One Mans Strategy For Beating Procrastination

Most of our goals fail not because they were unattainable, but because we give up. Even worse, we often give up because we can’t be bothered. We get tired, work too much, stress too much, which leaves us feeling down and out before we get to those things we most want in life. Procrastination affects all of us at times, we put things off so we don’t need to worry about it right now.

Sorry future self, but you’re the one who will need to deal with all of this. We often act in the moment, for our interests at the current time rather than looking ahead. Think about what you’ll say to yourself tomorrow if you do the hard work now. More problems come in the form of technology, which has given us thousands of means of distraction, it’s far easier to look through Twitter than work. So how do we beat this techno-procrastination to make our lives better? One man created his own strategy, which is?up in a Huffington Post article by James Clear.

The Power of Decision Elimination

Making decisions over and over again will drain your willpower. This is true even if it’s the same, tiny decision — like constantly resisting the urge to check your email. (Another example: continually trying to follow a new, strict diet.)

You might be able to resist for five minutes or an hour or maybe even a week, but eventually, your willpower will begin to fade and you’ll give in. This is known as decision fatigue and I’ve discussed how it has a measurable impact on your willpower and the choices you make throughout any given day.

The Freedom app that Stutzman designed is effective not only because it prevents you from reaching the web, but also because it reduces decision fatigue. It eliminates your options and, as a result, doing the right thing becomes much easier. In other words, the application places a constraint on your behavior.

So it seems we can use the technology that distracts us, to stop us from being distracted. How convenient. Check out the rest of the post to learn more about our procrastination symptoms and how to fight them off.