Mindful Moments: Stories and Lessons of Procrastination

So why do we procrastinate?  I mean, as a species.  Well, we’re pretty complicated.  We’ve got all these virtues and vices and it’s not clear which are innate and which come from kindergarden.  Pride, perfectionism, and fear fall more on the vice side of things typically (certainly not always).  And they definitely play into the story of procrastination.  People use procrastination as an oddball way to amp their sense of self-worth, according to Burka and Yuen, authors of Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It.  The thinking goes like this: by procrastinating, we avoid feeling like a failure even when we do fail.   “‘Well, I could have done better if I’d started sooner and given myself more time to do it.’”  And even extremely successful people can be afraid of failure.

Why such an elaborate ruse to keep ourself prideful?  Because when we’re too focused on being judged or even judging our own results then it is easy to become afraid of those results.  Or so perfectionist that getting started seems daunting.  It can be easier to put something off than start something that could result in failure.

When we think through the consequences of our actions, us humans are what economists call “risk averse.”  We’re more afraid of doing badly than we are excited about doing well.  This can make starting new things very emotional.

Heck, monkeys feel the same way.

So is that it?  Is it inevitable to be paralyzed with fear and never get anything done?  Of course not!  We can value the work that we do in and of itself.  Failure and success are really beside the point.  It’s the effort that we put into the work that we do that gets put on the scale at the end of our lives.

And does being risk averse mean that monkeys procrastinate?  I really want to know!

So, procrastinating to protect our sense of pride?  That’s just fear (the mind killer) wearing a fancy dress.  I wonder if using a feel-good incentive for time management like ProcrasDonate can activate a different set of neurons than the more typical guilty procrastination…