Dien Rice
May 1, 2016, 12:40 PM
Procrastination is a deadly beast!
You may have the skills, the ability, the time... to have some amazing achievements...
Yet, because of procrastination, you put the work off... till tomorrow, till next week, till next year...
And those achievements never materialize!
I do procrastinate, I must admit. I get things done too, but I procrastinate more than I wish I did...
However, I think (after a few decades)... I've found the solution!
It came when I was reading an article from the Washington Post...
"The idea is that, even though we know that the person we will be in a month is theoretically the same person that we are today, we have little concern, understanding or empathy for that future self. People are far more focused on how they feel today."
I think this hits the nail on the head. The times in the past when I have really gotten things done, was when I was thinking a lot about my future self... And empathizing with "future me"...
I've done an experiment the past couple of days. I've tried to focus on empathizing with "future me"... To keep thinking about how my actions now will affect the future me... And trying to help "Future Dien"...
And, you know what, I think it's worked! I think I did procrastinate less than usual the past couple of days...
Now, this isn't quite a scientific experiment. But it seems to work enough that I will keep doing it...
By the way, this sort of flies opposite to the "live in the present moment" philosophy you'll also read in other places. I think you probably need a kind of balance between the two... If you "live in the present moment" - your present self will be happy, but your future self may suffer!
Here's the article...
The real reasons you procrastinate — and how to stop
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/27/why-you-cant-help-read-this-article-about-procrastination-instead-of-doing-your-job/
The part of the article I'm referring to is about halfway through, under the subtitle "Present Homer vs. Future Homer"...
Best wishes,
Dien
You may have the skills, the ability, the time... to have some amazing achievements...
Yet, because of procrastination, you put the work off... till tomorrow, till next week, till next year...
And those achievements never materialize!
I do procrastinate, I must admit. I get things done too, but I procrastinate more than I wish I did...
However, I think (after a few decades)... I've found the solution!
It came when I was reading an article from the Washington Post...
"The idea is that, even though we know that the person we will be in a month is theoretically the same person that we are today, we have little concern, understanding or empathy for that future self. People are far more focused on how they feel today."
I think this hits the nail on the head. The times in the past when I have really gotten things done, was when I was thinking a lot about my future self... And empathizing with "future me"...
I've done an experiment the past couple of days. I've tried to focus on empathizing with "future me"... To keep thinking about how my actions now will affect the future me... And trying to help "Future Dien"...
And, you know what, I think it's worked! I think I did procrastinate less than usual the past couple of days...
Now, this isn't quite a scientific experiment. But it seems to work enough that I will keep doing it...
By the way, this sort of flies opposite to the "live in the present moment" philosophy you'll also read in other places. I think you probably need a kind of balance between the two... If you "live in the present moment" - your present self will be happy, but your future self may suffer!
Here's the article...
The real reasons you procrastinate — and how to stop
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/27/why-you-cant-help-read-this-article-about-procrastination-instead-of-doing-your-job/
The part of the article I'm referring to is about halfway through, under the subtitle "Present Homer vs. Future Homer"...
Best wishes,
Dien
