Now or Never
From my online course Boldog idők (Happy Times):
Are you one of those people who tend to put off unwanted tasks?
Statue of Pató Pál, the embodiment of procrastination in a poem by Petőfi Sándor. Sculptor: Nagy János. Source: Ponori Thewrewk Ádám Ajtony, Wikipedia
If the answer is yes, go inside and notice how you do it. Remember a time when you would have wanted to do something but somehow managed to postpone it forever. What happened in your timeline? Did you say something to yourself? What did you do with your inner images? What emotions were dominant? How did you think of time?
While there’s quite a variety in the details, most people manage to procrastinate with the help of a few main procedures. One is to simply banish the task from the near future. You don’t make a schedule, you set no deadline, all you do is get rid off the activity in the coming hours or days. Sure you’ll do it. Some time. The point is to have a nice and clean present and near future.
The other method is to set a time and relax since you have properly handled the situation. You’ll do it tomorrow. When you get to the planned time you quickly move the task over to the next tomorrow. Then you can relax again, having found the really appropriate time for that activity. But it so happens that the set time is not good because… You know. Sooner or later this postponement syndrome begins to stress you. The more you push something away into the future, the more it bothers you unconsciously and the more stress you experience. Those that quickly finish tasks perceived to be unpleasant experience significantly less unpleasantness.
Procrastination is a very entertaining subject where you have several great possibilities. Let’s take a brave strategy first.
The Hero
Source: Lothar Dieterich, Pixabay
Imagine a German businessman. No, not like that. This guy is a very colorful individual. Decades ago, when such behavior was extremely eccentric, he had dreadlocks down to his waist with a few of them dyed blue or green. Inside though, he is still very German, a perfect perfectionist, having mastered at least half a dozen completely different trades to nanometer accuracy. He’d be the perfect candidate for the sculpture of efficiency. Here’s a part of his motivation strategy:
“Every morning I start the day comfortably sitting down and having a nice cup of tea. Then I list my tasks for the day. As soon as I found the most unpleasant one, I start doing it. Knowing this will soon be over gives me wings. It could be 8:15 and I’m already past the most repulsive thing of the day! From there on the whole day’s a joyride.”
You owe to yourself to try this strategy. (You can even add to it: once you’re done with the most horrible task, you tackle the second most disgusting chore. This extension is only for cosmic superheroes, though.) By facing the most humongous monster you will teach yourself something of great importance. If you haven’t tried this yet — it’s time. Be a hero at least once a week! Start today.
Saying No
Other times you need to do the opposite. In the section Just in Time we’ve already talked about the usefulness of saying no. Guess what: you can also say no to yourself. There are things that you want done but if you realistically assess the situation you realize that they will fall off your carriage of tasks because it’s already loaded with more important stuff. Of course you can push the desired tasks into the future in the way we’ve already talked about. Or you can let them go with a light heart. If, in the end, you won’t do them anyway, why stress yourself? Pull the torture stake out of the ground, smoothen the soil and do something that you’ve congruently decided to do.
An even Bigger Monster
Source: Arno Senoner, Unsplash
If you’ve been procrastinating up until now the following situation must be familiar: You’d really need to have something done but you don’t feel like doing it. Writing a thesis is like that for many people. “Yes, yes, I’ll start writing in a little while”, you say to yourself. “Only I need to clean the kitchen first. And arrange all the empty jars in the pantry, this is really important now. Also scrub the oven, wash the curtains, clean the attic, take a lot of stuff to charity, and cut up the firewood for the whole winter. Let see, what else…?
A monster can give you a good push. All you need to do when you want to clean or do some other chore is to find an even bigger monster for yourself that you really don’t feel like doing. Would you rather clean the windows or do your taxes? Either way you win.
An Ant-sized Chunk
Source: Perez Vöcking, Pixabay
Another part of an efficient motivation strategy is chunking. You divide any task into ridiculously small parts. No matter how much you want to, you won’t be able to genuinely freak out from a single ant. So you don’t set the goal of cleaning all thirty window panes in the house which you have been postponing for six months. All you decide to do is one single window pane so you have a nice and clean window that you can look out of. This will be two or four glass surfaces. Get your vinegar spray, old newspapers and go! In a few minutes you’re done, the window is sparkling. You can feel good! You’ve won.
The rest of the windows don’t matter. Your goal was cleaning just one. If you feel like it, of course, you can continue and do another one. But if you do that make sure that you keep the task size at the one-window-at-a-time level. You only want to finish the one you’re working on. You never think of the whole enormous task, only the small, easy piece that you’ve set for yourself. You can leave it at that, unless you desire to continue. The nice, clean part will entice you to do another piece at the right time.
What task or chore were you moving away from up until now? It’s time to find the first teensy-weensy step that you can do today. In case of writing your thesis gathering more information will not work. Which part can you actually begin to write? It could be right in the middle, even one paragraph. Don’t mind the rest, just write that one paragraph and check how you feel.
Positive Procrastination
Source: Marcos Paulo Prado, Unsplash
This method comes form Richard Bandler. According to him all human behavior is useful somewhere. If you have an efficient method for something stupid, you can use it in a context where it’s useful. You can procrastinate unpleasant emotions, for example. Let’s say someone unjustly criticizes you. “Wow”, you say. “I should get offended. But I feel so good right now, I’ll do it a bit later.” Later you postpone it to the next morning, then the afternoon and so on. Somehow you never actually get around getting offended. You stay with that original pleasant state.
Try it out. Let’s say you’re riding your bike in the city. A cab driver passes you obnoxiously close, then stops in the bike lane so you have to pull hard on the brakes. Do you feel like getting mad and shouting obscenities at him? If not, you can procrastinate getting mad. “O.K. O.K.”, you say to yourself. “I’ll do it later. Now I just want to pay attention to traffic so I can quickly pass this guy and continue on. Maybe at the next streetlight.” At the crossing you concentrate on catching the end of the green light. “Sure, sure”, you say. “Once I’m over the bridge I’ll get mad.” But rolling off the bridge is such a nice feeling. “Later, later”, you say to yourself. “Tomorrow… or some other day…” And you never get around to do it, just continue to stay happy.
Have a happy winter solstice.
Source: Thomas Griggs, Unsplash