Procrastination and Laziness. ............................................................ I’d like to discuss two phenomena of human condition – procrastination and laziness. That’s right, phenomena. Despite its commonality, I believe procrastination and laziness to be something that is rather unnatural to our minds. At the early childhood where our consciousness is yet to be properly shaped – we are striving for exploration, wonder, knowledge, growth. Yet these two appear and break the flow leading sometimes to extreme conditions which makes feel living as a sweet but still hell and if not treated might even lead to one’s death. Harsh but true, nevertheless. In this brief piece, I share my personal exploration of overcoming procrastination and laziness. This isn't a guide from an expert standpoint, but rather a collection of thoughts and observations from my own experiences. They're intended to offer a new perspective, perhaps sparking your own ideas and conclusions. It's more of a solo exploration shared in a post, one that I hope resonates with you in your own quest for understanding and overcoming these common challenges. ............................................................ So let me begin by stating the obvious: I don’t think there is any human being who wouldn’t experience procrastination or laziness. It is clearly common for our species. Also, I am not going to claim that I don’t have those, and I don’t believe that anyone can fully get rid of either laziness or procrastination. However, one can learn how to control both, and I am going to talk about on my approach to do that. But first, let’s try to delve deeper into those two, tune our minds onto the subject. Procrastination as a condition has been with humans for ages if not ever, same with laziness. Ancient Greek philosophers had a concept called "akrasia" which was believed to be translated as a lack of self-control. If procrastination is a lack of self-control, then laziness would be a lack of motivation. Together it is a highly dangerous partnership. However, those labels are overly minimalistic to be put on something that is far more complex and rich in feelings, effect on mind and its power to not go away. Let’s look at how procrastination can be triggered, using examples that, while strikingly familiar, are pivotal in tuning our focus onto the subject. Imagine John, a regular guy with a regular job. Sometimes, he finds a task at work that could be done today... or maybe tomorrow. It’s not urgent, right? This thought often visits him, especially when he has a lot of free time. 'I could start that project,' he thinks, but then his mind catches that video he put into a watch later folder earlier in the day. Or consider Mia, who sometimes just wants to rest after a long day. She tells herself she'll only watch one video or play one game. Before she knows it, hours have passed. 'Just a bit more,' she keeps telling herself, but that 'bit more' stretches on and on and on. Then there's Tom, stuck in a rut with repetitive or challenging tasks. To break that monotony, he turns to something entertaining, promising himself it’s just a short break. However, once he starts, it’s too hard to stop. And finally, think of Jane, who sometimes feels overwhelmed by the weight of her responsibilities and the things that are going on in her life. Everything seems too hard, and all she wants is to escape, to rest. What starts as a necessary break subtly morphs into procrastination. In each of these scenarios, the decision to delay, to defer, to escape for just a bit longer is a siren call, luring even the best of us into the gentle embrace of procrastination and subsequently laziness. Procrastination is a product of fear, perfectionism, or overwhelm before the task in hand but it is not only about tasks. Procrastination is also triggered by addiction to think of something abstract, ephemeral, existential - like a head in the clouds. It often can be mistaken with laziness and although one is different from another, the core of those two states of consciousness I believe is the same. How so? The following part doesn’t state clearly the core but delves deeper showing much similarities between the two states implying the same core. This is as far as I got trying to depict into each state landing with this same core conclusion. So, same core implications: Laziness is what often comes after procrastination. Once it is chronical, it can help starting procrastination earlier or have it longer. Laziness is a juice to feed the procrastination engine. Basically, lack of motivation strengthens lack of self-control. Also, both do not always go away when you stop relaxing and come back working. It can stay there on the background forcing you with suffering of not relaxing and makes you quickly finish up in order to go back to that deceptive amazing feeling that procrastination or laziness brings. Let’s dig further: How do each one feel? I tried to come up with “one sentencer” that would fit it all. So… Laziness feels like an already decided choice to have a rest, hand in hand with a languid comfort, seasoned with a seductive blend of guilt and joy for the unclaimed time. Procrastination feels like a necessity to have a rest from the worries of impending duty, which then triggers a guilty comfort that is constantly silenced by a thrilling temptation to pursue some joyful activities. Both of those should we call them feelings are targeting rest, joy and comfort to ease us into staying with them for a very long while. Why not forever? Let's ponder a hypothetical: imagine a world without obligations, brimming with free time, financial security, and devoid of worries. Even then, the specter of boredom would inevitably creep in, nudging us, even if briefly, towards activities with a hint of productivity. I made up a utopia scenario but it works nevertheless. At this stage it is a chance to grab this little productive activity and get out of procrastination and laziness for some time. All depends on how much one is a subject to laziness or procrastination. This cycle from rushing into procrastination/laziness and then crawling back repeats itself for what might feel indefinitely. Everything is then topped with a fear of staying like that forever. Some resign themselves to this fate and even still might make a worrisome living if their financial situation permits but for some it is a never-ending struggle to find an escape route. Speaking of consciousness - how could it be described during the procrastination/laziness? We’ve come to another kind of feeling, different layer. It is undoubtedly, a diminished, softer state of consciousness, one that embarks on a path of degradation. It carries a sense of distance, as if becoming incrementally simpler, more detached. Fortunately, this condition is swiftly reversible once you actually get out of procrastination and laziness. ............................................................ So, at last, how to get out? There are many ways that people came up with and I will not list them here. It can be simply googled. What helped me: Long story short, there is a formula that worked for me. It consists of 3 stages. First I started by doing something that I love but also something creative. Like simply watching a movie or playing a game doesn’t cut it – it has to be something that I work on and nourish but it doesn’t take too much time. Can be even up to 5-10 min. E.g. out of objects in the room create a composition and then take a photo. It might be also a good idea to show it to someone on social media or to you friends – feedback creates a positive loop. Continue doing it as often as you can but without pressure, so it doesn’t even have to be every day. How does this step contribute to getting rid of procrastination or laziness? When you are doing something that you love it doesn’t trigger a procrastination/laziness response which would try to stop this activity. When this activity doesn’t last long – again, the response from those two sneaky watchers wouldn’t follow. Now, as to the most important part, creativeness – it puts one’s mind from a soft state into a sharp, prepared state, one that contributes to you becoming a better self. So that, when this activity, whatever it might be, repeats over and over it slowly but inevitably brings your mind into a state of readiness, a stand-by mode which once unleashed will allow you to get out of procrastination or laziness without triggering the responses from them to put you far back. Then come two stages – some hard pressure from the external source and some realization important to you. What kind of hard pressure? Ideally, would be something that you don’t have much control over but one you can’t refuse. E.g. going to a gym with a friend who’s been going there for ages, and you just must work out to keep up. OR requesting some super heavy activity at work with tight deadlines which after you start you can’t refuse or it will affect your career at the company with some bad feedback. OR putting a big bet on something with a friend so that in order you win you do it faster – like creating some program, a stuffed toy, some short movie or getting bulked and so on. The idea is that it pushes your mind to get stronger, sharper in a short amount of time which with enough pressure will snap you out of procrastination or laziness but IMPORTANT it shouldn’t be too hard, otherwise there is a good chance of giving up. It needs to be just a little bit too much but what you can still bare. Well, you might ask – the previous activity also puts one’s mind into a sharp stronger state – why not just have it and that’s it? It adds pain, pressure, maybe some suffering even, which are important components to change a mind. It always has been – whatever significant change a human goes through, it is always led by those unpleasant feelings. So I’d say it is a must for a change. But it is a long topic to cover and explain so I’ll leave it for another post, maybe. So, what about the realization of what is important to you, the last step. This step happened to me and I suspect it is not mandatory in order to get out of procrastination/laziness but it definitely helps. One of reasons that I wouldn’t get out of procrastination/laziness was that everything seemed meaningless, existential crisis basically and I was longing for some realization to get me out of it. I already gave up on searching for the answer and was trying to just break from procrastination and laziness with the first step than there was the second and when the second hit me hard enough – it came, my beautiful realization, final ingredient to let me escape this awful state at last. The realization… if expanding this part, it might be enough for another post. It is a short summary I felt I had to do in order to not leave this unanswered, talking about something ephemeral but beware it is out of context: I’ve decided that I have to strive towards complexity in everything I do in life, complexity towards prosperity no matter how hard it might get because the opposite direction is not at all appealing to me, unacceptable. As for the feeling of meaningless of things – I just accepted it that it might be this way and everything is indeed meaningless and overtime it started to affect me less and less. I don’t feel it having strength anymore. Just a thought now, a theory as one of many. All of that was a clear realization which being at that point the only possible logical choice suppressed all other worries. The next day, I felt a big relief and was striving to do things and to explore and grow and never looked back but well it is not so rainbowy =) it was just at the beginning. Without feeling epic, it works until this day and I do have that procrastination and laziness somewhere on the background, gently tamping on my mind but it is not a problem to refuse it now, even if it gets a little or more than a little in and I have zero desire to go back to those two deceptive feelings of comfort and joy. As a result, when I rest, it is a rest indeed and it is within a controlled time limit, well, mostly =) But please note this realization is very subjective and in the deep context to me – behind it there is a LOT of background. Like when I read it – it is simple, not appealing maybe and like, duh, Captain Obvious. It conveys years of search and the final conclusion which I did think about from the beginning, but it wouldn’t stick because the peace was not made with many many parts of myself, my mind and ideas. Now this might look surprising as it doesn’t quite fit the narrative and it was certainly surprising to me but after getting out of my long procrastination/laziness cycles I keep my track of some activities that I do with strikes. There are many apps that can help you track your progress over days/weeks/months. It is not an advertisement, LOL, so will not tell which one I use, don’t ask. It does help and feels really really good and rewarding to have visibility of how much I’ve done. Never would have thought that this would work on me, but it surely does. I would call it the bonus step =) So there is that. ............................................................ Stay tuned, folks, for more thoughts and my research, now hopefully more specifically on consciousness and please please please let me know your thoughts! Any feedback is welcomed! ............................................................ #blog #writing #WritingCommunity #procrastination #laziness ............................................................
