Motivation vs Procrastination

Manchmal frage ich mich, ob ich ohne diese Prokrastinationsspiralen produktiver wäre. Erfolgreicher. Ausgeglichener. Oder ob gerade dieses Hadern, dieses ewige Ringen mit mir selbst, nicht auch eine Form von Qualitätskontrolle ist. Ob nicht gerade die Deadline – dieser Sonnenuntergang der Arbeitswelt – eine Art kreatives Momentum erzeugt, das

To-Do List as a Menu

📝 If you feel overwhelmed by your to-do list, try a new perspective:

• 🍔 Treat your to-do list like a menu. Instead of a list of chores you must complete, see it as a menu of options you get to choose from.


• 🤔 Acknowledge that you won't finish everything. This is a key part of shifting your mindset from overwhelmed to empowered.


• ✅

The limitations we’re trying to avoid when we engage in this self-defeating sort of procrastination frequently don’t have anything to do with how much we’ll be able to get done in the time available; usually, it’s a matter of worrying that we won’t have the talent to produce work of sufficient quality, or that others won’t respond to it as we’d

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by

When a person fails to begin a project that they care about, it’s typically due to either a) anxiety about their attempts not being “good enough” or b) confusion about what the first steps of the task are. Not laziness. In fact, procrastination is more likely when the task is meaningful and the individual cares about doing it well.

Dieser Text hätte vor knapp zwei Jahren erscheinen sollen. Zeit genug hatte ich, aber das ist das Problem mit genug Zeit: Man hat sie auch noch am nächsten Tag. Und dann kommt das Leben dazwischen, der beste Freund im Krankenhaus, der Bruder wird Vater, und die besten Saugroboter googeln sich nicht von alleine.

Deadlines really help human beings get things done. The only way that I've written books is because I set myself a challenging, but not impossible, schedule with the publisher. This contract of external accountability keeps the fire going through the long slog, and it forces me to make clear-cut decisions about what to include, what to leave out,

As fellow teacher Stephanie Nash is fond of saying, “A good meditation is one you did—the only bad meditation is one you didn’t do.” Take her wise advice to heart.