This Article on procrastination by James Altucher caught my eye today and it is so accurate when describing a day in the life of a Networker that I had to post this here so that we may all try to avoid the pitfalls.
My wife was upset at me. “You spent all weekend responding to
comments on your blog,” she said, “and it was the one weekend without
the kids and you were either on your head phones or playing chess or
responding to blog comments.” And then she walked away. Upset. There
would be no way to make it up to her. The weekend was over.
And I
had big plans that weekend. An article was coming out 6am on Saturday
and I have two Kindle Singles that I am putting out in the next few
weeks. One: “How to Be President of the United States in Ten Easy
Lessons”. And two, “Scams”. Plus I’m in the middle of starting three
different businesses. Only one peripherally related to porn.
So what was I doing? Why was I procrastinating so much?
I
started to Google, “How to avoid procrastination?” There are a thousand
blogs about this. A lot of it involves cutting a vein if you do
something bad. Or taking pills of some sort. Ritalin. Whatever.
I
procrastinate every day. The most basic is: “return so-and-so’s email”. A
simple thing. I could write back “Hi” and that would satisfy the
project. But I don’t do it. I go online. I play scrabble or chess. I
look at my blog stats. I look at my Twitter feed. My Facebook feed. My
blog comments. Should I respond? My emails (which come last. Emails are
so 2008). Then I repeat. I remember that rap song from 1992 that I want
to hear it again. What was it again. Oh yeah. MC 900 Foot Jesus, “The
City Sleeps”, I listen to it. Then I listen again. Then I repeat “the
loop” (thanks Naval from Angellist for summoning up my entire process in
2 words).
But now I’m going to get right down to it.
FIVE THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT PROCRASTINATION
(Hold
on, 2 more “interactions” on Twitter. Be right back. And now that you
mention it, I think I want to listen to that MC 900 Foot Jesus Song
again).
Ok, I’m back. I only had one more detour. Someone had
tagged a post of mine on Facebook and I wanted to “Like” it. Check out
the post: “The Day Stockpickr Was Going to Go Out of Business – A Story of Friendship”.
Ok, where was I:
THE FIVE THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT PROCRASTINATION
A) Do stuff you like.
Presumably you aren’t vomiting on your bedsheets when you are
procrastinating. Unless you are into that sort of thing. Presumably you
are probably doing things you like a lot. Even if it’s Twitter. I love
Twitter. Tweeting. Retweeting. DM-ing. And if not that, online chess. I
play about 200 games a day, with a clock – 1 minute each side. It’s
mindless. But I get constant stimulation? Am I great? No!? Ok, play
again. Yes!? Ok, play again to confirm it. On and on. Mental troubles.
(Note: see therapist)
(One sec: the guy whose post I liked just
IMed me a “thanks”. When I should be the one thanking him. He liked one
of my posts to post it on his Facebook wall! Oops. “The City Sleeps” is
over. Hit that weird looking replay button YouTube.)
B) Listen.
Your procrastination is telling you something. Maybe the idea you were
working on is bad. I started a software project once that I was going to
make into a company. But I kept doing everything BUT the software
project. Procrastination is your mind’s way of saying: “That bad! This
good!” and puts your body at work on something you enjoy. Listen to it.
Ask, why am I really procrastinating. Maybe I’m not calling the client
back because I simply don’t like him.
Yes! It’s true. If you DON’T
LIKE someone then you might not want to do business with them. People
have this BS line, “its not personal, its just business.” No way! That’s
why we procrastinate often. Because business, or anything you do, is
personal. You aren’t a robot! You want to enjoy the things you do and be
around people who uplift you and inspire you. And you procrastinate
when your body and mind are telling you you don’t like something.
C) Delegate.
Your procrastination is telling you don’t like doing something.
Delegate. Howard Hughes would procrastinate all the time. He personally
invented oil drill bits that are still used in the oil industry. He
developed techniques in the movie industry that are still used. He broke
aviation records and owned the first transcontinental airlines. The guy
was the Steve Jobs of the 1930s.
Do you think he did the work all by himself. Like the accounting work when he was the largest
electronics part supplier to the military during World War II. Of course
not. He delegated. Often your procrastination is giving you a guided
tour of the things you need to delegate (i.e. the things you are not
doing while you are procrastinating).
D) Stop.
Why did I procrastinate and not go to that meeting. Or I was ten minutes
late to the meeting. Or I didn’t confirm a TV appearance in time and
they replaced me. This happened to me a few months ago. The John Stossel
Show wanted me on. I LOVE John Stossel. Why did I never confirm that
I’d go on the show when they asked me and then I ended up not going on.
Because
ultimately I didn’t want to go into the city at night (I live 80 miles
north) and go on TV for 3 minutes and then have to go 80 miles back.
That’s a drag. That’s about 200 minutes altogether of doing nothing for
those 3 minutes of TV. I’d rather be reading, writing, IMing, playing
chess, putting on my Superman outfit and saving lives, and all sorts of other things.
E) Brainstorm.
This is the only thing I’m asking you here. When you feel an
overwhelming urge to procrastinate. When you don’t want to program
something. Or you don’t feel like writing a business plan. Or you don’t
want to go to a meeting, just brainstorm for a second: what are all the
useful things you can be doing now instead of the boring thing you feel
required to do. Maybe you’re entire idea is bad. Your business is bad.
Stand up and move to another room to begin the process.
It’s not impossible for you to have bad ideas. In fact, 99% of your ideas are bad. I once set up a dating service on top of Twitter.
BAD IDEA. People want to be anonymous on a dating service. Not on
Twitter. I kept procrastinating on raising the money. Finally, the money
I had raised, I returned, and I shut the whole thing down instead of
wasting two years of my life before it would’ve failed anyway.
Instead,
I keep a handy waiter’s pad with me at all times. There’s always things
I need to brainstorm about (article ideas, business ideas, investing
ideas, vlogging ideas, book ideas, SURPRISE! Ideas (everyone likes to be
surprised). Often when I’m about to procrastinate, the one discipline I
try to do is go off to another table and start listing things for a few
minutes.
Here’s what I’ve realized, after thousands of hours of
procrastination before, during, after companies, work, friendships,
marriages, etc.
Don’t do what you don’t want to do.
Procrastination is great because it tells you what you want to do. It
also tells you what is probably a bad idea, or something you should
delegate.
Not only that, it probably tells you what everyone wants
to do. Like, in between the last paragraph and this one I went to the
website for Cosmopolitan Magazine (I know, you probably didn’t
think I was that sophisticated). I looked at a few articles like “How to
Spot a D-Bag in 10 Seconds or Less”. A D-Bag!!! Then I felt guilty so I
switched to The Economist. First article: “The Yangon Spring”.
No thanks. After I’m done with this article I’m all about D-Bags (and
yes, it will be hilariously funny when someone comments here, “I bet you
saw just a picture of yourself in that article”).
I use
Procrastination every day to make my life better. I do the things I want
to do. I figure out what I need to delegate. I brainstorm ideas, and I
find clues buried in my subconscious about what my future will look
like.
- - -
Addendum: Note
that I procrastinated while writing this article. It was originally
titled, “TEN THINGS…” But Five is good enough to make everyone’s life
better
Addendum 2: In the last few paragraphs I wrote down an idea for a Vlog I’m going to do for PBS involving my nudity, Cosmopolitan, and The Economist. I promise you will laugh. At my nudity.
Addendum 3:
Out of the 1000s of likes and comments this article will receive,
someone always comments, “Really LinkedIn? This article? What has
happened to the good ‘ol days.” Feel free to write that comment. Then
refer to the “How to spot a D-Bag in 10 seconds” article in Cosmo. Ditto
for the Grammar-philes out there. Maybe there can be a business around
D-Bag spotting. Like a Foursquare thing. Like, I’m in the vicinity of 5
people who have been identified as D-Bags. Time to escape.
I don’t know. Think about it. While kayaking along the Yangon River.
(Photo by Embot)
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