If You’re Going to Do It Anyway

My natural instinct to procrastinate is about as strong as natural inclinations get. Back in school, major papers were often done on a tiny laptop the period before they were due. I’d then tell the teacher my printer didn’t work, and take my floppy disk to the library and print it out.

It’s tempting to say that, just like early birds and night owls, there are two equally effective types of people. Some, like me, just work well under pressure and get their best work done that way. Others feel better when they get things done early.

Tempting, but I don’t think it’s true. Procrastination is worse, and people who procrastinate have a fundamental flaw that ought to be overcome.

For most things, I don’t procrastinate anymore. I just don’t have the time. My todo list is longer than the day, so things have to be done constantly. I guess in the right environment, many problems are solved automatically.

But then there’s the issue of my blog posts. For a year now, I’ve written a blog post every single day. Sometimes I write early, but usually it’s put off until right before I go to bed.

I write seven a week, and post two that I think are good every week. I probably write late five times per week and early two. Even with that ratio, at least 80% of my posts that actually make it to the site are written early. I undoubtedly write better early.

It takes the same amount of time, too. Twenty minutes in the morning for a good post, twenty minutes at night for a post of questionable quality. The only difference is the scheduling.

Procrastination, it seems, stems from inability to delay gratification. I know I’m bad with that, both because I participated in one of those “small prize now, big prize later” studies in middle school, and because my adult patterns follow.

Even if my posts were of equal quality written at different times, procrastinating on them would still be a bad thing. Why? Because waiting discourages delayed gratification. Instead of working on something more exciting or easy, or spending time with friends, I should just get the post out of the way. Delay the gratification.

Procrastination isn’t just bed for present work, it’s bad for future habits.

The most effective way I’ve found to get over procrastination on an instance-by-instance basis is to remind myself that I’m going to be doing it anyway. It’s obvious, but sometimes easy to forget. In the moment, it feels like putting off writing a blog post is going to give me an extra twenty or thirty minutes in my day. But it’s not– I’m still going to be writing the post later, and I’m going to get less for my efforts.

I’m going to do it anyway, may as well do it now. And, as I get to this final paragraph, I’m reminded of the other great benefit of not procrastinating: the lightness. Now that I’m done I can spend my day without thinking about where I’m going to fit in blogging. And, later tonight when I think about how I have to write a post, I’ll remember that I saved myself that imposition and feel good. Three birds with one stone?

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Photo is some lava rock in Hawaii.

Just made it to Budapest, Hungary — the first time I’ve been to this country! If you’re here, leave a comment. I think a reader is organizing a meetup that I’ll be going to.


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