​February 5, 2025​

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To Do or Not To Do

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Hello Reader

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Putting pen to paper to write this article took a while. Composing that opening sentence, choosing the words to include or omit, that would create a profound idea on par with “In the beginning,” was as difficult as climbing a rock face without any safety gear.

Supposedly.

I could not start without conveying the perfect image, but I couldn’t find the words to pen the perfect sentence to describe the perfect image. The opening sentence kept circling around in my mind, and I could not decide on the best phrase. I would produce different versions, all discarded of course, because I was unhappy with how they sounded, always thinking that a better one would come along if I was “patient” enough.

Logically, as a result, this piece grinded to a halt—a true catch-22.

At first, I thought it was writer’s block and claimed that special privilege reserved only for them, but I knew what I wanted to say. Since my last communication was at the end of August, watching the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months, I knew something else was up and needed to look elsewhere.

Then, it dawned on me.

I went back to my lists, all my handwritten to-do lists, my project management software, my windows notes, my post-it notes sprawled over my desk, in order to find inspiration and work out what needed to be done.

Looking for the needle, I discovered how much I had wanted to do, how much I had not done, and how much I still had to do.

This did not make me feel good, as it confirmed how many things still needed to be done but were not. I was desperately trying to work out the reasons why I had put off so much. What caused me to put off tasks, instead of doing them immediately? Why was I not doing important jobs even though, at the time, they were important enough to go on my list in the first place, only to “forget” about them, which meant I could not tick them off.

Did I not see what was happening? Was I blindly feeling my way in the dark, or had I chosen to look the other way?

Like a light switching on, I realised that “to delay and put things off” can apply to anything, mowing the lawn, starting a fitness regime, writing your book, travelling, anything at all. Any activity is prone to being postponed till tomorrow instead of today, and if that is repeated enough times, the risk of forming this bad habit increases.

As with all things we do regularly, the more we do it, the better we become, the more we practice, the more proficient we are, the more we improve, the more the subconscious takes over and performs the action without us thinking about it. In other words, this habit of putting things off had become easier, and starting tasks, had become harder. My natural habit building processes were working against me.

They have a name for it, you know.

You know exactly what I am talking about. To make a point, I’m not going to tell you its name. Not yet. I’m putting pen to paper but holding the word inside my pen and not writing it down, pulling the pen away and replacing the cap. Click. Drop. You know what the word is, don’t you?

Besides, there are some of you who would never dream of admitting it to yourself, in private, that you are of this nature. Forget about admitting it in public, going so far as to deny that it even applies to you, because it is beneath you, below you; for it is safer to stay around the edges, than to be one of those who fully express themselves, those without inhibitions, who are free, those who head straight to the middle of the dance floor on a Saturday night, calling this condition by other names, not being direct, choosing to go around the houses instead of going through the alley, because that’s where the truth is. Waiting.

You know what I am talking about, and I know you know.

Will you confess to knowing, to being? Because confessing warrants doing something about it.

I am the world’s worst; I can’t help it. I am who I am. I embrace it as best I can and in a funny sort of way, writing about it, is therapeutic. I bet my bottom dollar, though, you’re the same. Like peas in a pod, we know we shouldn’t delay, but we can’t help it. We try not to. This time will be the last. We’ve tried everything. We put things off. We shouldn’t but we’re more than happy to carry on the only way we know how. No matter how much we try to change, we delay, again, and again, and again.

Stop denying it. Turn the corner. Admit who you are. You’ll feel better, you’ll feel liberated.

Admit with me…like we’re at an AA meeting:

Hello, my name is [your name] and I am a Procrastinator.

Hark, Here now! Trumpets blow. Choirs of angels sing and cherubs tease Eros by hiding his arrows. The slumbering winter’s sun breaks though the grey clouds and a robin finds a worm in the snow. All is good in the world.

Well done you.

What can we do?

Now reality’s dust has settled and its out in the open, let’s look to see if we can find a way that will help us understand why it’s so hard to be honest about who we are and what we can do about it.

According to Franker Wiber & Peter M Gollwitzer in “The Thief of Time”(2010), procrastination, defined as “to postpone taking action despite strong intentions or opportunity to perform a task”. They claim it is a widespread problem “with severe consequences,” and their research concludes there are four identifiable requirements that indicate the behaviour of a procrastinator.

These are, (a procrastinator would):-

(1) Commit to a goal or task, something needs doing.

(2) Can act on the goal, they have the time available to take action.

(3) Expect to be worse off later because of a delay, they know there are consequences if the task is not completed.

(4) Voluntarily decides inaction over action, does something else, gets distracted, does nothing at all.

The most important takeaway is that a procrastinator “avoids the implementation of the intention,” avoids taking action to complete the job in hand. For example, not quitting smoking despite saying so on New Year’s Day, or not joining a gym, despite health concerns, or because they are task averse, meaning there is a “trade-off between attractive long-term consequences and less attractive short-term consequences.” In other words, watching films and snacking is more attractive than going for a run.

As people, according to Freud, like to fulfil their “Pleasure Principle” [2], by doing something more appealing, they are more likely to push boring, or arduous tasks to another day, and most times, won’t complete them. Yet, just in case, they attach themselves to the memory of a task by keeping the task on an ever-expanding to-do list. Forever hoping.

Paradoxically, putting tasks off can be just as satisfying as completing them, each spiking the brain with a potent mix of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins—a bottomless cocktail that would be unable to quench a vampire’s thirst.

Whist reading “The Thief of Time,” in Chapter 11, “Overcoming Procrastination through Planning”, I found an excellent technique, easy enough to implement, that I have been using to good effect.

As an aside, I also suffer from slight OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. I check things. I check the taps are off, electrical points are off, recheck locked doors, not just once, but many times. It’s getting better, but when stress levels elevate, it’s worse. The reason I mention this is because I have wanted to explore resistance therapy to reduce the amount of times my OCD kicks in. Like all things, I never got around to it. Every time I planned to look into this issue, my stress levels happen to decline causing the urge “to check” to fade, letting me off the hook. This discovery though, their use of implementation intentions, is like putting a spoke in the wheel and has helped overcome some of my OCD checks, whilst tackling my list.

Back on point. There are an abundance of goal-setting formulae out there and having experimented with many, I know that the best way to get the job done is to use the right tool. Franker Wiber & Peter M Gollwitzer use an “If…Then” method, an implementation intention method, because they re-frame tasks as events. If this event happens, then do this. In practice, this method looks like this.

Let’s say you wanted to start running every morning. You would wake up, get dressed, then go for a run. For a number of reasons, or excuses, the likelihood is, you may not go, it could be raining, you’re snug, you overslept. Anything, and I mean anything, could be a “justifiable” reason, excuse, not to go. What they propose is framing the desire, improve fitness through running, as “if something happens, then this happens.” In this case, going for a morning run, as an expected event, that triggers after another event happens, waking up. More precisely, a cause and an effect. For the computer geeks, an “IF…Then” statement.

Let’s take another look at how that works.

If the alarm go off at 08:00am and my running kit is on the floor ready, then I will get my running kit on and go for a run immediately.

Simple. There is, however, a twist. The imagination must be involved too. I like this bit.

In this case, the night before, when you are getting your running kit ready, visualise the alarm sounding at 08:00am, visualise getting up, dressing and leaving the house. Visualise yourself starting to run the start of the route.

This is extremely important. I will say it again, as this will not self-destruct in five seconds.

The night before:

• Visualise the alarm sounding at 08:00am.
• Visualise getting up.
• Visualise getting dressed.
• Visualise leaving the house.
• Visualise yourself running the start of the route.

This event created in your imagination, suggests to your mind that an “imagined reality” is a “real reality,” one that has already taken place, enabling you to repeat a behaviour that has “already happened.” Using the power of the mind in this way, breaks the habit cycle and re-programmes the subconscious to work with you. With regular practice, this simple technique can help make procrastination a thing of the past.

As procrastination is widely spoken of online, I wanted to avoid repeating what you may already have heard. I am, therefore, going to leave you with a quote from the experts as they can sum up their ideas far better than I can.

“In summary, the ability to resist procrastination and the effectiveness of implementation intentions are expected to be strongest when a person is highly committed to the goal (strong goal intentions), believes in his or her ability to enact the action required to produce the desired outcomes (high self-efficacy), and does not have the tendency to evaluate his or her behaviour according to high standards set by others (socially prescribed perfectionism).”

No one knows that you are working on yourself, you don’t even have to tell them, removing the need for external socially prescribed perfectionism. Replacing the habit of delay with an autotelic habit, a creative habit filled with a creative purpose to meet an end, could help reduce the size of your lists, achieve more of your goals, by completing more tasks, whilst simultaneously developing more skills and confidence that will lead to more freedom.

Use this technique anyway you see fit, and good luck.

Catch you later,

John

References

[1] Andreou C, White MD. The Thief of Time [Internet]. Oxford University Press; 2010 [cited 2024 Oct 9]. Available from: https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/api/core/bitstreams/c3f58c2b-3542-4a03-91e6-a6911b51bed4/content

[2] Naseem S. If You’re a Procrastinator Like Me, #2Our ScienceLearn Science at Scitable [Internet]. [cited 2024 Oct 30]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/our-science/if_youre_a_procrastinator_like_196100/

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