There's no doubt about it: for so many of us, procrastination is an absolute scourge of our lives. It's one of the biggest motivating factors behind the enquiries that we receive about our time management training here at Cerulean, and when you look at the damage that it can wreak, it's no wonder. No one wants to procrastinate, and yet, it inevitably happens time and time again. How can you finally break the spell?
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Where procrastination comes from
1. Where Procrastination Comes From
There's no doubt about it: for so many of us, procrastination
is an absolute scourge of our lives. It's one of the biggest
motivating factors behind the enquiries that we receive
about our time management training here at Cerulean, and
when you look at the damage that it can wreak, it's no
wonder. No one wants to procrastinate, and yet, it inevitably
2. happens time and time again. How can you finally break the
spell?
First things first - don't beat yourself up about
procrastination. Indeed, that's one of the biggest perils for
procrastinators - the despondency and lowered self-esteem
that can arise from their apparent inability to get anything
done. That, of course, simply perpetuates the cycle, with
gloomy procrastinators simply succumbing even more easily
in future to instant gratification.
That susceptibility to indulging instant gratification - rather
than taking a more rational, long-term perspective on your
work that gets those essential tasks done sooner so that you
have more hard-earned free time to enjoy - is very much
what procrastination is about. Some people have even gone
as far as calling that particular nuisance the 'Instant
Gratification Monkey', as in the case of one particularly
interesting recent blog by Tim Urban for the WaitButWhy
website.
Urban's own problems with procrastination - culminating in
one extreme instance in his hands going numb and curling up
3. against his will due to his only starting to write a 90-page
senior thesis 72 hours before the deadline - will sound too
familiar to many of the procrastination sufferers who enrol
on our courses here at Cerulean. He coined the term 'Instant
Gratification Monkey' to describe the distracting 'pet'
accompanying the 'Rational Decision-Maker' in the
procrastinator's brain.
This monkey, Urban contends, makes it impossible for the
Rational Decision-Maker to do his job of directing the brain in
a productive direction, instead tempting it towards all of
those familiar procrastinators' pursuits - from watching
YouTube videos about deep sea creatures to reorganising
iPhoto albums. With the Rational Decision-Maker having no
idea how to deal with this interloper, he inevitably fails to
seize control, feeling worse and worse about himself the
more he does so.
That is until the equally inevitable moment when panic sets
in - embodied in Urban's piece as 'The Panic Monster', which
scares away the Instant Gratification Monkey and finally
allows the Rational Decision-Maker to seize back control, as
4. is needed to avoid otherwise certain disaster. With this
messy situation constantly playing out in the procrastinator's
mind, it's easy to see why such individuals so regularly
underachieve in so many aspects of life.
Are you looking to avoid such a miserable cycle? If so, get in
touch with our experts here at Cerulean. We can help you to
break those terrible habits that lead to frequent
procrastination, through the delivery of our acclaimed time
management training and other professional courses.
