The Daily Growth Blog #7/365 | I love procrastinating
Okay, I may have mis-titled this blog. I don’t LOVE procrastinating but for a long time I always enjoyed letting tasks accumulate and then do them suddenly with a certain unnecessary pressure in my head.
I would never feel good about myself after having done this but I would still do it, again and again and again.
My oldest memory of procrastination is in my childhood, when all of us at school got two months of summer holidays every May and June. It was a great opportunity for all our school teachers to be over exuberant in giving out ‘homework’. They really went all out. And it was so creative. Mathematics teachers would ask us to cut out polygons using cardboard and calculate surface area (so a bit of art & craft), art teachers would ask us to create masterpieces like we were all mini-Picassos (so a bit of life-lesson-coaching), science teachers would be drooling over their own encyclopedias of maddening homework that only intelligent parents could finish. Coming to the point, we got a lot of homework.
I made it a point to procrastinate and push everything to the back of mind till the 59th day and on the 60th day (and night) it’d be a mad rush to get things done. My parents, brother (who hadn’t started school yet), neighbours without children, older cousins in college, and even our pet (stray) dogs would be helping me complete my homework. It was nothing less than a mess. A time management catastrophe, if there ever was one.
More recently, I have procrastinated on getting client pitches ready (wouldn’t do it till about an hour before the meeting, or in some cases, editing the deck during the meeting), or sending reports about my individual performance (when I was an individual contributor) or putting off my yearly doctor visits etc.
What I’m trying to say is that procrastination has been a big part of my life. Over time I’ve come to realise that there are two major types of procrastination I generally see myself act out —
- The BT (basic task)-based procrastination — The same as the lateness in completing my summer holiday-homework. These are random delays caused by the procrastination monkey inside me. (See Tim Urban’s TED talk to know more) — YouTube Link
- The LTI (long term investment) procrastination — Writing more, going to the gym daily, working on my overall nutrition etc. These are personal goals that I tend to deprioritise when faced with an alternative. For example, if someone in my family asks me to go out with them for a walk, I can skip gym to do that. (or even to watch a movie). Absurd, I know, but I don’t feel too bad about it because I know I can always go back to the gym the next day. There’s no deadline. It is an infinite game.
But there is a twist to all this. There are things I’d never put off for later and would prioritise, plan and complete as soon as possible. Team issues, appraisal discussions, any pending management approvals that are stopping any form of growth for anyone around me, or the team. These things cannot be put off. They affect a larger set of individuals, beyond just me. And I have never procrastinated on any of them.
I have tried to understand the double standards I have, and tried to make some sort of sense of my thought process. And I’ve come to realise that I value deadlines when they affect anyone but me. Being responsible for someone else’s delay hurts me at the core of my being. I cannot delay responses to chats or emails or phone calls. If I can’t make a decision by myself about something important, I will make it a point to get the right stakeholders together, and get to a conclusion as soon as possible It is an OCD. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
So now I know that there is a mind and psyche inside me that can get things done if it wanted to. Point is, how do I activate that psyche, get into the ‘Flow’ state and get more things done, without delaying them unnecessarily.
So what has helped me combat my own mind and stop procrastinating? Here are some of my inferences from a study of my own behaviour-
#1 — creating challenges
In the last week I have written every single day — posted on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter, without fail, day in and day out. Why? I challenged myself to write every single day, for 365 days. A reminder goes off on my phone every night at 9pm. More often than nought I’m either reading a book or watching Netflix at that time. I put down what I’m doing, open my laptop and start writing. It’s worked quite well so far. I seem to be improving on the time slots too (I started writing today’s blog in the afternoon —was already done with my tweet and LinkedIn post by 5pm).
So yes, challenging myself works. Should add the gym thingy to this too. No?
#2 — making it about someone else
If there is something I’ve learned about myself, it is that I am a people person. I get motivated if I am doing something for someone else. I could probably use this to push myself to do things when I don’t feel like it?
Let’s say I need to get my part of a presentation out to the team so they can complete their part and be ready. I can push myself to complete my research and work faster so that no one else is delayed because of me. Weird, I know, but it can work. It has, in the past.
#3 — writing it down, with the reason and larger goal
As with everything else in life, if we can visualize things and write them down, we are more likely to work towards achieving them. As I shared in one of my previous blogs, I’ve started making shorter to-do lists (maxed out at 10 per day), so that I can be focused on top priority tasks, and add non-priority tasks to a mid-term or long-term list (I maintain this on Notion).
I seem to have started enjoying the simple task of cutting off to-do list items and this bodes well for my future non-procrastinating (or less procrastinating) self. If I’m able to create dopamine hits off of cutting to-do list items, I might be able to work with my own biology to get over my own psychology.
Wow.
#4 — focusing on the good feelings
This is similar to what I shared above. Doing things and getting them off my list makes me happy. So if I get over the initial heartache of starting a task, and focus on the future happiness of achievement, I will be a much better task-master very soon.
No, but seriously, Matt D’Avella shared this in one of his latest YouTube vidoes. (Link) Just try to do something for five minutes. Actually set a timer and tell yourself that you’ll just spend the next five minutes on a task. This helps get over the initial displeasure of starting something because that’s the one big hurdle we need to get past — starting something. Hence, if we are able to tell our mind (procrastinating monkey) that we just need to sit on something for five minutes, it’ll give you a break and let us sit down and focus for five minutes. There’s a pretty good chance that once we sit down for five minutes, the momentum built up is usually enough to power through and complete the work.
#5 — telling others and creating stricter deadlines
And finally, something that’s always been true for a lot of us social beings — telling others. If we announce to the world that we’ll get something done, we would probably do it because the same mind that creates mental blocks of procrastination also cares about what others think about us.
It is also important to be intelligent with your commitments. I was once given an assignment by my boss who asked me to complete it by Friday. I took a look at the assignment, my schedule for the week, and made a judgment call — I told him I’d have it on his desk by Thursday morning. I worked crazy hard and was able to get it to him by Thursday afternoon. He didn’t mind and even though I’d missed my self imposed deadline, I was still well in time for my boss’ deadline.
This strategy can work if you value the people you make commitments to.
And that’s all there is to it. Value. If we value our time, our responsibilities and our priorities, we will get our work done, on time.
Let’s add more value to our lives and our environment. Let’s stop procrastinating on things that truly matter!
