If Procrastination Didn't Exist, It Should Have Been Invented

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

You certainly know what procrastination is. Even if you don't know what it is called. In Russian, this is shirking. It is a paradoxical state when the more important the work, the less the desire to do it. A couple of years ago I wrote about hamsters on a shaker and the phenomenon of displaced activity - this is it. But then I thought that procrastination is such a worldwide evil. The scourge of God that flew to us for our sins, pride and a tendency to show off, to be the best. A bad neurotic construct, because of which we vegetate in poverty and obscurity, and do not adorn the cover of Forbes, as it undoubtedly deserves. American psychologists, who invented the term procrastination, still think so. They even talk about an epidemic of procrastination that has swept through advanced humanity. If this continues, American psychologists threaten, advanced humanity will simply die out, because one fine moment it will even multiply. And in the world there will be only Chinese people who are immune to procrastination due to their narrow eyes. I think American psychologists watch too many American doomsday movies. Scolding procrastination is like scolding the immune system on the grounds that it can be turned off and then lupus erythematosus will develop. You certainly know what lupus erythematosus is. This is when phagocytes and our other fighting cells lose the recognition system "friend or foe", and they begin to eat everyone in a row, both alien organisms and native ones. And then a lame doctor appears and says, “Huh, was it that you were treated for childhood dermatitis? How lovely!" It's the same here. Procrastination in the right approach is very useful and generally beautifies life. For example, you need to do the cleaning. It's been about a week now. But you have procrastination - and that means there are so many amazing books, TV shows, friends and the Internet around that it is even somehow inconvenient to remember such vulgarity as washing floors. But then, for example, you remember that you need to go to the dentist. And then the procrastination whispers to you: cleaning! Cleanup! And immediately what a thrill it is! The rag dances in your hands and the vacuum cleaner sounds like the music of the spheres. After such cleaning, the apartment shines like after renovation. And what about the dentist? The dentist will wait.

And he really waits - exactly until the moment when it’s time to write a quarterly report at work. And then the inner voice sings to you invitingly and sweetly: Dentist! I need to see the dentist! Procrastination makes you fly to the dentist like you're on a date. Isn't that a miracle? Procrastination builds up affairs in a hierarchy in which the higher levels feed the lower ones. The more disgusting and important the matter, the more energy you will receive from it to carry out the less important and opposite. This pyramid is crowned with the Most Important and Disgusting, on which you will score to the last and maybe even score completely. But what is one scored deed compared to a mountain of those made thanks to him? Procrastination gives life a taste. For example, an hour later I have an important meeting at work. Drives to work - an hour. But I thoughtfully try on the fifth lipstick and think: once I arrived in 50 minutes - poorly repeat? And life immediately, out of the blue, becomes frantically interesting. Procrastination saves time and effort. Have you noticed that some things from the very beginning are somehow especially reluctant to do? And it seems urgent and important, and nothing interferes, but you keep pulling, pulling, pulling … and suddenly it turns out that nothing is needed anymore. Everything resolved itself and fell off. You didn't know yet, but your procrastination already foresaw it. And she put an invisible cross in practice. Because procrastination is one of the hypostases of intuition. Almost a scout's instinct. She also protects self-esteem. But not in the way American psychologists say about it. They are sure that procrastination is just our fear of doing something not perfect enough. Don't live up to expectations. Apparently, opening a dentist's mouth is worse than he thinks about me. Or taking apart winter clothes isn't as cool as my mom would. American psychologists are sometimes as naive as children. Well, yes, procrastination has a similar effect, but reducing it to this is like loving black swans just for their red nose. A much more significant profit is that before I was taking time off, getting dynamic, digging, picking my nose, pulling rubber - and now I procrastinate. That's all. But this is a huge difference! And for the boss, and for the mother, and for the dentist. Procrastination is the stigma of a free person. Slaves, servants, obliged and other victims of circumstances do not and cannot have it. Did the serfs procrastinate? What about secret agents? And the emergency doctors? And the privates of the first year of service? Procrastination requires at least a choice. And if you have read this far, still understanding what it is about, you have it. If you haven't read it, too. You can do something, but give up on something. And she herself can choose the sequence in which. And here we come to the main thing. Why procrastination at all. Our time and our self-consciousness are split, mosaic. How many times have you distracted from this number? How many times have you interrupted to continue reading? All our occupations split up, interpenetrate, mix. Flickering superficial impressions create the illusion of brightness and saturation, sometimes false to a little less than completely. Hence the feeling of an incredible acceleration of life. I did not have time to have breakfast, as already dinner. Just removed the tree - get it out again. Our ancestors ate life in large chunks. We prefer salad. But the salad runs out faster - you don't have to chew it. Previously, a person had one social role, well, a lot of two. Poet. Minister. Minister's wife. A housewife. Revolutionary. Now each of us has a whole kaleidoscope of this good. Mother-wife-sportswoman-chief-driver-traveler-party girl-hostess-sex-cat-cactus grower. Each role has its own goals. But which ones are really yours? For a long time you yourself no longer really know. And your procrastination knows. Remember, from what business you never shirk? Remember, remember, they definitely are. Classes for which there is always time, money, energy and mood. This is how they grow out of your true goals. And usually it's just a hobby. A case about which you never say "must". But you always feel that you need to. Yes, I discovered in myself such a linguistic nuance: what I "need" is always external needs. False goals imposed by society. And "it is necessary" is always internal needs. Very close to true. The devilish difference between them often passes by consciousness - but comes through at the level of language. And what I need, I never procrastinate. Almost. And what I need is always. Well, … Yes, always, what really. The connection between our hobby and our mission can be very confusing, but it is always there. Therefore, we always have a hobby. And therefore, such seemingly iron motivation as money does not always work. Money cannot be the goal at all. The goal is what they are spent on. But for our shredded consciousness, this is sometimes too long a logical chain. It seems that you understand that you need to tear your ass off the couch, leave Facebook and write some material that will bring me a little more of all the money in the world - but no. It does not come off and does not come out. Deep down, I don't see the connection between this money and my goal, whatever it may be. And while I urge myself to start, all my energy resources are whining in one voice: Do you need it?.. And I have nothing to answer. But then, for example, a proposal of some dive safari in some Philippines suddenly dumps. But you have to pay quickly. And that's it, the backside came off by itself, Facebook slammed shut and everything was written with a whistle. I saw in this future money a means for my own purpose. And the need has turned into a need. Procrastination guards our integrity, not letting the vanity tear us into a thousand little cubs. Why is she believed to be a wicked evil, a devourer of time and a source of chaos and stress? Because procrastination is our immunity from social pressure. And immunity is sometimes buggy. His recognition system gets lost, and he begins to eat everyone, both strangers and his own. And then what you need is built into the energy pyramid of what you need. Until some magic pendel brings clarity. But even this has its own charm. Just imagine: a smoking letter comes from the editor-in-chief about where-the-column-all-deadlines-out. And you answer so languidly: I'm very sorry, Vitaly, but I have something like lupus erythematosus …