procrastination on S Anand

Zeigarnik effect vs my procrastination

Sat, 28 Jan 2023 15:52:55 +0000

I make commitments but don’t always deliver on time. In 2022, I ran an experiment to find out why I procrastinate.

In Jan-Feb 2022, I listed the top 2 things I wanted to get done each day and measured how often I completed them.

14 Jan. ❌ Summarise from three research reports
12 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment ✅ Decide if I am a (…)
11 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment ✅ Agree on publishing in (…)
10 Jan. ❌ Client video. ❌ UIFactory experiment
09 Jan. ❌ UIFactory experiment. ❌ Attrition email as a story
07 Jan. ❌ ZS visual
06 Jan. ❌ Release Gramex Guide. ✅ UWC application
05 Jan. ❌ Publish network cluster post. ❌ Release Gramex guide
04 Jan. ❌ Publish network cluster post. ✅ Release Gramex.
03 Jan. ✅ Publish election TDS video. ❌ Publish Network cluster post.
02 Jan. ❌ Publish election TDS video. ❌ Publish Network cluster post.
01 Jan. ❌ Publish Network cluster post. ✅ Finalize SG school.

I completed 23 / 57 things (40%). That’s one of my TOP priorities.

In Mar-Apr 2022, I started micro-journalling to find out why. Whenever I was working on something, I wrote down whenever I started, stopped, or skipped working, and why.

- Tue 01 Mar. ❌ Create React app with any one Vega chart where attributes control chart signals
  - 09:30am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Shobana. Cleaning bedroom
  - 09:50am. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Breakfast
  - 10:10am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Naveen. Call
  - 10:50am. Skipped. DISTRACTED. LinkedIn. 3b1b videos
  - 12:30pm. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Calls
  - 01:30pm. Skipped. SCHEDULED. Lunch
  - 02:00pm. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Shobana. Cleaning, Dhyeya airtel card
  - 02:30pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Didn't feel like working
- Sat 05 Mar. ❌ Record Jio videos fully. Run productivity log alongside it.
  - 09:45am. Skipped. INTERRUPTED. Appa. Investment, music
  - 11:00am. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Only 2 hours to next call. Let's do it later. Plenty of time tomorrow.
  - 01:30pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Only 30 min to next call. Plenty of time tomorrow.
  - 03:45pm. Skipped. PROCRASTINATED. Half day wasted already. It’s OK to take one day off completely.
- Mon 07 Mar. ✅ Record Jio videos fully. Run productivity log alongside it.
  - 09:37am. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Was thinking about this since morning.
  - 10:00am. Stopped. INTERRUPTED. Naveen. Called
  - 10:25am. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Just continued with momentum.
  - 01:00pm. Stopped. SCHEDULED. Lunch
  - 01:30pm. Started. ZEIGARNIK. Just continued with momentum.
  - 03:15pm. Stopped. COMPLETED.

After 2 months, a few patterns emerged.

Why I skip working

Distraction (50%).
1. Interesting things (22%) were the biggest. Less important things (e.g. programming, browsing/research)
2. Movies (10%) pulled me away
3. Email (8%) was fairly common
4. Organizing things (6%) like my calendar, TODOs, financials, etc.
5. Social media, interestingly, was not on my list
Procrastination (25%). There were 3 kinds:
1. It’s hard, and I’m stuck
2. I don’t feel like doing it
3. I don’t have time – my next task begins sooner than I can finish
Schedule (14%). I’d scheduled something else for then (usually food)
Interrupted (12%). Usually by family or close colleagues

Why I start working

Zeigarnik effect (68%). I keep thinking about the problem. So even after a break, I just plunge right in
Mindfulness (19%). I got started just by the act of writing the journal
Distraction (9%). Sometimes, distractions work in my favor. A movie gets stuck, or someone pings about the topic, or my mind is processing the problem in the background
Completed (3%). I finished the previous task and the momentum just took me to the next

Why I stop working

Schedule (47%). I have another meeting/task planned at that time
Interruption (35%). This is mostly by colleagues (22%), family (8%), or hunger/thirst (6%)
Exhaustion (10%). I’m just too tired to go on
Distraction (8%). To do this, I need to do THAT first, and I get sucked into THAT

What I learned

The Zeigarnik effect helps me start. Once I start solving something the momentum carries forward. The next best is to write down why I’m not starting it (micro-journalling).
To avoid procrastination, I should eliminate distractions first. Specifically, use a new Virtual Desktop, block movies, and block email & notifications.
To avoid schedules interrupting me, I should batch meetings even more tightly, giving me longer or more flexible blocks to work on

Time management

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Some years ago, a friend asked me to write about how I manage my time. It seemed to him I was doing a good job of it, given that I had time to pursue my interests.

It’s something I tried to do consciously. Every few years, I used to go down the route of “time management”. I’d read stuff and try it out.

But over time, I’ve come to believe that “time” is not really “manageable”. Think about it: are most of your actions planned? Me, I just react out of habit, no matter how well planned I try to be. What I do is largely driven by what I’m in the habit of doing.

Not that time management advice is useless, but you’ll end up not following most of it. You act on a fraction of what you read. A fraction of that turns into a habit. That’s still useful. But the point is, rather than pick up 10 tips on time management, it’s more useful to pick one or two pieces of advice that you like, and are likely to act on. (You won’t do things you don’t like anyway.)

So time management is about acquiring habits that save time (and is not about reading tips that are tough to habitualise).

That begs an obvious question and a subtle one. The obvious one is what habits save time? The subtle one is why save time?

Why save time?

You’ve probably heard the phrase “time is money”. For a while, I took that statement literally. I tried to act by assigning monetary value to my time, and by doing the most profitable thing.

I was making Rs 10,000 a month at that time. That’s about Rs 50 an hour. So I figured I wouldn’t do anything that earned me less than Rs 50 an hour outside of work. I mean, if I’m making Rs 50 an hour at work, why should I make any less outside?

One small hitch. I wasn’t making any money outside of work. In fact, I was spending money. So unless I took up a night job, or started freelancing, that rule of thumb was useless. (Besides, I didn’t want to spend time outside of work working. I wanted to have fun. Watch movies, for instance.)

So I needed a different way of handling this. If I spend 3 hours at a movie for Rs 60, that could be a benchmark. If something’s more expensive than Rs 20/hour, I’d rather watch a movie. If it’s less expensive, I’d do that. Take books, for instance. A typical novel would cost Rs 180 and I’d finish it in 12 hours. At Rs 15 / hour it’s a more economical way of spending time.

Except that it doesn’t quite work that way. How much fun I had, had nothing to do with how much I paid for it.

Frankly, in daily life, I don’t think you can treat the phrase “time is money” literally. Time has nothing to do with money.

Time is like money in a different way, though. By itself, it isn’t worth much. Think about it. What can you do with money? Buy stuff you like. And if you can’t, it’s useless.

If all you need is onion soup, why throw it out for sesterii?

Time’s like that. What can you do with time? Do stuff you like. And if you can’t, it’s useless.

There are usually two reasons people want to manage time. One is where they don’t enjoy something, and would rather spend as little time at it as possible. But look, if you don’t enjoy that stuff, time management isn’t your problem. You need to get out of your job or whatever. Managing time more efficiently is simply going to let you efficiently waste your time. (Though in the short run, that’s probably the best you can do – efficiently get rid of nuisances. I’ll talk about that shortly.)

The other reason is where they have too many (enjoyable) things to do, and can’t do all of them. But hey, if you have too much enjoyable stuff, you don’t have a problem! In a way, this is like wanting to buy many things and not having enough money. With money, you can earn more or wish for less. With time, you just have to wish for less. (Living longer may not be a practical option.) Just pick anything you like to do. Don’t regret the stuff you can’t. You only have 24 hours, and you’re among the lucky few who can fill it with things you enjoy.

So, I’m effectively saying, there’s no point trying to do things more efficiently in the long run. Picking what you do is more important than doing it efficiently. (That roughly correlates to the third habit in Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits: Put First Things First. It’s the key to time management.)

So, how do you pick what to do? You’d probably want to pick something that you like, or something that’s good for you.

But it’s tricky to predict what you like.

We don’t know what we want. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that – we just don’t know what we’d like to do.
Too much of anything… I love watching movies, but I’ve never managed to watch more than 4 a day. I’ve tried breaking that record many times. Just doesn’t work. At the end of the 4th movie, I’m sick and my bum is sore. Do I prefer movies to cleaning up? Usually. But by the end of the 4th, I’d rather clean up.
Preferences are not consistent. I prefer a 7 megapixel camera to a 2 megapixel one. I prefer a cheaper camera to a more expensive one. So between a $100 2MP camera and a $200 7MP camera, I’m just making a wild guess.
Preferences are not static. If I’m tired, I’d rather watch a movie I’ve seen before. If not, I’ll experiment with an art film. There’s no telling beforehand what my mood is going to be at any point.

It’s just as tricky to figure out what’s good for us. We have no clue what will happen tomorrow. We have no clue what consequences our actions will have. (Read The Black Swan to get a flavour of that.) So we’re really guessing and groping – though sometimes with a lot of confidence.

On the whole, it’s difficult to figure out what to pick. So what do you do?

This is completely outside the realm of time management. This is about choice. I have a few (bad) habits that guide me.

Follow your moods
Work less
Procrastinate

Those are my principles. (But like Groucho Marx, I do have others.)

Follow your moods

There are times when people do certain things better. I’ve heard some people study best early in the morning. Others study best late at night. I don’t know if there’s any physiological benefit one way or the other, but even if it’s psychological, it makes a huge difference to study when you think you’ll learn better.

Sometimes I’m in a mood to write articles. When I do, the article usually writes itself. If not, I could spend days at it without any progress.

If there’s any reality to this, then the best thing to do is to do what you feel like doing. You’ll naturally accomplish this faster. That’s typically what I do when I’m given any work. I usually wait until I just feel like it. Then it’s usually a matter of a few hours before the job is done. Sometimes the mood doesn’t quite arrive before the deadline, in which case there’s always inspiration.

Seriously: do what you feel like doing the most at the moment. That’s a great way of becoming more efficient.

In fact, I would go as far as saying, mood management is more important than time management. Moods are more precious than time. If you’re in a mood to call people, pick up the phone and talk to folks you’ve been out of touch with. That mood is rarer than the time to make calls. (At least for me, the reason I am not in touch is because I’m not in a mood – not because I don’t have time.)

Optimise that mood. Do what you’re in a mood for. And when your mood changes, go with the flow. Do a lot more of what you feel like doing. You’ll do more (which is probably good), and of what you like (which is certainly good).

Work less

I’ve talked about this in Less is more. At the end of the day, 90% of the stuff you do is useless. So why do it? Just focus on the 10%.

Procrastinate

I can’t put this better than Paul Graham’s article on procrastination.

Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.

You won’t know what the important 10% until much later, so you may as well wait to find out if it’s important, and then do things.

So what am I saying?

Time management is about habits, not tips
Picking what you do is more important than doing it efficiently
But it’s difficult to figure out what to pick
So avoid doing stuff until you know it’s worth doing
Work when you’re in the mood – it’s faster that way

Think about it.

Comments

Chandoo 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Wow.. this is so well written. You are bang on when you said Time management is a meaningless phrase. How often we get in to to the trap of doing more and end up not having good time at all. come to think of it, “not having good time / fun in what we are doing” is one of the reasons why we (couple of frens and me) started a web company. I think in the long run what matters most is how you have spent your time than how you have saved it…
Gagan 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Amazingly written and immensely practical. I seriously find your tips more useful and implementable than some of the few self-help books that I have read. There you have it, maybe something you would want to do after you hang up your boots. You have one reader already. :) Cheers.
deepan 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Time has become so important to manage ever since the onset of the Industrial revolution.We are so used to a mechanical life defined by time that The world seems to stop if we loose sense of time. These days Timeliness is more important than Timely. The book i read recently “About time : speed, society, people and the environment / edited by Tim Aldrich"Sheffield : Greenleaf , 2005 discusses various issues abt time in vivid detail -was intersting one aswell. Timely inspiration for me; to diligently work on my thesis. regards
Binny V A 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: I got five words for you - Interest Based Priority Arrangement System.
Shreyas 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Fantastic article, Anand! I completely agree with you when you say - “(At least for me, the reason I am not in touch is because I’m not in a mood – not because I don’t have time.)” This always happen to me and I wonder as if it’s some kind of a monthly inventory-cleaning of backlog calls. But, then I realize that’s the mood I am in and that’s what I should follow, instead of being guilty about not managing “properly”! Lot of fodder for thought here. Thanks!
Vasant 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Hilarious, I particularly liked the mood bit. What if I’m never in the mood to work ? :D
edgar dantas 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: hey nice post really enjoyed it really good blog really appreciate it. with regards edgar dantas www.gadgetworld.co.in
jake 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: my man, stud article. well thought out, and well presented. i have often realized that while most of the things that I have to do pile up, i often do my best work, and do it fast and neat, when I feel like doing it. unfortunately though, this happens when the mood kicks in. and like the last panel of the calvin comic you left out says, this mood is ’last minute panic’. sigh.
bala 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: Some resemblance to the ideas proposed by Dan Gilbert. Very clear, nice train of thought!
THAKUR JUBEN M 31 Mar 2008 12:00 pm: HEY THE NOTES WERE REALLY COOL AND I REALLY LIKED IT AND THE TOPIC IS REALLY INTERESTING………

Paul Graham on procrastination

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Good and bad procrastination by Paul Graham.

The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn’t always bad?