3 Steps to Overcome Procrastinating with Marshmallows

Why do we have so much trouble putting off the things we want, yet we have no problem putting off something we think will be work? The final entry for this series is the 4th and final mental hurdle we all deal with daily… wait for it… procrastination!

We never seem to have trouble putting off things that feel like work. On the contrary, if we think its going to be enjoyable, it is pure torture to wait one more second for it! I’m sure you’ve heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiments focused on studying delayed gratification. Children are offered one marshmallow they can eat right now, but if they wait 15 minutes to eat it, the attendant will give them another one! One now or two later?

This experiment has been replicated by others many times, all finding the same results. Delayed gratification is a struggle for us all, at varying degrees. I laugh just watching the kids’ faces.

We tend to put things off when we the reward is not going to be immediate. This is called Temporal Discounting. If we see how the effort today will produce a greater benefit for us tomorrow, we are more likely to consider doing the work now. In his book Stumbling on Happiness, Dan Gilbert shows how we make decisions based more on today instead of trying to empathize with our future self and tomorrow. In other words, “One year from today, will you be glad you made this decision today?”

When the future rewards are not seen as greater than today’s reward, we create the perfect environment for procrastination. In one sense, our predicament is just two sides of the same coin. The answer to delaying a reward today or doing something difficult today is discovering the “why” behind each one.

1. Focus on “the why” to create movement

This requires you to know WHY you should do something or WHY you should put off an immediate reward for a greater future reward. The stronger the why, the more likely you’ll succeed. Make sure you have a plan and then start moving by fueling your movement with “Why.”

With a little help from Simon Sinek and his popular book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action we can better identify our “Why” with 4 questions:

Why is this important to me?
Why is this important to others?
Why should this be done now?
What will happen now and in the future if I (do / don’t do) this?

2. Organize by Urgency vs. Importance

Next, if you can get all of your tasks organized and ranked by urgency and importance, it becomes easier to execute the tasks. One customer I worked with years ago admitted to using her email inbox as her to-do list and prioritizing the tasks by which email arrived first! Dwight D. Eisenhower was credited with using a simple process for determining priorities. The method simply differentiated between important and urgent. If all your efforts are determined by what is due next, you are managing your time by urgency. When you manage your to-do list by urgency, your list is actually managing you!

3. Now get to work!

The final step is to just do it. Nike would be proud of you! With steps 1 and 2 completed, I know I feel much more energized to just Do the Work, (excellent book to help you by Stephen Pressfield.) It’s not going to get done without you, so you might as well execute your plan.