If you are a procrastinator, like I am, then you may find the following Ted Talk useful and entertaining (Tim Urban is pretty funny): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU
It’s called, “Inside the Mind of a Procrastinator.” I ran across Tim Urban’s article about the same topic years ago and felt that he really captured the realities of procrastination. For example, his description of the “Dark Playground” where procrastinators go and do things other than the task they are putting off. It’s a playground with no fun, but instead lingering guilt and underlying dread exist where fun and leisure are vainly and tragically pursued, yet sadly are nowhere to be found. If you are a procrastinator then you have been to the Dark Playground. The article he wrote got him famous enough to be invited to give the Ted Talk above.
Ultimately, there is no “cure” for procrastination that I have found. Like they said in the preamble to AA meetings I witnessed as a kid, “We are like men who have lost their legs, we can’t grow new ones.” That line always kinda freaked me out. But, I think it’s kinda true for procrastinators as well as alcoholics. You can’t get rid of the procrastination “disease”; however, you can treat it, and you can be “In Recovery.” So, let’s just say I am a “recovering procrastinator” who is in need of treatment.
The 365 Commitment is a one day at a time program that can help procrastinators. One tenet of the 365 Commitment is to have important goals and focus on them daily. Thinking about what you really want and reflecting on how much it would suck to lose the opportunity (the reward) due to romping in the “Dark Playground” can be sobering enough to keep you from entering its gates. I have also used duct tape in the past.
Yes indeed, in order to get assignments for my Master’s degree completed, I would ask my wife to duct tape me to the chair. No, there was no deviant bondage fantasy being lived out, simply a physical restraint to keep my butt on the chair and focus on what I needed to get done, it seemed to help.
This is where I am this morning. I have an important set of meetings later this week that I must diligently prepare for. Yesterday, I spent a good deal of time in the Dark Playground and it left me with the standard plethora of self-loathing, dread, and anxiety. Today I am resolved not to go there; the outcomes I seek is too important to screw-up by romping in the Dark Playground.
Focus on your goals, use duct tape if necessary.
Ben Wagner (127)
Member The 365 Commitment
