How To Take More Action

Procrastination is one of my greatest enemies. It is a deadly enemy because it affects every single part of your life, preventing you from taking the actions that you know you can or should take. Often times it is easy for us to fall into its trap; the frequently used “there is always the next day” statement is a common excuse to prolong inaction, and is easily rationalized when you consider delaying action by only “one day”. However, I propose a simple mental shifts to help you rationalize to TAKE action, instead of delay it.

The mental shift is taking consideration of the non-linear effects that many actions may produce. We, as humans, have evolved to be linear thinkers in the considerably less complex environments in which our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived. We consider the possible action, and extrapolate its results in a linear fashion. What do I mean by linear? I mean to describe the case where we imagine the outcomes of actions to be derived from a simple cause-and-effect relationship with the underlying action; in other words, when we only consider the first-order effects.

With that perspective, pushing something out into the future will not seem as costly, and perhaps “there is always later” sounds more reasonable under those circumstances. To illustrate, consider the first graph "Linear Graph" (attached )with the two linear functions: the blue line represents taking action now, while the red line represents taking action in the future, with the horizontal axis representing time and vertical axis representing cumulative outcomes, respectively.

This graph makes it evident why we can rationalize delaying action when we view them in a linear and first-order fashion; assuming you delay your action by a certain time, the difference between results of taking the action now and in the future is always constant. In other words, your action (the cause) will have a direct outcome (effect), and that will be the end of it.

Now let’s move on to viewing actions through the lens of non-linear, or exponential, outcomes. What do I mean by exponential? Basically, the potential for a butterfly effect scenario; your action sets off a chain of events that accumulate over time to yield large benefits. In such a case, cause-and-effect is not so simple anymore. Now, the possibility of nth-order effects are considered. To use another analogy, you are a business with increasing returns to scale – the more you invest in a certain action, the more your returns for that action will grow at the margin. In such an industry, it would be wise to start as soon as possible, as early entry can secure large future benefits.

Now let’s see how the second graph of how two identical exponential outcomes may look like (Non-Linear Graph, attached). Once again, the the blue line represents taking action now, while the red line represents taking action in the future, with the horizontal axis representing time and vertical axis representing cumulative outcomes, respectively.

What is evident is that the difference between the cumulative outcomes is growing over time. This is in contrast to the fixed difference in the linear case, and implies that even if you delay the action by a fairly short amount of time, the difference in the respective cumulative outcomes of both actions can become large very soon.

To put this into perspective, let’s consider a very simple action: contacting an industry professional to meet you for a coffee chat. For whatever reason (be it time constraints, anxiety or nervousness, etc.) you have been procrastinating sending them that email and asking for a coffee. If you approach this action of meeting for a coffee through the lens of linear outcomes, then why rush and overcome your anxiety? If the relationship is first-order cause-and-effect, reaching out leads to a coffee chat, and the benefits of the coffee chat will be the same now as they will be in a month. On the other hand, if you approach this action through the lens of exponential outcomes, then you will know that there could be a multitude of different outcomes that can accumulate over time for your benefit. For example, your industry contact can just happen to have a friend in a firm, that firm may happen to be hiring, and you may happen to get an interview. Alternatively, that industry contact can give you wise piece of advice which changes your outlooks, and that leads you down a different path of many additional actions, whatever they may be. The point is that you never know what kind of butterfly effect you might create if you just go out and do something.

Not all actions can produce such exponential effects on our lives, but it is impossible to know beforehand whether it will be a linear-effect or exponential-effect action. While larger and more complex decisions may appear better candidates for larger accumulated impact over time, even small and unsuspecting actions, if taken, can have enormous impact.

In conclusion, I want this mindset of “exponential effects” to not only motivate you to do what you have been putting off, but to inspire you to take new actions that may just change your life.