Learning Not to Procrastinate

Tactics for avoidance, something on morning routines in a four-child homeschooling family, and strong feelings about the "Lockdown Files"

Table of Contents
1. Procrastination            
      Flipping the To-Do List            
      Delaying Gratification            
      The Virtuous Circle
2. Current Daily Routine: Morning
3. Strong Feelings: The Lockdown Files

Procrastination

A post on procrastination comes at the right time for me. Before my post Holy Week and Easter Sunday holiday, I have ten sermons to write, an hour-long Lent course to prepare for, another public appearance later in the month and I am also trying to write a book at the same time. This alongside my regular parish duties, being a husband and father to four children, reaching my work-out and nutrition goals, keeping up with various reading projects (including reading Mary Harrington’s new book in preparation for her appearance on Irreverend) and other things beside that. It is possible and it can be done. But procrastination is the enemy of making sure it happens.

The problem often comes to us when we leave things to the last minute or simply allow things to get worse because we don’t address them early enough or with enough focus. As M. Scott Peck says,

To willingly confront a problem early, before we are forced to confront it by circumstances, means to put aside something pleasant or less painful for something more painful.
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled, p.19

The two choices, therefore, are to allow the circumstances to force us into action or to take charge of a situation with enough time and energy in hand to master it and make it obedient to our purposes. This will bring about a better overall result and a more pleasurable and ordered experience in obtaining that result, although it may involve a bit more effort in the short-term

Are there any techniques for achieving this?

Flipping the To-Do List

This has probably been the biggest game-changer for me in sorting out my procrastination habits. I think it started sometime around when I was doing my PhD. It made sense to me, upon some advice I heard, to start the day with the heaviest intellectual lifting. This because I was most fresh. Then later in the day to do things that wouldn’t require as much effort, such as, perhaps editing, answering emails or doing admin.

I’ve carried these habits over into parish life but they have morphed into (roughly speaking) doing “creative things” like writing sermons or working on other projects in the morning and then doing the less heavy stuff in the afternoons: emails, meeting with people, other admin etc.

But there was an inherent flaw within this system: there were lots of things that were just never getting done and others that were not getting done very well or with any consistency and enthusiasm. Chief among the latter was emails. I don’t want to complain too much because I know lots of people have far more “email” to deal with than me. But I do man (person??) the Irreverend email as well as managing my own personal email and my church account. It’s not necessarily my favourite thing, although I do take it seriously because it is essential to my parish ministry and I want to help the people who write to me (or us at Irreverend) as much as I can. But I always had this feeling in the afternoon, particularly, I must admit, with regards to the Irreverend account. The latter often ends up with some very heavy stuff, frequently long, frequently intense, sometimes searching, sometimes desperately sad, sometimes needing my thoughts or advice on something. And it feels like a lot.

So, I would sometimes leave it. And then it would be harder to address it the next time I needed to. So I would leave it again. And the cycle would continue. Then, after a couple of weeks, I would finally muster the strength to sit down at the computer and spend quite a bit of time catching up. The latter was, though, superficial and rushed.

Another problem was the things that never felt important enough to do when it came to the afternoon. Two examples: our YouTube account’s payments are frozen because they need some kind of tax information and I have to try and work out how to get it for them. When I looked at it once, it seemed complicated, so I stuck it on the to-do list and I’ve never been back to it. Not good. The other example is the one which awakens my inner-Peterson critic: tidying my office. My ideal is to spend ten to fifteen minutes a day doing this so I don’t end up with books everywhere and a chaotic and cluttered environment. But, because I was leaving it till the afternoon as it was not the “heavy” stuff, I was never doing it and, again, the problem was getting worse and worse and, therefore, a less attractive prospect to address.

So, the situation was that the creative stuff - sermons, writing, podcasts etc - were getting done and going well. But even they felt a bit rushed because I had the pressure of admin in the afternoon weighing on my mind. And the other stuff in the afternoon was always poor. Apart from anything else, I was tired, couldn’t concentrate and couldn’t be bothered.

But (and here’s a little psychological insight into all of this), on some level, I was actually a little bit proud of this situation. Of course my office is a mess, of course I don’t keep on top of my emails, of course my admin is a little bit disorganised. This is because I am creative and gifted and that’s not my area of strength. Other people are good at that sort of thing, but I…I am an exception, and those things are not as important or exciting or impressive as what I can do. I would say things to people, such as, “Admin isn’t necessarily my strongest suit” with a little chuckle as though to imply some of this. But I see now that this was just sheer arrogance and laziness.

The reason I wasn’t doing my admin and emails and other things properly is because of a combination of poor planning, a lack of self-understanding and arrogance. I needed to address it.

The idea came from M. Scott Peck’s, The Road Less Travelled. This book was given to me by a friend and, looking at the cover, I thought it was maybe some kind of New Age self-help book. But nothing could be further from the truth. Peck is a humanist Christian psychologist and this book is packed with inspirational insight on almost every page. (It has loads of fantastic stuff in it about being a parent to boot which I have found most helpful.)

On only page 7 the breakthrough came. Peck speaks about a patient who ordered the time in her work day by doing the most gratifying thing for the first hour and then doing the objectionable remainder for the next six.

I suggested that if she were to force herself to accomplish the unpleasant part of her job during the first hour, she would then be free to enjoy the other six. It seemed to me, I said, that one hour of pain followed by six of pleasure was preferable to one hour of pleasure followed by six of pain. She agreed, and, being basically a person of strong will, she no longer procrastinates.
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled, p.7

I agreed too and so I have taken to flipping my to-do list. I write down everything that I have to do on a particular day. I then order the tasks from 1 onwards, with 1 being the thing that I am most excited about doing. Then I flip the numbers around and that is my order for doing things during the day. The least enjoyable and exciting task comes first, whilst I am still most fresh and have the most energy and motivation for doing it.

Most of the administrative tasks I have to do don’t take a long time anyway, but I was making such a meal of them in the afternoons that they seemed to go on forever. And, because it is all manageable, I no longer have the psychological block of facing a mess that I have allowed to accumulate.

In terms of my office, this is a paramount example: not only is my office not messy, but, because on average I now tidy it more than I untidy it whilst working, the overall room is improving, such that it is no longer simply about putting stuff in its right place but about creating an overall more pleasant environment. For example, I have realised that there are objects in my office that I never use and make it feel and look cluttered. I have an old office chair that I replaced two years ago that just sits next to the window: why is it there? It never gets used. I have a lamp on my desk that I never turn on. These things can be safely stored in the garage until they are useful again or, if they never are, they can be given away or sold. I also am reordering my personal library such that I no longer end up with piles of random books stacked against the walls. I can hoover and dust because I have given the gift of time to this particular task, and it only takes ten, or at the most, fifteen minutes a day to transform my working environment from a cluttered mess, into a place of inspiration and peace. And this, as I say, is symbolic of those other little niggly tasks that I never get to.