[AKN #68] Procrastination is what happens when you are not specific
LAUGH: George Carlin on Child Worship, LOVE: Explanation of why the Dune Ornithopter wouldn't fly
Sup homies?
Last weekend, we hosted Friendsgiving and let me tell you…
Shit was absolutely LIT fam.
Here is a live look at the star of the show: Tucker the Turkey.
The food was phenomenal, but what was even better was hanging with friends in a normal pre pandemic way.
Something about this event just felt extra normal. It triggered a full on return in mental state to Friendsgivings past.
Like sure there was the group of 4 people who had to call 3 different Ubers until a driver agreed to let them all ride in the same car, but otherwise completely normal.
And to top it all off, it even included some soul nourishing karaoke. Because I own a karaoke machine. Which easily ranks in the top 5 purchases I have ever made.
Highly, highly recommend both Friendsgiving and karaoke.
On to the newsletter!
LIVE: PROCRASTINATION IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE NOT SPECIFIC
When I first started writing a blog in 2015, I announced to the world that I would post something every Tuesday.
What a goal!
I loved that goal.
I would sit there day dreaming about how I was going to achieve it.
I was going to become a famous writer with hundreds of claps on Medium.
I was on top of the world.
All was great except for the minor detail that I was posting ZERO additional articles.
Weeks ticked by and I was not releasing anything.
I was frustrated that I "kept procrastinating" and began to internalize the message that I "just needed more discipline."
Looking back, it's pretty clear what was going on.
I had a goal, but no actual day to day plan of how to get there.
When those conditions are met, the "procrastination" monster rears its ugly head.
WHY YOU PROCRASTINATE
Procrastination is the byproduct of not being ultra specific about what you need to do to achieve your desired result.
For example, a lot of people start the weight loss journey by saying "I'm going to lose 20 pounds," but they are destined to fail unless they have broken it down into a daily set of actions to execute (ie: eating healthy meals and exercising).
So if you have found yourself procrastinating on something for months or even years, you should start by asking yourself the question:
Have I broken this goal down into a set of specific daily or weekly actions which will move me forward?
Sometimes, this is difficult to diagnose because we trick ourselves into thinking we actually HAVE done something to move forward when we decidedly HAVE NOT.
WHY IT IS HARD TO SEE YOU ARE PROCRASTINATING
Our minds are powerful deception machines which love to convince us that non-progress is progress.
We do funny things like post on social media or visualize becoming famous and somehow come to the conclusion that we have moved closer to where we want to go.
In reality, we end up stuck in a fantasy trap where we are standing still but telling ourselves we are moving forward.
I often find myself stuck in this fantasy trap.
I fall in love with the dream of where I want to go, but I have not actually done something TODAY to move that goal forward.
"I am going to have a six pack" I say in the middle of handfuls of goldfish.
"I am going to write a book!" I say whilst scrolling YouTube videos searching for inspiration to start.
My mind loves these little day dreams because they fast forward through the discomfort of what it would take to achieve such a goal.
I want to live in a fantasy world where I am giving a TED Talk on stage about the keys to my success instead of thinking about the one hour of focused work I would need to accomplish today to become a better public speaker.
I bathe in the grandeur of achieving the goal without making any progress towards it.
The only antidote I have found for avoiding this fate is to continually refocus yourself on what you need to do TODAY.
But how do you ensure that what you do today moves you where you want to go?
CREATING A SYSTEM FOR OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION
If you want to overcome the tendency to procrastinate on a large goal and actually make progress on that goal instead, you want a "system."
A system is a set of habits which — when executed — will guarantee you moving in the direction of your goal.
My system to overcoming procrastination is four steps:
Define your goal
It is important to have an ultimate destination.
This is where setting a goal comes in.
Where is it that you want to go?
I use my goal to orient myself in the correct direction.
However, goal setting is merely directional and having only the goal can get me stuck in a tailspin.
Like if you constantly focus on "I will write a book", you are going to find yourself in perpetual anxiety over how much you still have to do.
Instead you should focus your effort on breaking the book down into discrete chapters that need to be written over a much smaller time horizon.
This is where habits come in.
Break the goal into oddly specific, small, easy tasks you can achieve on a regular basis
Habits are the day to day executable processes which actually help you make progress on a large goal.
I try to answer the following questions when approaching my goals:
What are the week over week things I would need to do to get to where I claim I want to go?
What are the day to day habits I would need to develop in order to get where I want to go?
I try to get very specific because my mind will execute specific but procrastinate vague.
For example, my task CANNOT be "I am going to write for an hour " it needs to be MUCH more specific like "I am going to write for an hour about Gushers."
Similarly, my task CANNOT be "I am going to go to the gym" that is not specific enough. It NEEDS to be "I am going to go to the gym and do the following weight lifting routine."
Execute those habits week over week
If you want to solve large complicated problems or achieve ambitious goals, it is going to take a long time to get there.
So once I break down my goals into ultra specific tasks, I try my best to focus on just doing the work.
Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.
Doing my best to resist the siren song of the magic bullet.
It is actually the only way.
Reflect and refine
Following your set of habits over and over can be very boring so I find I need to see I have made progress in order to keep them going.
If I have made meaningful progress, I keep going with my routine. I may even return to my goal in order to get me hyped on getting there again. Take that shot of motivation straight to the face.
If I am not getting where I need to go, I revise.
Progress check ins are always tough, but you try to find the best metric to objectively track how you are doing.
For example,
Weight loss - You can track your body weight, body fat, or look at progress photos.
Writing - You can return to an older piece of content you wrote and assess if you have gotten better.
TRUST THE PROCESS
Whenever I follow this set of tasks, I seem to always find myself making progress on my goals instead of daydreaming about making progress.
For example, once I developed a plan for how to produce weekly content, I stopped procrastinating and started actually sending something every Tuesday.
Ends up it became much harder to procrastinate when I knew EXACTLY what to do TODAY.
LAUGH: GEORGE CARLIN ON CHILD WORSHIP
Carlin had a special curmudgeony quality about him and what better old guy topic to riff on than how soft the children are now a days.
Carlin tears apart kids for being soft and parents for being overly involved in their lives.
Crazy to think this was 13 years ago because things are SO much worse now.
Loved the jokes on:
PLAY TIME
“When can a kid just go play with a stick? Do todays kids even know what a stick is?”
“Send them to summer camp. Gotta keep those little fuckers busy. Don’t want them to sneak in any unstructured time in the woods”
SCHOOL PRESSURE
“If he is 4 years old, he should be home studying for his kindergarten entrance exams.”
“Send him to leadership camp. Whatever the fuck that is. Leadership camp? Isn’t that where Hitler went?”
EVERYBODY GETS A TROPHY CULTURE
“You know what they tell the kid who loses now a days? You were the last winner”
“A lot of these kids never get to hear the truth about themselves until they’re in their 20s and their boss fires them. Get the fuck out of here, Bobby, you’re a loser.”
LOVE: COULD THE ORNITHOPTER IN DUNE ACTUALLY EXIST?
In the most recent film adaptation of Dune — I haven’t seen the new one, but have read the book — the director brings to life the Ornithopter.
What the fuck is an Ornithopter?
An aircraft that flies by flapping its wings.
And the Dune one is fashioned after a massive dragonfly.
After watching this movie, you might ask yourself “why don’t we make a bad ass aircraft which looks like a dragonfly?”
The answer is Physics. Basically insects are small enough that they can take advantage of a quirk of physics which cannot be exploited by airplanes.
But a more entertaining answer is given in this 2 min TikTok video about whether or not the Ornithopter could really work.
Closing time
You don’t have to go home, but you can subscribe here:
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are strictly my own. Who else’s would they be?
Mahalo,
Kevin