The Procrastination Equation (15 page)

To some extent, we should accept that we don’t have infinite mental energy and acknowledge our motivational limitations along with our physical ones. Everyone understands why you can’t run back-to-back marathons but it’s not so obvious that equivalent internal struggles can be just as onerous. Perhaps we have trouble with procrastination because we demand too much of ourselves in a day, and it’s possible that pursuing a less stressful, slower paced life would help us get energized. Regrettably, we don’t always have a choice. So what can we do when our “get-up-and-go” has “got-up-and-gone”?

Recognizing that our energy reserves are limited, we can strategically refuel and allocate them. You don’t want to ever completely exhaust yourself; when you are sapped, you are likely to give in to your impulses. That is why dieters shouldn’t let themselves get hungry, because they are likely to satiate themselves with the simple carbohydrate and fat combinations that saturate our world. Ironically, sweet treats will restore willpower just long enough for you to regret the indulgence.
²⁰
So shield yourself from distractions by using moments of strength to enact other longer-lasting self-control techniques, especially distancing yourself from temptations.
²¹
This is the beauty of offices. Once purged of temptations, an office can become a temple of productivity, a place where following up on your intentions to work takes a lot less willpower.

Facing the challenges of writing a report at the end of the day, when you're already wiped, isn’t the best idea either. You want to tackle it when you have the most zip, and when that occurs depends upon your circadian rhythm.
²²
Some of us are morning larks, relentlessly chipper and active early in the morning, filling gyms in the pre-dawn hours. Others are night owls, slow starters whose energy levels peak later in the day. Night owls are more likely to be procrastinators, with a chronobiology best suited for after-hours endeavors; forcing themselves into an unnatural schedule, they gulp down caffeine in the morning in order to wake up, and alcohol in the evening to wind down.
²³

Whatever your rhythm, schedule that report writing to start a few hours after you wake up; it’s when your mind operates at maximum efficiency, a period that lasts about four hours.
²⁴
If you woke at seven in the morning, for instance, your peak performance likely occurs between ten and two, not really that wide a window. But if you clear your desk, turn off your e-mail, and shut your door for those hours, you can get an amazing amount of work done. You can extend this efficiency phase with a brief nap, twenty minutes or so, but if you're in an office environment, that’s usually not possible. Still, a quick walk around the block can also refresh you around lunchtime. In any event, it’s smart to start shifting toward less creative, more routine work in the late afternoon: you are losing IQ points by the hour. When you finally get home, the only decision you might be able to effectively make is whether to wind down with a glass of wine or a pint of beer. The good news is that the timing is perfect; twelve hours after waking is when your liver best metabolizes alcohol.

Finally, a typical pattern that many of us fall into when stressed is to cut back on exercise and sleep and make up for them with diet and stimulants, usually sugar, caffeine, and nicotine. In the short-term, this can be an effective energy strategy, but in the long-term, it will leave you worse off. Not only do stimulants lose their effectiveness with repeated use, but they can make exercise and sleeping even more difficult to achieve. As quality of concentration is gradually swapped for quantity of effort, you work longer hours while producing less, eventually working late into the night when you should be sleeping. These are bad energy habits.

You probably already know what you should be doing to solve these problems. Committing to a regular schedule of exercise has been shown to decrease procrastination.
²⁵
Since many people in North America aren’t getting a good night’s sleep, I also recommend you start learning about sleep hygiene, which prevents people from polluting their bedrooms with the stress of the day, maintaining it instead as a sanctuary for escape.
²⁶
Sleep hygiene is the only thing that worked for my wife, who comes from a family of chronic insomniacs.

2. Action Points for Energy Crisis:
Being too tired is the top reason for procrastination. Your energy stores are both a limited and a renewable resource, so actively replenish them and allocate your efforts wisely.

• Reserve your morning and mid-day peak performance hours for your most difficult tasks.

• Don’t let yourself get hungry. Graze on small nutritious snacks as needed.

• Make time for exercise several days each week.

• Make sleep predictable, going to bed at the same time each night with a regular wind-down routine.

• Respect your own limitations. If after all this, you still are too tired to tackle your responsibilities, try to cut back on your commitments or get help completing them.

YOU SHOULD SEE THE TASK I'M AVOIDING

The sun sets and long shadows disappear into the darkness. Eyes dilate to adjust, but still the blackness obscures: uncertainty shrouds us and anything could emerge. Vulnerable now to the limitless unknown, we feel a suffocating fear. With night comes the time of monsters. Pull the blankets over your head and don’t say a word: this is about survival . . . at least it used to be. Like three-quarters of kids, I grew up afraid of the dark, a dread largely passed on from my ancestors.
²⁷
When nighttime was truly dangerous, that fear of ghouls and ghosts kept children quiet, stationary, and safe. Imaginary fears were an adaptive part of any culture.
²⁸
The Northern Inuit teach their children of the Qallupilluit, which kidnaps children who walk too close to cracks in the ice, while the Japanese have the Kappa, water creatures that eat urchins.
^8c
Maybe we can conjure our own monster to scare off procrastination as well.

The technique of productive procrastination might employ such a monster. It is a well-established ploy, advocated by no less than Sir Francis Bacon, the seventeenth-century philosopher and statesman. He proposed that we try to “set affection against affection, and to master one by another; even as we use to hunt beast with beast.” We see productive procrastination in action when people spend precious hours sharpening pencils, scrubbing stoves, or cleaning bedrooms as an imminent deadline towers over them. Though by all outward appearances they seem suddenly afflicted by obsessive-compulsive disorder, such procrastination isn’t entirely a waste of their time.
²⁹
Things are getting done—though not quite the right things.
³⁰
Psychoanalysts would consider it an example of displacement, whereby we shift impulses into a related but less threatening outlet, like picking a fight with a friend after being upbraided by our boss. Behavioral psychologists would point out that we are willing to pursue any vile task as long as it allows us to avoid something worse.

Productive procrastination isn’t perfect—it reduces the cost of dillydallying but doesn’t eliminate it. Rather than doing nothing useful while avoiding the big project, you are at least taking care of minutiae, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” It isn’t as constructive as tackling the real work, but it does clear your plate and puts you in a much better position to dig in when you're ready. Sooner or later, though, you will have to face that monster you have been avoiding.

3. Action Points for You Should See the Task I'm Avoiding:
Don’t let the perfect—never procrastinating—get in the way of the good—productively procrastinating. Meet your procrastination impulse halfway. By engaging in productive procrastination, you put off one task only to spur yourself toward tackling another.

• Identify a target task that you ideally should be doing now but have been putting off.

• Identify tangent tasks that also should be done and are
relatively
more enjoyable than your target task. You might be putting these off too.

• Accept the trade-off of avoiding the target task by tackling the tangent tasks. When you eventually get to the target task, you will be in a better position to complete it.

DOUBLE OR NOTHING

We are all too familiar with guilty pleasures. You know, the ones you indulge in after a long day doing things for others, after the kids are fed and in bed, the dishes done, and you finally get an hour to yourself. You slip off your work clothes, step into a robe, pour yourself a drink, and watch . . . oh yes, reality TV. Ah, the sweet cerebral abyss of spoon-fed entertainment. We all have the ability to self-reward, whether it be with a trashy book, a bowl of ice cream, or a luxury purchase. So let’s put this talent to good use.

A principal problem with procrastinators is that they tend not to reward themselves after completing a task, often failing to appreciate their own hard work.
³¹
They give themselves no whispered kind word or planned treat after a task well done. Too bad, as such rewards are the easiest to implement and personalize. The specifics of soothing self-talk or a deserved indulgence will differ from person to person, but the effects remain the same. Whether your catchphrase is a silent “Atta boy!” or a “You go girl!” a little internal self-praise is a costless incentive for overcoming a challenging task. Similarly, whether it is a fine meal or a full vacation, a self-administered reward can pull us through the drudgery of work toward a project’s completion. Even better, they offer motivational dividends, realized during subsequent endeavors.

This technique is called learned industriousness: people can learn to love their work.
³²
You see, the enjoyable emotions generated by self-praise and other rewards tend to creep backward into the effort itself. That is, activities take on the attributes of their goals and can become rewarding in themselves. Money is the principal example of this phenomenon, having been instilled with value by virtue of what it can later buy. Hard work, by virtue of the achievement it can later generate, can be similarly infused, making such effort rewarding in the moment. Consequently, successful people find themselves in a virtuous circle: the anticipated rewards from winning help make the work more enjoyable, and that enjoyment helps them to win. With the future flavoring the present, they savor victory long before it is realized. It is a very nice arrangement, but the trick is in how to get it started. It may take a number of effort-reward cycles before the effort itself takes on the taste of the later reward.

While waiting for learned industriousness to kick in, you can enhance the pleasure of work in a more direct way: blend bitter medicine with sweet honey.
³³
Try to find a compatible pairing between a long-term interest and a short-term impulse. If you combine an unpleasant task with one you find more enjoyable, the mixture may be enough to get you going. Getting together with a workout partner can spur you to exercise. Treating yourself to a specialty coffee can help you focus on your time sheets or your budget. But this method has its risks as well. Engaging a partner to help you finish a report or prep for an exam, for example, can degenerate into an evening-long bull-session with little learning to show for it. Still, the principle is sound. In the Adam Sandler movie
Billy Madison,
the title character has to redo his entire schooling, twelve grades in twenty-four weeks, to receive a sizable inheritance. In desperation, he engages an attractive tutor, who for every correct answer he gives, removes an article of her clothing.

4. Action Points for Double or Nothing:
Take the time to recognize and reward your progress. Though success itself will eventually make effort enjoyable, right now you can artificially graft a little pleasure onto most tasks.

• Make a list of rewards you can administer to yourself, such as self-praise, frivolous purchases, or a night out.

• Promise yourself these rewards upon completion of the task you have been avoiding.

• Consider ways of making tasks more enjoyable, such as listening to music, sipping a specialty coffee, or working with a friend.

• Make sure that what makes the work more enjoyable, like partnering, doesn’t override the work itself.

LET YOUR PASSION BE YOUR VOCATION

Perfect work exists, tasks people would do even in the absence of a paycheck. One example is gold farming.
³⁴
Gold farmers are professional video game players who have become experts in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like
World of Warcraft,
RuneScape,
or
Star Wars Galaxies.
With their honed skills and long hours of play—at times, eighteen hours a day—they gain virtual gold and rare items that they then sell to other players for real cash. As documented by Ge Jin, a University of California PhD student and independent filmmaker, these professional gamers blur the line between work and play in a constructive way. Jin admits he was “shocked by the positive spirit there, the farmers are passionate about what they do, and there is indeed camaraderie between them.”
³⁵
Most telling is what many gold farmers do in their spare time—they continue to play.

Apart from the problem of who would buy all this make-believe money, gold farming isn’t and can’t be for everyone. Still, it captures the Holy Grail of job design, marrying high performance with job satisfaction. And it illustrates that finding work you want to do is a major step toward avoiding procrastination. Being intrinsically motivated by your job means you are rewarded simply by doing it; no need to delay gratification here. This combination can make work almost addictive; motivation shoots upward stratospherically, souping up creativity, learning, and persistence.
³⁶
Speaking for myself, I love learning about motivation and I willingly work hard at it. Finding work you love is tricky, but let’s try.