Overcoming Procrastination and Get Things Done
A study was conducted to determine why we put things off. Even when it seems obvious that doing the right thing is in our best interests, why do we avoid doing it?
Why We Put It Off: The Present You against the Future You
We frequently give our present selves too much attention and our future selves too little. When the expenses of our decisions are delayed until the distant future, we prefer to enjoy the advantages right away.
Our decisions typically shift when we think about issues that may likely arise in the future. Which would you prefer in a year: being healthy and regularly exercising? The decision is simple in the long run, but when it comes to making it right now, we underestimate the short-term benefits of engaging in unproductive behaviors and undervalue their long-term costs.
When we think about the future, we want to make decisions that lead to long-term benefits (“Yes, I’ll save more!”), but when we think about the present, we want to make decisions that lead to short-term benefits (“I’ll spend it right now,” etc.). Behavioral economists call this concept “time inconsistency.”
‘The Present You vs. Future You’ dilemma. Future You is aware that you should make decisions that will benefit you most in the long run, but Present You has a propensity to place too much weight on actions that will benefit you immediately now.
How to Address Inconsistency
To overcome procrastination and make better long-term decisions, you must discover a means to influence your current self to act in your future self’s best interests.
Basically, you have three choices:
- Make long-term behavior more immediately rewarded
- Make procrastination’s costs more apparent right away.
- Eliminate any environmental factors that can cause procrastination.
Let’s dissect each of them
Make long-term behavior more immediately rewarded. Our desire for an instant reward is what causes us to put things off. Procrastination can be avoided if you can discover a means to make the advantages of wise long-term decisions more apparent right away.
Simple visualization of the advantages your future self will experience is one method for doing this. Bring the reward from the future into the present.
Make procrastination’s costs more apparent right away. You can be made to pay the price of procrastination in many different ways, sooner rather than later.
Eliminate any environmental factors that can cause procrastination. Changing your environment is the most effective approach to altering your behavior. It doesn’t take much speculation to determine why this is the case. In a typical circumstance, you might decide to opt for a cookie over a serving of vegetables.
Making the right decision is made much simpler if there are superior options all around you. Eliminate any distractions from your surroundings and design a room with better architectural choices.
The Next Steps
We have to make countless small judgments every day. The choice between giving in to temptation and embracing rapid delight or resisting it and committing to a long-term behavior.
Our reality ultimately is defined by these daily decisions. The distractions we stay away from are increasingly what determine our potential for success.