Category: Growth

Categories
English Growth Self-confidence

The last day of the year. 

Looking back on the year that has been and not label it an annus horribilis is difficult as it was a very hard time. The thing is that hard times don’t end when the calendar does, so they will probably extend well into 2017. That’s how it is. That being said, there are also many reasons to be thankful and hopeful. For starters I am alive. That may seem trivial but if you want to do things you first need to be alive. Secondly, I am healthy, less trivial than the first statement, now what I need to do next year is keep it that way, and that includes taking better care of my body and mind, so that goes to the “need to better next year” box. Thirdly I have people, I am not all alone. Although I love being alone and am seldom lonely I also love to spend time with some of you, not all of you at the same time, that’s insane, but some of you for a brief period is nice. Fourth and that’s more difficult. I have a way of producing income. I’m not producing as much as I could but I’m working on it so that’s another thing for the “need to better next year” box. Fifth is my take in the future, this one goes with the last one but also on my own mental imaging of the future, to give it more value than I’ve been doing so far. 

There they are, five points to ponder and be thankful and better next year, there are many more of course but those are, for me, the main ones. Some of you will be wondering where’s my spiritual side, or romance or whatever, feel free to update your own lists with what you feel and think is important to you and comment below if you like.

In the meantime, let me wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR. 

Categories
Actionable English Growth Procrastination

Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED Talk | TED.com

Categories
English Growth Mindset Self-confidence

I’m a Toastmaster

I’ve recently joined an organization whose purpose is the teaching of public speaking skills and the development in each member of leadership abilities. For those of you who know me you’ll easily see how both skill sets might come handy to me. I am not a confident person as you might very well have figured out by now. I also am someone who’s changing his worldview, mostly on what I want in life, how I can achieve it, and how I can get help getting the results I want. That last part for me is very difficult, not because I am arrogant, that I might be, but because I’m really not that smart and it’s very hard for me to learn and I don’t like to show that side of myself. How I’m dealing with this will be the subject of another post, maybe next week.

Now, all that been said I’d like to talk more about this wonderful organization that is Toastmasters. First things first. Toastmasters was founded in 1905 by Ralph C. Smedley while he worked as education director at the YMCA in Bloomington Illinois, USA. There he saw the need to teach young men speaking abilities, how to conduct meetings, plan programs and leadership. I will not elaborate here on the history, you can check it out by yourselves following this link, suffice it to say that since then Toastmasters International has grown to a worldwide organization with more than 280,000 members in some 14,000 clubs in 116 countries, a big success.

My first experience with Toastmasters was on february of this year when I attended a meeting as a walkin. I arrived a little late so I didn’t get to see the start of the session. I was immediately mesmerized. The diversity of the people was complete, but yet they all seemed no only at ease, but in sync with what was going on. They all presented their speeches, they were evaluated by one of their peers, given advice on what they did right and what they could do better, and there was absolute camaraderie yet there was complete order. I was hooked. I returned the following week as an walkin again to see the complete development of a session, I was so impressed again that by the end of the evening I was subscribing to become a member.

As Toastmasters primary goal is to teach we are not only there to socialize, we are there to learn. More experienced members teach newer ones by serving as mentors and evaluators, and we also get a set of manuals where we can find the different skills that we must learn in every step of our self paced learning. In the month and a half I’ve been a member I’ve given one speech, my icebreaker, which is the first one that a new member gives and where he makes an official presentation of himself to the club and invites. I’ve also had the opportunity to act as Toastmaster for the night, which means I had to host the meeting, which is a challenge on itself of leadership, organization skills and speaking skills, all of my shortcomings were graciously accepted by my colleagues and not one of them rolled her eyes, or stood up and left, so I would like to thank them for that.

As I ready myself to present my second speech tonight, march the 29th. 2016, I am really excited to do this, which would seem odd. As poll after poll show how the fear of public speaking is amongst the most prevalent of all, in some cases topping the fear of death, which inspired Jerry Seinfeld, funny person amongst funny persons, to write the joke that says “the average person, if you have to be in a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy”. So, I’m starting to see myself a little bit differently, because if it only takes one meeting a week for six weeks to make me get rid of this “big fear” either it’s easier than I thought to get rid of my fears or in the end it was not such a big deal to me and it’s something I rather like. I’m thinking the latter.

There you have it for today. If you’d like to face your fear of public speaking, would like to learn the skill and also pick up some leadership resources, check out your local Toastmasters club, if you live in Mexico City you can come to mine, Club BIAM, you’re more than welcome. As always I’d love to see your comments down below.

Categories
Actionable Growth Mindset

Changes big and small

I’ve recently had a birthday, my 45th for that matter, and of course I’m in full midlife crisis mode. My whole world is changing around me, after the turmoil will it be better or worse I cannot truly say right now, what I can say is that changes are a’ coming.
Changes. We might like them or despise them but in the end is what life is all about. Changes. We might embrace them or fear them, but they’re always there. We change all the time, granted sometimes so slowly we don’t notice right away, we notice when somebody else points it out with something like this “wow, what’s up with all that gray hair?” Or they might be dropped on us by some accident or a feat of good fortune. There are always changes.

Big changes are something we all know about. Big happy changes like getting your dream job, marrying the love of your life or being a parent, those are big happy changes. There are also tragedies, personal or even global, an illness, a traffic accident, a death in the family, or maybe less dramatic, losing a job, a divorce, having the kids grow up and move out. All of this are big changes. This big changes might create opportunities that we never thought about before, and those are the ones we have to look for when they come, we can surf the wave, or we can wait for the dust to settle. Yes, you can do either, there is no recipe here, no one size fits all. Every occurrence will be different, you might be in a good place to start something new and change something else in your life before settling down again, or you might want to wait and hope for the changes to end as soon as possible and try to regain control of your life, keeping, as much as you can, a sense of normality. As you might know by now I’m more for a balanced point of view rather than an extreme one.

Team_Sky_after_Cancer_Council_Helpline_Classic_2010Small changes are different. If we don’t do anything changes will always be disruptive. If we don’t keep up our bodies or our things they’ll decay, a chip of paint off a wall won’t spontaneously repair itself. Our teeth will soon decay if we don’t floss and brush regularly. Those are natural changes that left to themselves will destroy more that produce, so we must keep an eye on upkeep of our bodies and surroundings. Seeing this, how small relentless changes can destroy something, we can ask ourselves the following “In the same way that there is destruction in small steps, can there be construction in small steps?” And of course the answer is yes. This is what we do when we exercise, we don’t see our body build muscle overnight, it takes time and dedication. If we go on a diet we don’t see results the next day. Those are gradual changes. But there are other aspects of our lives where this way of thinking helps us, but it’s not easy. Now we are entering the realm of habits. Good habits that replace bad ones. Bad habits creep on us without us really wanting them. We might one day relax because we are feeling a little sick and we might skip the gym and next thing we know we’ve been last seen there two months ago and our belly’s showing it. So we replace bad habits with good ones, and then we make sure we keep them. We make good habits stick by not letting them slip, good thinking. Now, we can go a step further, and ask “are there other things that I can change a little and that will make me a little better?”. As you might expect the answer is a big fat Yes. And this is not my idea this is best explained by what Dave Brailsford accomplished when he coached Team Sky, a British cycling team back in 2010, to Tour de France glory in 2012, 2013 and 2015. He called his approach “aggregation of marginal gains” and he described it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” Everything you do. Not only exercising, tyre weight and pressure, diet, this are the usual ones, he went as far as to experiment on what pillow was best for a restful sleep, how to wash your hands so you get ill a little less and many other things that we might think are not important, but in the aggregate are important. This small marginal gains can help us achieve much more. Of course I’m not saying that all you need do is wash your hands properly, I’m saying this is something you need take care of as well as many other things in your life. Gradual changes that can bring big rewards.

So there you have it, changes big and small, good and bad, so many changes. If you tame your attitude to the big ones you can always come out stronger, and if you channel the small ones for your benefit you can also come out stronger and better. How do you cope with changes and make them happen will define how happy you can come to be now and in the future. Are you ready to make some good changes in your life? As always, please comment down bellow.

Categories
Actionable English Growth Procrastination

The “Productivity Equivalence” III

This is the third and last post on the Productivity Equivalence. We have worked on the positive elements of the equivalence and now it’s time to work on the negative ones.

PE = Sleep + Diet + Exercise + Meditation/Prayer/Silence – Stress – Distractions

The negative elements are stress and distractions. As I said before you have maybe other feelings and attitudes that you would like to put on the side. Be my guest, please accommodate this equivalence best fits your needs, this is what it is for, so you can have an idea of what is working for you and what is working against you.

  • Stress. As we know stress can be very harmful. High levels of cortisol for prolonged periods of time have been known to cause harm to the body. This stress causes also behavior changes that take a toll, most of the time a very heavy one, on our relationships. Some might be saying right now “well, be less stressed, easier said than done” Yes, it’s easy to say, but it’s also easy to do. What’s not easy is to take the right step and make the decision to do it, that’s the hard part. We have to understand that the decisions we make affect the present and the future. What we have from our past cannot be changed, it is done, it is what has brought us to where we are right now. At each present moment we can make decisions that transform our lives, make or not make a phone call, visit or not someone, write or not a story, keep or not a relationship. We have to decide what we want for us right now.If we don’t do it ourselves somebody else will or something else will. So it’s really that easy we have to deal with the stress you have to decide if you want to continue living a stressful life or not. if we decide we want to continue to leave stressful life then we must understand the price but we are willing to pay. we don’t want to live a stressful life and the only way to reduce the stress is to scale down then that is something we have to do. In the end it’s our choice, it is what we want and, as with everything else, we are responsible. I am not advocating that we have to eliminate all stress from our lives, some stress is useful, some stress is necessary. Without stress there is no excitement, no fun, no triumph. We need stress, but as we need water, too much water we drown and die, too little water we dry up and die, we need just enough.
  • Distractions. Distractions are those activities that do not help us get closer to our goals. When we procrastinate and don’t do what we have to do we are getting distracted. When we were little and people told us “you can be anything” what they meant was “you can be whatever you set your goals to, and then work your ass off to get them” and distractions are what will keep us from reaching those goals. Some will start saying “you can’t be an NBA player, you’re too short” That’s true, but I can still play basketball, and work for the NBA or an NBA team, or a sportswear company that sells basketball apparel, I can still be all basketball if that’s what I want. But I have to focus on that, all the time. Distractions can take me offcourse in a big way, as would be getting stuck in a job that’s I hate because “I have to pay the bills” and never trying to build an alternate reality and then moving to that, or can take me offcourse in a subtle but constant way, as would be watching two hours of TV every night to “relax”, or wasting ten minutes on Facebook every hour. All those are examples of distractions. One of the most effective tools in our belt against distraction is the ability to focus. Yes, as I said many times before on other posts, being able to focus is one of the abilities we need to develop. The ability to focus and to regain focus quickly if it is lost for a moment is of paramount importance. An example of regaining focus quickly is being able to get back to what’s important seconds after being interrupted by a phone call, and alarm, an impromptu visit from a colleague with an unimportant question. But also being able to focus on long term goals. That focus, that has to be permanent for long periods of time has to deal with other different distractions. You get distracted when you get discouraged, discouraged because you can’t see the result of your labor and after a while you angst and question if the seed you planted will in the end bear the fruits you desire. You get distracted when you see other opportunities pass you by and you wonder if there are making the right choice. You get distracted by your entourage when they question your sanity and the value of what will be gained and instead of pushing you and helping you they want you to stop and hinder you. All of this requires courage yes, but most of all requires focus, and that’s what you have to train for, every single day.

So there you have it, we’ve taken three posts but we have dissected the Productivity Equivalence. As I said before, you might have other parameters you’d like to keep track off for your own version of the equivalence, but if you don’t, feel free to use this one, and for every action that you engage in check where it affects the most, where it puts in and where it puts out and decide on that information if it’s good or bad. As always, I’d love to read your comments on the subject, thank you for reading.

Categories
Actionable Growth Mindfulness Procrastination

The “Productivity Equivalence” II

As promised here’s the second part, maybe we’ll have to stretch this out even more, but I think it’s worth it. We saw last time the Productivity Equivalence, this one:

PE = Sleep + Diet + Exercise + Meditation/Prayer/Silence – Stress – Distractions

We talked about the first two components, Sleep and Diet. I’d like to finish with the diet entry fast with this.

Diet, part 2 and ending. When we talk about diet and productivity we also need to talk about our immediate intake of food and drink and our immediate productivity. It’s clear that a three martini lunch on a daily basis not only will destroy our liver in the long run but our productivity that afternoon, as a matter of fact, even if we don’t do it ever again, that afternoon is gone. So, to bring this more down to earth, we need to seek foods that are good for us in the long run, but also we need to have at our disposal foods that can help us immediately. A cup of coffee will help you be more alert, a lunch heavy on fatty food and meat will have the opposite effect, but I am not a dietitian and know nothing about nutrition, just about productivity so go see a specialist before doing anything “crazy”. Seek their help, after all, they have all those student loans to pay, you’ll be helping them too.

Exercise. Another no brainer, wow, all the things we know we should do but somehow, we don’t, we keep putting them off and… you’re right, procrastinate, you’re a smart bunch, that’s why I like you. Now, not only need you to get your weekly cardio, and you need to make muscle, you need to activate your body at the gym if this is something you can afford, there’s more to it. We need to move, upstairs and downstairs, up the hall and down the hall, take periodic walks, stand up as much as you can because, drum roll, latest studies have found that sitting is killing us. Yes, you read it right. Sitting is the new smoking, so they say. The studies are very compelling suggesting your are doing a horrible disservice to your insides by sitting down on a chair, just by doing what seems to be nothing. This is where the standing desks craze comes from, then some smart guy figured out that since he was already standing he might as well do a couple of miles and incorporated a treadmill to the mix and there you go, the treadmill desk was born, and then this guy came with this idea and the “rat race” was finally materialized with this HamsterWheel Deskhamster wheel desk…
But I digress. Don’t sit down all day, it will kill you, get your body moving and you’ll be better off.

Meditation/Prayer/Silence. Now this is where the juicy part is on this whole Equivalence is. You might say “what does standing still have to do with doing more? You make no sense!” so glad you asked. Meditation, oh sweet meditation. I’m a new but fully convinced convert on the value of meditation. I’ve been doing it on a daily basis for the last 6 months and it has changed my life, or at least my perception of my life. I’m now more calm, less irritable, and those of you who know me know what I mean, am I right? I don’t get angry as I did before, and most of all I’m more aware of my role in my life and that of others. I’m a much better listener also, because I can much better stop listening to my own inner narrator, I have a much better grasp of reality around me. If you don’t like meditation I suggest you give it a try, and then another, at least 6 months of daily practice. I am not kidding, you know you need to slow some things down, mainly in your head, and this will help you, I am positive about that. What’s that? You don’t want to do it even after what you know about it? You’re like a smoker who won’t quit! But OK. Are you religious? Try praying, yes, pray, but don’t enter in a dialog with the supreme being of your choosing, no, just say your prayers, don’t think about them, don’t try to find a meaning, no nothing, while you’re praying just pray, that’s it. What now? You won’t meditate and won’t pray either? Sit in silence then, don’t lay back because you’ll fall asleep, sit, on the floor preferably, and stay in silence. Don’t try to think about your day, or the stuff you have to do, or what you need, or nothing. Silence around you and in you. You’ll need to concentrate on something, use your favorite tree from when you were a kid, concentrate on it. Do it again and again, get distracted? Back to the tree, remembered something? It can wait 5 minutes, back to the tree. Visualize in your head all you can remember from that tree. Do this five to ten minutes everyday for at least 6 months. Your life will change.

Well, there you have it, we’re out of time, and when I say we I mean you, I want to keep this posts as informative but short as possible because I know time is of the essence. Please share this on your Facebook wall if you found it informative, and comment, here or on the social media app of your choosing, have a great day.

Categories
English Growth Money Procrastination

“Second hand procrastination” is it a thing?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A few weeks back, in my post titled “What kind of procrastinator are you?” we talked about the different kinds of procrastinators. I want to revisit and expand on the ones that have the “student’s syndrome”. We’ve seen how they leave until the last possible moment their tasks, and then rush on to do them, their bodies full of adrenaline, cortisol, from within, and from the outside they might use stimulants such as caffeine, taurine or even others even more intense substances. In the future I will refer to this type of procrastinator as “The Rusher”, because, he rushes to get his job done, sometimes even regardless of the consequences.

The Rusher goes to extremes to get the things done at the last possible moment, just when the pressure, exhilaration and anxiety surpass his content and calm brought by doing something else. Now, this would be the end of the conversation if not for the fact that, more often than not, this rush brings unwanted results. As he sprints to the finish line The Rusher might want to cut some corners, maybe not on the job he’s doing if he’s got high standards, but on the other aspects of his personal and professional lives.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Rusher, is by his procrastination a risk taker, as he won’t be taking into account that Murphy may break havoc with his plans of finishing the task. That’s when an unexpected outage in the Internet, an empty printer cartridge, a late delivery all become life or death emergencies that have to be handled at any cost. The procrastinator suddenly starts asking for favors left and right, and his relationships might suffer from this or he might end up indebted much more for this help for much more than the value of the favor entitled in other more normal situations. Also our Rusher might, for example, neglect his commitments to other people or other projects, stressing unwittingly those relationships. All of this without the need of there being an extra setback on the task at hand. The simple fact of having to set everything aside because all available time, every ounce of energy, all of the attention have to be concentrated on the task can cause problems with others. A commitment previously engaged, could be even previous to the assignment or existence of the task, might have to be canceled because it’s priority suddenly drops, as the task’s rises. That commitment is now a casualty of The Rusher’s procrastination. The Rusher is no longer harming himself, he’s harming others who now suffer from this “Second Hand Procrastination”. As second hand smoking is unhealthy second hand procrastination is also harmful to the ones around the procrastinator. It cost them his time, his affections, and it can even have a monetary cost with things as late fees, non refundable tickets going to waste and others. In his professional life The Rusher might even be affecting his coworkers and subordinates, by making them miss important personal activities because of having to rush to finish some task that was waiting on his desk for 2 weeks but now has to be finished by morning. This is one of multitude of reasons why reducing our procrastinating is important. It gives us more clarity, more options, improves the chances of success and might even save a relationship or two.

Has this nudged you to work on your procrastination issues? If so, or even if not, I’d love to read some comments bellow, in the mean time, have an excellent week, and remember that on Sunday it’s Saint Valentine, so better be prepared so you don’t have to cancel it with a work emergency, lack of reservations or whatever other thing you’re putting off.

Categories
English Growth Procrastination

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

Some of you might have recognized the title of this post. Others are reading it for the first time but, after thinking a little, are beginning to agree with it. It’s known as Parkinson’s Law and it’s one of those bits of wisdom that observation of the world brings us. This one’s a big deal for us procrastinators in two very different and seemingly opposite ways. A few posts back I talked about the Student Syndrome and if you remember, how it refers to the tendency people, but mostly students, have to put off work on an assignment until the last possible moment. This tendency helps them, some say, to get fired up about the work, getting adrenaline pumping through their veins, and igniting the passion in them. In the stricter of terms this is correct, although it is very risky because it doesn’t leave any margin of error to cope with another law derived from observation, Murphy’s Law. In spite of all it’s flaws The Student Syndrome does one thing very well, and that is curb Parkinson’s Law. When we only allocate the least amount of time possible to a task then we can’t be afraid of that task taking all of our time. So you’d think this is an apology for procrastination, but it is not, because even though this could be a way for procrastinators to rationalize their ways it is also true that we can limit Parkinson’s Law on our own. Let’s go back to the Law that says that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. It’s a perfectionist’s way of life and most of us can certainly relate to this. While we’ve got time to deliver we won’t stop reviewing, verifying, checking once, twice, thrice and more the work we’ve done. Or we can spend a lot of time previous to starting the work, procrastination 101. We can research again and again, on related topics, on the tools of our trade, on the merchants of said tools, etc. Researching before and reviewing after are not problems on their own, but they are a problem when they get in the way of doing the work. So, what can we do? Well, it’s so easy you will tell me to find a real solution, and that is we can limit the time we allow ourselves to work on the task, that’s it. Do we think it’ll take 4 hours to complete? DeskReadyForWorkWell, then complete it in that much time, after which you’re not allowed to go back to the task under some sort of self imposed penalty. You need to penalize yourself as if you were going over the deadline because if you are lenient you won’t take this seriously. Penalties will only be necessary at first don’t you worry, because you’ll have to limit the time you spend on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. And here’s my best advice of the day for you. In order to be able to limit the time you set for your activities you’ll first have to know what your activities are, what tasks need be done and which are routine activities you already have or want to adopt. What? You say it seems I’m going to talk about a schedule? Well, you’re right. For the worst procrastinators of us a detailed schedule will be necessary if we want to use our times the best we can. I for one have a terrible memory and if I don’t allocate the hours of the day for my different tasks and habits I might skip something. If you’re comfortable with having it all in your head, you don’t drop any ball, and feel good freestyling it, by all means, be my guest, but if you feel anxious, lose focus and track of time, then you should schedule everything. So, that’s it, Parkinson’s Law can make us lazy crazy and give us the impression of accomplishment when we really wasted lots of time if we ignore it’s existence. When we tame it, we can use it to our advantage and let it work for us, just like we do with the law of gravity. Another tool for your tool belt.

Books mentioned in this post

Parkinson’s Law, and Other Studies in Administration

Categories
English Growth Mindset Procrastination

Seeing the future.

Hello readers. I won’t count you today because we are on holidays and maybe you are not here, you’re all on vacation somewhere. So, from the title you might enquire that I have gone metha or something. Nothing further from that, except we are going to talk about VISUALIZATION (in upper case for all you skimmers). Again some might ask “What does visualization have got to do with fighting procrastination?” Glad you asked, and the answer is a lot. When you visualize you are bringing attention to something that is not real. You can visualize about anything, and let’s do a quick exercise right now. Please, if you will, close your eyes and visualize your best friend from elementary school and see him or her, then after a little while open our eyes again. Go ahead, do it, I’ll wait right here. Did you do it? Good. Now, think about how hard that was. It wasn’t, was it? And that’s all there is to it really. You can visualize things that are not right there and that are tucked away in your memory. Now, can you visualize non existing things?Visualization Yes you can, just as easily, as long as you don’t try to cram too many details all at once. You have to let your mind build the visualization on the fly. So, you may ask now what does this have to do with procrastination? Good question, and the answer is better. You see, when you visualize you are creating the subject of your visualization. No, I’m not talking about the law of attraction or something like that. What I mean is that the image you are creating in your brain is pretty real, in your brain, so you might as well use it like that. So, for our purpose of procrastination let’s put it to the test. Let’s say you have a pending task that you are dreading, finishing a report for instance, and you need some data for that, and the only person who can give your this data is someone you can’t really stand. I can see it right now, you are dreading doing the report because you are dreading getting the data. You procrastinate, and then some more. Making matters worse you know you are procrastinating, which makes you anxious, and then more anxiety comes from you imagining the dreadful encounter. You are visualizing the encounter and materializing in your brain over and over and over and you get the point, right? No? Let me explain. By postponing the dreadful task you are suffering much more than by executing the dreadful task, how crazy is that? Now that we know a little bit what is happening we can do something about it. The first option is the “band aid method” that it minimizes the suffering by going at it fast and in one single motion. That’s the best option if the fear is not paralyzing. The second option is the “Nike method” and “just do it”, similar to the first but here the speed is not in the process but in going at it as soon as you know you have to do something unpleasant, go get it done and relax after that, you’re done. Again, pretty good advice, minimizes suffering by not allowing you to suffer except for the task itself. This two advices are pretty good, when you’re not paralyzed by fear. The last advice is a little more complicated and here is where visualization comes in. You are paralyzed by fear, you are dreading the task as much as a condemned man dreads the gallows. What you can do is start visualizing what it will be like after you’ve done what you dread, how it’s all OK now and how much better it is now that you’ve done this. Visualize it again and again. Even if you know this is pretty unlikely, visualize it, you won’t “make it happen” but your brain will be better prepared for it, and your fear will subside. When your fear subsides enough that you can move then you can “Nike” it and “band-aid” it and then you’ll be done. This has helped me recently on number of occasions when I needed it. I hope you can benefit from this little technique, if so, or not, leave a comment and tell me what has helped you fight your procrastination when you dread the task so much you’d rather book an appointment with the dentist.

Categories
English Growth Procrastination

What kind of procrastinator are you?

Hello my triad. Read the title of this week’s post again. Right, now, you might say “hey, wait a minute, I am not a procrastinator” to what I’d have to answer “Baloney”. If you are not then I need to CAPTCHA this site and fend off machine readers because, if you’re human, you’re a procrastinator. So, we’ll talk about different kinds of procrastinators and you’ll be able to identify yourself. It’ll be a fun experience in self exploration, you’ll see. I’m in no way saying this classification is final, if you google “different kinds of procrastinator” which I did, Google’s a procrastinator’s best friend, you find that there are many posts like this one, some even better, and that they don’t have the same numbers. So I’m going to use a simple one, and then on future posts we’ll be able to elaborate. The simplest classification would be a couple, but that’s not going to cut it this time, so we’ll go with a triad, hey, just as many as my readers, maybe there one of each in here. So, the three types of procrastinators very different amongst them, the reason they procrastinate is not the same and the things they procrastinate on are not the same either.Napping The first one we can remember, and that’s the person who suffers from the “student’s syndrome” and is proud of it. We’ve all been students here, some for a longer time others not that long ago but we’ve all been there and done that. The majority of students tend to put off work to the last possible moment, for instance, if an essay is given now, just before the new year’s break, and it’s due on, let’s say the third week of February you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery than having half of the class start the work on the week that they come back from the break. “What’s the rush” they might say, “I need to do more research” might be another “reason” that’s a rationalization and not a reason. But hey, let’s be fair, not only students suffer from this, if that was the case then they wouldn’t be so long lines and online jams on tax return season, or other mandatory tasks that governments and organizations make us do. And most of them are easy to do, but yet they’re put off to the last minute. So, why do we do this to ourselves? Well, some research combines two reasons. Our lack of vision and our like of cortisol and adrenaline. Our lack of vision makes us think that a certain task will take less time and will not be plagued by interruptions and accidents. When we estimate the time a task will take to be finished we remember how much a similar task took. The problem is our memory isn’t flawless and we tend to make good things bigger and minimize bad things. This is nice and leads to a healthier life, but it’s awful as a measuring stick to do a benchmark on. Compound that with the fact that we also tend to forget that Murphy exists, and all hell breaks loose. Now we have less time to do our task, we must decide how to do “the impossible” and that’s where the second reason kicks in. With the stress we caused our bodies and the fear that’s starting to materialize the hormones start rushing on our system. We feel cortisol but also adrenaline levels rise and we get a rush out of it. We feel that rush and we work nonstop to finish the assignment, the project, a report. Lucky for most we can turn in a good enough work, and we feel happy about our heroics, but we know it wasn’t our best effort, but hey, under the circumstances, in the end, we pulled it off on such a short amount of time. We put ourselves into an ego boosting trip. If the work is good then we are ecstatic for the amazing job we did, if the work is not good enough we find tons of excuses of why that was, most of them have to do with not having enough time or being hit by Murphy when we know it was us who decided to start working much later. There you have it. The first kind of procrastinator, the student. I know I behave like this sometimes, much less now than when I was an actual student. Do you remember when you acted like this? Leave a comment if you’d like to share with us.