Another bit of Procrastination Research

Here is an intriguing view of procrastination.

http://calnewport.com/blog/2011/07/10/the-procrastinating-caveman-what-human-evolution-teaches-us-about-why-we-put-off-work-and-how-to-stop/

It is pure speculation which is fun, and informed by rationality which is comforting.  The take home message is that procrastination is a message from your evolutionary history that your brain thinks your plan is rubbish. Its an interesting idea, which I love but which I am not sure I accept.  It is however susceptible to experiment.   All you'd have to do is see how quickly you get to work when you have a well worked out plan compared to when you have psyched yourself with lots of positive affirmations and morale boosting self talk but have neglected to actually think through what it is you are actually going to do.

I have too many experiments on the go to investigate this one right now, but I will come back to it later.

Goals

I have just dropped one of my goals, which brings my total down to three.  Strictly speaking, one of them is simply a supporting goal for the other so in reality I have just two goals.  Of those two goals one is clearly more important to me that the other.

Do I really need that second goal?

Further Research on Procrastination

In my continuing quest to crack my procrastination I have just listened to http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/leveraging_self_control_an_interesting_strategy_for_coping_with_procrastination 

I also did a pretty nifty mind map of it.   The basic idea is ridiculously simple.  You set yourself a goal, say doing 15 minutes hoovering a night.   Then if you don't meet it, you punish yourself by say missing a TV programme you want to watch.  Say for instance QI.

It shouldn't work in theory, because if you don't have the willpower to do the hoovering, why should you have the willpower to apply the punishment?  But it seems that it can work because you selectively procrastinate.  I.e., you procrastinate over certain things even though your overall level of willpower is fine.

Well this is one I have to try, so this week I aim to do 15 minutes of housework a day every evening.  If I fail - no QI on Friday.  Let's see how it goes.

Procrastination Tips

A plaintive post on Steve Pavlina's Forum from moimoi.

I want to sort out the stuffs (family-related, work-related, net addiction-related, procrastination-related ones) in my life because I feel as if waves were over me while I am sinking, drowning deeper and deeper in the infinite, bottom-less sea of life.

Changing Focus

Here is a problem.

I sit down and focus on something I want or need to do. Lets say it is writing this blog post - it is as good an example as any.   I want to get it done in 15 minutes, which is a reasonable investment of time for what I want to get out of it.   I completely clear my brain of everything else and as I am good at using my time I succeed in reaching my goal of a completed blog post in the time I have allotted to it.

So far so good.

Why I am going back to a written journal

I have a blue hard back book with lined paper that I use to keep a journal. In recent years I have tended to only use it for things that only writing would do for.  Keeping notes on television programmes that interest me for example.  Or things where I need to do a lot of drawing.  But I have decided I am going back to using it as the default record keeper, and only use my laptop for things that I can't do on paper.

This will be a lot less convenient.  I type faster than I write.  A laptop is easier to use in a lot of contexts. particularly where the light is poor.  And the ability to correct and search for stuff is unparalleled.   And as I am an avid cloud computer fan it is even safer.  As long as Google and Evernote don't go bust my thoughts and jottings are secure for ever.

So why the change.

The theory is that the act of writing stuff keys it in to my head much more securely.  I am engaging a lot more muscles and concentration in three dimensions than I do on my laptop screen.  While this makes it a longer process it may also make an experience that goes deeper into my head.  For things like goals and planning this should be a lot more beneficial. Lets see how it goes.

Evolution - Just a Theory

An aspiring politician in the US has just described evolution as just a theory. And he is quite right, it is just a theory.  But what a theory!

As he is running for the top job I imagine that he is an educated, intelligent and perceptive man who choses his words carefully. He has done well here because the people who knock evolution often latch on to the fact that it is called a theory and not a law.  But for as long as it is possible to conceive of an experiment you can do that might disprove it, evolution will remain a theory and not a fact.  Evolution isn't a fact.  That there are huge numbers of observations that have been made that are consistent with evolution is a fact.  That there is not one single observation that contradicts is a fact.  And we have a lot of observations.

So for my money, I think that although evolution will always remain just a theory treating it as a fact is a small enough risk to take.  And treating evolution as a source of insight into how the world works is a pretty solid and profitable thing to do.  A good example is the technique I have been using for avoiding distractions.  It turns out that evolution has hard wired us to react quickly to external stimuli.  When we lived in a world where a rustle in the bushes could mean there was something in it that was going to kill you, moving first and thinking later was the kind of behaviour that kept you alive.  Today we are still set up to treat anything that comes up as a reason to shift our attention or even our body.

In fact, it is a bit deeper even than that.  We need to use up energy to prevent ourselves reacting. That is why we have more willpower when we are well fed and relaxed.   It also explains why pausing is proving so much more successful than resisting or ignoring distractions.  It takes a lot less energy to pause - though it still takes some.

If you are aware of the way your brain works you can come up with a range of strategies that can be trialled to increase your effectiveness.  I'll be using this blog to document my personal experiments and the results I get from them.  The pausing experiment is still running because one week isn't long enough to be sure it works in the long run.  But even if it doesn't, I have enjoyed the insight from evolution.

I am looking back on a week when this bit of insight has enabled me to clock up about 4 hours extra work at no cost to me.  Appreciating the power of understanding the way the world really is one of the things that will do most to make your life more rewarding and productive.

Decline and Fall of the Steve Pavlina Empire

The Roman Empire took several centuries to fall, and I don't think stevepavlina.com is going out of business any day now. But all things have a natural life span and I have a feeling that the best is passed rather than to come.  The basic model Steve has used is to give an interesting an unusual spin to some fairly obvious ideas all of which can be found elsewhere if you look for them.  I am not knocking this, far from it. I find it an entertaining place to spend time and often quite refreshing and thought provoking.  But it does have an Achilles Heal.

Procrastination - Avoiding Distractions with Pinteresque Pauses

Like a lot of people I have a problem with procrastination.  I have always had it and I have a feeling I'll never completely overcome it.  But it does vary, and I have gone through about 2 years where it has been a really major problem.  So I am trying to do something about it.  I have read quite a bit about it over the last month.  (I meant to do it the month before.)  I have tried out a few suggestions, and I have come up with something that seems to be working at the moment.

Habits I am working to form

So this is my list of 10 habits I am trying to form.

1. Don't switch on the lap top until 9.00pm on workdays.
2. Work through afternoon tea breaks.
3. Review my task cards every morning.
4. Tidy up the house when I get home before dinner.
5. Never go to bed without a clear idea of what I am going to do immediately I wake up every week day morning.
6. Keep journal and do a plan every day.
7. Regularly review goals.
8. Write 2000 words a day on average, to make up to a weekly total of 2,000.
9. Check bank balance daily.
10. Throw away stuff I'll never need again.  (Or sell it if it is worth over £20)

The idea is that all 10 of them are in my mind as something I am consciously working on, but that I only give 1 or 2 the focus of monitoring my compliance with them.  And when I say 1 or 2 I mean that literally as in either 1 or 2.  I am going to allow myself to focus on two at the same time when and only when both habits are exclusively work based or home based, and I can't do 2 work based ones at the same time.

Current two focused ones in bold.