One morning as I am grinding on

my elliptical in my Lulu Lemon underwear, Goruck merino wool socks, and orange and black 20-year-old New Balance tennies, I turned on the TV mounted on the wall in front of me and sifted through the deck of thumbnail cards that Google decided to deal to me on that day. For unclear reasons, I picked the thumbnail card that Ali Abdaal made for his procrastination interview with Tim Pychyl, a psychology professor from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, who has studied procrastination for 20 years and who is the author of the sensational little tome (oxymoron) Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

I say "unclear reasons" because I never considered myself a procrastinator. But there are, in fact, two reasons why I used to think of myself that way:

1. I am a surgeon, and I think it is fair to say that people, in general, would think surgeons are not procrastinators. After all, they work hard and get shit done. For as long as I can remember, I have endorsed the same opinion (notice my use of the past tense form of the verb to have).
2. I am the kind of person that does most things immediately and in the moment. For example, I wash or put the dishes into the dishwasher as much as possible before we eat (yes, sometimes people sit at the table and natter at me to stop and come to the table). My wife, Lea Ann, leaves them in the sink with a squirt of soap and water for "later," which frequently means I end up doing them.

One can argue the pros and cons of my approach versus hers, but after listening to the video on procrastination, I realized that I am, in fact, a procrastinator. Turns out we all are.

Here are some things I procrastinate on:

1. Writing this newsletter. It feels dreadful admitting this because I love writing it, and it offers the possibility that it may enrich people's lives, which is very gratifying. Most often, my procrastination rears its head just before I sit down to start writing the words since it all starts to hum beautifully once the ball gets rolling.
2. Our will and trust preparation. OK if you are 22 years old, but not when you are 70 (met with the lawyer this week!!)
3. Keynote speech preparations. For as long as I can remember, I have waited until the pressure builds to start preparing a new keynote, thinking that I always work better and more efficiently under the pressure of a deadline. Typically, this means beginning around 3 to 4 weeks before the keynote date. Then, it is an all-consuming affair for a month.

Notice that (at least to me) all of my three procrastination sinkholes are rather heavy lifts. They require a fair bit of work and mental energy. I never (rarely) procrastinate on things like working out, the dishes, cooking dinner, filing things, or anything I can do in a few minutes. This fed the illusion I had about myself (yes, illusion) that I was not a procrastinator.

Now that the spell is broken, and having admitted that I am a procrastinator to you all, and given that it is clear to me that we all seem to procrastinate on some pretty important things, I have decided to offer some guidance on how to overcome your own procrastination tendencies by providing summaries of the key concepts in Tim Pychyl's Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

(Sidebar: Because I am so smitten with Tim's outstanding little tome (oxymoron - obviously, I like this word), I invited him to be a guest on The Resilient Surgeon podcast, and what a delight it was! I will let you know when the episode is released in the next few weeks).

Ok, on to learning about procrastination.

First Up: What Is Procrastination?

Quote: "All procrastination is delay, but not all delay is procrastination."

Scenario from the book: Maria is a working mother of three young children, and she routinely reaches the end of her day with lots left to do. Once again, she didn’t get the laundry put away or the files sorted in her office. She beats herself up, calling herself a procrastinator, yet she’s confused about how she’ll ever be able to get it all done when so much happens each day that’s out of her control. She plans carefully, but kids’ illness, changes at the daycare, and both her and her husband’s travel for work always seem to necessitate changes in her plans and delays on some tasks.

In Maria's example, not getting the laundry put away and files sorted is not procrastination. They are delays due to the exigencies of life, and they are not voluntary.

Procrastination, on the other hand, is a “voluntary delay of an intended action despite the knowledge that the delay may harm the individual in terms of the task performance or even just how the individual feels about the task or him or herself."

It sounds like the definition of addiction: a state characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences.

So, procrastination is a needless voluntary delay. Maria’s delays with laundry and folders were not voluntary. They were necessary and wise since she delayed them in favor of caring for her children and their health.

Different Types of Delay:

1. Purposeful - we were out in Los Angeles, and I was scheduled to record the podcast with Tim, but an opportunity arose to do something special with my daughter Maya that overlapped with the recording time. I emailed Tim and asked if we could reschedule (but if not, no problem), and he was kind enough to do so.
2. Inevitable - things like an internet disruption or a canceled flight that lead to an inevitable delay in getting things done.
3. Emotional - Tim's father died recently. He was very close to him, and the loss "rocked his world" emotionally. This is the classic thing I have written about many times - when there is an event in our lives that is emotionally upheaving (think death, getting fired or laid off, a breakup or divorce), the emotional turmoil can be significant, and one needs to have muscular patience with the process until the emotional dust settles. This phase of muscular patience is called the Neutral Zone (William Bridges The Way of Transition) and not procrastination when we delay things while we are swimming (or drowning) in the Neutral Zone, like Tim after his father's death.

The bottom line is that delays depend on the context of the moment - what is going on, what is most important, and what is the wisest thing we can do at that moment, given our goals, responsibilities, roles, and desires.

Procrastination, however, is a voluntary and deliberate turning away from an intended action, even when we know we could act on our intention right then and there since no other external forces are stopping us from doing the thing. To understand why we procrastinate, we must first understand this reluctance to act when it is in our best interest to act.

Unfortunately, procrastination is a habitual response to tasks or situations for about 20% of us. When it hits this level, procrastination is like malware embedded in the neurologic wiring deep inside the dark, silent vault of our skull, running its algorithm without our awareness, screwing up the crucial goals in our lives.

So now you know the difference between an intentional delay and the needless voluntary delay of procrastination. To build excitement for our learning together, here is a preview of a key tactic for removing the procrastination malware: Predecisions.

Predecisions:

1. Help us to act when we intend to act.
2. They reduce the effects of potential distractions.
3. They help us cope well with setbacks and disappointments

Before we get into other solutions, you need to figure out which delays in your life are caused by procrastination, as I did above. Tim provides a simple table to help you do this, which I've included below. List the tasks, projects, activities, or other things you procrastinate on.

Then, and this is important, next to each one, write down what emotions and thoughts come to mind when you think of each of these moments of procrastination. Do not overthink this. It could be as simple as being uncertain about what to do to complete a task.

Spoiler alert: procrastination is an emotional problem. More to come.

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