Why Distractions Feel So Damn Good
Procrastination is an ever present specter when we seek to get important and difficult things done. Seemingly, at any moment a thought can pop into our heads to go off and do something more pleasurable instead. The problem is that they cost a lot of time and, if we indulge first in our pleasures instead of acting upon our good intentions, then we end up feeling guilty, irresponsible and drained by our fecklessness. This post explains just what is going on when the impulse to bunk off occurs.
A big problem for most of us is that, when we get an idea for a pleasant desire, we immediately want to take action, because we want to have that desire RIGHT NOW! Or within a very short period of time at least. However, whenever you set out to do an important, or difficult, task, you generally have to do some element of problem solving. That means that some part of the task cannot be done spontaneously. It needs some thought attention preparation and organization to overcome the barrier to progress. Unfortunately, your brain would rather not do that.
Once you start to do something that requires problem solving that you haven’t yet done, you will come to a point where can go no further. At this point, your mind will react and think “I can’t do this. It’s not possible.” Doing the impossible is generally a difficult and painful business and so this triggers a response to do anything that avoids pain and moves into pleasure. It is at this point that into your mind will pop an idea and an impulse to do something easier, more pleasant, problem free, instantly attainable, and free of responsibility. For the part of your brain that is focused on survival, the basic default response is that pleasure is good and relatively risk free and that difficulty is bad and brings with it the risk of pain. Consequently, if you don’t understand this point, then you will find it hard to resist temptation, because your nervous system is doing everything that it can to improve your chances of survival at that particular moment.
The number of distractions available to us is myriad and so many of them seem just perfectly designed to soak up huge amounts of time and to deliver us from having to solve problems: TV programs, films, books, video games, lunch dates, sleep, sex, whatever. These things are easy, pleasant, problem free, instant and responsibility free (well, on reflection, perhaps I should remove sex from that list as it doesn’t quite meet all of those requirements). You will never remove or escape all of the distractions that are available to you, because indulging in distractions and in procrastination is just the response to the symptom - a present moment difficulty.
The cause of the symptom is your desire to have, or to do, something that you can’t have or do at that moment. To remove the symptom and hence the response to indulge in temptations, then either give up on the desire, or work out how to make the next step possible.
When the impulse to indulge in a distraction hits you, then before you act upon it, recognize that it has happened because you have reached a stumbling block with the other thing that you are doing. Identify that point of difficulty, describe it clearly and then work out a way to solve it, or move around it. Do that before you indulge in a distraction. This is a vital habit to develop, because what it means is that, when you stop indulging in the distraction, you can return to the task at hand and make immediate progress. If you don’t do this, then when you return to the task you will still think, “I can’t do this!” and the distraction impulse mechanism will be triggered once again. It is only once you stop to figure out how to get beyond the barrier that you can make productive progress once more.
If you find yourself frequently indulging in procrastination, then this effort to solve the problem at hand, at least in principle, before bunking off is one of the most important habits that you can ever develop. It’s the most basic and most practical principle to get you back in the saddle with the minimum of delay. After a while, it becomes a habit to delay the distraction in order to solve the problem. Think of what this will do for you. Instead of your problems dominating you, you turn the tables and dominate your problems. I can tell you that it is a sublime feeling of personal mastery when you can do this. When you do this habitually, you know that you TRULY ROCK!
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#1 - Permalink thadeus August 12th, 2008 at 12:23 pmYES! Thank you for sharing this. It sounds very plausible and I hope it will help with my bad procrastination habits.
#2 - Permalink admin August 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pmHi Thadeus,
This method works great for me. It takes a bit of practice to get into the swing of it, so don’t feel disappointed if it doesn’t work out for the first attempts. The first step is to start to recognize what’s happening when those impulses to do easy things occur. You might still go for the distraction, but after it happens a few times you will think about what’s holding you up and at least identify that before bunking off. Next you’ll identify the problem and then think about a possible solution before doing something else. Finally, you will get into such a habit that when an impulsive idea comes into your head you will think. “Hmm, I have a problem to deal with here. Precisely, what is it and how to do I solve it?” At this point you will find yourself maintaining your concentration and momentum.