spinning wheels
My definition for procrastination: doing something that feels productive, but isn’t actually productive.
I tend to procrastinate a lot. But most of the time, I don’t even realise I’m procrastinating. And I waste a lot of time because of it.
In order to get a handle of my procrastination problem, I’ve started tracking it in my calendar. I’ve named it: spinning wheels
It’s very fitting in my opinion. When I’m procrastinating, I imagine myself as a car spinning its wheels, doing a burnout, with smoke everywhere. But despite the energy used, I still remain stationary.
I feel the same when I realise I’m procrastinating.
For me, spinning wheels activates include:
- reading blogs online
- watching youtube videos
- refreshing email
- replying people on whatsapp
- replying people on linkedin
- ‘researching’ topics before I do them
Just the act of tracking my procrastination time makes me procrastinate less. I don’t need to make a 2-page document on how to create the perfect plan to overcome my procrastination. I just track it.
Hope this helps.
This idea was inspired by one of Paul Graham’s blog posts
