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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Unschedule = 'Productivity Scaffold'
I don’t know if he’s the originator of this term, but Steve Pavlina has a great handle for tricks like the unschedule - he calls them ‘Productivity Scaffolds’. Temporary supports to help you get back on track.
His blog post (linked to at the bottom of this comment) uses a morning and evening routine as an example, and it didn’t occur to me before that an unschedule is another good one.
I don’t think the idea of the scaffold being temporary/transitory is mentioned by Fiore in his otherwise great read, so it’s cool to see it addressed on 43f.
Link.