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Procrastination
AllbuddhaBound
Veteran
One of my most trying faults. Could someone give me some ideas how I might deal with this issue in a Buddhist way?
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Comments
It creates problems in my life. Problems not only for me, but for people around me.
I do, mostly breath counting. I am not accomplished at meditation though. I have a lot to learn.
The word itself just indicates you are delaying something. Procrastination, in my opinion, is a symptom, a way of coping with unpleasant situations (bear in mind that its just a personal opinion). It can be caused by many individual factors, too many to have a simple solution.
If you are student that procrastinates, for example, the cause might be just poor reading skills or even a sight problem you are unaware of. If you procrastinate on a diet the cause will obviously be different.
Buddhism can't point a single, unique, cause for procrastination. Actually delving into Buddhist might be part of a procrastination habit, so can over-organizing, over-thinking etc.
Try to think of what is you are trying to avoid, why are you avoid that task, what do you feel while you are doing it, whether or not you are asking too much of yourself. In other words, be mindful.
You don't have to absolutely eliminate other thoughts and focus on the present, that would probably be pushing too hard. Just take note of what is going on inside your head and with your body.
In you present situation you are trading the accomplishment of a task for guilt and perhaps anxiety. What could be so bad that you rather feel guilty and anxious instead of doing it?
~nomad
I'm late to this discussion.
Your subject and question is one that concerns me as well, and I've given it some thought over the past few years.
I think meditation practice: mindfulness practice can be helpful in dealing with procrastination. Very often I find that I procrastinate automatically, there's no decision involved, I don't intend to, my mind just wanders and I don't know where the time goes as I flit from one thing to the next.
Mindfulness meditation trains me to watch what is going on while it's going on. I meditate and try and remain aware of this moment. Because of this training I am just a little more mindful of what I am doing throughout the day. I become just a little more present in the moment, not just following whatever thought floats through my mind.
Because I can see just a little more what is going on in my thinking, I have just a little more choice.
I've been seeing enough improvement here (believe me, it's slow) that I know I'm going in the right direction.
Tashi Delek,
Namkha
I think Thich Nhat Hanh's book The Miracle of Mindfulness is a wonderful resource for this practice.
For instance, I learned that one reason that I procrastinate is because I often feel overwhelmed with the idea of doing something I really don't want to do, perhaps because it is under stimulating.
But, I also learned that, if I start doing the thing I didn't want to do in really small bites, like 10 minutes only, once I started it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It had more to do with inertia.
Not getting started can just be bad habit; the reason I didn't want to do something is usually not the original reason I thought it was.
It is important that you keep your promise to yourself, and only do the 10 minutes, or next time you won’t believe you. Lots of things get done in small pieces and often more enjoyably.
S9
.
One phrase from the book rang especially true for me: "Magic Time." When I'm putting off getting ready to go out, for instance...and putting it off...and putting it off...I seem to believe that somehow, someway, if I really, really hurry, I'll be able to get myself out the door in ten minutes. I KNOW it takes me at least half-an-hour, under the best of circumstances. That's running on "magic time." I seem to function in magic time quite a lot.
As for the "Buddhist" approach to the problem...
Well, let's face it, Buddhists aren't the most punctual types, are we? We know the world won't grind to a halt if we're a couple minutes late. On the other hand, we are also sensitive enough to the lives of others that we don't want to cause undo suffering, right? So what would Buddha do?
I don't have a clue. Maybe I'll finish this later...
procrastination with the time of others = bad manners.
A Buddhist way of doing things, I believe, would be very practical, or include a solution orientated way of doing things. Isn’t that why we examine our lives so closely, in order to get the lay of the land, or mediate in order to examine our mind and her thoughts?
Time is a difficult thing to control. When we are doing something we enjoy, it literally flies by. When we are doing something we don’t enjoy, it seems to drag on forever. That is not to mention that, it is so dog gone easy to loose tack of. Look at all those people looking away to dial their phones, while driving.
I try to trick time. When I get ready for something, like dressing to go out, I allow more time than I need, and get dressed first. I promise myself that if I am ready to leave faster than I thought, then I can read a tiny bit. It always seems to take longer to get ready than we think, so my advise is to double the time you think you will need.
When meeting someone at an appointed time, I always try to get there a tiny bit early. If a have a minute to relax while waiting, it isn’t the worst thing that ever happened to me.
Lets face it, we are all just big kids, and now we are also our own adult, who is managing our kid.
S9
Discipline = Surrender
Procrastination/Discipline = Engagement
Now vs. Then = This Because of That
Laboris Ut Ororum = Work as Prayer
I’m not sure that you can do anything that isn’t altered by your intention. For instance, discipline is not surrender when you force it, is it?
S9
Could you explain that to me?