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November 18, 2006

Later Or Now

My worst enemy in life is not physical. My worst enemy throughout my teenage and college years had no external influence. My worst enemy in life comes from within. My worst enemy is procrastination.

It sounds ridiculous, I know. Just get up and take care of the tasks at hand. I wish my brain functioned that way. It doesn't. At least, it didn't used to. It's almost as though I've had to rewire the damn thing. During college, I'd leave everything until the last minute. Whether it was studying, work, or freelance, it seemed everything had to be put on the backburner. I've read procrastination stems from stress and perfectionism. I can relate. I found myself many times thinking, "This has to be done right, but it'll take me way too long so I better do something else now that's more productive." Dumb. Ass. Reasoning. And yet your brain believes! Browsing the Internet for just the right Miami Dolphins hat is not productive.

So let's take a step back and pick apart the wonderful process. It's a continual agonizing process of digging a deeper hole. It starts out innocently enough. A project comes and it's much easier to put it off just for the moment while one gathers their thoughts. No problem. Within a couple days the project feels slightly different. The creativity lessens a bit because the feeling of time starts creeping in. Within a week it's less about the idea and all about time. The feeling is horrible yet tolerable because the whole notion is forgetting about the voice in the back of your mind. For now. By the time you're 10 feet deep all you can see is the agonizing surface, not the horizon (where you eyes should always be). It sucks.

Ironically, there is an easy solution. Start working. You won't believe how difficult some people find this idea. Work. It's just not an option at the moment. This silly problem would go in a heartbeat once the pencil has been picked up. In every single experience, I've always found the problem to clear itself up once I've begun. No more thinking about time. Once the work has started, it's all about design.

Funny. The hardest part is that first choice. Do I start? Or do I wait? I already explained the outcome of the latter.

A couple years ago I got fed up with the whole process of procrastination and took some steps for it to stop:

  1. Structure the day. X amount of time, no matter what, is dedicated to work.
  2. Make more responsible decisions in other aspects of life. I found this out by accident, but it's amazing how much easier it is to jump on a project without any hesitation when other parts of your life are in order.
  3. Turn the switch off. Huh? Yeah. Turn the switch off. I mean don't let your brain get going. It's a tug-of-war with your desires to put responsibilities off. That little ding in your head that gives you the option to quit? Shut it off. When you're handed a task, blind your mind to anything else. Just begin. Once the ball starts rolling you won't even think about putting it off. It's that first critical moment where you need to be thinking clearly, and not at all!

I can't guarantee these steps work for anybody else besides myself. These were steps I took without any real research. I asked a few trusted friends, and made some educated guesses as to how I could resolve this outstanding issue. It's worked for me.

It's never fool-proof. I'm convinced procrastination is something we're born with. I don't know if it's genetic, but I know it never goes away. It's something you can either control and exceed from, or let it consume you. I deal with it every day and it's not easy.

Then again, who really wants to do work?

Clamoring

Melissa said:

This all rings so true for me. Thanks for writing it. I'm procrastinating right now, and I think I'll go get to work instead.

Blake said:

Heck, this web site can be a good tool for procrastination! I better not write too much...






    
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