Dan Ariely on Procrastination
I just listened to the Predictably Irrational audiobook and it was fantastic. I plan on listening to another Dan Ariely audiobook soon. The straightforward approach Dan takes to simple, yet mind-bending topics such as the decoy effect, anchor prices, and social norms vs market norms is fascinating.
The section of the book that I found most relevant to my experience as a designer centers around procrastination. Design can be so challenging. There is a fine line to walk between waiting for inspiration to strike and the fear of creating something that fails. So, how should we break out from our fears and our overly lengthy process? Well, according to Ariely, it’s simple. This is all about self-control and our fixation on immediate gratification. Now, you’re probably aware of that on some level already. Most of us can understand that there is an ever-present internal struggle between what’s beneficial for us in the long-term and what satisfies in the moment. What we need to keep in mind is that the procrastination is at the expense of what we truly want.
“Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination.”
Ariely describes in great detail an experiment where students at MIT were able to choose their own deadlines for papers. There were control groups and many variations of the experiment. Even though it makes logical sense to give yourself as much time as possible and have the due date be the last day of class for all three papers, the highest grades were achieved by those who spaced the work out over the semester in order to prevent being rushed and overwhelmed at the end of the class.
“Interestingly, these results suggest that although almost everyone has problems with procrastination, those who recognize and admit their weakness are in a better position to utilize available tools for pre-commitment, and by doing so, help themselves overcome it.”
So, the way to beat this is what Ariely calls pre-commitment. If you lock yourself in, then you will hold yourself accountable to something. Instead of telling yourself something like, “I will finish this onboarding flow by the end of the week,” you need to break down your goals on a daily basis. Finishing the overall task by the end of the week is the same as saving all the work for the end of the semester. Breaking the big goal down into smaller, manageable goals, is similar to spreading the work out over the semester.
The main challenge here is self-control and holding yourself accountable. Remember, don’t sacrifice your long-term goals for immediate gratification. However, if you love what you’re designing, then there should be some level of immediate gratification. So, find the aspects of design that excite you the most, and work on those. In that way, you will develop daily goals that work towards your larger project goals. All of this will hopefully help you on your way to your long-term goals.
Ariely mentions using available tools to succeed at establishing your pre-commitment. Apps and products to help with efficiency and goals are legion. The one I like the most is an app called ‘One Big Thing’ by Nick Burka. It’s great because it keeps things as simple as a post-it. There’s one big task to get done each day with three smaller supporting tasks. Sadly, this app is only available in the Apple App Store, so for Android folks like me, we are left with Google Tasks as the best option. It’s simple, but not as simple as Nick’s app.
Take Ariely’s advice. But yourself in a better position to combat the natural tendency to procrastinate by finding the right tool for you to establish pre-commitment. And I’d highly recommend reading Predictably Irrational.
Also, I first heard about Predictably Irrational on “The Worst People We Know”, a podcast cohosted by a friend of mine that you should check out if you like listening to a few guys debate both the absurdity and brilliance of business and technology.