How to Beat Procrastination
Tags: Stoic Phiosophy, Procrastination, Stoicism, Philosophy, Productivity

“Concentrate every minute like a Roman — like a man — on doing what’s in front of you,” Marcus Aurelius noted, “with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can,” he said, “if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you.”

Procrastination is nothing new, people have been suffering from this disease since the dawn of humanity.

We know we need to get things done, that procrastination is bad, that we need to stop procrastinating. But we don’t.

We procrastinate because what we need to do is not interesting enough. Or we lack motivation. Either way, Stoic principles can guide us.

The ancient Stoics were philosophers, writers, orators, teachers, scientists, generals, soldiers, emperors. They did not do anything because of someone else’s opinion or fear. They did what they did because they chose to do it. Following their example, you need to find out what you love to do and do it.

If you do what you love, you are less likely to procrastinate than if you do what you don’t love just because someone else told you to do it.

Or we procrastinate because we feel that a task is too big, because it will take a lot of time and efforts. In this case, divide the task into small parts and execute them one by one. Take small steps. Do one thing at a time. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it.” Earl Nightingale said. “The time will pass anyway.”

Or you might be procrastinating because you think you cannot do it. You fear you might fail. A Stoic never abandons a task because he might fail! A Stoic does what needs to be done no matter how hard and impossible it may seem. A Stoic, as Seneca observed, prefers lack of success rather than lack of faith.

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman emperor, reminded himself to do the right thing — no matter how difficult it may be — over and over in Meditaions. “Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; And if it is humanly possible,” he wrote, “consider it to be within your reach.”

Many great people — Stoics or otherwise —advice that the most important task should be the first thing you do everyday. You can benefit from this advice too. When you do the most important thing before anything else, you will feel more motivated and inspired to accomplish the rest of the tasks. You would have already climbed the biggest mountain for the day.

Find out what you would like to do the most. Divide big tasks into small tasks. Do one thing at a time — focus on the task at hand, as Marcus Aurelius put it. And finally, don’t give up on something because of the time it will take or because it seems impossible. And remember these wise words of Seneca:

Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.

Until Next Time,

Pooran