Procrastination and Falling in Love with Your Capacity to Really Fail

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I had an unusual brainstorm on Easter weekend.  Before I continue, let me type out thoughts that help me get from an unproductive state to a productive state, and then I will get into new thoughts about procrastination.

I based all this on collecting failure modes.  As you run into difficulty, add the corrective thought to the list, that corrects the failure mode you just experienced in your life.  When the list gets too long and too unwieldy, just scrap the whole thing, and start with a fresh mind, because you are probably in a different place due to new habits of thoughts and actions and new life situations.

So, in my life, recently, I added these thoughts to a list that I force myself to contemplate when I am in a unproductive or incapable state.

The First Four:

Embrace Philosophical Security - this is the peace and security of the Stoic philosophers, such as found in Epictetus.  More than a lack of anxiety, it is a positive goal.

Embrace Epicurean Delight - In my mind it is taking enthralling happiness from the commonest of physical experiences, like a breath of morning air, or a sip of cold pure water, or grass felt by bare feet while morning rays hit your shoulders.

Embrace Graciousness - Tolerance - Accommodation - for other people and outside things, offer them all graciousness, tolerance, accommodation.  Easy to imagine the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, acting naturally in this manner.  Just copy that way of being

Embrace Being Informed by Honest Work - how wonderful to enter a situation being informed by honest work.  You can speak with understanding, assurance, and earned confidence.

Two More:

Is my current action or inaction in opposition to any conceivable personal hierarchy of values and goals? You have some intuitive knowledge of all possible effective hierarchies of goals and values, so kick-start yourself into a compatible action, if you find your current coping or distracting action/inaction is utterly incompatible.

Link happiness to growth & improvement, and vice-versa. You have the right to define happiness however you wish, and to call whatever you wish happiness, so why not make happiness synonymous with growth and improvement.

The Latest Two:

Allowing yourself to drift through life without active intention is poisonous, just as if you bit into the bulb of a large mercury thermometer. Do everything in your power to avoid the thieves of intention.

Procrastination is not success postponed - be serious - the habit of procrastination is already failure.  Bouts of procrastination are hammer blows on the coffin lid.  When you procrastinate, you demonstrate that you ARE a failure.  These are all demonstratively true from first principals; procrastination is just a name for a form of anxiety that helps you preserve your ego, because you are clinging to the idea of success being postponed.  So, if you have the habit of procrastination, you will eventually have a crash, and a humiliating blow to your station in life.  Your only task left is to make this crash as soft a landing as possible, and to hopefully raise the bottom to limit the extent of the drop in status.

OK, done.  The heaviest thoughts are about procrastination.

There are two viewpoints when it comes to desire, intention, values, and goals.  There is the personal + intimate + internal + subjective + 100% inclusive view where your stated future desires are taken at full face value.  There is also the economic view which is external + impersonal + objective + cohort statistical based, where your stated future desires are given zero weight.

Procrastinators will be seen as wildly different in the two views.  Objectively, the procrastinator has distraction, consumption, amusement, and numbing as their highest goals, mixed in with some self torture (anxiety about how success is being postponed) only to preserve ego and a positive self-image.  This is an extremely negative way to view a person under the spell of procrastination, but it can be defended as demonstratively objectively true.

Procrastination is the funeral ceremony of your aborted higher self, the higher self that had the ability to accomplish those higher goals.  It is the funeral ceremony because you have demonstrated no ability to fulfill those higher goals, because the creatures that can fulfill those higher goals have no time for procrastination.  If the desire truly was there, you would procrastinate on your procrastination, and just dive right into your work, like a fish flailing on land, when it finally splashes back into the water, is too busy swimming to take time to beach itself again.  Procrastination is the signal that your higher self, whatever embryonic form it managed to manifest, is now dead.

Action is based on habit, and personal desires are the genesis of new habits, or the genesis of self-flagellation to preserve ego.  If all your personal desires just prompt bouts of self-hatred because of procrastination, and never prompt simply throwing yourself into your work, what are those personal desires there for?

OK, we talked about two views: the intimate & personal or the economic.  Your expected outcome is most likely to be predicted by the economic.  The End.

Am I taking things too far?  I remember that I lost my religiosity because I focused too much on an intense commitment to perform all the duties of religious faith.  I overdid it, because it is not the job of the common believer to maintain that intense commitment; I took it too far, I used a partial commitment as an excuse to dispense with all commitment.  I have mixed feelings about this, because, on the one hand, I am being honest about having a false viewpoint about religion, and, on the other hand, I cannot "rewind" my mind back to that earlier state, and I cannot say that I would prefer to be a believer again.

OK, back to the issue at hand; am I taking things too far, by calling procrastination the nails on the coffin of a higher life goal or value?

I will have to try out this viewpoint for a few days.  I will do this... Really bring into mind the feeling of realizing that my higher life goals, that I have had as constant companions for all my life, must be set aside for moving forward with more down-to-earth issues, and concentrating on preparing myself for the day when I must submit to a humiliating loss of status, and disown a big part of my past ego.  It brings things into sharp focus, and it brings home how serious is the issue of losing intention to the distractions, vices of consumption, vices of cheap amusement, vices of self-numbing.

I like this, because I cannot think of anything more fundamental than acting under intention under a moral commitment.  Forget procrastination and anything I may be procrastinating, this concentrating on action under intention is the primary important issue.

Procrastination and "present-bias" in being time-inconsistent

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The relation between procrastination and "present-bias" in being time-inconsistent - economics of procrastination of Ted O'Donoghue and Matthew Rabin.
Was thinking along the line of a round-robin circular-list policy of open projects.  Even if only apply 5 minutes of work to each, at least avoiding outright procrastination.  Also, the start of a more realistic assessment to true commitment to each project - the most can bring self to work on in the daily hustle and bustle.

Economics focus: New-year irresolution | The Economist: "In a 1999 paper on the economics of procrastination, Ted O’Donoghue and Matthew Rabin pointed out that people are often unrealistically optimistic about their own future likelihood of doing things—such as exercise or saving—that involve costs at the time they are done, but whose benefits lie even further ahead. Mr O’Donoghue and Mr Rabin showed that this sort of behaviour can be explained if people are time-inconsistent. “Present-biased” preferences mean that people will always tend to put off unpleasant things until tomorrow, even if the immediate cost involved is tiny. As long as they are unsure of the precise extent of this bias, they believe (incorrectly) that they will in fact “do it tomorrow”. But since they feel this way at each point in time, tomorrow never quite comes. Such a model can therefore explain endless procrastination.

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"Doing it Now or Later", by Ted O'Donoghue and Matthew Rabin, American Economic Review, March 1999
"Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya", by Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer and Jonathan Robinson, NBER Working Paper 15131, July 2009

"Put Your Money Where Your Butt Is: A Commitment Contract for Smoking Cessation", by Xavier Gine, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4985, July 2009
"

Temptation: How much energy spent to guard against it?

Nice popular science writing "Research Shows Temptation More Powerful Than Individuals Realize" ( I read it through http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159736.php ) http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2009/Nordgren_research.aspx

The study, led by Loran Nordgren, senior lecturer of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, examined how an individual's belief in his/her ability to control impulses such as greed, drug craving and sexual arousal influenced responses to temptation. The research found the sample, on average, displayed a "restraint bias," causing individuals to miscalculate the amount of temptation they could truly handle, in turn leading to a greater likelihood of indulging impulsive or addictive behavior. 8/3/2009 - The study will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science. Nordgren co-authored the research with Joop van der Pligt and Frank van Harreveld of the University of Amsterdam.

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This led me to think about Internet and other distractions in my life - dealing with those temptations. I can see that I have relied too much on just throwing myself into familiar situations, where I have succumbed to coping behaviors instead of doing the work that will help me long term. I have to think about the appropriate amount of energy to spend on maintaining a disciplined state of mind. I can see that my judgement always erred on spending too little energy to maintain a disciplined state of mind. And it is a skill - the capability increases with practice.

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And the external appearance of discipline is important too, because the action and the feeling are linked, and the action call call out the fullness of the feeling. Even just a physiological posture can help.

Emotion - A Tool to bring Daily Behavior in congruence with Moral Goals [Rev 2]

I am struggling here, at my desk at work. I am keenly aware that my daily behavior is not congruent with what I perceive as my highest moral goals, for the short-term and the long-term. I have a lot of excuses for it. My "best" excuse is that I will have some flash of insight, and then and only then, for the rest of my life, I will effortlessly daily work in the direction of my highest moral goals.

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But I know that waiting for this flash of insight is a cop-out. There is no substitute for the daily grind of doing the best you can with your available resources, however meager you consider them to be, now. I have a friend who spoke of someday taking a few years off to meditate in the seclusion of the wilderness and really come to grips with his place in the universe, and how he would manage his future. And I felt so sad, because I know that these deep insights only come to people who are... fully engaged in life and fully engaged with the real word and fully engaged with the daily grind and fully engaged with the mundane and fully engaged with people. You get better insights when you subject yourself to the daily rigors of real world living. Any "truth" you discover in the wilderness will be hollow in comparison.

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But, if I know that to be true, are my actions consistent with that? Am I throwing myself into honest daily work? [I feel] I have to formalize immersing myself in the emotional feeling of what is at stake when we are talking about fulfilling or not fulfilling my highest moral goals, for the short-term and the long-term. Because I am terrified of days slipping away. And I cannot count on those moments of terror alone to spur fruitful effective daily action, and correct priorities towards choices about action and choices about limited resources. Also, in the past I have used over-complicating a formal system as a way to have an excuse to not do it: either, I need time to make the system more rigorous, or, the system being so laborious, that I needed to be in a very resourceful state to even be able to perform the system.

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God, I pray: please help me to utilize emotion to bring my daily behavior in congruence with my highest moral goals, both in the short-term and the long term. So, along with the prayer, what is action I can take now to help myself? The task includes asking the questions that will identify the highest moral goals in the short term and the long term - but not using the desire to be totally and rigorously comprehensive as a stalling technique. The task includes linking those goals to actions I can take now (even if that action is taking some analysis and consideration), and linking those goals to priorities towards choices about action, choices about time, choices about energy (including restorative meditation, etc.) and choices about limited resources. The priorities will suggest certain actions. Be realistic about the free hours available, and the free energy available. We are pushing past the comfort point - so pushing back on daily, habitual, typical activities. We are pushing back on activities that are inconsistent with accomplishment. Remember: We are planning for today, and making the week the smallest unit of balance. The task includes identifying a list of actions to take place in the day or the next few hours. Better too few than too many, because this activity can be done several times a day, if necessary. The actions will also be in a specific order of completion. The task includes identifying a motivating emotional trigger to each action - positive towards the successful completion of the action, and negative towards failing to complete the action. Now, complete the actions in order. If, cannot, then write out the renunciation of that driving highest goal. This is the renunciation of any and all higher goals that could lead to that action, because we want to see the choice with stark consequences. If that does not spur on action, then consider restorative activities (first consider some exercise to get the blood pumping, before laying down. A few moments to meditate is consistent with high levels of productivity and effectiveness as well.) Remember: action _IS_ emotion, emotion _IS_action, and neither is consistent with sitting and coping and wasting time and waiting. Action/emotion put off for later _IS_ action/emotion suppressed _IS_ the embryo of stress & anxiety; when we are talking about effective action. Collect these writings of goals, actions, motivating emotional triggers, and renunciations. Collect the completed tasks and the uncompleted tasks. What to do with the collection: If, over the course of weeks, the renunciations for a particular goal accumulate, then, at the least, that goal has to be discarded now. Leave aside the question of if the goal needs to be discarded permanently - it may need to be discarded several times, each at a point where an excess of capability and resources is accumulated first, and still judged to be lacking, before being discarded permanently. What to do with the collection: See if I am meeting the ideal of the week as the smallest unit of balance, from the written objective evidence. OK, looks good.

Emotion - A Tool to bring Daily Behavior in congruence with Moral Goals

I am struggling here, at my desk at work. I am keenly aware that my daily behavior is not congruent with what I perceive as my highest moral goals, for the short-term and the long-term. I have a lot of excuses for it. My "best" excuse is that I will have some flash of insight, and then, for the rest of my life, I will effortlessly daily work in the direction of my highest moral goals. But I know that waiting for this flash of insight is a cop-out. There is no substitute for the daily grind of doing the best you can with your available resources, however meager you consider them to be, now.

Image by cobalt123 via Flickr

I have a friend who spoke of someday taking a few years off to meditate and really come to grips with his place in the universe, and how he would manage his future. And I felt so sad, because I know that these insights only come to people who at engaged in life and engaged with the real word and engaged with the daily grind. You get better insights when you subject yourself to the daily rigors of real world living. Any "truth" you discover in the wilderness will be hollow in comparison. But, if I know that to be true, are my actions consistent with that? Am I throwing myself into honest daily work? [I feel] I have to formalize immersing myself in the emotional feeling of what is at state when we are talking about fulfilling or not fulfilling my highest moral goals, for the short-term and the long-term. Because I am terrified of days slipping away. And I cannot count on those moments of terror alone to spur fruitful effective daily action, and correct priorities towards choices about action and choices about limited resources. Also, in the past I have used over-complicating a formal system as a way to have an excuse to not do it: either, I need time to make the system more rigorous, or, the system being so laborious, that I needed to be in a very resourceful state to be able to perform the system.

Image via Wikipedia

God, I pray: please help me to utilize emotion to bring my daily behavior in congruence with my highest moral goals, both in the short-term and the long term. So, along with the prayer, what is action I can take now to help myself? The task includes asking the questions that will identify highest moral goals in the short term and the long term - but not using the desire to be totally and rigorously comprehensive as a stalling technique. The task includes linking those goals to actions I can take now (even if that action is taking some analysis and consideration), and linking those goals to priorities towards choices about action, choices about time, choices about energy (including restorative meditation, etc.) and choices about limited resources. The priorities will suggest certain actions. The task includes identifying a list of actions to take place in the day or the next few hours. Better too few than too many, because this activity can be done several times a day, if necessary. The actions will also be in a specific order of completion. The task includes identifying a motivating emotional trigger to each action - positive towards the successful completion of the action, and negative towards failing to complete the action. Now, complete the actions in order. If, cannot, then write out the renunciation of that driving highest goal. If that does not spur on action, then consider restorative activities (first consider some exercise to get the blood pumping, before laying down. A few moments to meditate is consistent with high levels of productivity and effectiveness as well.)

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Collect these writings of goals, actions, motivating emotional triggers, and renunciations. If, over the course of weeks, the renunciation for a particular goal accumulate, then, at the least, that goal has to be discarded now. Leave aside the question of if the goal needs to be discarded permanently - it may need to be discarded several times, each at a point where an excess of capability and resources is accumulated first, and still judged to be lacking, before being discarded permanently. OK, looks good.

Afriad of failure, and time slipping away

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Boy howdy, if we are talking about what really gives me pause, I would have to say the fear from seeing time spent in my life without getting closer to worldly success that will leave me rich enough to never worry about money again. I imagine I could have hit it big ten years ago, and so little is accomplished after so many hours spent. But that is crazy, because there is simply no such mechanism that removes all possible risk of financial disaster. Our little family is built on work done everyday and saving 2 bucks and spending only one -- and people who thought they had it made are, because of the housing crash, thrown into a situation they cannot fathom. Better to never get out of practice of working a little bit every day.

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I know in my rational mind that life is plugging away, doing your best, and using every little success as a base to save a little more, and take risks with whatever is left. I make the mistake of dreaming of some dramatic insight that would light above my head like a light bulb -- having this insight in the future, and suddenly, everything I need to do would flow effortlessly like water through a stream bed. But dreaming of that future day takes your focus off the daily work that life is really all about. That fantasy is just a haze over your eyes. Also, I really get a sickening feeling that my daughter's children will inherit a world that is dramatically harder to flourish in, because of ecological disasters. All signs point to water, energy, and food being more scarce for more people in more places. This turned out a little disjointed.

From Plinky's Jess - Abstaining from Evading Avoidance

This is the most inspiring thing I have read in a long time. I will just quote it all. From Plinky's Jess: http://www.plinky.com/answers/65380

Avoiding things, whether simple or complicated, is not a vice of mine because the hardest lesson of my teenage years was to avoid avoiding things. My parents divorced in my early teens and my mother, completely unprepared for the event, spiraled into a financial quagmire quite common among divorced women. By the time I was 15, I spent more time living with the stable members of my family and avoided my parents. That was mistake 1. At age 16, I started getting calls from creditors demanding that I owed them money.

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Apparently, my mother had taken out several credit cards in my name...beginning when I was about 12 years of age. There were also unpaid medical procedures in my name, furniture and appliances purchased via store credit...IN MY NAME (and more importantly, my social security number)! Since everyone told me it was impossible for me to have credit at my age, I ignored the issue. That was mistake 2. When I turned 18, my future was looking bright when GE accepted me into their leadership Internship. However, my elation was short-lived when the program manager brought me into her office to discuss my credit report. I spilled the details and both of us freaked out. She didn’t help me out of the problem directly. But she did say something that I’ll never forget. She said that by avoiding the problem, I was following in the footsteps of my mother. And that I would face far worse obstacles in life so conquering this relatively minor one would provide a good foundation for my future (in more ways than the obvious). With her help, I made a list of pros and cons about various resolutions, making the problem less frightening. I also contacted a family friend who was an attorney. For one week I made the man dinner at night while he made phone calls and faxed paperwork. In the end, I could prove that I did not live with my mother or benefit in anyway from the items she purchased on credit in my name. Oh yeah, I could also prove that they issued credit to a MINOR! Within 30 days the focus was back on dear ole mom and my report was as an 18 year-old’s report should be...squeaky clean. From that ordeal, I learned three things. First, never trust my mother (hey, better to learn this when you’re young enough not to be financially liable). Second, always, always, always pay credit cards off at the end of the month. And Third, deal with any problem immediately. Never avoid it. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff that arises from avoiding your problems (or chores, for that matter).

My comment:

> She said that by avoiding the problem, I was following in the footsteps of my mother. And that I would face far worse obstacles in life so conquering this relatively minor one would provide a good foundation for my future (in more ways than the obvious).

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Wow, this is an awesome mentor to have so young in life! Please, please, please call or write her to thank her, today, because people like this are one in a million. I am so happy you had someone with so much good advice to share at such an impressionable age! I would be so happy if my daughter met someone like that at the start of her working life. Cheers!

I just cannot say enough about how inspiring this story of a mentor helping a young adult is. I really wish for my daughter to have such a person in her life.