Problem With Procrastination? Try This: Do Nothing
Gretchen Rubin
6x NYT Bestselling Author | Host of the "Happier with Gretchen Rubin" Podcast | Pre-order "Secrets of Adulthood," out April 1st
Just about anyone who has ever put off a troublesome task is familiar with one of my Secrets of Adulthood: Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.
When there’s some chore you just don’t want to tackle, every other chore seems alluring. As a friend told me, “My apartment is never cleaner than when I have a writing assignment due.”
In Roy Baumeister and John Tierney’s fascinating book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, they suggest the “Nothing Alternative” to this problem. That is, if you want to get yourself to do something, make the alternative to that task to do nothing.
This rule was inspired by the habits of writer Raymond Chandler. Chandler set aside at least four hours each day for writing; he didn’t force himself to write, but he didn’t let himself do anything else. He wouldn’t let himself read, write letters, write checks—nothing. He summed up: “Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write. b. you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.”
When I read this, I realized that I’d been following this rule without giving it a name. When I want to do the difficult work of original writing, I often work outside my apartment, in a library a few blocks away. This gets me away from the temptations of the internet, and it also forces me to accept the “nothing alternative.” I say to myself, “I’ll stay here for two hours,” and then I’m stuck. If I’m not writing, I’m just sitting there. Sure, sometimes I jump up and go look for a book in the stacks, but that doesn’t take long. I end up writing just to pass the time. At home, by contrast, there’s no end to the useful tasks that I can find to occupy myself.
So if you often find yourself procrastinating by working, try making yourself do nothing.
How about you? Do you procrastinate by working—by cleaning, organizing, answering emails, cruising the internet doing “research,” re-formatting a document, making plans, or the like? Has the “do nothing” alternative worked for you?
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Photo: sipstar, Flickr
Key Accounts Manager | Enabling Professionals to Maximize Efficiency
11 年This is quite inspirational to all the lazy bugs out there!
Head of Enterprise Sales at Emtel
11 年Very true.
PHD Candidate in Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland (UCC). . Tutoring assistant Sociology.
11 年Gretchen why have you not replied to my mails. Does a little criticism make me an outsider in the Happiness Project??
Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations @ DP World - Freelance
11 年Another angle, what looks like procrastination, isn't always that: https://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/worklife/02/16/o.procrastinator.or.incubator/index.html
Senior Talent Acquisition Partner||Rocket Lab
11 年I started my own business and this is terrible when i get it, i know i'm not making money yet i still can procrastinate and prefer to do operational tasks, research, reading instead of knocking out contracts, calling clients, writing my blog, keeping social media upto date and gaining a wider audience, increasing sales....the list goes on