I remember when we were kids procrastination was the 8th Deadly Sin. Right after not saving your progress on a Word doc every time you finished a sentence. But there have since been books, and lectures, about how procrastination has really been a misunderstood antihero all this time. I'm not going to name any of the books because I'm really just here to flex my intuitive psychological muscles and, like the title implies, I'm keeping this one short.
When we were kids, they had to tell us that procrastination is a sin, because we weren't self-aware enough to handle it safely, and the time-management paradigm we existed within left no room for it anyway. Like kiddie scissors that are dulled, the rigidly through-scheduled days, weeks, quarters, and years of public (or private or whatever) school education gave kids the positive element (a plan for staying on-track ~ something that cuts paper) without too much risk of the negative (falling behind ~ getting cut yourself). In this case, the procrastination was basically done on our behalf - we needed to learn a set number of things in a given year, and teachers would plan to delay half of them until next semester, and 1/4 (hypothetically) of them would be put off until the very last quarter of the year. This allowed students to not have to worry about all the different topics they would be covering simultaneously, so instead they could focus on the topic of the day, week, &c, and learn it more thoroughly.
College starts weaning you off of this reliance on "total institution"-type planning out of tasks. They tell you to go read the syllabus and expect you to keep yourself on track - many professors (as is their right to do) never remind students of upcoming assignments because if they followed the first instruction (read the syllabus), they should know when everything is due. Here, young people get to begin playing with the procrastination fire. They know from before the first day of class when the final assignment is due, and the choice of when to begin working on it is entirely in their hands. And thus, the journey to discovering the dazzling beauty of procrastination begins.
And now I'm gonna jump out of the timeline: a lot of people just never figure out that procrastination is ok. This can manifest in a lot of ways, but something I see pretty often (and have experienced plenty in my own head) is a faulty thought pattern that goes like this: "I have things that I need to do, but I don't want to do these things. I can't do other things, because those things I have to do need to get done [ergo, I can't procrastinate]. But since I really don't want to do those things and don't have the energy to do them right now, I'm not going to do anything at all." To be clear, I'm displaying this as a conscious, rational decision, but that's usually not actually what's going on. It starts with a subconscious feeling of dread (or similar ingredient) directed at the idea of doing whatever it is that needs to be done, then a subconscious image of doing something fun appears and is immediately crushed by the subconscious hatred of procrastination that was cultivated in the early years when there was neither need nor time-space for it. Then, in the end, rather than being a conscious decision to do nothing, what we're really looking at is a subconscious indecision that leaves the "user" of this particular brain confused about why they apparently are unable to do anything at all, and consequently feeling quite helpless. The subconscious attack on potential procrastination is also tinged with a hint of self-disrespect that lingers at the back of the tongue like the taste of $5 wine.
But procrastination is actually great! When you do it the right way. When you do all the planning the teachers used to do for you, and make sure in advance that you know a) how much you need to do in a given timeframe and b) how long each thing will take, you can put together c) how much time you need to work and d) how much time you can set aside for appreciating life, or going to the grocery store. And you don't always need an excel spreadsheet to figure this out. In some situations, you can just work off a sense of a) and b) and don't need to get down into the details too far. These situations aren't necessarily un-complicated times - the more life experience you have in doing things, the better you will get at thinking about doing things, and the less planning you'll need, so some people can accomplish very complex sets of tasks with very little planning and still have plenty of room for procrastinating.
Why procrastinate, though? Why not just fill up every minute of every day with tasks if you can plan ahead that well? Well, person's gotta eat. Person's gotta sleep. Those are the first great time-wasters. Physical exercise is important too, and not just for the health of everything besides your brain, but for your brain too (whoa - just realized eating and sleeping are good for the brain, and everything else, as well). There's also a thing called "balance." In 2021, most people thing "balance" is a chicken-%&^* metonym for "a weak person compromising," but it actually turns out that all our mothers were right about it after all. Balance is good in pretty much every situation you can think of. Standing on the edge of a cliff? Balance. Trying to run a country where people have diverse viewpoints? Balance. Trying to save money for the future while also enjoying life now? Balance. When you balance your time between "work" and "play" or "things you have to do (because of social obligations)" and "things you want to do (because you're a gorram human being)," you will automagically feel better. You will bring your body, including your mind, closer to a state of peace. And when you're at peace, you will think clearer. And when you think clearer, you can plan better and you need less time to accomplish more difficult tasks.
So here's my challenge to everyone - the next time you wake up feeling like there are too many things you have to do and because of them you can't do things you want to do, SHUT UP! Shut your brain up! Get up, and go to a park, and sit there and watch funny-sounding ducks doing their thing. Look at all the stupid-looking trees around you. Grass? What is that even about? Remove yourself from the realm of expectations and drop into the realm of wonder, where the answers don't really matter and the questions can be joyful and dumb. When you're there, your mind can start clearing out the recycle bin of stress and anxiety and free up space for the tasks that you've been putting off so that when you get back to 'em, you'll do 'em easier, and you'll do 'em better.
Lawson
South Tempe, AZ
16 March 2021
When we were kids, they had to tell us that procrastination is a sin, because we weren't self-aware enough to handle it safely, and the time-management paradigm we existed within left no room for it anyway. Like kiddie scissors that are dulled, the rigidly through-scheduled days, weeks, quarters, and years of public (or private or whatever) school education gave kids the positive element (a plan for staying on-track ~ something that cuts paper) without too much risk of the negative (falling behind ~ getting cut yourself). In this case, the procrastination was basically done on our behalf - we needed to learn a set number of things in a given year, and teachers would plan to delay half of them until next semester, and 1/4 (hypothetically) of them would be put off until the very last quarter of the year. This allowed students to not have to worry about all the different topics they would be covering simultaneously, so instead they could focus on the topic of the day, week, &c, and learn it more thoroughly.
College starts weaning you off of this reliance on "total institution"-type planning out of tasks. They tell you to go read the syllabus and expect you to keep yourself on track - many professors (as is their right to do) never remind students of upcoming assignments because if they followed the first instruction (read the syllabus), they should know when everything is due. Here, young people get to begin playing with the procrastination fire. They know from before the first day of class when the final assignment is due, and the choice of when to begin working on it is entirely in their hands. And thus, the journey to discovering the dazzling beauty of procrastination begins.
And now I'm gonna jump out of the timeline: a lot of people just never figure out that procrastination is ok. This can manifest in a lot of ways, but something I see pretty often (and have experienced plenty in my own head) is a faulty thought pattern that goes like this: "I have things that I need to do, but I don't want to do these things. I can't do other things, because those things I have to do need to get done [ergo, I can't procrastinate]. But since I really don't want to do those things and don't have the energy to do them right now, I'm not going to do anything at all." To be clear, I'm displaying this as a conscious, rational decision, but that's usually not actually what's going on. It starts with a subconscious feeling of dread (or similar ingredient) directed at the idea of doing whatever it is that needs to be done, then a subconscious image of doing something fun appears and is immediately crushed by the subconscious hatred of procrastination that was cultivated in the early years when there was neither need nor time-space for it. Then, in the end, rather than being a conscious decision to do nothing, what we're really looking at is a subconscious indecision that leaves the "user" of this particular brain confused about why they apparently are unable to do anything at all, and consequently feeling quite helpless. The subconscious attack on potential procrastination is also tinged with a hint of self-disrespect that lingers at the back of the tongue like the taste of $5 wine.
But procrastination is actually great! When you do it the right way. When you do all the planning the teachers used to do for you, and make sure in advance that you know a) how much you need to do in a given timeframe and b) how long each thing will take, you can put together c) how much time you need to work and d) how much time you can set aside for appreciating life, or going to the grocery store. And you don't always need an excel spreadsheet to figure this out. In some situations, you can just work off a sense of a) and b) and don't need to get down into the details too far. These situations aren't necessarily un-complicated times - the more life experience you have in doing things, the better you will get at thinking about doing things, and the less planning you'll need, so some people can accomplish very complex sets of tasks with very little planning and still have plenty of room for procrastinating.
Why procrastinate, though? Why not just fill up every minute of every day with tasks if you can plan ahead that well? Well, person's gotta eat. Person's gotta sleep. Those are the first great time-wasters. Physical exercise is important too, and not just for the health of everything besides your brain, but for your brain too (whoa - just realized eating and sleeping are good for the brain, and everything else, as well). There's also a thing called "balance." In 2021, most people thing "balance" is a chicken-%&^* metonym for "a weak person compromising," but it actually turns out that all our mothers were right about it after all. Balance is good in pretty much every situation you can think of. Standing on the edge of a cliff? Balance. Trying to run a country where people have diverse viewpoints? Balance. Trying to save money for the future while also enjoying life now? Balance. When you balance your time between "work" and "play" or "things you have to do (because of social obligations)" and "things you want to do (because you're a gorram human being)," you will automagically feel better. You will bring your body, including your mind, closer to a state of peace. And when you're at peace, you will think clearer. And when you think clearer, you can plan better and you need less time to accomplish more difficult tasks.
So here's my challenge to everyone - the next time you wake up feeling like there are too many things you have to do and because of them you can't do things you want to do, SHUT UP! Shut your brain up! Get up, and go to a park, and sit there and watch funny-sounding ducks doing their thing. Look at all the stupid-looking trees around you. Grass? What is that even about? Remove yourself from the realm of expectations and drop into the realm of wonder, where the answers don't really matter and the questions can be joyful and dumb. When you're there, your mind can start clearing out the recycle bin of stress and anxiety and free up space for the tasks that you've been putting off so that when you get back to 'em, you'll do 'em easier, and you'll do 'em better.
Lawson
South Tempe, AZ
16 March 2021