“Get it
down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything
really good.” (William Faulkner)
It doesn’t
feel good, right? The guilt, the self-contempt, when you are replying
non-urgent emails, perfecting powerpoints, checking online news, while knowing
well that you have this impending deadline for an important project you haven’t
even started. Despite all the grand excuses, you knew what this is all about
and loath yourself for not being a better person, because procrastination is
ascribed to the dread of hard work.
Well, don’t
be so harsh on yourself. Indolence may not be the true story. More than often,
what you are afraid of is the failure to pass an unrealistic criterion. For
example, you have a deadline for a grant, and your goal is to write a top-notch
proposal that will get you funded the first time and eventually secure your
tenure. Then no wonder you keep putting it off, because you’ve made the task unnecessarily
difficult. To accomplish that goal, the proposal will have to be exquisitely
crafted, let alone the science part. The story needs to hold interest; every
sentence has to be punchy or precise or informative. With that goal in mind, you
see the sweat, the struggle waiting ahead, but above all, the frustration of
not meeting your standard despite all the effort.
Some people
say, “Deadlines are the most effective cure for procrastination.” Effective,
maybe, but not a good cure, because it takes time to produce quality work. A
common myth about deadlines is that, as long as you finish the project by that
time, it makes no difference when you do it. The truth is, the sooner you start
working on something, the better. If you wait until you are left with just
enough time to finish it, chances are that adverse situations will pop up,
demanding time and attention. An unexpected visitor, a sick family member, car breaking
on the street. Worse than those, your computer got a virus. You’d be ill-tempered
and resentful since you have reserved all the time till the deadline for the
project. The longer the waiting, the higher the risk. You swear that next time
you’ll start earlier. No use. Similar scenarios will reoccur unless you change the
habit. How about setting up an early deadline by yourself, the so-called soft
deadline? Tell yourself that the deadline is a week before the official date. Try
it, if you haven’t. Never worked for me.
Timing
matters especially when the project involves other people. You know you will do
it, eventually, but they don’t. Until you have handed them the final product,
they’ll be constantly worried about whether you’ll make it. So, ask
yourself two questions: do you have to do this, sooner or later? If you do,
will finishing it sooner make others’ life easier? If yes, why wait, unless
there are more important tasks on your list? This is not to say we should
always treat other people’s requests with higher priorities. Do things in the
order determined by their values and urgencies. There are circumstances in
which we need to purposely delay certain duties. There are times we have to act
at the last minute. But overall, try not to adopt a management style that’s
deadline-driven.
Some people
say, “The best way to prevent procrastination is to get yourself excited about
what you have to do.” That would be nice, but how? We enjoy doing something
only after we have started it, and the biggest problem with procrastination is
that we keep fooling ourselves that we don’t have to deal with it now. “It is
not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not
dare that they are difficult.” (Seneca, 3 BC - 65 AD).
Always on
alert for excuses you find for postponing a demanding task. In fact, fulfilling
other people’s requests promptly, getting minor jobs done as soon as possible,
those legitimate duties might just be your excuses. This type of disguised
procrastination is harder to overcome because you appear to be justified. “I
have to take care of these things eventually. I’m dealing with them now so that
later I can concentrate on the big one.” Well, we sometimes overestimate our
capacities. What if we only have half of the time that’s needed? Priorities!
Always keep that in mind. If something is important to you, it shouldn’t be the
one that gets sacrificed. It deserves your attention immediately.
We have all
watched this scene in movies: a man or woman sitting at a desk and writing on a
blank paper. After a few seconds, he or she crumples the paper and throws it
into the nearby basket. More paper, and eventually a full basket. Now with
computers we waste less paper---and reduce the pollution, thank goodness---but we can still waste our time. A whole afternoon is
spent working on the first few sentences of an article, typing and revising and
erasing. It’s good that we treat the job seriously, but as mentioned above, a
high standard only matters for the end result. To get things going, you
sometimes have to put up with all the “garbage” in the midst of the progress.
Hemingway
said, “The first draft of everything is shit.” I found two implications in this
simple quote. First, you are allowed to write an awful first draft. Ask
yourself, would you rather have a bad first draft, or no draft at all? To get
your ideas straight on the paper, you must refrain from paying attention to rhetoric,
because dwelling on word choices and sentence structures may break the flow of
your thought. The second advice is that you should never be content with the
first draft. Note that this isn’t said by me, a non-native speaker who learned
most of her idioms through Googling. Even Hemingway had to revise. Do we write better
than him? For example, the article you are reading now has been revised three
times. I know, scientific writing is boring; once you have completed the first
draft, you can’t wait to put it aside and go on to start something else. Just
keep this in mind: if you the author don’t enjoy what you have written, nor
will anyone else. This is the time to bring back your high standard. However,
if you want to revise and find no time left due to procrastination, that’s
another thing.
So my solution
is, lower the standard, at least for now. Make it easy enough so it no longer
appears to be a daunting task. For example, tell yourself that you will write a
proposal that is unlikely to get you funded this time, but will inform you of
how your peers think about the project, and may provide you with better ideas
on presenting the science or organizing the application, so that in the next
round you’ll have a higher chance. Once the pressure has been lifted, you are
more likely to hit the road. That’s why I put Faulkner’s quote at the
beginning. “Get it down.” Forget about grammar or wording or sentence
structures. No one but you will read the first draft. Write it as clumsily and
stupidly as you wish. What matters for now is getting it done early, and then we’ll
think about how to make improvements. Note that lowering the standard doesn’t
mean you’ll end up with an inferior product.
In fact, your chance of being funded will only increase if you have
enough time to make revisions and seek critiques.
The larger the project, the stronger your resistance. So the
trick is to divide it into small workloads, especially for the first few days, and
take one step a time. “Today my goal is to write one paragraph. Then I’m done,
and I can enjoy the rest of the day without guilt.” Do that for a few days. If
on a particular day you are bombarded, write one sentence at least. Don’t worry
about being slow. The key is to establish a routine and get your mind into the
mood. We can get used to almost anything we do on a regular basis. If you find
yourself pondering on the project when you are not working on it, that’s a good
sign. Once the project is coming into shape, however primitive, it’ll no longer
appear intimidating and you may finish the rest in one shot. Here is one of my
favorite quotes, though not entirely relevant to our topic: “Writing a novel is
like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but
you can make the whole trip that way.” (E.L. Doctorow)
Last, a
warning. While you are self-disciplining, think carefully before you decide to
make a commitment. Is it really worth the effort? How likely will your project
pay off? Or course, we can never predict the outcome. Didn’t Faulkner say “take
chances”? But if you have tried all the tricks and still can’t get yourself
started, or you’re working on it but the progress drags, then it could be an
indication that you shouldn’t be doing it at all. For example, you saw an
attractive funding announcement that doesn’t quite fit your expertise.
“Wouldn’t hurt to give it a try,” you may say, while trying your best to make
the connection. But think about it. If you the investigator aren’t confident,
is it likely to convince other people that your idea deserves their money?
Might as well save the time for something more productive, such as finishing
the next manuscript.
