I am a keen observer of human behaviour, particularly my own. It’s not always pretty, but I try to keep it behind closed doors. I went cycling on Saturday – new target – 25 miles. I procrastinated for 10 minutes before I actually got on the bike. I always do. I get my gear on and then…I don’t walk out the door. I mess around for ten or fifteen minutes. I know I will walk out the door – I never give in and decide not to cycle – that would be too horrible to deal with. I always go out, but I do delay the actual departure.

I find something to do – on Saturday it was making sure Match of the Day is set to record; checking the route again on Google maps; having a quick espresso – all classics of the art of procrastination. I could write a book.

Cold blooded…

So why do I do this? Well, there’s a part of my brain that was designed a long, long time ago in a swamp somewhere in a country with no name and the software that runs that part of my brain has not been updated…ever. Let’s call it my lizard brain. And my lizard brain only does two things – it seeks pleasure and it avoids pain. And it much prefers the latter because you cannot do the former if you’re dead.

Oh the pain…

And my lizard brain hates the first two miles of the bike ride. Because it’s hard. It’s the hardest two miles of the whole ride. So there’s a bit of pain and my lizard brain wants to avoid pain. So I procrastinate for 10 minutes, pointlessly.

Introducing iBrain…

The avoidance of pain is actually very powerful and my software updated 2011 brain (let’s call it the iBrain – you heard it here first) can use this to great effect. The trick is this – you need to find the bigger pain, the future pain. What’s the pain associated with not going out on the bike; making that presentation; asking for the raise; saying goodbye? When my iBrain identifies the bigger, future pain and tries to avoid that pain, rather than the smaller today pain favoured by the lizard brain, then we overcome procrastination.

I do think this is one of the real keys to self-management. To put the lizard back in its box. The reason we do not do what we need to do is because we focus on the wrong pain – the small, immediate pain. But if we get our iBrain to focus on the big, future pain and its desire to avoid that pain, then the small immediate pain is just something to get through. It’s a simple discipline issue.

Get some perspective…

The problem with the small immediate pain is that it’s two inches in front of our nose and therefore it seems bigger than the large future pain. Or even worse, it blocks out all sight of the big future pain and we just cannot see what’s coming should we shrink before the smaller pain.

So, although my pre-cycle procrastination is hardly the worse thing in the world, it’s still useless and reptilian so today when the time comes I shall engage iBrain and put my gear on and walk straight out the door and ten minutes later the small today pain will be behind me and the lizard will be back in his box.

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on….

Procrastination – Part II – Solution to

“We are destined to suffer from one of two pains – the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” – Jim Rohn

Blowing bubbles…

This advice on how to overcome procrastination is for those with “normal” levels of it. If you really never start anything ever, go and see a doctor, unless you are a goldfish for whom this is normal.

Ok – so what to do?

Set goals and achieve them. That’s it. Dead simple.

Any idiot…

…can write a goal. It’s the achievement that’s a bit tougher. So to increase your chances of success, make sure it’s your goal, not your partner’s, children’s or society’s.

The good, the bad and the ugly…

Get motivated by going through all the good stuff that happens when you achieve your goal, and all the bad stuff avoided. Bad stuff avoided is better – we take more action to avoid pain than to get pleasure. We’ll come back to bad stuff.

Be accountable – it’s you that’s doing it and nobody cares about your pressures, childcare, lack of money or any other externality that you have chosen to blame in order to avoid the pain of discipline. Find a way. Overcome. Avoid regret.

Goal-directed action – is there another kind?

Know what your key activities are to achieve your goal and do them with maximum prejudice – anything or anyone who gets in your way will feel your wrath, unless you’re sleeping with them, sired them, gave birth to them or they fit in some other extremely limited group, and even then…. remember you are the most important person in your life. That’s not selfishness. It’s the truth.

Now, the really bad stuff…

The quote above by Jim Rohn, an American writer, puts a lump in my throat. The pain of regret. I’m not sure I can think of anything worse. The massive, self-inflicted pain of regret. Yet we procrastinate. Why? Because the pain of discipline, although small, is here, right now. Whereas the pain of regret, although massive, is in the future.

But when you feel the pain of regret it is too late to do anything about it. And I don’t think I could bear that. So I’m not going to.

This time it’s personal…

Choose a goal now. No – call it a promise. Make a promise to do something. Something you can do in one week, that you’ve been putting off. Decide what the first step is. Put it in your diary. Guard that time with your life and when the time comes, take the step and schedule the next step.

“I promise myself that by this time next week I will……”

Avoid the pain of regret.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on….

Procrastination – Part 1 – Causes of

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them” – Aristotle

I’ll just…

I’ll just make sure this email’s gone, first…I’ll just make a quick coffee, first…I’ll just return that phone call to my friend/Mum/new girl in accounts with the swimming pool-blue eyes…I’ll just have another fag, first…Oh! Is that the time? See you tomorrow.

Procrastination, the curse of the nation…

Why do we do it? Or, more accurately, why do we not do it? Why do we procrastinate? Maybe you don’t, in which case I imagine you are so successful that one of your PAs is reading this for you, and is now reaching for the delete button because he/she knows this is not relevant for you.

I’m busy! I can’t be a procrastinator…

Busy doing what? Running around doing exactly what you want, when you want, in the way you want…I’ve seen pretend busy done at expert level in every organisation I’ve ever worked in.

I’m as successful as I want to be…

I’m happy…I’m not ambitious….really? Good for you. For some, yes. For most, I don’t believe you. It’s more like simply accepting your lot. Coming to terms with your situation. Things are “OK”. Your life is…“OK”. This is called complacency.

Fear…

… of failure, of success. Whatever you can think of…someone’s fearful of it. Or more accurately, has failed to manage this emotion effectively.

I really don’t feel like it…

Oh diddums. I was listening to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour the other day, as you do, and there were some ideologically pure feminists on…you know the type of person – educated but stupid. Who needs to think when they’ve got an ideology? Basically their argument was that having sex with your partner when you don’t feel like it is a form of rape. They didn’t say “rape”, but that’s what they meant. Girls!!! Get a grip. Do it until you feel like it….don’t wait to feel like it. (Some of my male friends have told me that they have sometimes pleasured their partner when they’d much rather be doing something else, or maybe it was…much rather be doing someone else. I’ll check.)

Which type of procrastinator are you?

Next week – how to overcome procrastination – this huge limitation that keeps your future just there – in your future.

Mark