I am one of the most, possibly the most, severe procrastinator I know. The damage to my life from procrastination is unfathomable. It is rare that I get something done more than thirty minutes before the deadline.
Lately, I’ve managed to partly overcome this by using what they call a “commitment device.” In this case, I promise my friend by email that I’ll paypal him X amount of dollars if I don’t do Y task by Z time. So like, in my email, I’ll say.
Grade students for ninety minutes - 4:30pm - $25
And this has had a surprising benefit. I’ve gotten more work done before of this. But it doesn’t work as well as I’d like because sometimes my inertia is actually stronger than my desire to hold on to my money. I have sometimes actually given up fifty dollars instead of doing work.
Like I said, my procrastination problem is unbelievable.
Do any of you chronic procrastinators use commitment devices, and how do you use them? Maybe you know other ways of doing it.
I’ve always been a terrible procrastinator. I really like John Perry’s idea of structured procrastination. I get a lot of stuff done when I’m supposed to be getting other stuff done. (Last winter, I procrastinated on meeting a book deadline by writing an article I was way more interested in.)
Article recently posted to the Dope (sorry I don’t remember by whom). Advice (in part 2) probably not so novel, but very nice description of the problem at least…
OP you might be me. I have also have done unfathomable damage to my life by procrastinating. I also recently put in place a commitment device with a friend, but it wasn’t exactly like yours.
Mine was to donate money to a cause that I find unpleasant. I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet
I’ve also been a horrible procrastinator and I’d had something like this suggested to me, except in that case it was put the money up front and then the other person either keeps it or donates it. The problem is, money doesn’t motivate me by itself, so the idea of losing $50 for something doesn’t. The only way it does is if it’s enough to actually impact my life, like actually not being able to pay bills or something, but then it’s not the money motivating me as much as that fear. I don’t want to live my life in that fear.
Instead, I’ve tried a different approach, which has helped a lot and there’s two parts to it. First, even the worst procrastinators in the world have SOME things that they don’t procrastinate, or at least rarely do, and a key thing to do is to figure out what motivates me to do those things and not other things. Using myself as an example, I never put off going to the gym. I have set days and set times and the only time I move them is if I have plans they interfere with. Even then, I often have a hard time going to the gym earlier. The thing is, I generally like working out, but I don’t love it; hell, I would even often put off things I’m really passionate about because it’s gym time. Similarly, when I raided, something that has to be rigidly scheduled, I almost never missed them, again, even if it meant missing out on something I was more passionate about (like going to a concert that night). I had some flexibility with the former, because it was just me, but not the other. Once I came to realize what it was that motivated me for these things, it made it easier to apply that motivation to other things and not apply it to things that don’t (like the latter).
Second, at least for me, getting a different perspective helped a lot too. That is, procrastination isn’t always bad. Sometimes doing other things is helpful, not necessarily to the task being procrastinated, but maybe in some other aspect. For example, some people might doing menial housework to avoid doing a project. Maybe it needed to be done, or maybe letting one’s mind go into automatic mode is a good way to let things mull over on the back burner and let some new ideas come up or decisions be made or whatever. In other cases, people work differently under pressure, some fold, but others focus and do their best work. If you’re the latter, procrastination might be a learned way of creating that pressure by way of the deadline, and that’s how methods like the one in the OP or similar ones work, by creating another form of pressure or stress to create that focus. If that’s the case, that’s not a bad thing, it just means it’s something that one needs to find another way to help create, which could be as simple as that method, meditation, or various forms of structure built in life.
So, at least how it ends up working out for me, I’m actually okay with procrastinating to a certain extent, especially if I need to let things mull over. I often find I get my best ideas when I’m driving or at the gym or whatever. If I can then apply that motivation and also get that same focus I get under pressure, I can then get it done way faster and way better than forcing myself to do it just because “procrastinating is bad”.
Thanks, that’s an even better article than his other one which I linked.
After reading it, I thought a bit more about procrastination in the abstract. What follows is a couple of random thoughts…I guess it’s ok to share this, as the thread seemed to be winding down…
Firstly, IME, when people get stuck in a rut for a long time, often it is because there is something self-serving about the rut; some psychological trick that makes it seem like the better place to be.
It doesn’t need to make logical sense, because it’s often not a conscious reason.
For procrastination, ISTM, one positive aspect is the feeling that you’re just a thin line away from success at whatever, and you don’t need to put that to the test at all.
This last year I’ve had a business idea in my mind, that I’ve done nothing with. And, actually, it’s a nice feeling to imagine that as soon as I press the button and do it I’ll be successful. I’m just…choosing not to work on it today.
And of course, consciously I’ll tell myself “OMG what’s wrong with me, why can’t I get this started?” but actually there’s something pleasant about the status quo.
The second thing I noticed, is I do something like procrastination when it’s time to go to bed (yes, this is the place for rude jokes).
It’s 1am; already later than I should go to bed. I’m tired. I enjoy sleep. But for some reason, I start playing a video game, or put on a TV show, and do exactly the same kind of timewasting, not-really-enjoying-it stuff that I do when I’m procrastinating an important task.
But why?
I have no answer on this one, just interesting to think what connects these two situations.
