The 8th Deadly Sin Is Procrastination
brianto2013 • 15 Nov 2021 •
I’m sure if God had google docs for the bible, he’d add the 8th deadly sin as procrastination.
Procrastination is an active avoidance of ones duties.
Key word, avoidance.
See…
The horrible thing about procrastination is…
It’s a relentless weed that grow in your garden. 👈
When left uncheck, it can grow like a forest.
Kids procrastinate.
Adults procrastinate.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson procrastinates.
see…
Every garden has weeds.
But how you deal with them-- is what sets the difference between an amazing lush greenhouse and an unkempt heap.
(If you procrastinate on one thing, you’re more likely to avoid the other important items in your life as well.)
There are multiple ways to attack weeds(procrastination)
You could build good habits that prevent you from procrastinating.
You could set a rule to always finish things in x amount of time.
You could do less work, and thereby minimize the likelihood of feeling overwhelmed.
but one thing is certain…
If you don’t cut the weeds, the problem gets exponentially worse.
How do you tackle your laziness?
What systems do you use to stay in the zone?
🤔
Comments
Sometimes procrastination is a signal that the work/task isn’t something I want/should to do, just that I’d never thought if I can eliminate it. But that’s usually occasional. Yeah most of the time, the weeds do grow too much. I find practising mindfulness to help a lot in generally preventing procrastination. I try to use other rules similar to your “no bad decisions before noon” rule to target specific bad habits, like if an email takes 2min to answer, I’ll do it immediately, rather than procrastinate.
@therealbrandonwilson love the forcing functions idea. Duty in this case for me-- is more of a future obligation sort of thing.
Sometimes I feel pulled or committed to something because I know the future me would’ve wanted me to do it!
@brianto2013 Duty to future me. THAT I get. My phrase for it is “be kind to the old man.” I wrote about this in my very first newsletter. https://bewellthy.substack.com/p/what-does-it-mean-to-be-wellthy
@brianto2013 Moral duty to the future you - that’s a concept that deserves a viral tweet!
I have re-framed what I consider my “duty” and therefore procrastination. For example, if there’s a pair of socks on the floor by the bed, is it my duty to pick them up? I don’t think so. It doesn’t bother me that they’re there, and sooner or later when the forcing function known as “no clean socks” appears, then I know I’ll get around to gathering them up and doing a load of laundry. I think a lot of procrastination stems from people not wanting to do things that they don’t have to do. But I get your point for the truly important things. 😎