Recently I saw a Ted X talk and article on procrastination that has me inspired. So how we can beat procrastination (Watch the video version here).

First of all what is all this talk about the procrastination monkey?

The procrastination monkey

Before we find out what this creature is, imagine your mind as a ship. Every ship needs a captain at the helm to steer it along the journey to it’s destination. In your mind there is a logical thinker at the helm, the logical thinker will get tasks completed on time, and be proactive…. right?

Wrong!

We all know this not to be the case and we end up procrastinating.

This is due the procrastination monkey, also known as the instant gratification monkey. This monkey takes over the helm of the ship in our “mind” and leads it on such fruitless endeavors such as:

• Watching Netflix for a few hours
• Skipping out on the gym
• Sleeping in for half the day
• And so on….

So how do we stop this monkey?

The panic monster!

Whenever we have a deadline or task due, the panic monster shows up and scares the monkey away! Then our logical thinker can get back behind the wheel and take control to get it completed.

So that’s how we solve procrastination right?

Nope…. 🙁

The issue with the panic monster is that it does not show up for tasks that don’t have deadlines and/or don’t affect us in a negative way. Such as learning to make apps on the side – this would all be self paced and you can learn slowly over time, or easily do tiny bits. So it would be easy to take a long time to learn, or drop the task completely eventually.

So how do we avoid this?

The life grid

Imagine the grid below represents your life. Each square is a week in your life.

• The blue color represents up until your 18
• The green color represents your late years (70 onwards)

Now how does procrastinating feel?

Like myself you are probably somewhere in the white area. Do you want to waste those boxes? The thing is the longer you wait to do something, the more you wait. As a result of this you delay the reward and have less time to enjoy it.

So each time you think about switching on Netflix or skipping the gym. Remember this life grid.

Don’t waste your life grid boxes.