Category: Cognative Errors

How to Tell What Kind of Procrastinator You Are

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You do it. Your work colleagues do it. I did it before starting this post. What is it?

Procrastination!

Throughout the day, we all experience that lack of desire to move forward on projects or tasks. Yet, the question is why does this happen? According to journalist Lindsey Ellefson, writing in Life Hacker, procrastination comes in at least six different flavors. In her recent article, she highlights each one, starting with perfectionism:

The perfectionist. You’re worried that your work might not meet a high expectation, so you don’t finish your work or, in some cases, don’t even start it at all.

For each of the six types of procrastination, Ellefson offers a possible solution. For example, with perfectionism:

If you’re the perfectionist, remind yourself that it’s your own personal standards that are stressing you, not necessarily the work itself, and you can do the work by setting realistic, incremental goals before getting started. I struggle with this one, and a tactic that helps me is working out what the absolute worst possible outcome might be if I don’t do well on a task. Even if I get a zero on a test, what will it do to my overall grade? When I think realistically about how I’m almost certainly going to get way higher than a zero—but even if I didn’t I’d be okay—I feel better, and get to work.

To discover the other five types of procrastination, please read the rest of the article. Of course, you could always put off doing this for later …

The Last-Minute Mindset

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Do you only work when a deadline is right in your face? For example, if there is two weeks until the work needs to be completed, do you wait until the final 24 hours to start. For the determined procrastinator it often takes an outside factor to get work done. It begs the question, why do they let this happen?

In an article from Stylist magazine, Katie Rosseinsky explores the procrastinator’s mindset to learn why they behave the way they do and how they can improve. The question is important as it relates to her own experience.

My last-minute mindset is something I’m well aware of, and yet whenever I’m presented with a deadline, I follow the same pattern: put the work off for as long as humanly possible, then cram it all into a condensed, chaotic period of ’productivity’, which often involves working late into the evening. Even if I make time, say, in the week coming up to the cut-off point to focus on getting this task done, I inevitably waste it.

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Proving she is not alone; she then points out the wide-spread reality of the procrastinator mindset.

A 2007 study published in Psychological Bulletin found that 15-20% of people chronically procrastinate, with 25% describing this as their dominant personality trait. And it doesn’t have to be confined to a work context; as Christmas approaches, many of us will once again come face to face with our last-minute tendencies when we end up doing all of our present shopping in a panicked 24th December dash.

For the rest of the article, Rosseinsky proceeds to explore why how this mindset works before sharing a few ways to avoid the temptation to wait until the last minute, such as:

So, how can hardened last-minute scramblers find a way to break out of this cycle, and is there any way of turning these tendencies into a positive? In the short term, Dignan suggests trying out the ‘two-minute strategy’. “If you can do something in two minutes, you’ve got to do it now.” Another tactic she often recommends to clients involves the humble egg-timer.

To learn more, please read the rest of Rosseinsky’s article.

Hot Summers and Cautious Decisions

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Chances are that wherever you have living, it has been a hot summer. In fact, heat records have been shattered across North America and Europe. Surprisingly, hot weather has an unexpected consequence beyond our health or comfort, it can actually lead us to make risk adverse decisions.

In Matthia Sutter’s book, Behavioral Economics for Leaders, the author looks at data which seems to indicate that the outside weather affects our decision-making process. This is true even if we make our decisions in a climate-controlled environment. Sutter notes:

Conventional models of human decision-making behavior completely ignore the factor of heat. According to these modes, referred to as neoclassical in economic theory, only the costs and benefits of specific decisions and the choices they are based upon play a role, while things such as heat, tiredness, or general mood are seen as insignificant. However, psychological research shows that heat reduces general wellbeing, mood and a willingness to perform.

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Sutter goes on to reference studies that show how judicial decisions become more risk adverse as outside temperatures rise. Specifically, a judge was less likely to give a defendant a favorable ruling on hotter days. But it is not only temperature that had an effect. Sports scores would also influence decisions.

For example, if the local football team wins big, there are more judges’ decisions favorable to the defendant. This again is a question of predominant mood.

As we move through the remaining hot summer days, take a moment to consider your own decisions. If the heat outside has risen, or your favorite team has lost, you may want to take extra care with your choices or defer them entirely for another day.

Practicing Radical Open-Mindedness

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It is commonly understood that no one person has all the right ideas.

However, it is also very easy for most people to believe that they always have the best idea.

How do we overcome this paradox of thinking? According to Ray Dalio in his best-selling book, Principles, one aspect of the solution is practicing radical open-mindedness.

Why is this so important? His company, Bridgewater Associates, is famous for creating an idea meritocracy, designed to encourage the best ideas, not the most persuasive or good-enough ones, to rise to top. Radical open-mindedness is key to making this happen. According to Dalio:

Radical open-mindedness is motivated by the genuine worry that you might not be seeing your choice optimally. It is the ability to effectively explore different points of view and different possibilities without letting your ego or blind spots get in your way.

On pages 187-190 of Principles, Dalio proposes seven steps to keeping one’s mind open. They are listed below:

  • Sincerely believe that you might not know the best possible path and recognize that your ability to deal with “not knowing” is more important that whatever it is you do know.
  • Recognized that decision making is a two-step process: First take in all the relevant information, then decide.
  • Don’t worry about looking good: worry about achieving your goal.
  • Realize that you can’t put out without taking in.
  • Recognize that to gain the perspective that comes from seeing things through another’s eyes, you must suspend judgement for a time – only by empathizing can you properly evaluate another point of view.
  • Remember that you’re looking for the best answer, not simply the best answer that you can come up with yourself.
  • Be clear on whether you are arguing or seeking to understand, and think about which is most appropriate based on your and other’s believability.

For the last point, Dalio explains the idea of believability:

I define believable people as those who have repeatedly and successfully accomplished the thing in question – who have a strong track record with a least three successes – and have great explanations for their approach when probed.

To dive deeper into these seven concepts, grab a copy of Principles and jump to pages 187-190.

The Best Time to Get Feedback

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There is a funny paradox at the heart of creativity. Most people would prefer not to receive criticism of their work; however, the only way to know if the work is effective is to get feedback. Therefore, the question is when is the best time to solicit evaluations of your work?

According to Tiago Forte, the best time to get feedback is early in the creative process. As he wrote in a recent newsletter:

The fundamental difficulty of creative work is that we lack objectivity when it comes to our creations.

That’s where feedback becomes invaluable—a borrowed pair of eyes from a novice’s perspective. It allows us to step outside our subjective viewpoint and identify what may be missing in our work.

However, there’s a common mistake I see people make when seeking feedback: they wait too long, often investing months of effort before unveiling their work.

The trap in waiting for feedback is that you could be well down a road that leads to a dead-end, which wastes time and energy. I know from personal experience the pain of this mistake on a writing project from a few years back. As Tiago writes:

Receiving feedback on a small aspect of your work at an early stage is less confronting, allowing you ample time to make corrections.

Each bit of intermediate feedback becomes a valuable tool for refining your creation—making it more focused, appealing, succinct, or easier to grasp.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to share your work as early and often as possible.

Learn more about Tiago by visiting Fortelabs.com.

You Deserve a Break

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Are you the type of person to work non-stop throughout the day? In many American offices, and some other countries too, there is a culture the emphasizes continuous work. This means employees don’t stop for breaks, lunch, or even at normal quitting time. This happens due to a belief that this non-stop work ethic makes for a more productive workplace. However, is that true?

According to recent studies, taking breaks not only leads to greater productivity, but also better mental and physical wellbeing. An article in the Harvard Business Review by Zhanna Lyubykh and Duygu Biricik Gulseren titled, How to Take Better Breaks at Work, According to Research, highlights reasons why breaks are important.

Like batteries that need to be recharged, we all have a limited pool of physical and psychological resources. When our batteries run low, we feel depleted, exhausted, and stressed out.

Pushing through work when very little energy is left in the tank puts a strain on well-being and work performance. In extreme cases, nonstop work can lead to a negative spiral: A worker tries to finish tasks despite their depleted state, is unable to do them well and even makes mistakes, resulting in more work and even fewer resources left to tackle those same tasks. This means that the more we work, the less productive and more exhausted we can become. Think about reading the same line for the fifth time, for example, and still not absorbing it.

The good news is that taking breaks can help employees to recharge and short-circuit the negative spiral of exhaustion and decreasing productivity. 

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Since breaks are valuable, what is the best way to take one? The authors provide a few suggestions, starting with break length:

A longer break does not necessarily equate to a better break. Disengaging from work only for a few minutes but on a regular basis (micro-breaks) can be sufficient for preventing exhaustion and boosting performance. For example, workers can take short breaks for snacking, stretching, or simply gazing out of the window. Further, timing of the break matters — shorter breaks are more effective in the morning, while longer breaks are more beneficial in the late afternoon. This is because fatigue worsens over the workday, and we need more break time in the afternoon to recharge.

Read the rest of ways to optimize your break time by reading the rest of the article.

Art of Failure

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Have you ever failed?

For most of us, failure is something we avoid at all costs. There is a stigma that those who fail seen as bad or incompetent. Yet the truth is that failure is a natural part of any learning process. To improve in an endeavor, we have to be willing to be wrong and learn from it.

The Big Think recently reposted an updated article that showed the paradox of failure through the lens of video games. Columnist Kevin Dickinson believes that video game players enter their games knowing they are going to lose, but that’s part of the fun. Why is this so? According to the article:

Failure feels awful, so people avoid it as often as they can. Even when we fail out of sight of others, our minds try to maintain our self-image by elaborating excuses for why the failure either wasn’t our fault or was completely unavoidable (i.e., motivated reasoning).

It’s interesting then that players seek out a pastime in which they are guaranteed to fail and willingly pay the price for that failure—whether it’s another quarter, lost time, or being forced to reassess one’s skills. In his short book The Art of Failure, Juul labels this phenomenon as the paradox of failure, the clash between a player’s desire to avoid failure and their drive to seek it out.

When failing a game’s challenge, Juul notes, a player discovers a deficiency in their ability or approach. Although having little importance outside the game, these deficiencies, like all inadequacies, are unpleasant to discover. Ironically, a player is never required to explore these personal inadequacies as they relate to a skill set they would never need had they not pressed start:

Before playing a game in the Portal series, we probably did not consider the possibility that we would have problems solving the warp-based spatial puzzles that the game is based on—we had never seen such puzzles before! This is what games do: they promise us that we can repair a personal inadequacy that they produce in us in the first place.

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What drives players to keep playing even when they struggle? The trick may be in the thrill of discovery and the challenge needed to appreciate the victory.

One reason players crave failure is that success without that possibility is tasteless. “Failure,” states Julie Muncy at Wired, “offers texture, complexity, and a chance for growth on the part of the player and character alike.” Games that can beat you are worth engaging with.

Read the full article at the Big Think website.

Every Choice is Fatiguing

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What if choices are actually traps?

We tend to want more choices in our life. The general feeling is that more options are better. However, this may only be true to a certain point. After that point, the exhaustion of too many choices may lead us to stop making any! This is known as decision fatigue. It is defined in Healthline as:

Coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, decision fatigue is the emotional and mental strain resulting from a burden of choices.

“When humans are overstressed, we become hasty or shut down altogether, and that stress plays a huge role in our behaviors,” says Tonya Hansel, PhD, director of the Doctorate of Social Work at Tulane University.

In other words, when your mental energy begins running low, you’re less able to override basic desires and more likely to go for whatever’s easiest.

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According to the article, decision fatigue can lead to these types of outcomes:

*Procrastination. “I’ll tackle this later.”
*Impulsivity. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…”
*Avoidance. “I can’t deal with this right now.”
*Indecision. “When in doubt, I just say ‘no.’”

To learn more about decision fatigue and how to avoid it, read the rest of the Healthline article.

Strategic Willpower

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Why is that some days we can keep to good habits, such as exercise and eating healthy, while on other days we sit on the couch all night and eat cookies? It seems that our willpower varies from day to day, if not hour to hour. Therefore, how can we avoid falling to temptations and keep to our intentions?

Recently, Darious Foroux wrote an article that explored the idea of strategic willpower and how it can enable us to keep to our intentions. He put the problem very succinctly:

The thing about staying consistent is that life always finds a way to get in the way, no matter what you’re trying to achieve. So we’re better off expecting that things can always go wrong.

Foroux goes on to share studies that appear to demonstrate that our willpower can fade when we are forced to expend it. He then explores how stay true to our intentions even when tired or emotional.

To live a good life, every single one of us needs to know how our willpower works. Do you find it difficult to make decisions late at night? Avoid it!

Finally, he sums up the topic as such:

To simplify, willpower is your ability to follow through on all your little and big goals. If you say you’re going to stop eating junk food and you eat a muffin for breakfast, there’s something wrong.

It’s up to you to figure out what the problem is. Strategic willpower means we’re aware of this concept. We don’t go through life like a mindless robot. We take the time to look at our actions and we do things when we’re at our best.

Read the entire article on Foroux’s web site.