[Note: If this post looks familiar to some readers, it’s because it accidentally posted itself for an hour or so on March 30 at 4:35 a.m. CDT. I wrote it ahead of time in a fit of efficiency because I’m on the road this week. (The irony of writing ahead of time about procrastination is not lost on me.) If you feel cheated, here’s an older post you might have missed.]
Do you ever set aside a whole Saturday to do nothing but work, except you promised a pie for the bake sale, and when you go to adjust the oven rack you remember that your kids roasted a goose in it the weekend before, and if you’ve ever cooked a goose, you know that you can’t use the oven again—maybe ever, but certainly not until you clean it—so you spray oven cleaner in it and it’s the kind that has fumes, so you rush around and open the doors and windows, and you have a cranky sliding glass door that sticks, and in wrenching it free you yank it off the tracks, so it’s hanging off your second-floor balcony ready to fall out and shred the next passer-by, so you leave phone messages with two door companies and two burly neighbors and start cleaning the oven, but your rubber gloves have holes and you’re afraid of the toxic cleaner (DANGER: WILL BURN SKIN AND EYES), so you run to the Ace for new gloves and when you get back one of the burly neighbors phones, and before you know it, it’s three o’clock and you haven’t done any work?
Me too.
What is this, other than procrastination? I could say that I had no choice but to do all those chores, but my decision to bake a pie before working precipitated the string of crises. Jon Elster calls this the “planning fallacy”*—that is, when we unrealistically plan on having uninterrupted time. Others believe that we procrastinate from fear of failure.
Whatever the reasons, studies confirm what we know already, that putting off tasks doesn’t make us happy.* The question is what to do about it.
Here are some ideas I scavanged online:
—Consider why you’re avoiding the work. Sometimes a self-diagnosis can suggest a strategy. If the task is overwhelming, break it into chunks. If it’s unrewarding, find a way to reward yourself when it’s done. If the task is too difficult, get help.
—Limit your expectations. Don’t expect to have hours and hours of uninterrupted work, and don’t expect to move the world in the time you do have. Have a modest goal and then a couple of backup goals in case you meet the first one easily.
—Unplug. If you need the Internet for your work, at least close your email and turn off the phone for as long as you can.
—And here’s a tip psychologists won’t tell you: Once you get going, ignore the usual advice to take regular breaks. We’ve seen where that leads. Instead, stick with your work as long as you’re cranking.
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*I attempted some actual research on procrastination; the first study I consulted, which I don’t think was supposed to be funny, concluded that “continued research into procrastination should not be delayed.” Here’s a more helpful page of links to information and help for procrastinators. I learned of Elster’s planning fallacy from James Surowiecki, “Later: What Does Procrastination Tell Us about Ourselves?,” New Yorker, October 11, 2010.
Photo: My procrastination, by GingerPig2000
Thank you for confirming what I've always felt works best for me: "stick with your work as long as you're cranking."
(I'm told _The Procrastination Equation_ by Piers Steel is good, but I haven't found the time to read it yet.)
Posted by: Shivaun Hearne | 04/27/2011 at 08:27 AM
I had to chuckle after reading your opening paragraph - that is so me! Your first two tips for handling procrastination are right on target for me. I would add one more to the first tip: fear of failure or lack of confidence. Sometimes, I will avoid doing something because I have convinced myself that I don't know what I'm doing or that I'll make a hash of things.
For me, it helps to remind myself that I'm in an industry that's pretty forgiving, relatively speaking. I'm not a doctor or a lawyer or a hostage negotiator, I'm a freelance writer/editor. No one ever died because of an overpriced proposal or missed typo. :)
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1550602954 | 04/27/2011 at 08:42 AM
Thanks for your post. I was just sitting down to get some work done when I decided to read your blog instead. . .
Posted by: Kate Hannigan | 04/27/2011 at 10:28 AM
Thanks for this. I have the same problem--I set out to do one thing and seventeen others interrupt or I get distracted.
I think it can be really helpful to identify what your most important task or your main goal is. It's easy to start one thing, then work on something else, and you feel like you're not procrastinating because, after all, you're working, right? But if you really need to get a piece of editing done, the fact that you've done three loads of laundry, gotten dinner started, and revamped your webpage doesn't really help with that.
I like kind of a middle-ground approach with breaks. To me, a regular break means I need to get up and move every hour. If I don't, I'll be in pain and less focused later. I do agree that it's best to take breaks as you need and not interrupt your flow just because you're "supposed to" take regular breaks.
Posted by: Kelly Keck | 05/02/2011 at 12:41 PM