From Procrastination To Pragmatism
Image by Ian Dooley from Unsplash
Everyone procrastinates, and there are many reasons why. Procrastination is putting off what is to be done. It is not about laziness or time management, and procrastination is not a character flaw. Research demonstrates that procrastination is a coping mechanism gone off-course, a mechanism for dealing with challenging emotions that include anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, and boredom.
What about the COST of procrastination?
The cost of procrastination is high. Procrastination costs us health, peace, and opportunity. More important, putting off what is to be done truly robs us of the one resource we can never replenish — TIME.
What does Procrastination look like?
Oftentimes, procrastination manifests in us busying ourselves with low-value tasks. When we invest time in low-value tasks at the expense of accomplishing consequential actions, we are procrastinating.
Procrastination is also often mood-driven. When we prioritize present-mood over acting and leading, we are procrastinating.
Procrastination is problematic, as our return on investment in low-value tasks is poor, while the price we pay for distraction and short-term satisfaction is high.
Why do we put things off? We put things off because of fear, because we want conditions to be just right, because we engage in all-or-nothing thinking, and importantly, because much of the time we simply don’t do what we don’t FEEL LIKE doing. What to do?
Because procrastination hits us on multiple levels, it’s important that we take it on. The good news is that there are specific techniques that stop procrastination. Three tools that help curb procrastination include:
Make puttering a daily, routine part of your pre-work/pre-performance time. Unstructured time on undemanding tasks is good for us. Puttering provides rest, relaxation, mental space, and thought-incubation. We are rejuvenated when we engage in undemanding tasks. Invest in peace, quality thinking time, and creativity by puttering.
Once it’s time to work, attend to big unattractive tasks first. Do weighty, high-value tasks early in your workday, when your energy and resolve are high.
Start. Commit to doing the thing you’d rather not do for five minutes when it’s time. This works because for many people, the hardest part of doing anything lies in getting started. We can do almost anything for five minutes. Action in any amount is motivating.
Image by Catalin Pop from Unsplash
Philosophy teaches that Pragmatism is an effective counter to procrastination. All-or-nothing thinking promotes an either-or “I am good at this” or “I am bad at this” attitude that leads us to think that if what we do isn’t stellar or doesn’t move things along a great deal, why bother? Such is not the case with Pragmatism.
Pragmatists aim for progress, no matter how much or how little because progress is progress. How can Pragmatism assist us in our day-to-day?
First, don’t wait until you feel like it, until you have your bearings, or until you have every last piece of information, or until conditions are just so. Mitigate risk, decide, and DO.
Second, invest five minutes of committed action in the thing you are to do when it’s time with the goal of moving the needle the smallest bit forward.
The bottom line? Take on Procrastination - it’s worth your effort. Address what is to be done when it’s time to do it with your eye on progress in any amount, and you’ve moved from bystander to doer, from Procrastinator to Pragmatist. Give these steps a try and thanks for reading.