I think procrastinaton might have something to do with the curse of perfectionism also. I.e., I put it off because I don't think I can make a good enough job of it.
My father in law used to say "never do today what you can put off for tomorrow", but he was a bit of an idiot so probably not good advice.
Hi Alan! I like to call it, “the perfection trap”.
As you rightly say, sometimes we put something off just because we feel more comfortable thinking we can be more prepared in the future. And yes, it is good to be better prepared, the bad thing is that you are never fully prepared and each time the effort to prepare yourself even better is greater and the improvement in terms of preparation is less. This is known as Pareto's Law.
The result is that there comes a point where you have to stop thinking and start acting.
thank you for this article. It's only taken me 75 years to sort of conquer this. My self-discipline IS getting better though. I was a mess in grade school. Maybe I can take it again and be a better student.
One of my grade school teachers used to say to us: procrastination is the thief of time.
A boss once said: If you want to kill time, work it to death.
Hi Sue! It's really a never ending struggle, we will hardly ever get to never waste time, it's innate and sometimes it's even necessary. We can never be 100% and being overly strict can exhaust us and make us feel like machines. The big problem arises when it's the other extreme, and we only procrastinate...
I think procrastinaton might have something to do with the curse of perfectionism also. I.e., I put it off because I don't think I can make a good enough job of it.
My father in law used to say "never do today what you can put off for tomorrow", but he was a bit of an idiot so probably not good advice.
Hi Alan! I like to call it, “the perfection trap”.
As you rightly say, sometimes we put something off just because we feel more comfortable thinking we can be more prepared in the future. And yes, it is good to be better prepared, the bad thing is that you are never fully prepared and each time the effort to prepare yourself even better is greater and the improvement in terms of preparation is less. This is known as Pareto's Law.
The result is that there comes a point where you have to stop thinking and start acting.
thank you for this article. It's only taken me 75 years to sort of conquer this. My self-discipline IS getting better though. I was a mess in grade school. Maybe I can take it again and be a better student.
One of my grade school teachers used to say to us: procrastination is the thief of time.
A boss once said: If you want to kill time, work it to death.
All of us who heard this adages had a good laugh.
Hi Sue! It's really a never ending struggle, we will hardly ever get to never waste time, it's innate and sometimes it's even necessary. We can never be 100% and being overly strict can exhaust us and make us feel like machines. The big problem arises when it's the other extreme, and we only procrastinate...