Mark Taw on Procrastination

Mark Taw has written a terrific article about procrastination that gets to the core problems that cause people to get derailed, distracted, and off-target. From low blood sugar through Skinnerian reward hacking, Mark unpacks the range of real-world problems most of us face in trying to attach ourselves to our work as well as find and maintain flow.

Although I’ve never seen Nanny 911 it sounds like a good metaphor for the occasional need to hide our treats and remove the shiny objects at the edges of peripheral vision.

Where in your life are you randomly reinforcing negative behaviors? Where do you need tough love?

So what do these nannies do to turn around all this negative behavior? They take away all the rewards. When the rewards are always available, there’s no need to do the work. They take away television privileges, and make the kids and parents go cold turkey with any negative habits they may have (like pacifiers).

Procrastination is the reward for not doing work.

Don’t miss this piece (as well as your accompanying new home page). Smart, thoughtful stuff.