[Chapter 9] Time Travel Cure For Procrastination

How to Defeat Your Inner Enemy and Stop Self-Sabotage For Good

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Hello! I’m Kevin Kruse, founder and CEO of LEADx and NY Times bestselling author of several books, including 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management and Great Leaders Have No Rules. Welcome to Success & Significance - my take on health, wealth, and relationships (my “3 to Thrive”, read more here). Not yet a subscriber? Hit the Subscribe button below to join over 20,000 members who never miss an issue and unlock premium content.

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Here’s another excerpt from my forthcoming book, 11 Secrets Successful People Know About Goal Setting: A Science-Based Guide That Turns Goals Into Reality. Book launches September 2023 but premium subscribers get now. Enjoy!

“We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.”
–Erica Jong

“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
–Seneca

pro·​cras·​ti·​nate
To put off intentionally and habitually.

Why do many people derail from their goal path while others seem to achieve their goals time and again?

Why do we decide and act in certain ways today, only to decide something totally different tomorrow (and often all the tomorrow’s after that)?

“Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator. Procrastination is an issue of self-regulation failure, and specifically misregulation of emotional states, not a time management problem as often presumed."
–Dr. Joseph Ferrari

What Does My Rowing Machine, Fine Literature, and Iceberg Lettuce All Have In Common?

Here are some examples of procrastination from my own life.

• I routinely buy serious novels and history books to expand my horizons, but they remain unclicked in Kindle or Audible.

• For many months, I’ve had several documentaries in my Netflix My List but keep leapfrogging them with the Trending Now shows.

• I spent $3,000 on an Ergatta Rower and have used it three times in a year.

• Every Sunday, I buy tons of lettuce and vegetables for salads and inevitably throw the rotting gooey mess out a week later.

I’m guilty of all those things and so much more. (Get in touch if you want a good deal on a hydro rower!)

If you can’t relate to my little flaws in behavior, perhaps these items resonate with you. 

• Leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight? 

• Cramming all night before a test? 

• Delaying difficult conversations at home or at work? 

Why do we routinely procrastinate—put off—the actions that we know will lead us closer to our goal? 

The answer is a little deep, but if you hang with me, this chapter (more than any other) has the power to completely blow the lid off your life (in a good way).

RESEARCH
20% of people are chronic procrastinators, according to Dr. Ferrari and confirmed in dozens of studies around the world. Note that several studies suggest this number is higher among people who have Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

We Think Of Our Future Selves As Strangers

The answer is that your present self and your future self are two different people; your future self is a stranger to you.

Sounds freaky, doesn’t it?

As reported in Nautilus, New York University professor, Hal Hershfield, took fMRI images of peoples’ brains as they were thinking of themselves and their future selves. Brain imaging showed that when people thought about themselves in the future, the part of the brain that thinks of other people lit up.

Their future self “felt” like somebody else. In fact, their neural activity when they described themselves in a decade was the same neural activity that lit up when they described Matt Damon or Natalie Portman. Nautilus.

In other words, our neural activity and emotions treat our future-self like a stranger.

KEY POINT
Your brain treats your “future self” as if they are a stranger.

Why is this so important?