Procrastination, the "Unschedule," and re-learning how to walk
Submitted by Merlin on October 4, 2007 - 6:24am.
How to Unschedule your work and enjoy guilt-free play
Chanpory, over at LifeClever, has a useful piece on what Neil Fiore calls “The Unschedule:”
According to Neil Fiore and 30 years of research, procrastination isn’t the result of laziness. Rather, procrastination is a symptom, a way of coping with deep psychological self-criticism and fear. It’s because we’re taught to believe that working is good and playing is bad. To reverse this unhealthy model, Neil proposes a tool: the Unschedule.
The Unschedule looks like a normal schedule, but with a twist. Instead of scheduling work you have to do, you fill in everything you want to do.
Like a couple of the exercises in Fiore’s book (Oy, vey, who actually keeps a “procrastination diary?”), I think the Unschedule is best seen as a fascinating way to think about thinking.
The Now Habit
by Neil Fiore
by Neil Fiore
For me, though, stuff like a procrastination dash is where it’s at for actually getting things accomplished. Although I’m the last person in the world to begrudge anyone a brain trick that works for them, I think I’ve become pickier about any kind of metawork where the ramp-up and prep time overshadows the time devoted to pure action.
That said, I can’t think of a better book to pick up whenever you feel like you just can’t work – that you’re so mired in your own sick failure that it seems pointless to even try. If you’ve gotten to that point, you may find, as I often do, that reading a few pages of The Now Habit is just the tonic. And, if that’s not enough? Heck. I guess I can see making an Unschedule. But, for one day, and just to get back on track.
Crutches are awesome, but only as long as you use them to walk – not just to afford the process of thinking about walking.
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Hey Merlin thanks for the book recommendation!
I saw Merlin at the NYC OmniFocus panel, and asked him for a book recommendation, and he kindly recommended The Now Habit. I read it, and though I can’t say I’m scheduling “play time,” I’ve been keeping a log in iCal for 6 days. As Fiore promised, my stress level is dropping, despite this being a particularly traumatic week work-wise.
It’s a lot of benefit for nearly zero effort. I have to track my billable hours anyway, so all I do is fill in the blank spaces in my new calendar group (“Log”) with other colors.
Beyond stress relief, I’m now “batching” work into time blocks and stay on point for more reasonable periods of time. If the habits I’m learning in this exercise stick, I can see myself having more stress-free fun and making more money.