at it doesn't mean that I that this was ever easy for me that these things came natural for me I just over the years built in so many strategies and tactics on how to get things done that I I now know how to get things done but my leaving yast exposed chaos um the system I build around me for 10 years just collapsed and I needed to find new ways so it forced me to look at myself and only recently I discovered I have ADHD this is the first time I'm saying it loud loud so it's big thing um and that explains much of my chaos but it also allows me to look at me so what am I doing that keeps me successful and keeps me getting myself motivated to do the next things so I deep Dove I hyperfocused into this the whole science around procrastination and found out so much about how you can be successful even though you have a habit of procrastinating and I appli that to what I love most which is WordPress and that all whole thing led to me doing this talk that also led to us developing a new plugin and with us I mean me and our team at ailia Capital we just released a new plugin called progress planner which is also um aimed at overcoming procrastination in Website Maintenance so let's begin today's presentation we'll talk about Website Maintenance and website success and then we'll Deep dive into procrastination what is it and then we'll tie those two things together and talk about how to overcome progress destination of Website Maintenance tasks so what does a website need to be successful well it needs to have a good design it needs to have a solid site structure you want to make sure it's secure because you don't want to get hacked you need to have upto-date content and if you're honest you need high quality copy you need to have great performance your website needs to be fast you needs to have good internal linking good to actions you need to have an intuitive design great landing pages and you should optimize the whole thing for Google so that's a lot right and you know what a website is never done so you are never done and the thing is with websites people expect updated content people just expect you to update your website it's the main advantage that websites have over oldfashioned copy books and we don't allow we as visitors don't allow for websites to be outdated we don't trust that information for books it's far less of a problem but just because you can update whenever you want people also expect you to do that but keeping everything up to dat is a lot of work especially if your website is growing and as the internet is is aging and all of us are aging and we you're are adding new websites it becomes more and more work so the tasks of maintaining a website can be really overwhelming you might not know where to begin or how to keep track but what happens if you don't properly maintain your website well you get you could get hacked your content will get outdated and that would lead to low trust your website probably will have more d downtown downtime difficult word you'll website become slower you'll have broken links and 404s your customers perhaps will be having difficulties in making purchases you'll notice a drop in the searge engines higher bounce rate and all in all you will get less traffic so this is important stuff this whole Website Maintenance thing so why isn't this at the top of all of our priority lists well let's be honest here Website Maintenance is not very exciting it's rather boring even so what we do we put our efforts into other tasks Website Maintenance tasks often get neglected because of other tasks we prioritize so what do we do well what thing that actually really makes sense is to work in your actual business so imagine you're a hairdresser and you have a website I do understand why you would rather work in your salon and cut people's hair and dye people's hair instead of working at your website right that makes sense and then the other thing is that we as human beings tend to prefer adding new stuff or designing a new website or doing something else rather than maintaining the old stuff so new and shinney is always better we tend to focus a lot on Advertising because advertising gives us measurable results we know what we'll get if we put an ad out and then we focus on social media so we all know you all know that Website Maintenance is important you knew that even before you enter this room we all know this but what happens is that we say to ourself okay we really should get started with the Website Maintenance stuff and then this happens or this or and this is my favorite yeah and a lot of this and eventually will be just like this so it's procrastination we want to begin at our website maintenance task what we notice that procrastination kicks in so let's talk about procrastination what is procrastination and why do we procrastinate and do we all procrastinate to the same extent and why is procrastination so very common amongst both writers and developers that's us because it is and why is the task of Website Maintenance particularly prone to procrastination so procrastination is putting off a task until the very last minute or skipping the work alt together and instead you pursue lighter activities like checking your social media or shopping online so let me tell you what happens to me I tell myself I have to write this big article article about procrastination so I have to do some research and I have to do some writing and instead I end up somewhere on the internet filling out an online questionnaire figuring out which kind of Winnie the Pooh character I am that's what I do I am Tigger by the way so I talked to about this progress ation sing with my husband and you know what he does so he said no I supposed to be working at my slides for my word Camp EUR presentation he did a great job but instead of that I built a new plug-in and I felt like I said no you're not procrastinating correctly you should do something lighter but what's lighter for me shopping online is not lighter for him so it could really be different for different kind of people still made me feel really bad because he built a new plug-in and I ended up with a new pair of Taylor Swift pajamas that's common to me very important with the procrastination thing it kind of happens to you so you know not not really intend to postpone something it just it happens all of a sudden you're on that online quiz or something so why do we procrastinate so I already told you I dove into all the scientific research there is so let's look at what science says about this thing so psychologists say that the first reason why people procrastinate is because there is a battle between present and future rewards and present rewards always win we as human beings just want immediate gratification so if a task is tedious and boring and we see no immediate gratification we'll rather do something that instantly makes us feel good so if you're procrastinating correctly you're doing something that you enjoy so you are doing you you are doing it right yeah and then the second reason is that we as human beings make really wrong assumptions about our motivation and about our time management so we tend to think oh I'm not feeling like writing this article tonight but I might be really inspired and motivated to do it tomorrow which doesn't make any sense because why would you be more motivated but we really think that and we also think that we'll do a task much quicker than we actually need so we think oh it will take me an hour and a half and then we'll end up spending three hours so making wrong assumptions which just is like a human being thing about time management and future motivation is a reason why we procrastinate and then there is a third reason why people procrastinate and a lot of people procrastinate because they're they're afraid that their work will not be good enough so perfectionism impostor syndrome just the fear of not being good enough could be a reason why you procrastinate what happens is that people have this idea of what they're going to build in their head and it's so perfect but the minute you start working on it you will you bound to run into things that don't work out or imperfections and just the idea of never living up to your idea that makes for procrastination and then procrastination could be a symptom of mental illness so let me be clear here procrastination in itself is not a mental illness but it could be if you're suffering from depression for example you don't feel like doing anything so it makes sense you procrastinate also people suffering from OCD have a tendency towards indecision making them procrastinate and then there are those people that have ADHD and because their brain works differently they are also more prone to procrastination but what do we tell ourselves so we've seen what the researchers say but if you ask people why do you procrastinate so they'll say that they're insecure about a task if a task is not well specified if you don't know exactly what the end result would be then that could be a reason why you would procrastinate and then there is the thing that a lot of people don't know how to start and my son who is 12 he recently had to study for an history test and he just didn't start and I said that test is you should start and he said I don't know how so I sat down with him and I said well first make a summary and then make a list of all the important dates you have to learn and then go ahead and read everything once more and we had that list and he just instantly began studying so he just didn't know how to start it could also be the fear of me and telling him you really should start that motivate him we don't know then people also say that they're not in a mood for a certain task and that's why they procrastinate or that they keep forgetting and then there's this reason a lot of people say I do this too that they work better under pressure so they need a deadline to challenge or motivate them in order to keep going so we've looked at the reasons why we procrastinate do we all do it and do we all do it to the same extent you know there's not a word for procrastination in Dutch and I know this is true for other languages as well so but does this mean that Dutch people don't procrastinate no I wish everybody procrastinates but it is weird that we don't have a word for it we say op the long that's a Dutch saying but it's not a word and otherwise we would use postpone but that's different we all procrastinate but there are big individual differences some people are much more prone to it than other people and it could also change over the life course so I am a woman of a certain age and I'm not in menopause yet that's going to be a different talk but um I'm me like in the first phase or level one of menopause I don't know per menopause they call it and I noticed that your hormones are are changing that hormones the things that women have and that also my procrastination Behavior changed so your your behavior can change over time so there are individual differences between people and within people so I already told you procrastination is very common amongst writers and developers our group of people so why is that that why are we so why are we such procrastinators well the first reason why writers and developers procrastinate is because of the task that they are doing they're writing they're writing either code or they're writing text and writing is a hard task for your brain it asks for a lot of brain power it asks for attention for concentration and creativity unless you use jgpt then it doesn't ask for that but if you use your own brain it just asks a lot and whenever a task is really hard we tend to want to do something more fun instead and procrastinate right and then the other one is that the distraction is tremendous you're always on your computer so you'll have slack you'll have a you'll have your email you'll also have your phone somewhere and some people have children on the back of their neck so the fact that we all work on a computer means that we are constantly drawn out of the task we're doing and that leads to procrastination and let's Circle back to Website Maintenance why is the task or are the tasks of Website Maintenance so very prone to procrastination well Website Maintenance means a lot of writing and we've seen that that is exactly what we procrastinate almost or writing code right it's a lot of updating and that can be really boring and tedious so we tend to want to not do that we Face a lot of distraction and then very important if you're maintaining a website you will hardly ever see immediate results you'll probably have more visitors in the long run but making changes on your website doesn't immediately lead to good results or more visitors and that means that we will procrastinate on these tasks because because we don't see an immediate effect and if we do see effects then results are really hard to measure so it's hard to tell ourselves that we're doing something that is useful although we all know what happens if you don't properly maintain a website so how do we overcome this so we now know all know oh so let me talk you through a a five-step plan on how to overcome procrastination and Conquer it once for all it's really hard so the first step this is kind of an Open Door is to set goals you have to know what you want to reach with your website do you want to reach more traffic do you want to have more sales more newsletter subscribers and also think about what you're going to do in order to reach thats are you going to write more articles are you going to update a lot of content are you going to improve the side speed of your website and it's really important to set goals that are Al also realis IC so you're probably not going to write 80 blog post next year so don't set that goal set set a goal that's something that you really can achieve and then and this is also very important you should really get excited about your goals because if you feel like you're doing something important here you're much less prone to procrastination if you feel excited about what you're doing that means something so think about how awesome your website will be if you do the things you want to do or how proud you will be if you finally are able to like publish a new article and share it online so that could be or if you drive more traffic to your website you should really Envision yourself reaching those goals and get excited for it this is hard yeah think of me if you do that I'll get excited for you okay so you set your goals and you've got excited about them now it's time to make a plan and some people think that the goals are already the plan that's a mistake so you really need to make time in your calendar in order to get working on it because if you don't you know for sure you're not going to do it so what you should do is to get that to-do list that you made of all the things you would like to do and think about how much time it will take in order to do these tasks right so maybe it will take you an hour to update the blog post two hours to write a new one that's really quick though make get 3 hours and then reserve room in your calendar so so put some time away and set room in your calendar to really do that and step reminders you have people that will do whatever they've planned to do but most people will probably don't do that so set reminders set reminders in slack in your calendar ask your husband to remind you to do something you can do all kinds of stuff no matter how well you've thought everything through things are never going exactly according to plan so it can be really frustrating and demotivating if you never reach your goals so what you should do is evaluate regularly and see whether or not this is doable because you don't have to make a perfect website you should make progress on your website so if you adapt your plan you'll experience far less frustration and more success and that will keep you going so this all sounds really obvious but people tend to stick to their goals even if they're not doable and that'll make them give up so allow yourself to adapt your goals and to adapt your plan accordingly and then you should be really proud of yourself if you finish something overcoming procrastination is really hard especially when it comes to Website Maintenance so what you want to do is give your brain like this success feeling and celebrate everything you're doing right so cross off your to-do list that'll give you a little dopamine kick right there show off your new blog posts on social media and be happy for what you've did you can also treat yourself to a nice cup of coffee or to go for a walk after you finished something that was really hard to do that those are all things that you can celebrate your progress and that will make it more likely for you to keep up the good work so let's look at some few tips on how to conquer procrastination in general we already talked a little bit about this but in in many cases you've specified a task that is too big so if you want to write a blog post that can be like a hard task to grasp can you break that task up into smaller ones for example I want to write a blog post about the pros and cons of AI um you can break that one up to say I'm going to do some research first then I'll write the introduction and then I'll do the pros part and then I'll do the cons part so you have four little tasks that combined will give you that blog post but it will be much easier to start with if you just start with a little one I'm giving you this tip and you don't want to see how my working environment looks like but you should work in an environment that is clean and organized you should not have a a a desktop is full of crap like mine but you should not have 4,000 unread emails in your inbox I'm going to be better at this but this really helps so if you have less things getting you out of your attention that'll make it easier to keep doing it and then and this sounds really easy it should become a habit it should become part of your routine to work on your website that's the real way how to beat procrastination but making a habit out of something that takes a while and means that you have to go in and do something on your website at least every week and to keep the good work up that's what like the solution in the end so what should you remind from this talk what you should you remember from this talk so everybody procrastinates some perhaps more than others and some like me end up doing the really useless Stu stuff when they're procrastinating but be kind to yourself you're not alone you're not weird you're just human and Website Maintenance is important but also prone to procrastination you should remember that because you're going to procrastinate on these tasks for sure but if you know that you're going to do it it'll make it a little bit much more easy to tackle that problem if possible set up a routine and make sure you do things regularly uh make a plan and make room in your schedule and finally celebrate your success and your progress and remember that progress is better than Perfection so this was my talk thank you in the beginning of my talk I told you a little bit about a plugin that we've been working on it's the name of the plugin is progress planner and if you're interested at all you could check out our website which is called progress planner.com thank you so much for listening [Applause] okay wow maika this was really interesting I'm just looking at the people who had question their hands raised did this work for you do you have now an idea how to solve the procrastination it's a difficult word right show some hands nobody yeah come on all right they all now they all have a fstep routine so uh so it's solved it's all right so we have time for questions anyone have a question for maika there are mics in the alley he he has a question okay can you step to the microphone please yeah he can also shout that's not the way it's you're supposed to be right uh hello L from Croatia uh I often have a habit when I'm developing uh I go to Facebook or LinkedIn and then start reading uh and I noticed that uh when I'm developing uh my brain go uh gets tired after some minutes or I don't know it's not uh two or three minutes but after some time and then I go to this uh uh uh Facebook uh just uh to uh rest a little on my brain but now the problem is not to rest too much so uh probably I should do better walk a little or something uh but yes uh the uh the uh my comment is more than a question that um uh I need some rest because brain goes tired but it's uh difficult to catch this moment uh okay now I am arrested I should start work again and so yeah you do it very not deliberately yeah you're right right your brain gets tired from task like that I think about 20 minutes on average and then you'll need something um and and if Facebook works for you then okay that's that's totally fine I I feel like I enjoy enjoy it in the moment but afterwards feel really bad about not being productive enough so but but it's it's totally fine if you scroll through Facebook especially if you find something new and exciting it's I think it's fine it's just it's not fine if it's bothers you then it's a problem yeah that's nice thank you next speaker a question hi uh my name is Francisco I'm from Brazil uh do do you already heard about the the Pomodoro Technique it's a time management technique you heard about it I've heard about it but you should you have to remind me because I don't know exactly how it works so basically you focus for 25 minutes yeah then you rest for five minutes it's a cycle yeah so I I run I start up based on it so I can maybe show you it's a project timer it's on your subject too is to help people get F focused on work yeah yeah so that makes sense right 25 minutes and then five minutes of rest and then go ahead if that works for you that's that's great for me it's often hard to start so before starting a task I first go to the toilet and then grab a Coke and then I don't know what to do and then I'll so I even I I have a hard time starting the tall scho together that's why it helped a lot because you do this thing in the five minute break yeah you go work again thank you thank you thank you we have on the other side of the track also couple of people can have your question your name please yeah for me when procrastinating it's like the defining moment between starting the next episode while watching Netflix or getting up and doing the thing uh where you said like it's deciding between the instant gratification and doing the thing you're supposed to do do you have like a tip for those moments where it's really hard to make the right decision no I blame Netflix no it's like I think 20 years ago we had far less of those things that keep you inside of them so Tik Tok and Instagram do the same thing right you're in Instagram reals and I'm looking at at dogs I don't even particularly like dogs but then I see them and I'm like intrigued so for me those things are really bad I think if you're aware of that you're doing it that's like half of the thing because then you'll can make a conscious decision to either watch that next episode or in my case go to bed that's yeah but so the only thing I I can say is awareness or removing the Netflix app no that's not fun may I respond to that one yeah you can I can maybe um awareness is one good thing and also uh I think the best thing to you is uh just make an agreement with yourself okay I just going to watch one or two episode at the max otherwise you know that doesn't work it doesn't work well then you are very aware so you are so that's also the goal setting make it very like a because procrastination is often unintentionally and so if you in then it's at least it's an intended decision to watch another one which is better than unending to do stuff which is just happen and then you end up with Taylor Swift pajamas and and you don't need them nobody needs them all right thank you next question what's your name hi I'm chian I'm currently living in Florence but I'm from Romania so thank you for the talk I'm curious for you when it comes time to plan things that are hard and you're avoiding and also to do those things what works for you is it like a logical framework you're thinking about things from a logical perspective okay I don't want to do this but once I will do it it's actually something that might be hard but it's going to be great in the end is it like an emotional thing I want you do certain things to feel a different emotion associate it or to I don't know move your body in a way to actually feel it or how do you actually manage exactly the starting point where is that battle between I need to do it but I don't do it yet you know yeah how do you cross the Chas well I think I think people get I get a lot of stress from things I haven't started with at all so what I and and that's the the thing I want to avoid to stress so what I do is I write a lot of things down and I do one thing to start and that could be as simple as sending an email but then I at least started something and then I and then I can do the rest but I write everything down I have multiple notebooks I I carry them with me I forget everything um but that works for me but I think it's my brother who said this to me though that starting something can avoid much of the stress so you have a problem but you at least started something in in like in in in the in the direction of a a solution that will give you a sense of oh okay I've started this this is going to be hard but at least I've done something yeah I don't know if you have anything in that also no thank you for the advice next time when I feel this I will start watching an episode on Netflix starting to do something will make me feel better but no that makes a lot of sense and when I do that it actually gets away all the Mind clutter and it feels better and I get clarity and it's like oh I'm doing the right thing you know but it's always that starting yeah thank you perfect thank you very much uh Rion on the opp side hi I'm ran Richard from the Netherlands um I go clean the house yeah yeah that's not that's not really a reward I was thinking because um well it's really not nice to do but if I don't want maybe that's something I like less but I don't know well it is lighter but as Yost you being very productive while you're procrastinating because cleaning the house I I I would love for me to do that I just end up with junk you're doing something that helps at least your house what helps for me is is really good routine like I the first thing I do in the morning is start writing and after that I'm free to do what I like to do further so like the hardest part first that works for me yeah I can imagine if I don't plan out my day I end up doing nothing so I even now plan my free days with things like don't just go walk and go do and then I'll do it and I'll feel better but otherwise I would just be I don't do nothing do nothing is really well I know yeah I think ran you can procrastinate in my house time thank you all right maika thank you very much yeah okay put the mic down yeah we're going to make a picture where picture yeah thank you thank you, Pivoting Procrastination towards Progress, YouTube, 01ka7e44pppk4kmxha89y8yzvf.