How can we stop procrastinating? I'm sure there are a thousand magical ways people will suggest, but in reality, there's only one way: get off your butt and do some incredible thing right now.
It sucks, and it's wonderful, and it's true. Now stop reading, go away, do some incredible thing, and don't come back until you have!
…I'll wait…
Did you do it? You say you need one of those thousand magical tricks? Well, none of them will make anything happen, sadly; however, many of them can make it easier and more appealing to "get off your butt and do some incredible thing right now." And decluttering is one of them!
Why Clutter = Procrastination
There was a noticable lack of procrastination in my life while I actively purged things out of my life at a record level. I still sat around now and then, but each step of the way, I noticed that procrastination was less and less appealing to me.
Why? In many ways, clutter seems to equal procrastination. One of the reasons is because the procrastination game is all about context switching. And clutter breeds context switching like dandelions breed…more dandelions.
So What Is Context Switching? And Why Does It Suck So Much?
Context switching is multitasking; it's dabbling; it's doing a little here, then a little there, then getting bored and doing a little over yonder. When I procrastinate, I'm "doing" things, but I hop from one thing to the next.
A day of procrastination for me looks like this: I'll sit down at my piano, play a few old songs, but not practice anything new; then I'll open a book, scan through a favorite poem or two, get "inspired" to write, sit at my computer with my text editor open, maybe type a thing or two, delete it, watch a few Youtube videos, etc.
Procrastination is "doing things," but it's a cluttered, unfocused doing. It's more similar to web-surfing through life than sitting down and reading a novel. And…nothing gets accomplished.
This is the worst type of procrastination because you aren't producing anything, but you aren't letting yourself rest either.
So How Does Decluttering Help?
Clutter is just temptation to context switch. Whether it's mental, physical, or digital clutter, if you're surrounded by junk, you'll be more likely to get distracted by it.
Clear out that clutter, push the junk out of your life, and surround yourself with things that are meaningful and important to you.
If you have one important project to do, but have five other trivial time-suckers sitting on your desk, how focused can you be? But if clutter to mess around with isn't easily accessible, then you'll have to actively seek it out in order to procrastinate, and that's work you don't want to do when you're feeling lazy!
When you surround yourself only with things that are important, you'll "procrastinate" with those, and you'll do incredible things.
What Incredible Things Can You Do?
It doesn't have to be earth shattering and news-worthy…just meaningful. Here're the incredible things I'm doing tonight before I go to bed:
- writing this article
- taking a walk
- cleaning up my room
- sitting down, coming up with, and writing down three goals I want to accomplish this week
- writing a love letter
- continuing to study for my upcoming math test
Now go do some of your own incredible things!
<3
] chloe [
