How to Stop Procrastinating [SOLVED PODCAST]

Mark Manson and Drew Bernie tackle procrastination in their podcast "Solved," emphasizing its prevalence and the emotional roots behind it. They critique traditional approaches like time management, advocating for a blend of environmental design and emotional regulation to address procrastination. Highlighting research from Aristotle to modern-day studies, they argue procrastination is less about willpower and more about managing emotions and expectations. They suggest breaking tasks into smaller actions, utilizing social accountability, and finding purpose to combat procrastination effectively. The episode concludes with practical strategies and the hidden costs of overcoming procrastination.

• Hosts Mark Manson and Drew Bernie, with 30 years of combined experience in personal growth, aim to deliver a comprehensive podcast episode on procrastination.
• The episode promises to be the definitive guide on procrastination, eliminating the need for further resources on the topic.

"Procrastination is something that pretty much everybody struggles with."

• Procrastination is a widespread issue, affecting 95% of adults at least occasionally.

• 42% of adults report procrastinating regularly.
• 25% of adults are chronic procrastinators, meaning they procrastinate on almost everything.

"This is a huge problem. This is like this is a massive affliction that you know gets to us all."

• Procrastination is a significant and pervasive issue impacting many individuals.

• Procrastination has been a topic of thought for over 2,500 years, with various approaches and understandings evolving over time.
• Early views on procrastination, such as those from ancient philosophers, differ from modern assumptions.

"A lot of things that we take to be true or a lot of our assumptions of what procrastination is are relatively modern."

• Modern views on procrastination differ from historical perspectives, highlighting the evolution of thought on the subject.

• The episode aims to cover the psychological and neurological aspects of procrastination, exploring why individuals procrastinate even when aware of the negative consequences.
• The hosts will discuss the entire history of research on procrastination, highlighting outdated wisdom and presenting new findings.

"Ultimately we're going to get to the bottom of what is procrastination."

• The goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of procrastination, including its psychological and neurological underpinnings.

• Procrastination is seen as a skill issue, with individuals able to learn and improve their ability to manage it over time.
• The episode will explore strategies to mitigate procrastination, emphasizing that complete elimination may not be possible.

"I don't think procrastination's ever something that we just like completely get rid of."

• Procrastination is viewed as a manageable issue, with the potential for improvement through skill development.

• Procrastination is defined as unnecessarily delaying something despite knowing there could be negative consequences.
• Cultural factors influence perceptions of procrastination, with different cultures having varying tolerances for delays and lateness.

"Procrastination is to a certain extent culturally defined or culturally relative."

• Cultural norms and values play a role in how procrastination is perceived and managed.

• Plato's early take on procrastination suggests that individuals only procrastinate if they don't truly believe in the value of the task.
• Aristotle viewed procrastination as a skill issue, with individuals able to improve their ability to manage it over time.

"Aristotle essentially saw procrastination as a skill issue."

• Philosophical perspectives highlight different understandings of procrastination, from knowledge problems to skill issues.

• Shame and self-judgment are significant factors in procrastination, often exacerbating the issue rather than resolving it.
• The episode will explore the impact of shame on procrastination and the importance of self-compassion.

"People who experience a lot of shame, especially around things like procrastination or any things that they deem to be character flaws, they actually end up putting things off more."

• Shame and self-judgment can lead to avoidance and increased procrastination, highlighting the need for self-compassion.

• Freud's concepts of the pleasure principle and reality principle are relevant to understanding procrastination.
• Procrastination can be viewed as giving in to the pleasure principle, avoiding tasks due to short-term discomfort.

"Freud thought that we are basically just driven by these two principles."

• Freud's theories provide a framework for understanding the psychological dynamics of procrastination.

• Defense mechanisms, such as rationalization and intellectualization, play a role in procrastination by protecting the ego.
• These mechanisms can lead individuals to justify procrastination or avoid tasks through excessive preparation.

"We rationalize our way out of actually taking action towards our goals."

• Defense mechanisms contribute to procrastination by providing justifications for avoidance, highlighting the need for awareness and intervention.

• Learning is often used as a procrastination tool by smart individuals, who prefer to learn more rather than take action.
• Denial is a common procrastination tactic, where individuals downplay the importance of tasks to protect their ego and self-identity.

"Learning more is a smart person's favorite way to procrastinate."

• This quote highlights how intelligent people often use learning as a way to delay taking action on important tasks.

"It's not that important. I'm just going to put it off."

• This reflects the denial aspect of procrastination, where individuals convince themselves that tasks are not urgent or necessary.

• Freud introduced the concept of defense mechanisms, which are used to protect the ego from threats.
• Ego threats can cause physiological and emotional responses similar to physical threats.
• Freud's insights into self-identity and ego protection are crucial in understanding procrastination.

"For all Freud's flaws, I think defense mechanisms are definitely one of those things that he brought to the cultural conscience that we absolutely needed."

• This quote acknowledges Freud's significant contribution to understanding how defense mechanisms protect the ego.

"You have physiological responses to an ego threat the same way you would have responses to a physical threat."

• This emphasizes the profound impact of ego threats on both the body and emotions.

• Self-identity plays a crucial role in procrastination, as adopting an identity can alter the emotional experience of related tasks.
• Transitioning from seeing oneself as a person who writes to identifying as an author can lead to increased pressure and procrastination.

"As soon as I am quote unquote an author, now writing is a completely different experience for me because now this is the thing that I'm supposed to be good at."

• This quote illustrates how adopting an identity can increase pressure and change the experience of related tasks.

"When you adopt a habit as an identity, you are now adding a whole layer of social pressure, judgment, validation to that."

• Adopting an identity can lead to increased social pressure and self-judgment, impacting procrastination tendencies.

• Freud emphasized the impact of childhood experiences on adult behavior, including procrastination.
• Parenting styles, such as equating love with achievement or being overly permissive, can contribute to perfectionism and procrastination.

"Parents who set these unrealistically high expectations on their children, you'll often get children who are kind of perfectionists and big time procrastinators."

• This quote highlights how high parental expectations can lead to perfectionism and procrastination.

"Permissive parents produce a nervous underachiever, overwhelmed by self-imposed deadlines or work."

• Permissive parenting can lead to children becoming overwhelmed and procrastinating due to a lack of structure.

• Behaviorism, introduced by John B. Watson, focuses on observable behavior rather than internal mental states.
• B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning theory emphasizes learning through rewards and punishments.
• Procrastination can be understood as a series of rewards and punishments, with delayed tasks providing immediate relief from anxiety.

"In the case of procrastination, they would say something along the lines of, you are rewarded for the delay."

• This quote explains how procrastination provides immediate relief from anxiety, acting as a reward.

"The behaviorist recognized there's no dividing line between man and brute."

• Behaviorism views human behavior as similar to animal behavior, focusing on observable actions rather than internal states.

• Behaviorism is criticized for ignoring internal mental states and emotions, focusing solely on observable behavior.
• While behaviorism provides practical tools for managing procrastination, it lacks a comprehensive understanding of emotional and cognitive processes.

"They ignore a lot of the emotional states and cognitive internal processes."

• This critique highlights the limitations of behaviorism in addressing the emotional and cognitive aspects of procrastination.

"Environmental design is very much influenced by the behaviorist school of thought."

• Behaviorism's influence on environmental design emphasizes the impact of rewards and punishments on behavior.

• Time management emerged as a response to the shift towards knowledge work, where tasks became less tangible and more autonomous.
• Time management techniques, such as the Pomodoro Technique and time boxing, aim to improve productivity but often serve as a form of procrastination.

"If I just knew the right system, if I just knew how to organize my time, then everything is going to be fine."

• This quote reflects the seductive belief that time management systems can solve procrastination, despite being insufficient.

"It's another form of procrastination. Let me study the techniques and systems that are going to make me more productive so I don't actually have to go be more productive."

• Time management systems can become a way to procrastinate by focusing on learning techniques rather than taking action.

• Individuals develop personal productivity systems based on their unique needs and preferences.
• These systems often evolve over time and are not the primary cause of productivity but rather an effect of understanding one's work habits.

"I use a combination of to-do list and time boxing."

• This quote illustrates a personalized productivity system that combines different techniques to optimize work.

"The most useful exercise out of all of this isn't like, okay, this is what I need to get done now. It's thinking about, okay, realistically, what can I get done in this amount of time?"

• Personal productivity systems help individuals realistically assess their workload and manage their time effectively.

• Mark divides his work into two categories: deep work and task switching, which he refers to as cognitive switching.
• Deep work involves blocking off hours and eliminating distractions, sometimes using software to block sites like social media.
• Task switching helps him manage ADHD, as his brain craves novelty and gets bored easily.
• He finds that switching tasks, like doing Sudoku during lectures, helps maintain attention.
• This method keeps his "novelty engine" going, preventing shutdowns or boredom-induced sleep.

"As somebody with ADHD, my brain kind of has a disproportionate susceptibility to novelty."

• Mark's ADHD makes him highly responsive to new stimuli, which necessitates a unique approach to productivity.

"If I just tried to do the email and nothing but the email, it would never get done."

• By pairing tasks, Mark manages to stay engaged and productive, leveraging his need for novelty.

• Active procrastination involves choosing to delay a task by engaging in another productive activity.
• It's a strategy where a less intimidating task is completed to avoid a more daunting one.
• Mark uses this method to negotiate with his brain, finding tasks that are more or less intimidating to manage procrastination.

"One way to get it done is to go find an even bigger hairier task that's even more scary than that one and then procrastinate by doing the less scary task."

• By finding tasks with varying levels of intimidation, Mark manages his productivity effectively.

• Purpose is a key factor in reducing procrastination and increasing productivity.
• People are less likely to procrastinate when they feel their work is meaningful and aligns with their values.
• Existentialist philosophy suggests that meaning is constructed, not preordained, influencing how individuals perceive their work.

"People who feel a sense of meaning and purpose in their work, they're more productive, they're more resilient to setbacks."

• Feeling purposeful in work enhances productivity and resilience, reducing procrastination.

"Purpose is the only thing that can take pain and make it feel worthwhile."

• Purpose transforms challenges into meaningful pursuits, motivating individuals to persist despite difficulties.

• TMT explains procrastination as a function of expectancy, value, impulsiveness, and delay.
• Expectancy is the perceived likelihood of success; value is the perceived reward.
• Impulsiveness reflects susceptibility to distractions; delay is the time until task completion.
• The theory suggests that motivation increases with higher expectancy and value but decreases with impulsiveness and delay.

"Motivation equals expectancy times value divided by 1 plus impulsiveness times delay."

• This equation highlights the factors influencing motivation and procrastination.

"Your expectancy might be really high, but your impulsiveness might override that."

• Even with high motivation, impulsiveness and delay can lead to procrastination.

• Procrastination is seen as a mood regulation strategy to avoid negative emotions.
• Tasks perceived as unpleasant trigger procrastination due to the desire for immediate mood repair.
• Emotional regulation involves recognizing, allowing, investigating, and not identifying with negative emotions.

"Procrastination is a strategy for mood repair and just wanting to not feel bad."

• Avoidance of negative emotions is a primary driver of procrastination.

"Recognize when it's happening, allow those emotions to just exist, and investigate those emotions."

• Mindfulness techniques help manage emotions and reduce procrastination.

• Environmental design: Minimize distractions and manage triggers in the environment.
• Emotional management: Understand and regulate emotions associated with tasks.
• Break tasks into smaller steps to reduce intimidation and increase motivation.
• Use the RAIN method (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Non-identification) to manage emotional responses.

"Break it down into smaller chunks, gamify it, find accountability, reward yourself."

• Various strategies can manipulate internal emotions and enhance productivity.

"It's a skill you work on and develop, learning to draw the lines in such a way that makes it easy to move forward."

• Developing skills in emotional and environmental management is key to overcoming procrastination.

• Start with small, manageable actions to build momentum and reduce task intimidation.
• Breaking tasks down into smaller components can help align them with larger goals.
• Planning and projections, even if not entirely accurate, are useful for connecting small tasks to broader objectives.

"Start with a word and then go to a sentence and then go to the paragraph, right? Like it creates the momentum. It removes the intimidation."

• Emphasizes the importance of starting small to build momentum and reduce intimidation.

"Plans mean nothing, but planning is everything."

• Highlights the value of planning as a process to connect tasks with larger goals, even if plans don't materialize exactly as expected.

• Different types of procrastinators include the Worrier, Crisis Maker, Defier, and Overdoer.
• Each type has specific traits and requires tailored strategies to overcome procrastination.
• Recognizing your procrastination type can help in developing effective strategies to combat it.

"The worrier avoids risk due to fear of failure. Struggles to reframe fear as growth."

• Describes the Worrier's fear-based avoidance and the need to reframe fear positively.

"The overdoer takes on too much. Tries to accomplish too many tasks at the same time."

• Highlights the Overdoer's tendency to overcommit and the need for prioritization and boundary setting.

• Identify and focus on the 20% of actions that yield 80% of results.
• Distinguish between managing external environments and dealing with internal environments.
• Environmental design and social accountability are key external strategies.

"Let's start with environmental design. What is a what's a good way to implement environmental design to help with your procrastination?"

• Introduces the concept of altering surroundings to make desired behaviors easier and distractions harder.

"Social accountability... the strongest driver of our emotions period is other people."

• Emphasizes the power of social accountability in influencing behavior and reducing procrastination.

• Finding a strong 'why' or purpose for actions can reduce procrastination.
• Breaking tasks into smaller, manageable actions can help overcome emotional barriers.
• Addressing underlying emotions and practicing mindfulness are crucial for managing procrastination.

"Finding your why... reconnecting whatever task or job or whatever it is to a deeper sense of meaning and purpose."

• Discusses the importance of having a strong purpose to drive action and reduce procrastination.

"Minimum viable action... break it down into subactions and then continue to break it down to the point where it stops feeling intimidating."

• Describes the strategy of breaking tasks into smaller, less intimidating actions to foster progress.

• Gamifying tasks, making them social, or pairing them with enjoyable activities can increase motivation.
• Productive procrastination involves doing less daunting tasks to avoid more intimidating ones, but requires careful management.

"You can find a way to make boring things fun. There are actual ways that you can apply certain principles that just make something that's dredgery feel more interesting."

• Suggests methods to make tasks more engaging and enjoyable to reduce procrastination.

"Productive procrastination... procrastinate one task by doing some other task that is also intimidating or difficult to do."

• Explains the concept of productive procrastination and its potential pitfalls.

• Overcoming procrastination may require sacrificing certain hobbies, interests, or diversions.
• It involves lowering standards and accepting limitations, as well as disconnecting from negative influences.
• Success in overcoming procrastination can lead to higher expectations and responsibilities.

"You have to accept that you're you're probably going to lose hobbies, interests, or diversions."

• Acknowledges the potential sacrifices involved in overcoming procrastination.

"The more effective you become as a person, the more productive you are... the more the people around you will expect of you."

• Highlights the increased expectations and responsibilities that come with reducing procrastination.