Apparent from my daily lists, I am fond of cleaning my garage, to the point that I do it daily. Now, that’s a standalone three bay garage we are talking about and tidying it every day would be peculiar indeed. How dirty does it get in a day, anyway?
No, my friends, the only reason this item is on my daily list, is that I have been putting it off. Even not-so-gentle reminders from my wife do not seem to produce enough motivation to get me roll up my sleeves. So, what is the reason for my procrastination?
There are factors that cause people to procrastinate. More often than not, we put off things that appear to be tedious, unpleasant, uninspiring, or unimportant. In my case, the garage chore seems to possess all of these qualities. Inevitably, other tasks pop up all the time that I can mentally assign more value, more appeal and more urgency to, and so the poor garage gets bumped again.
Don’t tell me in never happened to you. The only reason I am typing up this stuff now is because I know for the fact that homo sapiens is the species that invented procrastination. Imagine a bear dragging his feet on a new winter den, or a salmon figuring not to run upstream to spawn. It just does not happen in other species, as far as I know.
Here are a few pointers to help to get over the problem.
- Deal with tasks decisively. Tackle them as they appear, do not assign them to the ‘maybe tomorrow” category, and take pleasure in striking them off your list.
- Use simple task lists. As my case demonstrates, they don’t guarantee that it will get done, but at least they guarantee that is not going to drop off your radar. Besides, ticking things off the list is darn satisfying.
- Reward yourself. Do something you really like after you are finished with a dreaded chore. Have a coffee, go for a walk, listen to music, or play Solitaire.
- Delegate, if you consistently find yourself dragging your feet on a particular activity. Others may be better suited for it. Your chore may well be someone else’s enjoyment.
- Enjoy being productive. I guarantee that your energy level will shoot up if you deal with your task list with vigor and fortitude.
Finally, don’t dawdle, as that is even worse than procrastination. It does not take a whole day to write a project status update, nor do you have to debate with yourself whether to make that dreaded phone call. If you don’t feel like cleaning the garage right now, fine, but remember that you cannot ignore it forever!
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written by ibogorad, July 04, 2008
At a danger of offending a lot of MBTI practitioners out there, the reliability and validity of the test is under question. In fact, when retaken within a month, some 50 per cent of the subjects change their "code".
There is of course no shortage of bobos who issue mugs to their constituents, with the appropriate 4-letter MBTI code on it. This is stereotyping at its worst.
And now that my run on MBTI is finished, thank you very much for your contribution.
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Perhaps your not cleaning out your garage has nothing to do with procrastination. Perhaps it just isn't of a very high value or priority to you. Maybe you are like the legion of other folks who make up a list as a menu of possibilities - not really as a to be done list, rather as a list of things I'm currently thinking I might do.
One clear step would be to let yourself off the hook - if you don't want to clean your garage, don't. If you really do want a clean garage, I'm wondering what it is that you do want - what your clean garage will allow you to do that you really DO want to do!
To-do lists are used really differently by 'closure' and 'new beginnings' people - closure people get great satisfaction by having things decided. For those of you familiar with Myers Briggs - these are the J's in life. They are the ones who sentence the rest of us to time management training, accurately time box their work (and execute according to plan), and make us feel inadequate when our SOP doesn't align with theirs.
We 'new beginnings' people are motivated by starting up new things. (Myers Briggs Ps) If I need to get a task done - especially one that isn't very exciting - I consider what I will be able to start that I really want to do once I get all of that mess cleared up. Or I schedule something for that space that I know I'll need to have it clean in order to do. Get it? Focus on what I want and what I want to do rather than what I have to get done.
This little bit magic might help you be a bit easier on yourself and actually get the garage cleaned up - if, indeed, it needs to be cleaned up. For those of you who identify more strongly as closure folks, understanding this feature of your 'new beginnings' cohorts, can help you both stay sane without name calling or reform school!