This is how you break the cycle of annoying procrastination | Work

I got two unwanted presents this week. Of my Self from the Past, yes. One of them was an appointment that I saw absolutely no possibility for last spring. I had asked the person in question to contact me again in the autumn, ‘because then I would have some more time’. The other: an extra job that I didn’t feel like two months ago, and which I therefore stuck myself with in the future. Anyway, that future turned out to be this week.

Future me problemsYou call that: problems that you saddle your Future Self with not to have to deal with now. It is an excellent short term strategy. After all, your Current Self has gotten rid of it, and only has to think about it again when the time is right. Anyway, your Self in the Present is of course always a Future I from the Past. And once that future has arrived, your Self from the Past can no longer be held accountable for that irritating procrastination. Then you’ll be fine with it in the present.

Additional problem: your Self in the Future always seems to be able to handle a little more than your Self in the Present. At least for me it is: in the present I sometimes don’t feel like it, I can’t concentrate or I don’t have my day. But Future Thijs, that’s a guy! He can always concentrate, has plenty of energy and time, is always cheerful and can really do anything. I have such confidence in my Future Self that I give him some extra work with ease. But what turns out when the time comes: my Future Self looks suspiciously like my Present Self…

Hence my decision: I’m going to stop burdening my Future Self with all kinds of tasks that I can’t find the time for right now. If it does not fit into the planning in the Present, I will no longer assume from now on that it will magically be the case in the Future. An appointment I don’t have time for right now: don’t postpone, but cancel. In this way I protect my Future Self from unwanted gifts from the past. Very nice, for Thijs in de Toekomst.

Thijs Launspach is a psychologist and stress expert. He is the author of, among others, You are already enough – Mentally healthy in a disturbed world (2022), Werk can also uit (2020) and Fokking Druk (2018).