Structured procrastination: The lesser known procrastination you’re guilty of.
As an entrepreneur
You have a lot going on, no doubt!
You also know the important tasks and likely have a plan for the next few weeks, months or even years. Look at you! How stellar.
I mean you show up everyday. Some days you get a lot done and other days are rough, slow and lazy.
No biggie. At least you show up daily.
But let's pause for a moment...
When you show up
Do you find yourself rearranging items on your todo list for that day so it looks perfect?
What about refreshing your email every 7 minutes to see if you can respond to a new email rapidly?
I don't know about you but umm I have the tweaking and re-tweaking that stubborn CSS div on the oh-my-god-so-perfect-landing-page. And to be honest, I've been working on the same page for a tad-bit too long.
You know it. I know it. And yeah, yeah, whatever. There's still marketing to do.
And writing.
And creating the email list.
And selling.
👉 This is structured procrastination at work. It's well talked about by Dan Ariely (a renowned Prof in the field of Behavioral Economics).
We spend lots of time on simple, easy-to-accomplish tasks and never getting to the important ones.
Because crossing off the simple ones give everyone a ✨dopamine boost✨ and makes you feel productive. But you are not.
Shooting for the small, easy tasks
You'd do anything to suppress that guilt that you should be working on another task - the important one.
How about finishing an item that you didn't have on your list.
- Add it to your list.
- Then cross it off.
- Oh the feels 🥰.
"Didn't come here to be attacked like that"
I know. But:
🌟Awareness is the first step.
🏃♂️Taking action is next.
🧐 Ask yourself: "what major task am I avoiding?"
Thanks for reading
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Great post, thanks for sharing @LifeTechPsych!
This is so important. I recently read another article that explained how when we avoid a task, it's to avoid "feeling bad" - it's not because we're lazy [1].
I've found that usually when I feel bad about a task, it's because it seems too difficult. This happens when it's not broken down enough. Wrote a short post on IH about this experience [2]. Would love to hear if you've found the same to be true!
[1] https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01
[2] https://www.indiehackers.com/post/the-root-cause-of-procrastination-0c37b8d650
Awesome, will check it out! I also write about the psychology of productivity :)
I erased this behavior and became much more productive. Requires some discipline though
To be honest, it's still an ongoing battle for me.
What makes you say that?
Sometimes I go on for several days without focusing on only tiny tasks. But there are days when things are slow and the important tasks seem too big. Somehow, that's when I catch myself overworking on the small things.
Do you want to change that and win the battle? If you're interested, I can support you in reducing or deleting your identified behavior.
I usually prefer to independently figure out things on my own. Thanks for the offer though 🙏
Understandable. I will be here if anything changes.
Great post. I’ve fallen into this trap many times. Planning is good but execution is key. Sometimes I get so stuck on trying to prioritize what I want to work on, because I want to work on the most important thing, that I end up getting nothing of importance done. Doing anything would be better than over thinking about what I would be working on.
This is a solid point about over planning. And I agree that doing anything, even if average, is better than perfect and undone.