Avoid Pain – Procrastinate

The way our brains function is by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. We like the instant gratification that comes with avoiding a difficult or boring task. This primitive mental scripting can be used to our advantage.

A Look At Pain

The pain associated with beginning a task that is either too difficult or too boring is what causes us to procrastinate. By not doing this task, we temporarily relieve ourselves of the incoming mental anguish and allow ourselves to indulge in activities that are more fun, but less important.

There is the other pain, the one where we arrive late or miss a deadline. We quickly consider this pain, but since disaster is not eminent we are able to clear our conscience and put this task on the back burner.

We know that the second of these pains is the worst of the two evils. By missing our deadline or doing work that isn’t satisfactory we are hurting ourselves more. This is where I’ll show you how we can take advantage of this pain and utilize it for success.

Programming Ourselves For Success

What does it mean to program ourselves for success? Upload a new operating system into our brain and be on our way? In a way, yes.

We now know that there are two pains. The one before the task, which we try to avoid and the one after the task, which we cannot avoid. Since we live in the now, we exist before the task, until the task has passed.

By concentrating on the pain that will occur, if the task is left undone or completed poorly, we bring the future into the present. This allows us to live with both pains. Our brain is programmed to get rid of pain and it’s pretty good at prioritizing; the biggest pain is avoided first.

Pros and Cons

I have a belief that once a person has all the data that they need to make a decision, the decision should be made very quickly. Sometimes this is not possible, so I make a pros and cons list. One catch though, we’re going to make a list of the pain associated with doing the work right away versus the pain from procrastinating.

Doing it now: Pain

  1. No time to relax
  2. Not having fun
  3. Doing something hard

Procrastinating: Pain

  1. Can’t really enjoy the time off
  2. Stressing about the task
  3. No satisfaction about leasure
  4. Will hand in unsatisfactory work
  5. May miss a deadline
  6. Could get fired
  7. Could get dumped

The trick here is to brainstorm your own list, for a specific task, and take a good hard look at it. You’ll notice that the pain from procrastination list will be longer and more severe than the pain of getting it done now.

Another trick that I have used to avoid procrastination is time logging, which makes you more aware of where your time is going. If you consciously see your time windling away, you’re more likely to take action.

I’d like to hear some personal accounts of what you have done to avoid procrastination, you can send me an e-mail or comment below. I will be doing a followup post with more specific techniques that I receive from various sources.

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Posted by in Personal Development, Productivity | March 1, 2007 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 16 comments

  • http://www.best-of-time-management.com/ Pamela

    I also make list the things needed to be done. I also include the amount of time I need to accomplish a certain task to avoid waisting time. Not that working on something overtime is a waste but other tasks which can be done in a shorter time are waiting on the list.

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Hey Pamela,

    Getting things down on ‘paper’ helps get a fresh perspective and is a good motivating tool. I bet you’ve gotten very productive using this technique.

  • http://saniawyatt.blogspot.com Sania Wyatt

    I keep an agenda of my activities. I try to avoid procrastination by thinking of the pain I’ll get when I forgo the task and I get to it.

    Btw Alex, I really like your crisp and clear style of writing. You lay a difficult subject so clearly. Hope you continue blogging like this! :)

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Sania, you request a procrastination article, you get it. I’m here for my cherished readers ;)

  • http://www.insiderweblog.com Jesper

    I usually think about myself as an instant gratification junkie, meaning I have a hard time doing things that are seemingly boring or hard. However, with such tasks the gratification comes later, and is usually award a deeper sense of satisfaction than the instant gratification type of activities do.

    I wrote today a post on the same topic but with a different angle. I like your pain-approach, it is an interesting interpretation.

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Hey Jesper,

    I read your article. I want to respectfully disagree about a point you made about having unplanned time.

    While I think that being spontaneous can be really fun I also believe that in order to obtain maximum productivity you should plan. You can even plan to be spontaneous.

    Here’s what I mean. If you work around many people, and have a scheduled lunch, you can be spontaneous about who you dine with in order to experience variety.

    You can plan a night out with a date, but then be spontaneous about where you’ll go once you get to the general vicinity.

    Say you have a weekend completely free. You can either not make plans and see what comes up, or you can make plans to do something unique and get away somewhere. You may not be able to do the latter if you woke up Saturday morning without a plan. Perhaps you needed to pack early and notify friends to come with you, etc.

    This is just my personal opinion. Keep on writing and having yours, that is very crucial.

  • http://www.buildyourlifetoorder.com Mark McManus

    Well, as you know Alex, there’s always linking pleasure to the task you need to do. You can focus on the pain of not doing it and also the positive benefits you’ll get from doing it. Really dwell on the emotion of accomplishment or whatever it is you’ll get from it. Remember, we’re emotionally driven beings so lists mean nothing if they aren’t accompanied by feelings. Our brains will find a way to move us towards this pleasure. Great post Alex.

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Hey Mark, thanks for visiting. I completely agree with you, I just decided to concentrate on the one side of things for this particular post.

    Stay tuned for future episodes of Alex Shalman as he battles the evil procrastination in an effort to save the world, from themselves. ;)

  • http://www.necromanc.blogspot.com Mihai

    After reading this post and the comments, I’m wondering how a man who achieved a lot of this that require hard work think about this problem.

    I think he want to finish this kind of tasks because he get power after every hard thing completed.

    These days I’ve always made a new website, and I didn’t want to start the job because I was a long road, but when I’ve started the work easily begin to progress.I’m still working.

    I hope my english is not so bad.

    :)

  • http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

    Mihai,

    I also find it interesting to hear the experiences of very successful people. Now days I’m leaning towards hearing the experiences of very happy people instead – we’ll save that for another post.

    You’re right, your English isn’t the greatest, but I think you got your point across perfectly, and I sincerely appreciate your effort to write such a thoughtful comment.

  • http://www.lcsc.edu/NS350/_discNS350/000003d7.htm?retin Epaminondas

    Sorry :(

  • http://toyota-buckeystown.carsforonlinesale.biz/maroone-honda-of-miami.htm Demosthenes

    Interesting…

  • http://best-hyundai.caraccidentfe.info/mckinney-lexus-repair.htm Paulos

    Nice!

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