Stop Waiting for Life to Slow Down

If you’re a procrastinator—or just someone who keeps putting things off until later—it’s time to try this. Don’t wait for your calendar to magically clear up or for motivation to strike out of nowhere. There’s a way forward that’s actually doable, and it starts now.

Looking back, I’m not even sure what finally broke the pattern. Maybe it was getting tired of hearing myself make the same excuses. I still catch myself waiting for that magical right time, sometimes for things way smaller than the gym—like replying to emails or doing laundry. I haven’t quite solved that one.

This rule doesn’t just work for fitness. It works everywhere. Allowed social media scrolling only after finishing a report. Permitted ordering takeout only after completing meal prep for the week. Even quick Slack scrolls after pushing code. Make the good habit (X) the priority, and turn distractions into rewards by letting the excuse (Y) become the reward.

Why Waiting for the “Perfect Window” Never Works

Let’s be honest, most days, for engineers and ML folks alike, distraction comes dressed up like work. New notifications, chat pings, back-to-back meetings, someone’s always got a clever meme in that group chat—so you spend the afternoon darting from one little thing to another, holding out for a clear stretch that just never arrives. If you’re waiting for life to slow down so you can focus, spoiler: it won’t. There’s always one more ping, one more thread, always something convincing us to check “just for a minute.” I’ve lost entire weeks this way, chasing perfect timing.

Here’s the thing that tripped me up for years. Every switch—from email, to code, to chat and back—throws grit into the gears of your brain. Context-switching piles up cognitive load. You spend more energy getting back to where you left off than actually making progress. Deep work procrastination creeps in not because deep work is impossible, but because it has the most friction at the start. We gravitate toward those frictionless dopamine hits (Slack, Twitter, JIRA comments) because starting hard work feels heavy and awkward by comparison.

Six months ago, I was convinced I could brute-force my way through this. I’d line up a perfect music playlist, clear every tab, and promise myself today would be the day I fit everything in “just right.” It never lasted past lunch.

I used to do this exact dance with code reviews, experiments, even updating docs. I’d push them off until my calendar magically cleared, but looking back, those “perfect windows” almost never opened up. All that delaying just killed any momentum I had—starting from zero each time, watching to-dos multiply.

The real problem isn’t that we don’t have enough time. It’s that our motivation isn’t tied to progress. When you use distractions as rewards rather than default time-fillers, everything shifts. Make the good habit (X) the priority, and let the excuse (Y) become the reward.

So here’s the single rule that broke my old pattern. Y only after X. Need to fix a test, review a pull request, poke at a dataset? Do that first. Then check your feeds, book your next coffee, see what’s happened in the world. It’s absurdly simple, scales from short tasks to bigger milestones, and it works. This is about dependable progress, not waiting for your calendar to grant you permission.

How to Stop Procrastination With Temptation Bundling

Here’s how it works. With Premack principle habits, you pick one worthwhile but slightly annoying thing you know you should do (X), then pair it with something you want to do anyway (Y) as an ironclad rule. If you finish a code review, then you get to wander Twitter. It’s basically wiring your brain with an if-then plan—when you specify the where, when, and how, you set yourself up to actually reach the goal using an implementation intention. So the routine shifts: work comes first, distraction transforms into a clear, defined reward.

If this feels oddly familiar, it’s because we already use if-else logic every time we code. No build, no deploy. No test pass, no merge. No X, no Y. Or think of a CI pipeline: your process halts until all the checks pass. Then, and only then, does the next stage fire. That same pattern, but for your own focus and distractions. Instead of letting Slack or YouTube slip in whenever, they become little finish-line flags you get after the real work.

Now, if you’re wondering what this looks like day to day, it’s simpler than it sounds. You might say: 25 minutes of heads-down coding, then you can check Slack. Or: run that experiment before you skim your feed. Finish reviewing that pull request, and then you get one YouTube video—yes, start small. I’ve literally allowed myself to scroll social media only after finishing a report I kept ducking.

One day last spring, I got so desperate to avoid cleaning my apartment that I ended up alphabetizing my spice rack instead of writing just one paragraph for a doc I owed my team. Garlic powder, cardamom, oregano—perfect order. The kitchen was spotless. The write-up? Still blank. That was the moment I realized my ability to invent “productive” avoidance was basically infinite if I didn’t give myself a real reason to start.

Let me give you one more concrete example. At one point, I wrote a quick-and-dirty script to block YouTube until my tests passed. Honestly, I didn’t expect how much I’d bargain with myself until a failing test stood between me and a video. Suddenly, I was laser-focused on getting that green checkmark, not because I loved debugging, but because the cat compilation on the other side felt way more exciting than I’d like to admit. That little tweak turned out to be weirdly fun—and embarrassingly effective.

Why does this trick work when good intentions don’t? The start of a task turns into the gateway for something you actually want, reducing the friction that keeps us stuck. Your brain actually gears up harder when that next action comes with the promise of a reward, making momentum compound, according to neural incentive research. So every small X completed unlocks a little Y—and with each cycle, you make starting easier, not harder.

Make the Rule Work for You

Start small. One test, one function, one experiment block, one page of docs—break your priority down until it’s something you could finish today without rolling your eyes. Don’t worry about tackling the whole beast. Just pick a unit that’s tiny but real. The wins don’t have to be big—they just have to happen.

Then choose rewards you actually crave—not stuff you “should” enjoy. Feed checks, Netflix, good coffee, a short walk, a quick browse through your favorite news thread. The trick is to make these rewards contingent, not forbidden. You’re not giving them up; you just have to earn them.

You’ll need some guardrails so you don’t game the system. Define what “done” means for each X, set simple timers, log completions, and lean on blockers to make sure Y stays truly after X. There are days when I stretch the idea of “done” so far it barely means anything. Setting up a browser extension to lock Slack or Twitter until I finish a code block feels annoying at first, but it prevents loopholes I’d invent in five minutes flat.

Scaling this trick for actual projects means chaining micro Xs together and stacking Ys only where they matter. You finish your meal prep—then you can order takeout. Push code, allow yourself that podcast episode. The rule works for sprints, experiments, review cycles, anything that drags out over multiple steps. By breaking up big tasks into small, trackable units, you keep the “Y after X” pattern rolling—making each win a stepping stone rather than a finish line.

Here’s your starter pack to stop procrastination with temptation bundling. Code for 25 minutes, 2 minutes of Slack. Run one experiment, read one thread. Review one PR, one video. Write one doc paragraph, one scroll window. Pick one and try it today. The shift happens when you let rewards pull you forward, not shut you down.

Make Change Stick, Objections and All

Think this is more work? I used to think the same, like setting up little gates for every habit would chew up more time than it saved. But honestly, the “Y only after X” rule is about as lightweight as brushing your teeth. Most of the minutes you spend are the ones you used to lose dithering, circling back, or restarting. The tiny bit of setup clears out so much indecision that it pays for itself fast.

So here’s your move: today, pick one habit you’ve been postponing, flip your script, and turn your excuse into a reward. Define your “X” and your “Y,” make the rule, and—this is the most important part—do it once. Don’t overthink. Try just one round.

Flip procrastination on its head. Earn your distractions, don’t chase them. Let the rule carry you into deep, focused work you can trust, powered by temptation bundling for deep work.