When Procrastination is Productive
I recently had an email exchange with a reader who, in his words, claimed to struggle with a lack of commitment.
He wanted to study machine learning, but he couldn’t get past the first few modules of the course he’s taking. After a few emails back and forth, however, I discovered the reason he “wasn’t able to commit” was simply that his full-time job and family responsibilities kept getting in the way.
I don’t think this reader’s problem was a lack of commitment.
When genuinely more important things interfere with side projects, procrastinating on the side project is the correct thing to do! His problem isn’t a lack of commitment; rather, it’s a failure of logistics, difficulty organizing whatever leftover time was available to make some progress on his goal.
There’s a myth in self-improvement circles that everyone ought to be able to achieve any goal. Any failure to do so is seen as a lack of willpower, motivation or “commitment.” Not only is this profoundly untrue, but the mindset it generates leads to an impasse that makes it impossible to make real progress.
Maintenance and Aspirations
The best way to achieve a goal is to expend overwhelming effort working on the task. Do 10x as much as you think you need to. For ambitious goals in…
