A stellar article that’s been making the rounds recently is “On Procrastination” by David McRaney from the You Are Not So Smart blog (Tagline: “A Celebration of Self Delusion”!). We’ve talked about the Netflix queue phenomenon on here before as evidence of the disconnect, or discrepancy, between who we’d like to be and who we actually are. But that’s just where McRaney begins – not to mention Christianity… There are some important insights here about the limits of self-knowledge, especially when it comes to our less impressive tendencies, and how those play out in everyday situations; that is, a lot of procrastination is the fruit of an inflated self-image/anthropology. The barrage of studies he cites is impressive, his conclusions pretty undeniable, and the whole thing very much worth your time (right NOW). Here are a few portions, written in the second person, to whet your appetite:
Many studies over the years have shown you tend to have time-inconsistent preferences. When asked if you would rather have fruit or cake one week from now, you will usually say fruit. A week later when the slice of German chocolate and the apple are offered, you are statistically more likely to go for the cake.
This is why your Netflix queue is full of great films you keep passing over for “Family Guy.” With Netflix, the choice of what to watch right now and what to watch later is like candy bars versus carrot sticks. When you are planning ahead, your better angels point to the nourishing choices, but in the moment you go for what tastes good. As behavioral economist Katherine Milkman has pointed out, this is why grocery stores put candy right next to the checkout.
This is sometimes called present bias – being unable to grasp what you want will change over time, and what you want now isn’t the same thing you will want later. Present bias explains why you buy lettuce and bananas only to throw them out later when you forget to eat them. This is why when you are a kid you wonder why adults don’t own more toys. Present bias is why you’ve made the same resolution for the tenth year in a row, but this time you mean it. You are going to lose weight and forge a six-pack of abs so ripped you could deflect arrows.
You keep promising yourself this will be the year you do all these things. You know your life would improve if you would just buckle down and put forth the effort. You can try to fight it back. You can buy a daily planner and a to-do list application for your phone. You can write yourself notes and fill out schedules. You can become a productivity junkie surrounded by instruments to make life more efficient, but these tools alone will not help, because the problem isn’t you are a bad manager of your time – you are a bad tactician in the war inside your brain.
Procrastination is such a pervasive element of the human experience there are over 600 books for sale promising to snap you out of your bad habits, and this year alone 120 new books on the topic were published. Obviously this is a problem everyone admits to, so why is it so hard to defeat?
Thinking about thinking, this is the key. In the struggle between should versus want, some people have figured out something crucial – want never goes away. Procrastination is all about choosing want over should because you don’t have a plan for those times when you can expect to be tempted. You are really bad at predicting your future mental states. In addition, you are terrible at choosing between now or later. Later is murky place where anything could go wrong.
If you fail to believe you will procrastinate or become idealistic about how awesome you are at working hard and managing your time you never develop a strategy for outmaneuvering your own weakness. Procrastination is an impulse; it’s buying candy at the checkout. Procrastination is also hyperbolic discounting, taking the sure thing in the present over the caliginous prospect some day far away.
You must be adept at thinking about thinking to defeat yourself at procrastination. You must realize there is the you who sits there now reading this, and there is a you sometime in the future who will be influenced by a different set of ideas and desires, a you in a different setting where an alternate palette of brain functions will be available for painting reality.
The now you may see the costs and rewards at stake when it comes time to choose studying for the test instead of going to the club, eating the salad instead of the cupcake, writing the article instead of playing the video game. The trick is to accept the now you will not be the person facing those choices, it will be the future you – a person who can’t be trusted. Future-you will give in, and then you’ll go back to being now-you and feel weak and ashamed. Now-you must trick future-you into doing what is right for both parties.
Capable psychonauts who think about thinking, about states of mind, about set and setting, can get things done not because they have more will power, more drive, but because they know productivity is a game of cat and mouse versus a childish primal human predilection for pleasure and novelty which can never be excised from the soul. Your effort is better spent outsmarting yourself than making empty promises through plugging dates into a calendar or setting deadlines for push ups.
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COMMENTS
16 responses to “How to Outsmart Yourself: Predicting Procrastination and the War Inside Your Brain”
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This article is Mockingbird gold! I'm sure I'll use it soon in a sermon.
Along similar lines did you hear about the guy who shot himself in the knee while he was sleep-walking?
"Every morning I wake up, look the enemy dead in the eye, and then I shave him."
i left this post wondering if and when I might make a comment, then pondering the comment — I took a coffee break, then I thought about what I will have for dinner. In the end I realized that I am not the master of my own thoughts… What do i bring to the table? Sin and a reluctance to even admit it…
I agree with JZ. Pure MB gold. Great piece.
I admit as a movie hound to find the Netflix phenomenom especially fascinating. It's an example of Law operating certainly as Law, but in fact being an internalized man made law — not God's holy law. It's like the law of fashion that tells a woman how bad she is if she isn't wearing certain kinds of clothes — pure manmade invention.
In the case of Netflix it's the voice of the Professor (an internalized voice from school) telling you that you Ought to read such and such a book or see such and such a film — because it is "good for you."
I do know this Netflix phenomenom is real because lots of people talk about it, but only because I hear about it second hand. It's foreign to me otherwise. My connection with movies is pure pleasure — no obligation, no sense that I ought to be seeking out stuff to edify me morally or make me a deeper thinker or whatever.
And for the most part I have the same experience with books. I wonder whether this is because when I grew up my parents didn't ever try to control what I read (or movies I saw). There was school of course but my relationship with school was very clear: lots of bad teachers forcing me to do stupid stuff. I never got to a place of thinking they were wise people who Knew What Was Best For Me.
Curious to hear more what the experience of other folks is. Do you find yourself having an internal Prof that demands you see movies that are "good for you"?
Bumper Sticker: "Procrastinators of the world UNITE . . . Tomorrow."
I rented "Hotel Rwanda" – and watched it. Not because it was "good for me" but mainly because I like Don Cheadle and had heard the film was good. (It was.) Actually, I'd never see something like "Speed" or "Sleepless in Seattle" – not because they're lowbrow, but because they are mostly just tedious culture blather. (Wasn't interested in "Dead Man Walking" for the same reason.) But I do like Science Fiction and imaginative slapstick comedies. ("Earth Girls Are Easy" is one of my all-time faves, for instance.)
P.S. Stampdawg: I did finally see "Metropolitan." It was hilarious! Who'd have ever thought there'd be a movie with "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" under the opening credits – and a scene inside St. Thom's Fifth (including "Sussex Carol"!)? It was very funny, but definitely not anything I'd ever have picked out myself….
(And actually, I tend to think there's an implicit "Good for You" message in most "lowbrow" films, too.
"The Good Guy Gets the Girl" is a pretty typical one, for instance. "Evil Shall be Vanquished" is another….)
Hey BLS! I am just SOOOOO very happy you saw Metropolitan and liked it as much as you did. One of my favorite movies EVER.
I do think it is funny in all kinds of places, but there's a bittersweet melancholy about it that I love. And although I like the guys in it (who have more of the comic moments) my favorite character by far is Audrey.
Wow, this one is even better than the snarky one about "Opposites don't attract". 🙂
Yes, you're right about the bittersweetness, SD.
I liked the guy with the glasses – can't remember his name in the film now – and all his ideas/theories. He was great….
Charlie is a wonderful character. His undeclared obession with Audrey ("What do you want me to do? D-d-declare myself?") is funny and incredibly touching.
Here's a clip of the same actor from another Whit Stillman movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToiC68wI24g
My favorite scene is the one in the bar, when they're talking with the older guy and he says, "UHBs? Was that it?" With a little quizzical look and a nod, like it was reality. And Charlie spells it all out for him. That was the best….
I saw that scene from "Barcelona" (on this blog, in fact) and now want to see that, too. I can't quite imagine how we get to it, but am eager to find out….
Gorgeous. And the song choice is AWESOME. Have you checked the Betterman/Save It For Later Pearl Jam combo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1i0A1gSgK8
Caleb
Love Dave Wakeling, and this piece.