You Said Tomorrow Yesterday
Procrastination-based happiness is temporary.
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” Mark Twain
Twain is hilarious. When you think about doing something you’d rather not, the areas of your brain associated with pain are activated. Your brain naturally tries to shut off this negative stimulation by redirecting your attention towards other, more pleasant things. This pain response is the insidious driving force behind procrastination:
- You feel unease after observing or thinking about something you don’t want to do.
- You try to counteract the negative sensation by shifting your attention.
- You feel happier because of this.
However, procrastination-based happiness is temporary. Research tells us that the ‘neuro-discomfort’ associated with something you’d rather not do starts to fade away not long after you start working on what you initially were averse to doing.
A popular productivity tool used to help counter procrastination is the Pomodoro Technique, developed in the late 1980s. The method…
