This is an unusual post title even for me, I know. But even though you don’t know what the title is about, you guessed right if you assumed this was not actually about shoes - it’s not.
This post is about Nike’s slogan - Just Do It. I’m not sure if how I’m using it these days is what Nike intended the slogan to be for people, but it’s definitely working for me, so it’s whatever.
In my last post, I mentioned I had a serial procrastination problem lately, and that I have been actively seeking solutions to it. I think I might’ve just found my solution. Weird it turned out to be a slogan of a sneaker brand I neither am a big fan of, nor purchase much.
How it works?
I’m not sure what Podcast I listened to that said “Procrastination is not doing nothing, it’s just doing something ELSE”, but I found that really interesting because I never really thought of it like that. I guess I always just thought every time I procrastinate, I’m doing nothing. But I’m actually not. Well I am, but “nothing” is also something. Nothing is scrolling X or Reddit on my phone, spending an unusual amount of time window shopping, you name it.
And I realize that why I allow myself do something ELSE is because I give my brain time to consider what my options are when I think of a task I have to do - do it now or do it later. And in that moment of decision, my brain chooses option later, because why do it now when you can just do it later, right?
What to do then?
Now, every time I have to do something, once the alarm (or reminder or whatever it is) goes off, I don’t give myself time to consider whether or not I can do it later. I just get to work.
Just get up
Just get started
Just start writing
Just answer the phone
I’ve seen a few motivational speakers and mindset coaches suggest this technique of dealing with procrastination where they teach that if you have a serial procrastination problem, what you can do is count down from 5 every time you have to start a task you sort of don’t want to do. So essentially, you’re “only” allowing yourself 5 seconds of laziness before you absolutely have to do it. But I know me better. About 4 seconds is how long my thought process to procrastinate takes. So by that time, I would’ve come up with multiple concrete reasons why it’s not a terrible idea to just do it later.
No perfect time to do it
Most often, the reason I find that I procrastinate many things is because I set this “perfect time to do them”, and once I miss those times, instead of simply getting to work on it since I have nothing doing at the time, I set another “perfect time” to handle the task. So for instance, say I wanted to clean some data on an excel sheet at 7pm, once my alarm goes off at 7pm, if I miss the 7pm alarm and realize at 7:06pm I need to do the work, I’ll reschedule the work for maybe 8pm (which I’ll consider as my next perfect time). The problem with this behavior is that by the new set perfect time, I would’ve lost the energy for the task, and with no motivation, end up procrastinating. There’s a meme I come across on my X feed every now and then that goes something like “Me turning my alarm to wake up at 5am off because I had a sudden urge to fix my life at midnight the previous day, but am not the same person anymore”. Sorta perfectly sums up the last bit of what I just said.
Anyways, the anti-procrastination fix for this as you rightly guessed is getting rid of the “perfect time” concept. There’s no such thing. It’s just time. So I’ve adopted this habit of setting my alarms at odd times instead of perfect whole number on-the-dot times. So you’ll find my morning alarm at 6:03 instead of 6am, and my data-population alarm at 7:07pm. Very unusual, but ya know, unusual problems require unusual solutions, and I just happen to be someone very innovative with unusual solutions for problems.
Pomodoro
The last two paragraphs you just read were written using the technique I’m about to explain - The Pomodoro Technique. The underlying principle behind the technique is basically finding a fun and yet productive way to work, so as not to overburden yourself: so essentially, work for about 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break to do something you consider fun, work for another 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break.
At the same time, it stresses the importance of focused work. Each of the 25 minutes you’ll be working will be intense with very sharp focus free of distractions. What ends up happening is for every “cycle” of the technique, you get 25 minutes of hardcore focused productive output, and 5 minutes of fun as a sort of a reward for the hard work done. This makes for great productivity whiles reducing the tendency of burnout.
An interesting thing about this technique is that it’s usually used(recommended) for students who procrastinate learning because they found it stressful. When I learnt about it, I figured I could tweak it to fit my needs, and here we are.
You know, honestly, I don't think there's a one size fits all fix to beating procrastination. I think it just depends on the person. Sounds corny, but this is just one of those things that we already inherently know the answers or solutions to. I have learnt sooo many ways of dealing, and I have sieved and selected a few that work with my personality, and I think that’s what most people need to do - introspect, innovate and select your cure.
Thanks for reading this far, and I’ll see you in the next one.