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Precrastination: The Dark Side of Getting Things Done
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Precrastination
This is the compulsion to immediately work on new tasks, despite long-term costs and tradeoffs.
While the procrastinator delays important tasks too long, the precrastinator doesn’t delay unimportant tasks long enough.
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Precrastination
This is the compulsion to immediately work on new tasks, despite long-term costs and tradeoffs.
While the procrastinator delays important tasks too long, the precrastinator doesn’t delay unimportant tasks long enough.
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What causes precrastination
The ultimate cause of precrastination is short-term, emotionally-driven decision-making.
Just like in procrastination, precrastination involves making a decision based on what feels good in the moment rather than what’s in our long-term best interest.
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Other causes of precrastination
- Cheap satisfaction: we get immediate satisfaction from checking off the little things on our to-do lists.
- Survival instinct: going after the easy, low-hanging fruit in life probably made more sense in our history than putting things off in order to get a long-term payoff.
- Time management vs Energy management: most of us are taught to think about work and productivity in terms of managing our time well.
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Stop precrastinating
- Awareness is always the first step. It’s difficult to stop doing something if you’re not aware that you’re doing it in the first place.
- Practice emotional tolerance: precrastination is all about emotion. This means that working through precrastination will always involve working through difficult emotion.
- Start by improving on one small area of precrastination before moving on to more challenging areas.
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Break the project you don't want to start into smaller pieces.
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Clean something every time you don't want to get started on a work project. Don't listen to a podcast or turn on the radio. Just clean. Make it as boring as possible, so that your mind wanders.
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The advantages of procrastination
There are two kinds of individuals in this world: those who procrastinate and those who do the things in advance.
In what the first category is concerned, there is some evidence that p...
The drawbacks of procrastination
While procrastination might have some advantages, it certainly has proven drawbacks. Individuals who procrastinate tend to be more stressed and, therefore, suffer from stress-related illnesses. Furthermore, students who procrastinate have lower GPAs than the ones who don't. So you would better think twice before postponing an action next time.
The reasons behind procrastination
Whenever somebody decides to procrastinate, this happens whether because the task seems too unpleasant or because the planning wasn't done properly and, therefore, the need to delay.
Intentional or not, procrastination ends up having the same effects on your everyday life. And these are not always good.
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The Akrasia Effect
Akrasia happens when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else.
It's what prevents you from following through on what you set out to do. It could be trans...
Time Inconsistency
It refers to our tendency to choose immediate rewards over future rewards. It's why we make plans, but don't take action.
When we make plans, we are actually making plans for our future selves. But when the time comes to make a decision, we are in the moment and our brain is thinking about the present self.
Delayed Gratification and Success
The ability to delay gratification is a great predictor of success in life.
If you really understand how to resist the attraction of instant gratification, you'll be able to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.