“Constant idleness oppresses, but you still tell
yourself that eternity lies ahead and greet tomorrow
with an empty, meaningless smile”
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Which of two states do you find yourself in most often: a cheerful and uplifted working mood, or a dreary, idle loafing across the vast expanses of the Internet?
Incredible productivity, deep concentration, continuous engagement, and enjoyment of the process. What is this? Reality or just a cherished dream?
In this article, you will learn how to stop meaningless journeys across the Internet and dive headfirst into the work you constantly avoid.
“We Start and End the Workday”
“Nothing tires you out more than idleness”
Karelian Proverb
“Idleness is not rest”
James Fenimore Cooper
How do you start your workday? In our age of abundant, captivating internet services, it’s very hard to begin any other way than by checking email, launching ICQ or Skype, checking new blog comments, or browsing fresh forum messages.
What happens next? Someone sent an interesting link; clicking on it reveals another, no less intriguing one. Simultaneously, we reply to messages on ICQ. A friend sends a link to a funny video on Youtube. We watch the video, answer emails, post on the forum…
During this frantic activity, a sneaky little voice from somewhere deep inside reminds us that we should probably start working. Two hours have flown by, and the work hasn’t even budged!
Hold on, inner voice! Where are you rushing? Why start working right now? The whole day is ahead. We’ll have plenty of time to work. Let me just finish watching this video on Youtube, and then we’ll get to work.
The video is watched. Now let’s have a cup of coffee, and then we’ll definitely start. And so we walk back to our computer with a hot mug, sit down, and decide to check our email one more time while we drink our coffee. No new mail. So we need to read our friends’ feed on LiveJournal, Facebook, or see what’s new on Twitter…
It’s getting dark outside, and the work still isn’t done. Oh well, it’s too late for work now — we feel tired and unfocused. How can anyone work in this state? Tomorrow we’ll definitely finish the monthly report for the boss, create the sales chart, or finally fix that bug on the client’s website.
“A Familiar Situation?”
Me too 🙂 And if you suddenly thought that Ivan Pirog is some mega-motivated and productive person who is now going to teach you a thing or two, that’s not the case. A few years ago, this problem was number one for me. Today, things are much better, but my interest in the subject still hasn’t waned.
So, let’s try to figure this tricky business out together.
So, we’ve found ourselves hopelessly stuck in a web. In the World Wide Web called the Internet, where billions of users flutter like flies, waiting for the treacherous spider.
Will we manage to break free before the big, black, hairy spider catches us? We’ll find out soon.
“The Inertia of the Mind”
Sometimes a person really needs time to rest, which they simply must dedicate to doing nothing. But if this continues day after day, if there’s no end in sight, it means we’ve fallen into the trap of the Mind’s inertia.
What is the inertia of the Mind? For clarity, let’s take a bicycle and flip it upside down. Is it standing steady? Perfect. Because now we’re going to spin the front wheel.
Ready? Let’s go! Spin, spin, spin. Let’s give it a good whirl. Just as well as we daily spin our inner bicycle wheel by reading news, chatting on ICQ, and getting stuck scrolling on VKontakte.
Got up to speed? Then let go. How much longer will it keep spinning? It will spin for a while, gradually slowing down. But no, we go ahead and reply to another message on ICQ, giving it an extra push to keep the wheel turning. Then another push. And another, and another, and another.
We come home from work (or don’t come home, if you’re a freelancer) and keep spinning the wheel. When will the wheel stop? When we realize that we’re the ones keeping it spinning. It will keep spinning until we decide to stop it.
To start working, we need to stop the wheel and spin it in the other direction. And, as soon as we manage to build up a decent speed, we immediately enter a state of “flow.”
Ah, easier said than done! Because the mere thought of work makes us feel sick. Ugh, how nasty it is, this work. Like a bitter pill. God, how unpleasant and boring it will be to do it. I don’t want to. I won’t!
And here we fall into a second mental trap — into the illusion that work will be unpleasant, compared to what we’re doing right now.
“The Illusion of Unpleasant Work”
“Laziness makes every task difficult”
B. Franklin
The illusion of unpleasant work comes in different forms. It could be a fear of disappointment: you start doing the work, nothing works out, and bitter disappointment sets in. It could be a feeling of coercion: you start the work and feel oppressed and forced. It could be anticipated boredom, unbearability, monotony, or an inability to concentrate.
One way or another, the illusion of unpleasant work (IUW) tries to warn us that as soon as we get down to business, we’ll immediately start experiencing negative emotions.
The Illusion of Unpleasant Work (IUW) is our sneaky and evil enemy!
Where does IUW come from? The roots of this illusion go back to childhood. For example, during school years when we were forced to sit at a desk for hours or were forbidden to go out until homework was done. Partly it’s also parental upbringing based on forcing us to work with inevitable negative emotions that left their mark. There are countless reasons.
In any case, the illusion remains just that — an illusion. The wheel is spinning, and it seems to us that trying to stop it by grabbing the tire with our hand will cause pain. But it’s not true. If we muster the courage and hit “stop,” everything turns out to be much simpler than it seemed.
If you’re still afraid to stop the wheel with your hand, then I’ve prepared special protective gloves just for you, which I’ll tell you about in the continuation of this article. And for now…
“Example from the Author’s Personal Experience”
“We hate even the taste of work,
But we love thinking about success!”
Black Obelisk
For three months straight, I didn’t write a single thing in my blog. It was awful. I simply couldn’t make myself do it! When I thought about having to write, a numbness would wash over me. It felt like the creative process was inevitably going to be agonizing. I was sure I’d have to overcome incredible resistance and that the work wouldn’t bring any joy.
Naturally, by that point, my internal wheel had already picked up a threatening momentum of laziness. I was just afraid to stop it, because stopping would surely bring on all the most terrible torments of creativity.
Of course, I could have worked through my psychological issue using the most effective methods available today. But I deliberately chose not to, waiting for some kind of insight, some moment of truth.
And then, the moment of truth arrived. And the solution turned out to be ridiculously simple. It boiled down to one phrase, as old as the hills: “Just do it.”
“I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time. There is no secret ingredient…” (c) Kung Fu Panda
First, I became aware of my inertia, which is sustained by an internal mechanism called homeostasis in science. On a subconscious level, homeostasis keeps all our beliefs, worldview perspectives, our map of reality, as well as all our mental and behavioral habits stable. That very wheel we were talking about.
So I decided to stop the inertia and redirect it into another channel — into work. At the same time, I dared to test the strength of my fears. Would they really become real once the work started? Honestly, I was genuinely scared. What if they turned out to be not unfounded?
When I made the decision to act, I first just stopped messing around. I spent another half hour pacing back and forth, listening to my inner self-sabotage and reassuring myself that everything would be okay.
Finally, I took a deep breath in and out, picked up my laptop, closed all unnecessary programs, turned off the WiFi, and launched the text editor. Seeing the blank page, I felt a slight discomfort inside, but nothing fatal was happening yet. Then I started a 15-minute timer and quickly began jotting down a plan for the article. When the plan was finished, I just as unthinkingly wrote down everything that came to mind.
Suddenly, the timer went off — 15 minutes had passed. Was I in a state of “flow” at that moment? No. The blissful state of inspiration and “flow” came in the next half hour of working on the text. Until then, I wasn’t confident the text would turn out good. But my fears also didn’t come true, which was a relief. It was a bit unpleasant to overcome the inertia, but nothing more.
“So how did it all end?”
It ended with the work absorbing me so completely after just about an hour and a half that the world around me ceased to exist. I was listening to my favorite music, writing a new article, and now it was very hard for me to switch to anything else. For example, to open Skype or check my email.
Now the wheel was spinning in the other direction at a terrifying speed. Now every new sentence for the article pushed it again and again, maintaining the rapid rotation. I sat there, writing the text, and periodically scolded myself for wasting a whole three months!
When I began to overcome the inertia of the Mind, the clock hands showed midnight. By the time I finished the text and posted it on the site, the sun had already passed noon. It was truly hard for me to stop and go to sleep.
Do you think I have naturally high concentration? Not at all. Behind me are tons of personal experience that prove the opposite. But often, low concentration was explained by the fact that I constantly spun the wheel first one way, then the other: I worked a little, then checked email, forums, ICQ messages, and then switched back to work.
Don’t do this! We either constantly spin the wheel in one direction or the other. Otherwise, there can be no talk of any effectiveness.
As soon as we overcome inertia by focusing on just one thing, we gain concentration. But if you’ve been working for two hours and it still makes you sick, it’s time to change your activity. Isn’t that right?
“Conclusion”
So, the first part of the article has come to an end. It was purely theoretical and the most important. In the second part, you will learn about those very protective gloves that will help overcome the fear of the wheel stopping quickly.
In the continuation of the article, we will get acquainted with a simple and powerful technique for diving into work. But for now, let’s sum up:
- The inertia of the Mind (or homeostasis) is like a wheel. If we spin it towards idleness and constantly maintain that rotation, it will be hard for us to start spinning it in the other direction — towards productive work.
- Inertia can only be stopped with a sharp movement of the hand.
- Setting a different direction for the wheel is hindered by the Illusion of Unpleasant Work. By overcoming this illusory fear, we almost always realize that there is nothing scary about it, in reality. The feelings from work turn out to be completely different from what we initially imagined.
- Don’t spin the wheel first one way, then the other, constantly distracting yourself from work with the Internet and back. Because then we do neither productively. Maximum efficiency is achieved by maintaining inertia in only one direction.
That’s all for now. Thank you for your attention and see you again!
Best regards, Ivan Pirog
P.S. Be sure to try to overcome the inertia of laziness and maximize the inertia of work. This will once again convince you that every victory over yourself brings immense joy, pleasure, and boosts self-esteem.
P.P.S. The continuation of the material is here: Programming the Subconscious for Productive Work