Procrastination: Your Worst Habit

One of the most damaging and damning habits we could practice is procrastination. It is addictive and contrary to every philosophy of behavior out there. It kills productivity, it generates stress, and, ultimately, it ends up making us miserable. It seems harmless, but it is not. So why do we do it, and how can we stop? You know the drill. Read on!


Procrastination vs. Prioritization

There are obviously lots of personalized reasons why we might procrastinate, which is why I don’t plan on making the mistake of suggesting that procrastination is the same as prioritization. Sometimes we rationally, consciously choose to table one task in favor of another. That is called prioritization, and it is not the same as procrastination, even though we are neglecting one task, however important, for something else. Prioritization is a skill and the key here isn’t consciousness or choice. We often consciously choose to procrastinate, even when we know it will hurt us in the long (and short) run. The key to prioritization is rational choice. By extension, we can fairly say that procrastination is often a conscious yet irrational choice. However, this still doesn’t help us understand why we procrastinate.

Are You Procrastinating Right Now?

I developed the following questions to help anyone determine if they are procrastinating at any time. There’s a good chance you’re procrastinating right now, reading this blog post. Want to find out? Answer the questions.

1. Are you currently responsible for any unfinished task with a deadline?

2. Are you currently able, physically and mentally, to accomplish any part of this unfished task?

3. Would failure to complete this task result in any negative consequences or breaches of trust?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you are either prioritizing or procrastinating. And since your reading from my body of work, there’s a good chance you’re procrastinating. Remember that list I developed that you just read? It took me less than 10 minutes to think of that, and it’s totally worthless. Why? Because somehow, we always know when we are procrastinating; we don’t need a list, because we can just feel it.

Then Why Do We Do It, and Why Can’t We Stop?

There’s no simple answer, but we all love lists, right? The following list is not meant to be exhaustive but I would guess that it covers the vast majority of reasons why we procrastinate. As a disclaimer, I AM intentionally excluding diagnosable mental conditions, such as ADD or ADHD, because I AM no expert on this and I do not think they apply. If you have these conditions, get treated, and best of luck. If not, without further ado, you procrastinate because…

1. You Are Completely Uninterested in the Subject Matter of your Task.

At work or school, if you can’t find a way to be interested in something, your mind may stray to something that can engage it. This is probably among the most common reasons.

2. You Are Disorganized in Thought and Process.

Approaching a complicated task at work or school is hard enough. Without a method for sorting through all the complexities, your mind will often wander to less complicated or more enjoyable thoughts. Like video games, girls, or career aspirations.

3. You Can’t Resist the Good, Old Fashioned Distractions.

YouTube, Facebook, Google chat, mobile games, fantasy sports, news… There are SO many things that can distract you. Some are more important than others, but all of them can cause you to avert your attention from what is really important.

4. You Yield to Peer Pressure Far too Easily.

This one is harder… sometimes you have to make time for other people. However, when you have pressing tasks, it is even easier to allow others to lead you to procrastination. Raise your hand if you’d rather hit happy hour than fix grammar and spelling in a pitch book… that’s what I thought.

5. You Feel Overwhelmed by All the Work You Have to Do.

Counter-intuitively, the more overwhelmed or unprepared you feel, the easier it is to push the important tasks aside and rest your mind in the deceptive faux-relaxation that accompanies your particular brand of procrastination. This feeling that you can escape the stress without actually doing the work is probably rooted in the next reason for procrastination.

6. You Lie to Yourself, You Justify the Lie, and then You Lie Some More.

Harsh, right? Well, it’s true. How many times have you told yourself that you’ll get more done later? Or that you just don’t feel up to it and you’ll be more effective after a quick distraction? Or worse, that you can waste as much time as you want because you’re sure you’ll be able to get everything done on time? Lying to yourself will numb your sense of urgency and build a false sense of security that can lead to chronic procrastination.

7. You are Scared of Something, and You May Not Even Know What it is.

Fear of success or fear of failure. It doesn’t matter which, because fear can be as damning an emotion as anything. If you fear failure, you will naturally gravitate to activities that are easy and cost you no emotional toll. Fearing success is a little different; it might not be the success itself you fear, but the added responsibility or reaction of others that comes with success. Fear of success can have the same result: a wandering mind.

8. You are Simply Lazy.

Probably next in the list of most common causes of procrastination is laziness and apathy. It is listed last, however, because if you are reading this particular blog post, you are likely an unrepresentative sample and not as likely to be lazy or apathetic. However, you still might struggle. Laziness seeks ease, and procrastination is easy.

All of these reasons suggest that procrastination starts when we make a choice, usually irrationally, to choose to do something we enjoy instead of something we are responsible for. Overwhelmed, or lazy, or scared, or apathetic; it’s all the same. However we like to get down, procrastination allows us to get our way, and that is simply bad for business. Allow me to wax philosophical or religious for a moment, and consider the purification process of gold. Before it is ever a one ounce bar trading for roughly $1,244, gold is an impure, dingy metal, discolored and included. It is wrenched from its thousand-year home and crushed, crushed again, melted at close to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, violently assayed, electrified, and dissolved by corrosive acid gasses. The resulting gold is the purest available, and it is only possible through this turbulent process.

We are not inanimate ingots of questionably valued metal, but the more we overcome, the stronger we get. And as our obstacles become increasingly challenging, the more we gain from overcoming them. And procrastination subverts this entire process by giving ourselves avenues to take the easy path. And in a cruel twist of fate, even though we create difficult obstacles through our procrastination, we learn little by scrambling to accomplish the task after procrastinating it.

So How Do We Stop Procrastinating?

Ultimately it’s up to you, but here are some of the ways I’ve come up with to curb procrastination. Has it worked? Not totally. But has it helped? Yes. To the degree that I’m committed about overcoming a particular procrastinating tendency, I have been able to. To curb procrastination, you need to…

1. Stop Lying to Yourself and Think Rationally.

This is the most important. Think about the consequences, and don’t be a liar. You know the consequences and you know you procrastinate or you wouldn’t have read this far. If you find yourself getting carried away with your dreams of Harvard or GS, you need to stop. Break those goals down into actionable steps. If you break it down far enough, I’m 100% sure that you’ll find the most important step to getting to Harvard or GS is handling your business now, whatever it is.

2. Reward Yourself with Some Positive Reinforcement.

Not every task that you have to do is going to be fun or enjoyable, and that’s life. But instead of escaping to something that you do enjoy, give yourself a reward for getting your stuff done. In many cases, just getting the work done efficiently is reward enough, but since our minds don’t work like that, treat yourself to something if you finish your work without procrastinating.

3. If Positive Reinforcement Doesn’t Work, Try Negative Reinforcement.

If rewards don’t work for you, try an ultimatum. These are generally less effective but could work for you. This has the added benefit of giving you yet another chance to increase your self-control, because not only will you be exerting yourself to not procrastinate, but you if you fail, you’ll have to try to practice self-control by submitting to your ultimatum.

4. Know your Distractions, Schedule Your Distractions, and Stick to the Schedule.

Nobody wants to sit for hours doing the same thing and nobody should. A good distraction is a way to clear the mind and get your second wind. Some distractions are better than others but any type can be a necessary break for your fatigued mind. The best distractions are the ones that are only distractions in the sense that you have more urgent or important tasks. I love basketball unapologetically, and I’m going to look at the box scores daily. If I know that, I can tell myself that at 10:30 AM, I’m going to take a 10 minute break, walk to the water cooler, check some scores from the previous night, and return to my desk and work. If I stick to that, I can avoid looking at scores, which leads to reading all the articles on ESPN, which leads to reading Grantland, which leads not getting my work done and feeling like an idiot.

5. Look at the Big Picture.

Most likely, you will have to finish your task eventually. If you don’t finish it at work, you’re going to have to do it at home. Don’t forget that it has to be done. If you catch yourself doing something pointless, remind yourself that it’s only yourself that you are screwing.

6. Have Confidence, Be a Professional, and Exert Your Willpower.

The most important way to curb procrastination is to know that you can. Regardless of why you procrastinate, you have to understand that it is almost always a conscious choice. If you are reading this blog post, you likely have ambitions to live a certain way. Everything you want will take willpower, and getting your work done without procrastination is no exception. Take what you want. The more you do it, the better you become. And the more willpower you have, the more successful you will be, because your willpower will determine how much mental and physical and emotional effort you will allow yourself to exert.

Well, that’s it. That’s what I know about procrastination, and I know that it isn’t an exact science. But I do know that the key is to make rational decisions about how you approach and accomplish your tasks. I already said this but I think it bears repeating: I know you have goals, but if you break them down far enough, I’m 100% sure you’ll see that the first step to achieving those goals is to handle your business, whatever may be, right now.

 

was just thinking about how I have to get off WSO and start getting my work done....then I read this gem. Well done

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's." William Blake
 

I was a big procrastinator just a few years ago still. It started when I was in high school give or take. For years I went on thinking nothing of it, but frustrated that it was going on. For me, the first and probably biggest/most useful step to breaking out of the habit was admitting that I had it. I can't tell you how many people I know who couldn't be more of a procrastinator than they are and yet if you told them, they'd take offense and attempt to refute.

Admit it to yourself, and begin researching just like you one day may have said "I want to go into investment banking" and began researching that topic. Took me about 6 months.

 

do you feel like this ties into organization? I feel like I procrastinate but also have no clue what I have to do half the time...

Make Idaho a Semi-Target Again 2016 Not an alumnus of Idaho
 

I've found that today's electronic distractions (smartphones, TV, movies, video games, etc.) were what really contributed to my procrastination habit. That is why I now live in a cabin in Alaska almost completely cut off from the grid (I use an circa 1999 Compaq PC to get on WSO from time to time.) Now I get shit done.

 

I'm a procrastinator of epic proportions. Whenever I feel that I'm slipping back into that negative mindset I try to go for a run to clear my head and get a fresh start.

 

Ugh! I procrastinate a lot. Like was posted above, what has been helping me is first admitting that I do indeed procrastinate. That's probably the hardest part of beating teh habit.

Next, I try and uncover WHY i procrastinate at stuff. At work, it basically boiled down to the fact that I like the idea that I have a lot of potential work to do. Rather than get started on the crap I need to work on, I will hold off and feel happy with myself that I actually have a lot to do. I hated and still hate the idea of just sitting at work with nothing to do, and prefer the idea that there's a lot on my plate, even though I don't eat it. Well, guess what? You don;t gain anything from having a full plate and crowing over it. You get ahead by clearing your plate so you can get even more food... corny

In any case, I think the most important step to beating procrastination is just starting whatever you're meant to do. I still struggle with it and it has held me back in terms of my personal and professional career.

Chill
 

used to be, and I think it's because of the volume of work everyone has, it makes it easier to put off ("I don't have time for that").

here's a couple of things I do:

  1. abide by stephen covey principles. (http://36.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kvqs211qvf1qz82meo1_r1_1280.png). this helps me put things in perspective. obviously WSO is a quadrant 4 activity, but what the hell, you need to do some time wasters every once in a while. the biggest culprit here is email. you can think you are busy when really you're just playing whack a mole with emails, not getting any real work done.

  2. time block. this is easy for me since I can close my door, but for those of you with cubes, learn to say "no" when people want to interrupt you, wear headphones, whatever. reserve time on your personal or group calendar to work on certain tasks, even if it's not an official reservation. for example, I make follow up calls between 8-10am, I do research 10a-noon, etc etc etc. this helps me because I subconsciously know that some other activity will get put off an that will snowball if I don't do what I'd planned during that time.

  3. prioritize & plan. the first and last 15-20 minutes of the day, I plan & prepare. specifically, at the end of the day, I write out my appointments in my planner and 2-5 things I want to get done the next day. I'm sure people have 20+ things going on at once, and if you try to make headway on everything, you'll suffer analysis paralysis. break out your to-dos into bite sized chunks, you'll start getting more done.

  4. eliminate time wasters. I go on WSO a lot less than I used to, I'd recommend everyone else do the same (no offense Andy). it's a great release but you can really get lost in here and other types of things (BI insider, social media, etc.). I check social media sparingly, usually once or twice per day.

  5. take care of yourself. whatever your release is (as long as it's healthy), do it. swim, bike, box, whatever. make time for those things. I think the nature of sports/exercise being about goals, getting stuff done, and improving yourself feeds into the workplace.

I also think loving what you do is a huge part of it, so even if you're in a non ideal job, try to find something other than your paycheck that you enjoy. it's amazing how much you get done if you're in a good mood. aight monkeys, back to not procrastinating and GSD. Cheers.

 

I find a simple to "to do list" really helps me get whatever shit i need to get done for the day. Make the to do list the night before or morning of while having a coffee and on with your day. No fancy apps, just pen to paper, and cross it off the list when you're done.

 

^^^That'll solve the problem. When it comes to deficit spending the Obama line of "Yes we can!" seems to override the logic of "No, we shouldn't"

Both are correct but no one listens to the second one. Just because we can spend more and more for now, doesn't mean we should. Obama's budget forecast shows a 10% deficit as a percentage of GDP. I don't think even the Greeks would buy that notion.

Who am I kidding, of course those idiots would...

 

No President is ever going to cut the deficit because it's political suicide to cut the deficit. The only way to do it is to raise taxes, cut spending, or some combination of the two. Raising taxes is never popular, but especially not during a recession, and cutting spending means shrinking our bloated bureaucracy and, in the process, cutting government jobs and pissing off the many corporate interests that depend on politicians to game the system and make abnormal profits. Also, it means cutting the welfare programs so many democrats use to win votes and administer social justice. But politicians have spent so much time convincing the public that they need them for so many things that if any programs are cut, people will discover how truly useless politicians really are when their lives improve, not worsen with less government intervention. Do people realize that before the Department of Education people still went to college? Only it was much cheaper and easier to do so before the ED. Same with Energy, Homeland Security, and on and on.

"Give me guys that are poor, smart, and hungry. And no feelings." - Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in "Wall Street"
 

Please, the deficit will grow to the point where we get royally fucked. Americans do not have the stomach to cut back on anything. Pretty sad really. Bush tried fixing SSI and that got shut down. Obama stimulates the economy by increasing the size of government on top of Bush's horrible expansion. Government workers make outrageous amounts and getting rid of them is harder than unionized workers.

We are supporting too many people. Even if we stop both wars we still have to face the fact that our entitlement programs are the majority of the budget. The solution is not to continually increase taxes on the rich. The majority of Americans pay no taxes. We all must share the burden when it comes to fixing this solution.

I would like to see the housing tax credit eliminated, the tax deductibility of mortgages eliminated, the reduction or elimination of the child tax credit, the increase of taxes across the board, the reduction and streamlining of the federal government, increase the retirement age. I would also secure the borders once and for all and take all the illegal immigrants and just give them damn green cards so we can start taxing them. Also, can we please legalize pot so we can a) tax it b) stop wasting money arresting and imprisoning them c) save money by scaling back the never ending war on drugs.

We either feel the pain now or feel it later. The government was not created to take care of us like little babies. Also, I realize there is hate and jealousy for the wealthy or bankers or whatever is the flavor of the week, but we need to understand that high earners are also high tax payers, high spenders, etc. Punishing the people who produce is a sure fire way of fucking things up.

 
  1. porn

In all seriousness though I've been spending a lot of time watching old Bond films and browsing the Lamborghini section of ferrarichat looking at Miuras lately.

People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can't trust people Jeremy
 
  1. Counter-Strike: Source
  2. Formula One via DVR
In 1976, James Hunt broke the sound barrier through Eau Rouge only to retire before the event finished... following the race he had sex with three Belgian nurses at the clubhouse near La Source.
 

Youtube, WSO, WSJ

I recently got addicted to movie reviews by spill.com on youtube. Check them out if you haven't seen any, these guys are great.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

Similar to Gekko21, I used to spend a lot of my free time looking at trailers and reading about movies that were in production. Usually you can see movie trailers several months in advance, which is weird because months later someone mentions a "new" movie and in your head you think it's been out for months.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

slashdot.org fark.com metafilter.com 4chan.org (some nsfw) atlasobscura.com geekologie.com gizmodo.com io9.com shii.org/2ch (some nsfw) oglaf.com (nsfwish comic - very funny) sinfest.net (a comic not porn) xkcd.com penny-arcade.com smbc-comics.com grooveshark.com hypem.com kongregate.com newsmap.jp

I do a lot of crastinating.

 

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"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - DT
 

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Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. -Niccolo Machiavelli

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