Top Reasons Why Mind Refuses to Continue Working on a Task (And What Could You Do)

When you can’t continue working on a task there is got to be reason.

So often we’re looking for solutions without realising the reason of the problem. Then we get confused when solution doesn’t work. The process needs to start by understanding the reason.

Without understanding the reason how do you plan to fix the problem?

So let’s look at top reasons why your mind could start slipping and eventually refuse to continue working on a task.

1 – Your mind is tired

Pushing too hard for too long always leads to problems.

What happens to a phone when its battery is low? It switches to battery saver mode. Basically it goes into survival mode. Speed and quality are low priority now. Staying running until it gets charge is a priority.

Same thing happens with tired brain. It starts to think slower. It doesn’t want to think deep. It saves cycles for vital activities like interpreting the world around you.

Brain needs a proper recharge (just like the phone).

Make sure you have regular brakes during the day. Fill in those with some physical activities or at least deep rest (like taking a nap). The best way to give brain a recharge during the day is to switch from intellectual work.

Combine this with deep rest between days. It’s hard to find something hurting brain ability to work as much as having not enough sleep.

Remember that a brain needs rest to recharge and keep going. And you’re in charge of this dynamic.

2 – Your mind is frustrated

Isn’t it frustrating to feel that task is almost done and then discover additional large portion of work?

When this happens once it’s easy to get away with it. When this happens multiple time while working on a task, mind starts questioning if there is an end to the task. Effectively it start bothering itself if there is a feasible reward for the hard work.

Often I find myself in such a situation with research tasks. Like when researching a topic for presentation few days ago I was constantly finding some new aspect to dive into. That seemed to be never ending loop.

Trying to fix something without knowing solution upfront creates the same situation. Last month I was trying to fix a problem with bluetooth in my daughter’s laptop. It was a set of searches and tries. You never know which option from in Internet will fix the problem.

The best solution I have when this situation is already happened is to take a break. This could be half an hour break to recharge or even continuing on another day.

Obviously it is much better to prevent such a situation.

Once I see that task is a research by it’s nature, I believe it’s better to time-block it. Starting a timer is the best way to go. To increase the chance of just snoozing the timer and continuing digging the hole, I prefer to put timer away so that I have to walk to it.

3 – Your mind is bored

Let’s face it some tasks are just boring.

They are either not interesting or require lots of primitive repetitive actions.

You may have no interest in doing a task. You just have to do it. Either because it’s your assignment at work or part of chores.

Repetitive work puts brain in a special state which it doesn’t like. Doing same thing over and over again is boring. Let’s say you have to go though a hundred page document and apply correct fonts, indentation, heading, etc.

In any case mind probably would try to direct you from such a task. Sometimes it slows down leading to errors. Sometimes it starts wandering about something more compelling. And that’s totally fine. That’s actually how it should behave.

Surprisingly enough I find that same tactics which work to deal with frustrated mind perfectly help here as well.

So time-block boring tasks and do breaks.

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