The Black Hole of Procrastination
I just caught myself having a thought I've had before. This time, however, I had a little bit of a different perspective on it and it made me realize what a black hole procrastination can be for me. Not only does procrastination mess with the task I'm specifically avoiding, but it sucks down nearly all productivity in its vicinity. Particularly troubling is the fact that I manage to avoid this problem in my billable work.
Here's the thought process that happens. I'll illustrate with a hypothetical instead of the real instance. Let's say, for the sake o example, that I have 5 relatively big tasks on my to do list (things like filing tax paperwork, cleaning my office, etc.). Beyond that, I have 10-20 items/projects that I think are worth doing (things like working on my memoir software or re-designing this site).
Now, one of the items on the big to do list is what I should be doing right now and I don't want to do it: classic procrastination scenario. However, when procrastination rears its ugly head, I often look to the "B" list of tasks for something to do instead. That's when the thought in question pops into my head. See, I think about doing one of those "B" tasks. However, I find myself deciding that I can't do one of those things, because, if I'm going to *do* something, I really should just be doing the primary task.
This is evil because what I end up doing is essentially "nothing". I not only end up avoiding the initial task, but turn down the idea of anything else off of my lists because I "really should be" doing that initial task instead.
Hopefully, by framing this thought process, I can catch myself. It worked this time, because one of the things on the "B" list was to write a new post on this site and here we are.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Its not just your problem, and I know that you know it. But to tell you what i read from Anthony Robbin's book Awaken the Giant Within was this.
Every action that we take is either motivated by some sort of pleasure that you may get by taking that action, or is to avoid some sort of pain if you don't do it.
So Whenever we have a list of things to do, the way to motivate ourselves to actually perform the task at the top of the list is to concentrate on these two aspects. What pleasure will you gain if you do that task quickly and what pain would you suffer if you never do that task.
Hope that helps.
Now I have to do something at the top of my list.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
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