Having recently watched a video from a world-famous professor Tim Pychyl (youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA), I felt the urge to write an article about the importance of not procastinating. So let's get right down to it! Pun intended, haha
So what are we talking about here:
(1) Procastination is not a time management issue as many people falsely claim.
Procastination is a failure within the self-regulation mechanism, also known by its more popular name, Willpower. Procastination has roots in failures of Willpower, but it's also gotten itself rooted into a host of other phychological methods including short-term mood repair (giving in to feel good temporarily) and classive negative reinforcement based on an avoidance mindset (to "avoid" problems and feeling better without action).
Procastiantion is all of the following (and this may be news to some)
- voluntary and irrational
- delay despite outcome
- never helpful
- worldwide and culture agnostic
However, not all delay is procastination. Unless you're noticing yourself delaying things on purpose, or setting aside tasks for no reason other than a momentarily fulfilling "burst" of endorphins, you probably don't suffer from Procastination. Only if you recognize actions stemming from self-regulation failures which are embedded deep into our psyche, and unable to find a "balanced" state for your goals and intentions, might it be a Procastination problem.
Here's an example:
Real learning takes place like this
~~~~due~~~~~~due~~~~~due~~~~~
Procastinated learning takes place like this
/| due __/| due __/| due
Additionally, Procastination and Emotional Intelligence share a common parent concept in Self Regulation. Procastination creates feelings of short-term relaxation -> guilt -> stress -> short-term relaxation, which lead to an overtasked emotional core. It's like a person walking with an injury, a limp, or a skewed walking gait, which leads to further injury.
So how can we heal the Procastination mindset and get things done? First by accepting that Procastination will occur from time to time, especially if it's something that you've been doing for a while. Understanding our procastination is the first step, and Parker Palmer's quote "I can have fear; I need not be my fear." is the perfect embodiment of the need to be open with ourselves before we can tackle Procastination.
Next up, after identification of the problem, Parker Palmer
states that if a piece of the emotional landscape is unable to "work", use another piece to take action forward. If you can't work for feelings of success, then work for other feelings you cherish (such as curiosity, financial freedom, etc)
*How do you approach aversive tasks? Is it via an APPROACH or AVOIDANCE mindset?
In studies, people being presented with concrete tasks were less likely to suffer from procastination. High achievers on the Getting-Things-Done spectrum were also less likely to come up with irrational method of explaining away procastination.
TAKING ACTIONS IS:
- living life actively.
- resolving existential issues
- creating an upward spiral of well-being.