Procrastination

A Special Application

The ability to get things done and overcome procrastination is one of the most important skills to master if you wish to attain good mental health. The point is not just to check things off your To Do list, but to make sure you're doing the things which are most important and not just urgent or things which make you “feel good.” New purposes are revealed to you as new tasks are placed before you. And by responding to the needs of life around you, whether it be a hungry bird or a thirsty tomato plant, you'll find your place in the interdependent web of life. A web in which you are not the center (which is easy to forget), but a key participant. The ripples of your action reverberate throughout the universe. Take action and come join the dance.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“ Nearly everyone I know (including me) believes they should be more self-disciplined. And one very simple definition of self-discipline is “doing what you know you need to do.” This is where Morita therapy can be very helpful, because it eliminates the complexity of trying to get your feelings/thoughts in sync with your actions. How do you feel when you get out of bed in the morning? I almost always feel tired, lethargic, heavy, sluggish. When I get out of bed (usually around 5:30am ) I virtually never feel energetic and raring to go! But I take my feelings of tiredness and sluggishness with me as I leave my bed and walk to the bathroom. This is what Morita therapy is trying to teach us – to take our unpleasant feelings with us as we do what is important to do. Rather than allow our lives to be directed by our feelings, we are guided by the important purposes that present themselves as we move forward. Feelings don’t get discarded, but neither do they run the show."
Gregg Krech

The Fine Art of Not Getting Things Done (click the play button below for video)

 

Articles From the ToDo Institute’s Resource Library

Japanese Psychology and Purposeful Living

Procrastination Disguised as Busyness

In this article, Gregg Krech writes about how we sometimes avoid doing what needs to be done by distracting ourselves with "busyness." He writes, "We keep busy, convincing ourselves that we are productive and hard working. Our failure to do what is important is disguised as busyness."
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Facing the Demons of Inaction:
Morita Therapy as a Resource for Moving Forward

In this article, Gregg Krech draws on personal experience to illustrate how Morita Therapy can be utilized to coexist with fear, anxiety, indecision, and perfectionism and allow one to overcome procrastination and get things done.
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When Plans and Reality Collide: The Tale of Victoria’s Garden

Although the garden that Victoria tends today holds great meaning for her and others, the process of creating it was far different from what she had envisioned. At a critical point, despite her transcendent vision, she is forced to redesign her plan to meet the changing circumstances of the situation. Life rarely conforms to our plans for the future, at which point we must overcome procrastination and attachment to our ideas and meet the needs of the situation.
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Editorial: The Responsibility for What We Do Not Do

We fool ourselves into thinking we are living a life of integrity simply because we lack a culpable action. Though our culpability is invisible, we still must accept responsibility for what we do not do--particularly when we know, in our hearts, that something must be done, must be said. Whether out of fear or just plain procrastination, we must accept responsibility for what we do not do.
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Defeating the Demons of Inaction: Indecision

From The Concise Little Guide to Getting Things Done

When we are confronted by indecision, we need to move forward despite our doubts or confusion. We need to move forward, even if we’re only taking small steps. Those steps, regardless of which direction they go in, are likely to give us new information and experience. Our actions send ripples into the world. The situation may change or reveal itself in a new way once we have moved to a new vantage point.
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The Stress of Not Getting Things Done

From The Concise Little Guide to Getting Things Done

There is no substitute for “accepting my feelings” (of laziness or boredom, or anxiety, or whatever happens to appear), “knowing my purpose” and then “DOING IT.” My stress is relieved almost from the moment I start, and I go to bed that night often satisfied at my ability to overcome my tendency towards procrastination and accomplish my goals.
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Purpose is Responding to What Needs to Be Done

As I continued to apply what I learned, I gained a new perspective on the meaning of purpose. It was no longer confined to “what I would really LIKE to do with my life,” or “what SHOULD I be doing with my life” but rather it became much broader, more inclusive, and more immediate like “what needs doing now?” This new meaning demanded that I pay attention to my surroundings and notice the ripple effects of my actions as well as my tendency to procrastinate and put things off.
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The full text of this article is available to ToDo Institute members only.

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Just Doing It

I spent very little time [with my students] dealing with the murky causes of procrastination. We approached the problem from the standpoint of what we can control (behavior) and what we cannot (feelings) based on a method of Japanese psychology called Morita therapy.
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The full text of this article is available to ToDo Institute members only.

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Take the Next Step...and See What Happens

Unless I take the first action step, the journey doesn’t begin.... In reality, all I need [to be a writer] is a ballpoint pen and a place mat or the back of a dry cleaning receipt... and the faith to stop procrastinating and take that first step in crafting an essay or article.
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The full text of this article is available to ToDo Institute members only.

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Seven Strategies for Taking Action When You Don’t Feel Like It

Usually getting stuck involves a set of feelings which acts like mud locked around our [automobiles’] wheels. Such feelings include confusion, boredom, fear, anxiety, depression, dislike of the task, or laziness. When we find that we’re stuck, we’re faced with the challenge of getting unstuck and taking action. Morita Therapy and Naikan are two methods of Japanese psychology which offer specific methods and strategies for getting out of the mud.... Here are seven strategies that might help you end procrastination and take action the next time you find yourself stuck....
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The full text of this article is available to ToDo Institute members only.

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Learn More...

• Procrastination from the University of Calgary
• Procrastination from Stanford
• Procrastination from Carleton

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“To control our destiny, we need to harness our will, to do not what we like, but what is in our long-term best interest. If the will is strong enough, anything can be accomplished; if the will is weak, very little. In every endeavor, it is the man or woman with an unbreakable will who excels.”
Eknath Easwaran