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We are such in a hurry to "beat" procrastination that we don't realize it's our smart brain at work, asking a great question we need to listen to.
Is it actually worth it to do this thing this way and now?
This post is an answer to a reader's question. π Ask me anything if you have something important on your mind
"I am struggling with imposter syndrome"
Oscar, a reader contacted me and opened up with his struggle with imposter syndrome
Iβve felt imposter syndrome all my career.
I think I put myself into a bad position when joining $PreviousCompany.
I just said to myself βThis time is going to work! Iβll get rid of imposter syndrome!β
It is pretty stupid put yourself against the wall, into a binary position where the result is βcomplete successβ or βcomplete failureβ.
We devised strategies against imposter syndrome, which he agreed with and which I then wrote down here.
Procrastination kicks in
Tim Urban / Wait but Why
Oscar told me a couple weeks later the didn't make much progress. He believed in the strategies but didn't much "because":
"I am bad at following strategies".
And when I asked why and how? he gave me following example.
I am stuck in the same pattern
I get the determination to exercise more.
I start doing exercise, I keep it ok the first week.
I feel I should exercise more.
Second week, something comes up and I can't do it.
The inner judge turns up to punish.
And in spite of knowing I should kind with my self, say the inner judge,
" fuck off, I do my best... bla bla bla"
I am still feeling bad for not having achieved my expectation.
So today let's talk about procrastination's bad reputation.
πΏ Procrastination has a bad reputation
If you read the productivity and success bloggers on Medium.com, you will learn that Procrastination is a terrible enemy, one enemy that you should destroy without mercy if you want to achieve anything in life.
And the success bloggers over there at Medium have all the weapons you need to kill once for all any kind of procrastination.
- *Procrastination Got Me Six Year in Prison | The Haven
- This Strategy Makes It Impossible To Procrastinate | Medium
- Eliminate Procrastination By Asking Two Incredibly Simple Questions | Medium
- Procrastination Sucks β So Hereβs The βEat That Frogβ Way to Powerful Productivity | Medium
- Rewire Your Brain to Beat Procrastination | Medium
- Why the β5 Second Ruleβ Will Destroy Your Procrastination, According to Science | Medium
- Beat Procrastination Forever with OneΒ Habit | Medium
- Say Goodbye to Procrastination with ChatGPT β These Prompts Will Make You a Productivity Superstar! | Medium
- Why Learning Is A New Procrastination | Medium*
π± That actually makes me feel worse because I love learning and I don't want to spend 6 years of prison!
π€ Will ChatGPT really keep me free?
With so much tips on how to destroy procrastination, one has to wonder how it still survives.
Probably the next think piece will do it.
If we don't procrastinate on applying the best 42 strategies to do so obviously.
But procrastinate, we will, because our brain is smart.
π§ How to not outrun an antilope
Figure this: you are a prehistoric man in the African savannah.
Your eyes are focused on a delicious antilope that could feed your family.
10 minutes ago, you tried to ambush her but she escaped.
You tried to pursue her... but she runs damn well. Not so easy.
Don't worry, if its the only source of food available, you can still catch her.
As a human being, you have an overpowered ability which she doesn't have.
You can sweat much better than most animals.
That gives you an edge in the long run.
The antilope runs faster, but at every stop, she needs more time than you recover.
So don't procrastinate.
Follow her.
As long as necessary.
You will catch her if you are disciplined enough.
And you will catch her if you are desperate enough.
But otherwise you probably won't.
Instead you will procrastinate.
Your brain is smart and lazy
Your brain is lazy because it is smart
I should know, I am a lazy programmer.
The brain understands why you are trying to run in the first place.
You are not trying to play the damn olympics.
You are trying to catch food for your famliy.
So he is scanning your environment for easier sources of food instead of letting you exhaust yourself in the poursuit of a damn fit antilope.
And that's why we procrastinate, and always will.
So instead of labelling yourself a procrastinator, you might as well label yourself as a smart and lazy human being.
π» Beating Procrastination is the Wrong Goal
The olympics is a fine entertainment, but I think it's a poor metaphor of life.
Usually we don't need to beat everyone else and be disciplined like a machine.
What we need is to show up, be good enough and find an easy source of food that will feed our family.
How boring would we be if the 42 great strategies of Medium's success bloggers worked and we could be disciplined like a machine.
We would become a machine basically.
Wouldn't be loose an important part of our humanity in the process?
π The pain is real
Tim Ferris from Wait but Why? has made some very famous content on procrastination, including a TED talk.
βΆοΈ Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED Talk
But what I find most interesting is not his solutions, like setting you up with frequent small deadlines that make the distraction monkey afraid.
What is most interesting to me is the pain expressed by his readers.
That feels so relatable.
So what happens here?
Why do we feel so much pain for something that is natural and good?
π‘ Don't Fight Your Procrastination, Try to Understand It
The reason we resent procrastination so deeply is that we need action.
Action is the best remedy.
But action ain't easy, it requires clarity of mind, the right context, quiet time, meeting people, ...
So what do I do?
I listen to my procrastination.
I know the trick sounds too simple to possibly work.
But hey, if there is a reason we procrastinate, procrastination itself can be our teacher to understand better the obstacles and ourselves.
π¨π»βπ« Why exactly am I procrastinating in the first place?
There is not any single strategy that works against procrastination, because, well, the problem is different every time.
If I procrastination tells me the deadline is too far in the future
Here I would probably folllow Tim Ubran's advice
If procrastination tells me I find a task meaningless
Then I probably need to first find my WHY?
Or give it up,
If procrastination tells me the task makes sense but is unclear
Then I probably ask for clarification
If procrastination tells me the task is too big
Then I should probably focus on dividing it in manageable chuncks
If procrastination tells me there too much steps involved
Then I should probably focus on just my next step.
If procrastination tells me I have spent too much time sitting behind a screen
Then I should probably go for a walk
If procrastination tells me I feel alone
Then I should probably invite a friend for coffee
If procrastination tells me I feel a bit down
Then I will probably listen to my Cumbia playlist
If procrastination tells me I'm too tired
π Then I should probably sleep
ππ» Hi, Iβm Jean-Michel Fayard.
π Ask me anything if you have something important on your mind
β€οΈ Please send my article to a friend that needs it.
Top comments (10)
OMG this post is so freaky itβs beautiful π What happened there JM? π Iβm a bit depressed these days, I also desperately need this kind of weed π
But I agree with the bottom line, procrastination is the sign you avoid something that freezes your ability to act. Finding what exactly is that and eliminating it is the key.
But itβs so gd hardβ¦
Hey glad you like it!
What happened is that I'm a lazy dev and for a while I tried too hard to follow the injonctions of others until I realized that's exactly how I should be. See here
I am a lazy developer
Jean-Michel (double agent) γ» Apr 3
Now that I'm fine with being myself, it's not that hard anymore.
Procrastination has saved my bacon numerous times. As a recent example, an answer on StackOverflow that I needed did not exist two months ago. Had I not procrastinated on that very topic for several months, I would have been stuck. Someone else's answer saved me a ton of hair pulling and stress and was only made possible by procrastinating!
I wasn't idle though. I was just busy working on other useful things.
I like this, treating procrastination as a tool to help you rather than an enemy is something I never would have thought of. Brilliant.
Think of procrastination like fever.
You have fever and it's unconvenient.
But fever is helpful symptom that something isn't right.
Fever is not the real issue, it's a symptom.
Procrastianation is not a real issue you should destroy, it's a symptom.
The real question:
Thank you for such an amazing post!
Congrats! I just L O V E D this article! Very very cool!
Muito obrigado San :)
Yep, we're underrating that monkey. It helps to direct your course in the right direction if listen to it attentively.
There is another good TED talk on this topic β The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant . It turns out that people somewhere in the middle between pre-crastinators and procrastinators benefit the most.
However, I think Oscar should implement the first and the most straightforward solution. Just set a small goal to become able to do some number of push-ups/pull-ups or ideally complete each exercise in the workout, etc. As long as this goal is achieved, move to the next one. In my experience, going with the flow without a concrete goal doesn't work. I actually wrote about this yesterday:
A Simple Technique to Achieve Your Goals with Consistent Action
Daniel Rendox γ» Jul 3 γ» 4 min read
What if the reason I procrastinate is that I don't like exercising?
I have tried and find going to the gym boring.
Being "disciplined" in doing always the same thing is just not for me.
Instead I do sports that I actually like.