Procrastination seems to be a disease that has plagued me seemingly my whole life. I finished the altMBA in February and told myself that I would continue writing and posting publicly. I told myself, this time, would be different. I made a commitment. Well, two months have gone by, and still no blog posts.
In seemingly ironic fashion, while procrastinating from writing this very blog post, I came across a video on Youtube, “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator, Tim Urban.”
I told myself, and others, that I would have a blog post published by 11:59pm on Tuesday 4/12/16. I had to set a deadline. I knew I would never do it if I didn’t. It’s 10:43 at the time of writing this.
I knew I should have started writing a long time ago, but I was busy procrastinating. Youtube videos don’t just watch themselves you know. I came across the video, said, only 15 minutes?! I have time for this. I still have almost 2 hours left before the deadline!
So I watched it.
It was actually really good, and worth the 15 minutes.
There was actually a lot of truth to it, especially the end. Tim discusses how as procrastinators, we wait until the deadline to get something done. We always have good intentions to start working on it. Chipping away a little at a time. This time, will be different than the last time, but this time never is. Deja Vu.
There are two forms of procrastination.
- short term procrastination: a project with a deadline.
- long-term procrastination: a project with no deadline.
The long-term procrastination is the one that you have to be careful of. With no deadline, there is no urgency. I have come to realize that I need to start creating my own urgency. In an effort to change this bad habit, I am going to start imposing my own deadlines. I will hold myself accountable.
My new goal is to publish a weekly blog post. Due every Tuesday at 11:59pm.
Hopefully, next week I can publish less than an hour before the deadline.
For your procrastinating pleasure…