(I’ve decided to allow comments from everyone because it seems everyone has something to say about this topic. Don’t make me regret it.) - JB. I’ve wasted years of my life on time management. Or maybe not wasted. More like… misapplied or even… mismanaged. Yes, that sounds right. I have mismanaged years of my life messing around with time management hacks.
Yes, Yes and Yes. We've met once in a West End bookshop, but some how you know me man. Crikey!
Anyway, Nobody needs the spendy meditation apps, because there are a bunch of great australians who run a not for profit foundation which provide the smiling mind app.
I've always liked to think of it as a framing problem: it's not procrastination, it's giving research and rumination the absolute maximum amount of time before having to commit to a result (or exam or whatever your particular deadline involves).
Then there's the flip-side argument: once you've done the analysis and figured out the solution and can see it all clearly in your mind, the process of forcing it out into reality is just _work_. That way leads to half-finished projects... I guess that's why they call it "work".
This is oh so adhd me.... I'll try the meditation, I suspect it helps neutralise some of the noise. I look at one of my son's who is the same, I'll send him this to read but acknowledge he'll likely not get around to it! Lol. Until I plonk him in front of it. I find telling someone what I'm going to have done helps. It makes mini deadlines to make me sort of accountable.
I remember about 25 yrs ago, when we were both in our 20’s I saw a book on the back seat of my brother’s car. It was called How to stop Procrastinating or similar. Knowing I was somewhat afflicted I said to my brother that I wouldn’t mind borrowing it & asked if it was any good. He said he didn’t know, that it had been there for 6 months & he hadn’t read it yet.
I feel like writing books on how to stop procrastinating is a money for jam style grift because the people who would buy the book are never going to get around to reading it so it doesn't actually have to be useful...
I've just got around to reading this as I procrastinated too long on my PhD confirmation that I have just completed and presented (yay me!) and have spent the last 9 days in a stress + exhausted hellscape where I didn't allow time for extras -like reading ur thing, which ironically was about procrastinating!
Meditation huh...fking hippie. Now excuse me it's time for some 10 mins of active relaxation and my fav sandal wood incense.
Well now I feel both seen AND attacked. I am 100% that kid that didn’t grow out of procrastinating at uni/college. I did an entire Master’s degree doing the assignments the night before they were due, and now I’m halfway through a Bachelor’s in Ancient History doing the same thing. The only time I’ve handed an assignment in early was when I got the dates mixed up and only discovered as I submitted it that I was a week early.
The worst part is that in all my uni stuff I could win gold in the procrastination Olympics but I was still getting distinctions, the occasional high distinction, and usually very solid credits if I procrastinated a little too much and had to half arse it a bit. What did this teach me? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The consequences of procrastinating and completing stuff in a deadline driven panicked agony was discovering that I performed exceptionally well under pressure. An absolute lack of negative consequences for procrastination beyond the stress and agony of the deadline has only reinforced the habit.
At work I’ve discovered that finding a job that is so insanely busy that I have deadlines on everything, everywhere, all at once is the only way I can stop myself from revealing to my employers that they’ve hired a temporally challenged nitwit. The best job I ever had was in IT at a casino where every day some new and exciting IT related crisis could emerge and blow my project schedule out of the water. It was BRILLIANT. I was never bored, and I never had time to procrastinate. Only after leaving that job did I discover that what other companies considered “busy” was a quiet day of reflection and fucking around for me. Years after resigning I’m still coming to grips with getting paid $50k more a year to do a quarter of the work. I used to wonder if I had become institutionalised and couldn’t operate outside of that kind of insane environment, but now, thanks to you JB, I realise that yes, hi, it’s me, I’m the problem.
It’s only become worse now that I work from home full time and I’m interrupted only by my feline work from home supervisor coming in to demand second or third breakfast and pulling me away from my desk to complete my primary purpose of dispensing food to my betters. I’m fascinated by the meditation trick, I’m going to have to give that a try, because I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas.
Jon Kudelka has a brilliant illustration of the creative process that I think all of us procrastinators could relate to:
I relate heavily to this. I also learned nothing by getting good marks on last minute work. I also excelled in a job where I was too busy to procrastinate.
+++I also learned nothing by getting good marks on last minute work.+++
Oh yes, this right here. Years ago it got bad enough that work sent me on a one-day time-management course, and I got a wave of nods and murmurs from the room when I said that all that scraping by on last-minute panic did was make me more practiced at scrambling rather than any good at planning.
A meme that circles through my social media feeds every few months goes something like "I just completed a household task I've been putting off for six months. It took me twelve minutes. I will learn nothing from this."
Regular dopamine cues to do stuff don't work for you. But adrenaline does.
That's how you stay functional.
When unavoidable consequences comes hurtling onto your radar. Until then, dgaf.
Try a bit of dexyamphetamine.
It's the gom jabbar of ADHD.
If you've got ADHD, it will (probably) calm and focus you. The things around you that need doing will light up and you'll get the warm feeling that non-procrastinators get. I call it the "you've got this" feeling.
"I see you're going upstairs. You can totally grab that book on the table that belongs upstairs. In fact, also that laundry pile. It won't slow you down. You can do it and you'll be fine. You've got this."
(Also check "twice exceptional ". It's quite common for gifted people so have some extra spice going on on the side (eg ADHD, ASD, dyslexia etc)(
Yes my oldest is intellectually gifted with ADHD/GAD/OCD. Medication has saved her & she aced her year 12 exams last year & got into her 1st choice Uni. I look back on how I dropped out of everything & wonder if I’d had the same help I could have done better. I have 13yo twins who are both adhd/dyslexic. I have a neuro typical child & she’s so different to the rest of us - just like my husband. Life’s a bit easier for the normies
Can't "like" this enough because I'm an, I dunno, adult procrastinator? Maybe just old vs adult. Assignments? 1 a.m. Set that exam? 2 a.m. It got better with age but by the Horny Toenails of Nowhere Bob, it's never gone away. And I think you're right about the emotional factor. Contemplating a task makes me feel nauseous and starting it can bring the heaves. My grandspawn are being taught meditation at primary school and from what I can see, it's working well. Helps Mr (wall-bouncing) 8 quite definitely. So the best of luck to you and I hope it's what you need.
I started taking my kids ADHD medication. Immediate impact. Of course not the correct way to go about it, but I find I only need it when the pressure really becomes obvious.
There is nothing awkward or embarrassing about meditation. It works. To anyone reading this thinking about trying it, give it a crack and keep practicing it.
This was/is me - after having 3 of my 4 kids diagnosed with ADHD (as well as other stuff) I realised along with my psychologist who is been seeing for my anxiety disorder for years was the primary issue was ADHD. Referred to psychiatrist & started on concerta. Life changing at age 50. From year 1 in Brisbane in the late 70’s up until finishing year 12 in 1988 each report card said “she has so much potential if only she could pay attention & stop talking so much during class” I remember in grade 3 at my convent primary school in Carina, Sr Mary Clare whacking me over the hands with a wooden ruler because I was talking so much - age 7.5. Not letting my own kids go through not reaching full potential & having a life full of anxiety like I had.
I dropped out of RMC after 12 months because my procrastination caught up with me and I’m still living with it today 30 years later. Not a dumbarse, just a chronic underachiever and can kicker. This helped a little JB, thanks mate.
Ha! Was just thinking, while I cleaned the copious volume of spam from my email inbox this morning (a procrastination tactic), that I hadn't seen you there for a while. That made me anxious. After having my credit card compromised in November and my IdiotBook identity stolen in February, I expect the worst from everything. Ok, those two were just added flavours in the shitcake that's been the last four years of my life.
And I get the procrastination thing. I can remember standing outside uni exams cramming during the 20 minutes they let you have before locking you out, charging in to my allotted seat and regurgitating everything I'd just read, hoping it was relevant to whatever I was answering. And I'm writing here because I'm procrastinating. And don't remind me of the on-line art classes I bought at the beginning of last year and still haven't started...
I know a number of people who use the meditation thing for anxiety. Maybe I should. I just play music to alleviate the mood and sink into that and what do you know there goes half a day and what was it I was meant to be doing anyway...
Yes, Yes and Yes. We've met once in a West End bookshop, but some how you know me man. Crikey!
Anyway, Nobody needs the spendy meditation apps, because there are a bunch of great australians who run a not for profit foundation which provide the smiling mind app.
https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
It's free and better than all the rest of them.
Nice link. Thanks James.
I've always liked to think of it as a framing problem: it's not procrastination, it's giving research and rumination the absolute maximum amount of time before having to commit to a result (or exam or whatever your particular deadline involves).
Then there's the flip-side argument: once you've done the analysis and figured out the solution and can see it all clearly in your mind, the process of forcing it out into reality is just _work_. That way leads to half-finished projects... I guess that's why they call it "work".
This is oh so adhd me.... I'll try the meditation, I suspect it helps neutralise some of the noise. I look at one of my son's who is the same, I'll send him this to read but acknowledge he'll likely not get around to it! Lol. Until I plonk him in front of it. I find telling someone what I'm going to have done helps. It makes mini deadlines to make me sort of accountable.
I remember about 25 yrs ago, when we were both in our 20’s I saw a book on the back seat of my brother’s car. It was called How to stop Procrastinating or similar. Knowing I was somewhat afflicted I said to my brother that I wouldn’t mind borrowing it & asked if it was any good. He said he didn’t know, that it had been there for 6 months & he hadn’t read it yet.
I feel like writing books on how to stop procrastinating is a money for jam style grift because the people who would buy the book are never going to get around to reading it so it doesn't actually have to be useful...
I've just got around to reading this as I procrastinated too long on my PhD confirmation that I have just completed and presented (yay me!) and have spent the last 9 days in a stress + exhausted hellscape where I didn't allow time for extras -like reading ur thing, which ironically was about procrastinating!
Meditation huh...fking hippie. Now excuse me it's time for some 10 mins of active relaxation and my fav sandal wood incense.
CONGRATULATIONS
Confession. I bought your book "How to be a writer" ages ago, but I haven't actually read it yet...
This amuses me greatly because I already spent the money.
Well now I feel both seen AND attacked. I am 100% that kid that didn’t grow out of procrastinating at uni/college. I did an entire Master’s degree doing the assignments the night before they were due, and now I’m halfway through a Bachelor’s in Ancient History doing the same thing. The only time I’ve handed an assignment in early was when I got the dates mixed up and only discovered as I submitted it that I was a week early.
The worst part is that in all my uni stuff I could win gold in the procrastination Olympics but I was still getting distinctions, the occasional high distinction, and usually very solid credits if I procrastinated a little too much and had to half arse it a bit. What did this teach me? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The consequences of procrastinating and completing stuff in a deadline driven panicked agony was discovering that I performed exceptionally well under pressure. An absolute lack of negative consequences for procrastination beyond the stress and agony of the deadline has only reinforced the habit.
At work I’ve discovered that finding a job that is so insanely busy that I have deadlines on everything, everywhere, all at once is the only way I can stop myself from revealing to my employers that they’ve hired a temporally challenged nitwit. The best job I ever had was in IT at a casino where every day some new and exciting IT related crisis could emerge and blow my project schedule out of the water. It was BRILLIANT. I was never bored, and I never had time to procrastinate. Only after leaving that job did I discover that what other companies considered “busy” was a quiet day of reflection and fucking around for me. Years after resigning I’m still coming to grips with getting paid $50k more a year to do a quarter of the work. I used to wonder if I had become institutionalised and couldn’t operate outside of that kind of insane environment, but now, thanks to you JB, I realise that yes, hi, it’s me, I’m the problem.
It’s only become worse now that I work from home full time and I’m interrupted only by my feline work from home supervisor coming in to demand second or third breakfast and pulling me away from my desk to complete my primary purpose of dispensing food to my betters. I’m fascinated by the meditation trick, I’m going to have to give that a try, because I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas.
Jon Kudelka has a brilliant illustration of the creative process that I think all of us procrastinators could relate to:
https://twitter.com/jonkudelka/status/1637961094361919489?s=20
I relate heavily to this. I also learned nothing by getting good marks on last minute work. I also excelled in a job where I was too busy to procrastinate.
+++I also learned nothing by getting good marks on last minute work.+++
Oh yes, this right here. Years ago it got bad enough that work sent me on a one-day time-management course, and I got a wave of nods and murmurs from the room when I said that all that scraping by on last-minute panic did was make me more practiced at scrambling rather than any good at planning.
A meme that circles through my social media feeds every few months goes something like "I just completed a household task I've been putting off for six months. It took me twelve minutes. I will learn nothing from this."
YES THAT MEME! It me!
I’m glad it not just me! Procrastinations unite 👊🏻
"...I’m going to have to give that a try, because I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas."
That right there is pure gold!
Sadly I am not a comedic genius I paraphrased the Simpsons 🤣
Man, you've got inattentive ADHD.
Regular dopamine cues to do stuff don't work for you. But adrenaline does.
That's how you stay functional.
When unavoidable consequences comes hurtling onto your radar. Until then, dgaf.
Try a bit of dexyamphetamine.
It's the gom jabbar of ADHD.
If you've got ADHD, it will (probably) calm and focus you. The things around you that need doing will light up and you'll get the warm feeling that non-procrastinators get. I call it the "you've got this" feeling.
"I see you're going upstairs. You can totally grab that book on the table that belongs upstairs. In fact, also that laundry pile. It won't slow you down. You can do it and you'll be fine. You've got this."
(Also check "twice exceptional ". It's quite common for gifted people so have some extra spice going on on the side (eg ADHD, ASD, dyslexia etc)(
Yes my oldest is intellectually gifted with ADHD/GAD/OCD. Medication has saved her & she aced her year 12 exams last year & got into her 1st choice Uni. I look back on how I dropped out of everything & wonder if I’d had the same help I could have done better. I have 13yo twins who are both adhd/dyslexic. I have a neuro typical child & she’s so different to the rest of us - just like my husband. Life’s a bit easier for the normies
I shall be providing an erudite comment just as soon as I finish my research into rabbit holes.
Can't "like" this enough because I'm an, I dunno, adult procrastinator? Maybe just old vs adult. Assignments? 1 a.m. Set that exam? 2 a.m. It got better with age but by the Horny Toenails of Nowhere Bob, it's never gone away. And I think you're right about the emotional factor. Contemplating a task makes me feel nauseous and starting it can bring the heaves. My grandspawn are being taught meditation at primary school and from what I can see, it's working well. Helps Mr (wall-bouncing) 8 quite definitely. So the best of luck to you and I hope it's what you need.
You know, if someone had just told me, Samurai meditate to kill better, I'd been a lot cooler with this a lot earlier.
I started taking my kids ADHD medication. Immediate impact. Of course not the correct way to go about it, but I find I only need it when the pressure really becomes obvious.
Better living through chemistry.
Great article JB.
There is nothing awkward or embarrassing about meditation. It works. To anyone reading this thinking about trying it, give it a crack and keep practicing it.
This was/is me - after having 3 of my 4 kids diagnosed with ADHD (as well as other stuff) I realised along with my psychologist who is been seeing for my anxiety disorder for years was the primary issue was ADHD. Referred to psychiatrist & started on concerta. Life changing at age 50. From year 1 in Brisbane in the late 70’s up until finishing year 12 in 1988 each report card said “she has so much potential if only she could pay attention & stop talking so much during class” I remember in grade 3 at my convent primary school in Carina, Sr Mary Clare whacking me over the hands with a wooden ruler because I was talking so much - age 7.5. Not letting my own kids go through not reaching full potential & having a life full of anxiety like I had.
No major decision in life should be made without ingesting multiple White Russians..It works for the great man, it should work for us..
I dropped out of RMC after 12 months because my procrastination caught up with me and I’m still living with it today 30 years later. Not a dumbarse, just a chronic underachiever and can kicker. This helped a little JB, thanks mate.
Ha! Was just thinking, while I cleaned the copious volume of spam from my email inbox this morning (a procrastination tactic), that I hadn't seen you there for a while. That made me anxious. After having my credit card compromised in November and my IdiotBook identity stolen in February, I expect the worst from everything. Ok, those two were just added flavours in the shitcake that's been the last four years of my life.
And I get the procrastination thing. I can remember standing outside uni exams cramming during the 20 minutes they let you have before locking you out, charging in to my allotted seat and regurgitating everything I'd just read, hoping it was relevant to whatever I was answering. And I'm writing here because I'm procrastinating. And don't remind me of the on-line art classes I bought at the beginning of last year and still haven't started...
I know a number of people who use the meditation thing for anxiety. Maybe I should. I just play music to alleviate the mood and sink into that and what do you know there goes half a day and what was it I was meant to be doing anyway...