Procrastination: ”I’ll do it later” Syndrome
“Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.” It’s a great quote but unfortunately doesn’t work for everyone. For instance, there was enough time to work on this article but I delayed it every day, thinking “there’s enough time”. And, in the words of Tim Urban, the panic monster made its appearance, ultimately leading me to completing my work. A lot of lofty promises about not-procrastinating were made in the process but of course, none of them were kept. This is how I am caught in the vicious cycle of procrastination.
The problem of procrastination is so perpetual, that ancient philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle described it as Akrasia. It is the state of mind where you do one thing even though you know you should do something else. So, whether you refer to it as procrastination or Akrasia or something entirely different, it remains the force that pulls you back from doing your actual task.
Now procrastination can be of two types: active or passive. While active procrastination is a smart way of handling the assigned work in a short duration, passive procrastination is more of a display of laziness.
Though it is nearly impossible to quit this vicious cycle of “professional” procrastination, one can always change the “type” of procrastinator they are.
Usually, passive procrastination is procrastination in the traditional sense. In this, people are paralyzed by their indecision to act, and fail to complete tasks on time. This way, people enter the aptly named self-devastation zone.
In contrast, active procrastination is a positive kind of procrastination. Here, you have a jumbo to-do list (the usual case with procrastinators) which is prioritized. This way, you are able to handle things efficiently and cope up with stress. In return, you are awarded instant gratification. If the task is too huge to handle, divide it into sub-parts. Take them bird by bird or wing by wing. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. Being mindful at that point will help you come up with some creative solutions.
We make plans, but don’t take action:
Time consistency can be one explanation for why Akrasia or procrastination dominates our lives. The tendency of the human mind is to value immediate highs more than future rewards and this acts as an all too powerful override more often than we know.
So imagine that you have two selves: Present self and your Future self. Whenever you make plans, like setting small goals to exercise regularly or to read the newspaper or maybe learn a new dance form; there, you are in fact making plans for your future self. The future self-values long-term benefits. Basically, your future self thinks about being fit while your present self wants french-fries. When it’s about making decisions your present self comes into play and values immediate gratification over everything else.
So you have to find a way to move future rewards and punishments into present action. When you have to write an article, but then continue to put it off day after day, suddenly the day before the deadline, the future consequences turn into the present and somehow complete it. The pain of procrastinating gets finally accelerated and you cross the ”Action Line.”
How to stop procrastinating:
1. Make immediate rewards: One way to bring future rewards into the present moment is a strategy known as temptation bundling. This combines a long-term useful behavior with the one that makes you happy in the short run. Like, watching a TV show while doing household tasks.
2. Make the consequences immediate: The idea here is to create a new consequence if you don’t do something right now. If you exercise alone then you can easily make an excuse to skip it but then if there is a friend, skipping a workout becomes more immediate and you feel guilty.
3. Plan your future actions: Commitment devices can help in overcoming procrastination. You can stop wasting time on your phone by deleting games or social media apps or take less money with you whenever you go outside so that you don’t splurge on items you never intended to buy.
4. Make the task more achievable: The idea is to follow “the two-minute rule”, where it is easy to get started with an action and slowly the task accelerates. Similarly, one more way to make tasks achievable, is to break them down.
So, it’s normal to look forward into the future and know we will have plenty of tasks that we will be unable to finish, just as we know we must eat. Procrastination is as fundamental as eating: It is difficult to imagine a future with less of eating or stop eating entirely for that matter.
