A journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step. For a procrastinator, an
essay of a thousand words begins with a cup of tea, a biscuit, a quick check of
the news headlines, and then another biscuit.
I have often been in a situation where I
have to write something by a deadline. I
studied history at university and had to submit regular essays to finish the
course. I have been writing this weekly
blog for more than five years. I have
plenty of ideas and generally enjoy the process of writing once I get
started. But it can be very difficult to
get started. Somehow the thought of
starting is fearful, and I put it off and I put it off until I have to start or
I won’t get it finished in time. For
every university essay I ended up sitting up all night and handing the essay in
at the last minute. My blog articles are
shorter and so I never have to sit up all night, but I often don’t start until
late in the evening on the last day I have to finish them.
My name is William and I am a recovering procrastinator.
I read an interesting article recently
about why people procrastinate, and suggestions for possible solutions. The article suggested that we evolved in
small communities of 150 to 200 individuals and our problems were not as
complex or abstract as they are now.
Immediate, simple problems like, “There’s a bloody tiger – run away!”
were much more important to our survival and success than complex or abstract ones. So putting off those problems to deal with
immediate ones made a lot of sense. Now
that we live in communities of not hundreds but millions, our problems are more
complex and abstract. “A lot of people I
have never met might like my novel and pay me some money to read it, if only I
can get it finished,” for example. Our
brains naturally assign this problem a low priority.
So how can we learn to start a piece of
work long before the deadline, finish it quickly, and then enjoy our remaining
free time?
The essay I read suggested using an “unschedule”. Let us compare an unschedule to a
schedule. In a schedule you write down
all the tasks you want to get finished – “Write my novel for four hours in the
morning,” or, “Research my university essay for six hours in the library.” When you write down these huge commitments of
your time, it immediately seems frightening and difficult to achieve, like
writing, “Climb Mount Everest in the morning.”
No wonder we feel daunted about starting and go for a cup of tea and a
biscuit instead.
In an unschedule, you instead write down
all the fun things you have planned for the day, such as, “Drink a cup of tea in
the morning and eat some biscuits,” or, “Go to the pub for three hours.” Then you write your essays or your novel in
the blank spaces in your schedule between your fun plans. The idea is that you no longer feel scared
about getting started, and work hard to finish quickly so that you can be ready
to go out and meet your friends in the pub.
I haven’t tried to use an unschedule
yet. I try to control my procrastination
using the power of habit. The difficult
thing is not writing, but making the choice to start writing. So I try to take away any thoughts of choice
by making writing a habit. I always do
it at the same time on the same days. So
I don’t have to choose to do it. It is
totally natural, like always eating breakfast at the same time or leaving for
work to catch a particular train in the morning.
This essay was finished on time. Recovering procrastinators have to celebrate
our small victories over our condition.
Vocabulary:
a deadline – the latest time or date by
which something should be completed
to submit something – to hand something in,
such as a piece of work
to put something off – to delay doing
something
complex – not simple; having many parts or
aspects
abstract – existing in thought or as an
idea but not having a physical existence
a priority – a level of importance
to be daunted – to feel frightened by the
prospect of doing something
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