An Imperfect Start Vs Perfect No Start

Do you have a great business idea of a startup but waiting for the right time?

“We will do it later” – this is the most common thought that most of us grapple with. That ‘later’ can be captured in the time series equation, t=t+1. Only the variable keeps changing and the hours convert into days, weeks, months and years. Our mind has a very convenient way to postpone things for the future that never comes. Deep within, we all know that this practice is wrong but we still succumb to it. This is one of the enigma that the brain faces when it tries to set rules for itself.

When it comes to procrastination, there are two types of activities where our mind behaves differently. One where the goal is externally enforced and second one where the goal is self-managed - defined by our own self.

Monkey Mind Vs Panic Dragon

Do we remember the exams during the college days? The syllabus is already given in advance and the professors teach every day during the entire duration of the course. They keep warning us to study regularly but we keep postponing. Our playful mind is able to convince us that we can handle it later. Then suddenly one day we notice that the exams are just round the corner and we have not even started studying. The panic dragon in our mind suddenly wakes up. It drives the playful monkey away, the one who was responsible for the procrastination. The panic dragon then works out a very stringent plan for the remaining days till the exams – no movies, no games, no TV but study all day. The most basic need of the human body – sleep is also dispensed with. The panic dragon is very cruel but gets the job done.

But this panic dragon takes control only in case of externally defined life impacting goals like critical exams. If the goal is self-defined e.g. start up a new business or wake up at 5 am every day and go for jogging – the playful monkey keeps postponing the target forever till one day we conviently forget. The panic dragon never wakes up (unless there is some health emergency and doctor instructs the mandatory exercise) in such cases.

A rational mind does not relinquish its control either for the playful money or the panic dragon. Both are bad – while the first one wastes time the second one wastes our cognitive resources to make us exhausted and anxious. A trained mind works like a seasoned captain that keeps the ship at a steady speed, most importantly in the right direction.

Why does our mind loves to procrastinate?

Neurologically, our brain hates ambiguity. Any start of a new activity brings with itself lot of uncertainty. The brain prefers to deal with the unambiguous things at hand and pushes the new things to the end of the pipe. Secondly the new things require focused attention which means the mind has to deprive itself of the instant gratification. The basic nature of mind is being distracted and anything that impedes into the distraction is discouraged by it. Our mind in its pure natural form is more like a boat in the deep sea that goes along the force and direction of the waves. Working on a new activity is nullifying the impact of the waves and driving the boat in a specific direction at a steady speed.

How can we overcome procrastination?

A very simple answer is just start. Most of the time we keep waiting for a perfect start which is just an excuse to avoid the task. There is nothing like a perfect start.

There was an experiment conducted on a set of students who were given certain tasks but were interrupted before they could complete. They were diverted to another task before resuming the aborted activity. The study revealed that the brain has a greater tendency to finish the task that was started earlier compared to a task that was never started. The brain tracks the unfinished tasks sub-consciously till it completes. So if you have been waiting to write a book since a long time – a simple advice could be to just write the first page. It is easier to edit a crappy page than to edit a blank page.

As the famous quote says journey of the thousand miles start with the first step. Even if the first step is not in the right direction, during the course of time it can be corrected. In most cases we keep waiting for the first step... forever.

An imperfect start is better than perfect no-start