I spoke to Andrew Santella, creator of Quickly: An Overdue Historical past of Procrastination, from Leonardo and Darwin to You and Me, about why we procrastinate, how expertise has made us procrastinate extra, what he discovered concerning the matter from his interviews, how leaders can stop procrastination and his greatest profession recommendation.
Santella has written for such publications as GQ, the New York Occasions Guide Evaluation, Slate, and the Atlantic.com. He’s the creator of about sixty nonfiction books for youths, most on matters in American historical past. He’s additionally managing editor of Elmhurst Faculty’s Prospect Journal.
Dan Schawbel: Why is there a college tendency to procrastinate? Is procrastination at all times a foul factor?
Andrew Santella: It’s pure to procrastinate as a result of it’s pure to typically be ambivalent and anxious. Once I procrastinate it’s actually because I’m confronted with a problem I’m too fearful to behave on. Or I’ve a option to make, however I’m torn between competing impulses. One of many issues I discovered engaged on the e book was that some birds interact in an identical form of procrastination. Encountering a rival and given the selection to battle or to flee, a chicken would possibly simply stand there and peck on the floor as an alternative. That’s procrastination: All of us typically peck on the floor as an alternative of taking some decisive motion. Clearly, an excessive amount of of that form of task-avoidance generally is a drawback for power procrastinators. However procrastination additionally presents an phantasm of management as we navigate our each day course of obligations and less-than-perfect choices. Which can clarify why some wildly productive individuals additionally transform procrastinators.
Schawbel: Has expertise made us procrastinate extra? If that’s the case, what can we do about it?
Santella: In the event you take into account how typically procrastination pops up in our historic document and in our literature, it’s exhausting guilty the behavior solely on Twitter or Snapchat. St. Augustine was a procrastinator, and so was Hamlet. The traditional Greek poet Hesiod and the 18th century essayist Samuel Johnson each wrote concerning the risks of the behavior. None of them had been on Fb. However our entry to data expertise has unquestionably made it simpler to waste time. If you end up utilizing screens and expertise to keep away from duties, I’d attempt to withstand the temptation guilty your gadgets. As an alternative, ask what it’s about your obligations that makes you wish to put them off.
Schawbel: What did you study procrastination out of your conversations with psychologists, philosophers and monks?
Santella: I had not totally appreciated how a lot analysis and scholarship was being carried out on procrastination, and in what number of totally different disciplines–economics and psychology, biology and neuroscience, training and philosophy. There may be a formidable and rising tutorial literature on procrastination that’s regularly providing new insights into why we put issues off. For instance, some analysis signifies the behavior is expounded to impulsiveness, and like impulsiveness, could also be inheritable. The factor about all this analysis is that it’s form of ironic that procrastination would preserve so many individuals so very busy.
Schawbel: How can leaders keep centered and spend much less time procrastinating?
Santella: Eliminating distractions is a large concern now, which is why there are such a lot of apps and life hacks accessible to deal with that. However that’s nothing new. The French novelist Victor Hugo is alleged to have stored his thoughts on his work by eradicating his garments and stashing them away, thus eliminating any temptation to depart the workplace till his writing was carried out. I don’t suppose that’s a really sensible answer for the fashionable office, although. What makes most sense for me is to be attentive to my procrastination. I attempt to ask myself why I’m procrastinating: What’s it concerning the activity I’m pushing aside that’s so onerous or scary or boring? My procrastination could also be making an attempt to inform me one thing about the way in which I’m dwelling.
Schawbel: What are your prime three items of profession recommendation?
Santella:
- Be affected person. Following your personal path might take longer than doing what everybody else thinks it is best to do. However procrastinators know that delay typically pays off.
- Attempt to resolve issues for the individuals you’re employed with, as an alternative of making issues.
- Be skeptical of any profession recommendation you get, particularly if comes from an creator selling a brand new e book. (Search for my new e book, Quickly, wherever books are offered!!!!)
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