The conversation today was fascinating, as it went in so many directions. I wanted to take a few minutes tonight to reflect on a few of the themes and a couple of the emails that I've had in reply to today's broadcast. There's no doubt about it, it's a Procrast-i-Nation!
For those of you who missed it, you can hear today's broadcast as an audio stream. There's a NPR blog too that is already well populated with reactions, stories and questions.
Of course, with Dr. John Perry (Stanford University) on air with me today, we got a quick overview of his productive way of turning a procrastination liability into a source of motivation. In an attempt to avoid one "dreaded" task among the many that he could do, John gets lots done. You can find a summary of this approach along with a link to his essay in my previous blog, "Structured Procrastination: When all else fails."
I did mention when John was introduced that he has identified a crucial element to our understanding of happiness. He writes, "Happiness is the product of the pursuit of your goals. . ." This captures very well what psychologists have documented in research. Successful goal pursuit enhances well being, particularly progress on projects that a congruent with our needs and values. It was great to hear from John today. I know you'll enjoy reading his other essays or listening to his radio program, Philosophy Talk.
For those of you who did listen today, you heard three themes emerge, each of which has been a blog topic here on Psychology Today. The first was perfectionism. My reply to various callers who addressed this issue was to underscore the difference between adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism. You can learn more about these forms of perfectionism and their relation to procrastination at the blog "What flavor of perfectionist are you? It matters!".
The second major theme in the discussion was the self-protective or self-enhancing nature of procrastination. We can procrastinate to save our self image. We have discussed this as self-handicapping, and you can learn more about this by reading the blog, "Delay as a self-handicapping strategy: I can protect my self-image by procrastinating?"
Finally, as John noted a few times, as did the host, Neal Conan, procrastination, even structured procrastination, requires a fair bit of self-deception. This is a key issue, I think. It speaks to a basic problem of living inauthentically or in "bad faith. If you're interested in thinking more about this, you can learn more at either of these two blog entries: "The Anguish of Procrastination" or "Existentialism and Procrastination (Part 2): Bad Faith."
I find all of the Psychology Today blogs incredibly interesting. Collectively, these bloggers offer an remarkable resource. For example, in reply to a caller today who asked about performance anxiety and procrastination, I recommended Dr. Jesse Bering's (Queen's University, Belfast) blog entry entitled, "Speech Anxiety and the Illusion of Transparency." If you read even one of his entries, you'll be back for more, and it's the same for the rest of my colleagues. They write well, and they share generously.
Enjoy the reading, learning and soul searching. It is our journey, and it's well worth the time.
Finally, I wanted to share, anonymously, an email that I received directly from a listener today. This listener reflects something important that many people need to hear.
"I just wanted to say thank you for giving this procrastinator a whole new lease on life. All this time I thought that I was alone in beating myself up for procrastinating and feeling that I must somehow be a lazy and shameful person. But the discussion on today's NPR radio program "Talk of the Nation" gave me a whole new perspective. Not only am I *not* the only person who feels this way, but in particular your anecdote about the artist who dismisses anything other than brush-on-canvas work as worthless and wasted efforts really rang true with me. I realized in that moment that I have been too hard on myself! I have been unfairly discrediting all of my brainstorming & creative activities as "non-work" and making myself feel guilty about all of the time spent on what is in fact a necessary process. I work in XXXX, and a lot of what I do requires thoughtful planning & deliberation, brainstorming, networking, and time to let ideas grow, but I had been spending a lot of time beating myself up for not having something to "show" for all that work. Thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that I'm not the only one who struggles with valuing work that is less tangible, more abstract, but nevertheless important work."
The message is clear. Not all delay is procrastination, and what may seem non-productive is often very important work. Self-deception can work both ways. We can deceive ourselves into believing that our truly needless delay is justified, and we can unfairly chastise ourselves over necessary, even sagacious, delay. I hope the discussion today and the blog writing helps you to see the difference in your own life.
Samuel Johnson Essay/ Procrastination and Depression
Conquering procrastination in my life is truly the key to my sanity. I'm bipolar and my experience has led me to believe that procrastination can be one of the first stops on the way to depression. The first step has been, for me, being faced with the challenge of achieving something of inhuman perfection and greatness. Then comes the anxiety. To delay overwhelming feat, I procrastinate. After having procrastinated to the point of making achievement impossible, life becomes hopeless.
I have overcome debilitating procrastination to an extent, choosing more often to work on my grad applications over buying the Q-tips that I really need NOW because I have only three left.
The main reason I write was that I wanted to call your attention to--in case you're not already aware of it--a wonderful Samuel Johnson essay on procrastination. I keep an excerpt on the wall of my office containing the line, "To act is far easier than to suffer." I have pasted the essay below:
Rambler #134
June 29, 1751
Samuel Johnson
Quix scit, an adjiciant hodiernae crastina summae
Tempora Di superi!
HORACE
Who knows if Heaven, with ever bounteous power,
Shall add to-morrow to the present hour?
FRANCIS
I sat yesterday morning employed in deliberating on which, among the various subjects that occurred to my imagination, I should bestow the paper of today. After a short effort of meditation by which nothing was determined, I grew every moment more irresolute, my ideas wandered from the first intention, and I rather wished to think, than thought upon any settled subject; till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press: the time was come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write.
Though to a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topic from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggravation of his task to be obliged to a sudden composition; yet I could not forbear to reproach myself for having so long neglected what was unavoidably to be done, and of which every moment's idleness increased the difficulty. There was however some pleasure in reflecting that I, who had only trifled till diligence was necessary, might still congratulate myself upon my superiority to multitudes who have trifled till diligence is vain; who can by no degree of activity or resolution recover the opportunities which have slipped away; and who are condemned by their own carelessness to hopeless calamity and barren sorrow.
The folly of allowing ourselves to delay what we know cannot be finally escaped is one of the general weaknesses which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrances of reason, prevail to a greater or lesser degree in every mind; even they who most steadily withstand it find it, if not the most violent, the most pertinacious of their passions, always renewing its attacks, and, though often vanquished, never destroyed.
It is indeed natural to have particular regard to the time present, and to be most solicitous for that which is by its nearness enabled to make the strongest impressions. When therefore any sharp pain is to be suffered, or any formidable danger to be incurred, we can scarcely exempt ourselves wholly from the seducements of imagination; we readily believe that another day will bring some support or advantage which we now want; and are easily persuaded, that the moment of necessity, which we desire never to arrive, is at a great distance from us.
Thus life is languished away in the gloom of anxiety, and consumed in collecting resolution which the next morning dissipates; in forming purposes which we scarcely hope to keep, and reconciling ourselves to our own cowardice by excuses which, while we admit them, we know to be absurd. Our firmness is by the continual contemplation of misery hourly impaired; every submission to our fear enlarges its dominion; we not only waste that time in which the evil we dread might have been suffered and surmounted, but even where procrastination produces no absolute increase of our difficulties, make them less superable to ourselves by habitual terrors. When evils cannot be avoided, it is wise to contract the interval of expectation; to meet the mischiefs which will overtake us if we fly; and suffer only their real malignity without the conflicts of doubt and anguish of anticipation.
To act is far easier than to suffer; yet we every day see the progress of life retarded by the vis inertiae, the mere repugnance to motion, and find multitudes repining at the want of that which nothing but idleness hinders them from enjoying. The case of Tantalus, in the region of poetic punishment, was somewhat to be pitied, because the fruits that hung about him retired from his hand; but what tenderness can be claimed by those who, though perhaps they suffer the pains of Tantalus, will never lift their hands for their own relief?
There is nothing more common among this torpid generation than murmurs and complaints; murmurs at uneasiness which only vacancy and suspicion expose them to feel, and complaints of distresses which it is in their own power to remove. Laziness is commonly associated with timidity. Either fear originally prohibits endeavours by infusing despair of success; or the frequent failure of irresolute struggles, and the constant desire of avoiding labour, impress by degrees false terror on the mind. But fear, whether natural or acquired, when once it has full possession of the fancy, never fails to employ it upon visions of calamity, such as, if they are not dissipated by useful employment, will soon overcast it with horrors, and imbitter life not only with those miseries by which all earthly beings are really more or less tormented, but with those which do not yet exist, and which can only be discerned by the perspicacity of cowardice.
Among all who sacrifice future advantage to present inclination, scarcely any gain so little as those that suffer themselves to freeze in idleness. Others are corrupted by some enjoyment of more or less power to gratify the passions; but to neglect our duties merely to avoid the labour of performing them, a labour which is always punctually rewarded, is surely to sink under weak temptations. Idleness never can secure tranquillity; the call of reason and of conscience will pierce the closest pavilion of the sluggard, and, though it may not have force to drive him from his down, will be loud enough to hinder him from sleep. Those moments which he cannot resolve to make useful, by devoting them to the great business of his being, will still be usurped by powers that will not leave them to his disposal; remorse and vexation will seize upon them, and forbid him to enjoy what he is so desirous to appropriate.
There are other causes of inactivity incident to more active faculties and more acute discernment. He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing. He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road, till some accident intercepts his journey. He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage and possibilities of improvement, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions. He that resolves to unite all the beauties of situation in a new purchase must waste his life in roving to no purpose from province to province. He that hopes in the same house to obtain every convenience may draw plans and study Palladio, but will never lay a stone. He will attempt a treatise on some important subject, and amass materials, consult authors, and study all the dependent and collateral parts of learning, but never conclude himself qualified to write. He that has abilities to conceive perfection will not easily be content without it; and, since perfection cannot be reached, will lose the opportunity of doing well in the vain hope of unattainable excellence.
The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true, that no diligence can ascertain success; death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though he missed the victory.
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Typed from an 1826 edition of the Rambler essays, printed in three volumes by Thomas Tegg, London.