Aug 25

Aug 25 Can we talk about procrastination.....in a minute?

For various scheduling and convenience reasons, I had to write this blog a day earlier than I usually do. I’ve known that was what needed to happen all week. I’ve had an almost completely clear afternoon to get it done, with the back-up of an evening empty of arrangements. So would you like to know what time it is, now that I’m finally sitting down to get it started? (Note, that’s started. Not finished off. Not checked. Started.) Nine thirty. PM.

If there was such a thing as a PHD in procrastination I’d unquestionably earn mine with flying colours. A dissertation on the apparently endless ways you can put off doing what you need to get done? No problem. (Don’t worry, this blog isn’t going to go on for nearly that long. Quite apart from anything else, I haven’t got time.)

However, I’m more than happy to share with you the, sadly only too typical, list of the ways I’ve dillyed and dallyed (I have no idea how those two words are supposed to be spelt) today when I should have been settling down at my laptop and doing what I’m finally getting done now.

I’ve worked my way through my week’s washing, and carefully pegged each machine load on the line to dry. Delightfully satisfying, and, from a procrastination point of view, satisfyingly time consuming

I’ve eaten

I’ve removed new weeds from the flower beds. Several times.

I’ve played, I’ve lost count of how many, hands of bridge on my far-too-handy ap. (Losing count being one of the reasons I’m improving at such a snail’s pace)

I’ve eaten some more

I’ve taken a quick peek at Instagram. And by quick peek, I obviously mean trawled it for far longer than intended

And I’ve fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole of watching videos of Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield corpsing on This Morning. (Would hate you to miss out on that fun, so HERE’S where to find those. You’re welcome)

Frankly I think that all constitutes as good an object lesson in procrastination as you’ll find anywhere. You’re welcome again.

The reason I was looking at YouTube at all (your honour) was to find the TED talk by Tim Urban, the cleverly funny founder of Wait But Why (tag line: a new post every sometimes), Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator. As it’s been viewed 48 million times, I’m clearly far from alone in wanting to understand more about procrastination in a digestibly entertaining way (you can find a ton of more earnest, scientifically based analysis if you google procrastination. Which makes for another great procrastination activity), and to be reassured that I’m not alone in my proclivity to put things off. Which I very definitely am not.

Amongst the reasons those more scientific experts site for what they like to call ‘a form of self-regulation failure’ (I object to the use of the word ‘failure’. It’s taken years of dedicated practice to get to the level of procrastination expertise I have) are:

Not knowing what needs to be done

Not knowing how to do it

Not wanting to do it

Not caring if it gets done

Not being in the mood to do it

Thinking you can do it at the last minute

I can relate to most of those, though not all at once, I’m not that skilled a procrastinator. And I do pretty much always know what needs to be done. Even if I’m sometimes a little hazy on the necessary details (I knew I had a blog to write, but I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to write it about).

Tim also highlights an important aspect of procrastination. The difference between procrastinating when there’s a deadline you have to meet. And procrastinating when there isn’t. He says whilst you can - and if you’re anything like me unfailingly do - berate yourself for the former, even though you do, eventually, get the job done (thanks to the steadfast services of the Panic Monster. You need to watch the talk) because it’s limited by that darned deadline, the latter has the potential to be more problematic because it’s un-contained and therefore can go on much longer.

With so much available insight into the definition and descriptions of procrastination, it’s heartening to discover the level of consensus about the ways to tackle it. I’m doing my best to be better at these in order to keep my putting-off tendencies (as opposed to my off-putting ones) under some degree of control. Though clearly not today. Sigh…

Make a to-do list. This has to be my best anti-procrastination tool. And my top list tip? Put something that can be easily and quickly done at the top. I find once I can cross off the first item, that gets me on a productivity roll .

Break down the tasks. Another version of my tip above. The more painless it is to get a task done, the more likely it is you’ll crack on with cracking it.

Eliminate distractions. This is the expert suggestion I have the most trouble with. Short of sitting inside my hall cupboard to write - and even then there’d be the shoes to tidy, and maybe I could find that missing glove in one of the coat pockets - I honestly can’t think of any way of eliminating every single thing I could potentially turn into a oh-look-I-could-do-that-instead excuse not to do what I need to. Although a lock on the fridge would definitely help.

Make yourself accountable. This, on the other hand, is a good ‘un. Promising, or being required, to get something done for someone else, is, it turns out, as powerful an incentive to pack in the procrastinating as anything.

Reward yourself, when you’ve completed your required task. Perhaps with a trip to the fridge, sorry, clearly I meant nice walk, or just with a metaphorical pat on the back.

I’ll stick with the back pat for finally managing to get this blog job finished (it’s already involved far too many fridge visits, see above), even though I have skidded hard up against that blinking deadline in the process.

Maybe next time I’ll get going sooner. Or….you know…..maybe not…..

Would you describe yourself as a procrastinator? What are the ways you put off getting on with something you know needs to be done? And how do you try to tackle your procrastination impulses?