The Daily Stoic - 9 Stoic Strategies to Overcome Procrastination

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

Twenty centuries ago, the Roman era Stoic philosopher Seneca joked that the one thing fools all have in common is that they are always getting ready to live. But they never do it. Is that who you want to be?Check out the full article on https://dailystoic.com/🎟 Order tickets to Ryan's tour dates at ryanholiday.net/tour✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another Sunday episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. One of the ways you know that human beings haven't changed that much in 2000 years is all the stuff the Stokes talk about as far as procrastination. Right? Mark Struese is talking about struggling to get out of bed in the morning. Seneca says the one thing all fools have in common is they're always getting ready to start. We procrastinate, he says, we're always delaying to live.

And as a result, because human nature has not changed that much, the Stoics have a lot to tell us about how we beat procrastination, how we beat what Steven Pressfield called the resistance. Got a bunch of great podcast episodes with him from over the years where we talk about that. It's gonna be Michael Reed reading this episode.

He's got a riveting voice. I think you'll like it. This article's from dailystoic.com. I'll link to that in today's show notes, but just sit back and enjoy some stoic strategies for overcoming procrastination, pushing past resistance, doing what you need to do. As the stoics would say,

persist through, resist procrastination and just get after it. I talk a lot about this in the discipline book, but in the meantime, here's some Stokes strategies to beat procrastination. People have been procrastinating for thousands of years. Just like you, they put things off, they delayed, they made excuses, they hoped deadlines would never come due. This caused them anxiety, it pissed their colleagues and families off, it created problems

and most of all, it wasted time. 20 centuries ago, the Roman-Aristoic philosopher Seneca joked that the one thing fools all have in common is that they are always getting ready to live, but they never do it. Is that what you want to be? Of course not. This post will help you take ownership of your life. It is rooted in ancient philosophy and designed to be applied in the modern world. This is a long post. It should

be saved and revisited. It can be read straight through or if you prefer, feel free to click the links below to navigate to a specific section. What is Procrastination? Procrastination is the act of avoiding doing what you know you should be doing. is the act of avoiding doing what you know you should be doing. It comes from the Latin procrastinate, to postpone or delay, in the Greek acrasia, a lack of self-control or the state of acting against one's better judgment. Procrastinating is an ancient problem. Seneca lamented, No one has anything finished because we have kept putting off into the future all our undertakings. A few decades later, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius reminded himself to do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life and stop being aimless, stop

letting your emotions override what your mind tells you. The consequences of procrastinating are alarming. Procrastination can lead to poor mental health, decreased job performance, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. The worst consequence of procrastination, at least as far as the Stoics were concerned, is as Charles Dickens wrote, procrastination is the thief of time. Why do we procrastinate? We're perfectionists. Procrastination is the thief of time. Why do we procrastinate? We're perfectionists.

We don't abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them. Epictetus. We want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right, or once we have our bearings. When really, it'd be better to focus on making do with how things actually are. Churchill's line was, the maxim, nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter, paralysis. Marcus Aurelius similarly reminded himself, don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic. He wasn't expecting the world to be

exactly the way he wanted it to be, but Marcus knew instinctively, as the Catholic philosopher Joseph Piper would later write, that he alone can do good who knows what things are like and what their situation is. Psychologists speak of cognitive distortions, exaggerated thinking patterns that have a destructive impact on the life of the patient. One of the most common is known as all-or-nothing thinking, also referred to as splitting. Examples of this include thoughts like, I'm good at something or I'm horrible at it. If it's not a complete success, it's a total failure. This sort of extreme thinking is associated with depression and frustration and, of course, procrastination. How could it not be? Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, only disappointment. Pragmatism

has no such hangups. It'll take what it can get. That's what Epictetus is reminding us. We're never going to be perfect, if there is even such a thing. We're human, after all. Our pursuit should be aimed at progress, however little that it's possible for us to make. We'll do it later. Putting things off is the biggest waste of life. It snatches away each day as it comes and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. The whole future lies in uncertainty. Live immediately.

Seneca The lazy never do what they're supposed to do for a multitude of reasons. It's too hard, it takes too long, they don't feel like it. Those prone to procrastination merely put things off until the minute. They tell themselves, oh I'm definitely going to do it, but not right this second. I've got time later in the week. This is most of us. We care about getting the important stuff done. Often we care so much it eats at us in the form of anxiety. Except we don't want to do it right now, which only adds to the anxiety of course.

So we rationalize our procrastination and concoct perfect scenarios in our head about our future selves definitely putting the ball over the goal line in time, even with some seconds to spare. Whether it's the college paper we're putting, the stack of dishes in the sink, the pile of clothes that need to be folded, the emails we need to reply to, the proposal we want to start writing. It can sometimes feel like there is force out there in the universe which presses down on us as we go through life, trying to do the right thing, the smart thing, the things we know we have to do.

Several years ago, the legendary writer Steven Pressfield gave this force a name in his seminal book on creativity, The War of Art. He called it The Resistance. We don't tell ourselves, I'm never going to write my symphony. Instead we say, I'm going to write my symphony. I'm just going to start tomorrow. We might even think putting it off is better because we'll be better rested or more prepared. We fear the unknown. Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Don't try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen. Ask, why can't I endure it?

You'll be embarrassed to answer. Marcus Aurelius In a 2013 study, Dr. Tim Pitchell, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, concluded that procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem. We procrastinate because we're thinking about all the things that might happen rather than just getting started on doing what we have to do Maybe you're facing a difficult conversation You're putting it off because you're afraid of what might come of it

Maybe you're thinking about taking on a new project. You're putting it off because it feels like it's beyond your limits Maybe you've long wanted to move across the country. You're putting it off because you're afraid of starting over in a new place all by yourself. Those are legitimate fears, especially in our heads. It is a timeless truth that many of the things we worry about never come to happen. As Seneca wrote some two thousand years ago, there are more things likely to frighten us than there are to crush us. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought, some torment us before they ought,

and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. Okay, it helps to know why we procrastinate, but most of us always have at least a vague sense of why we put things off. What we need is what the Stoics can provide, practical tactics for beating procrastination, for muting that voice in our heads that tells us we can always just do it later, for combating our perfectionist tendencies, for stepping confidently into intimidating projects and tasks. How can I stop procrastinating? Here are 9 tactics for beating procrastination. Action by action.

Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole. Stick with the situation at hand and ask, why is this so unbearable? Why can't I endure it? You'll be embarrassed to answer. Marcus Aurelius Meditations 836 Our imagination runs wild envisioning all the ways things can go wrong, or how long this project is going to take, or why we couldn't possibly achieve that goal. The Stoics said this was sometimes a productive exercise. It can sometimes be useful in preparing us for the future and

making us ready for potential adversity. But Marcus Aurelius well understood that it can more often become crippling fear that will paralyze us from any useful action. Which is why his advice was to keep in mind that a life is built action by action. All we can ever do is focus on completing the task at hand. Nobody writes a book, he would say. They write one sentence, then another, then another. In the sports world, it's a philosophy created by University of Alabama coach Nick Saban, who taught his players to ignore the big picture. Important games, winning championships, the opponent's enormous lead, and focus instead on doing the absolutely smallest things well. Practicing with full effort,

finishing a specific play, converting on a single possession. Sabin tells his players, don't think about winning the SEC Championship, don't think about the National Championship, think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That's the process. Let's think about what we can do today, the task at hand. In the overwhelming pressures of sport, as in life, process provides a way. A way to turn chaos and confusion and complexity into something clear and manageable and simple. The task at hand. The process. Whatever you want to call it. Just remember that everything in life is built one small action at a time.

Tackle the most important task first. Yes, you can. If you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius was under a lot of tension. Make no mistake, the ancient world was not some quiet, peaceful place. It too was filled with crises and distractions, gossip, and ambitious goal-setting. All the temptations we face today have their analogues in the past. Plus, things were scarier, deadlier, and more precarious.

So we should listen to the command that Marcus Aurelius gave himself on one of those trying days when he was struggling to stay focused. Listen to the command that Marcus Aurelius gave himself on one of those trying days, when he was struggling to stay focused. Concentrate every minute like a Roman, like a man, he wrote, on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. It's likely that Marcus would tackle his most difficult tasks first. From his stepfather Antoninus, Marcus learned how to work long hours and stay in the saddle. He writes in meditations that he even admired the way Antoninus scheduled his bathroom breaks as they allowed him to work for long, uninterrupted periods. Marcus never shirked hard work or avoided his most unpleasant duties.

He had a job to do and he didn't complain about it. Never be overheard complaining, he wrote, not even to yourself. Putting off our responsibilities is easy. Complaining is easy. Both are as natural to us as breathing. But what good has either ever done for anyone in the long run? Sure, shaking your fist at the sky and venting your frustrations can feel liberating in the moment, but has it ever changed your circumstances for the better, solved your problems or made you happier? Has procrastinating ever made your life less stressful and more

efficient? We're willing to bet the answer is no. This is why we must follow Marcus's lead and tackle our most important tasks first. If we can win that battle first, the rest of the day will be a breeze. Create a Routine In many circumstances, we do not deal with our affairs in accordance with correct assumptions, but rather we follow thoughtless habit. Musonius Rufus Lectures and Sayings 6.7 Epictetus once said that every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking

and running by running. Therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it. If you don't want to do something, he said, make a habit of doing the opposite. For this reason, the Stoics were big on habits and routines. In a world where so much is out of our control, committing to a routine we do control, they said, was a way of establishing and reminding ourselves of our own power. Without a disciplined schedule, procrastination inevitably moves in with all the chaos and complacency and confusion. What was I going to do? What do I wear? What should I eat? What should I do first?

What should I do after that? What sort of work should I do? Should I scramble to address this problem or rush to put out this fire? That's torture. Seneca would call it a design problem. Life without a design is erratic,' he wrote. "'As soon as one is in place, principles become necessary. I think you'll concede that nothing is more shameful than uncertain and wavering conduct

and beating a cowardly retreat. This will happen in all our affairs unless we remove the faults that seize and detain our spirits, preventing them from pushing forward and making an all-out effort. The writer and runner Haruki Murakami talks about why he follows the same routine every day. The repetition itself becomes the important thing, he says. It's a form of mesmerism.

I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. Routine is antithetical to procrastination, to the resistance. They feed on our uncertainty. Routine eliminates that uncertainty. We know what we do and when we do it. Procrastination is boxed out by the order and clarity you built. Use a Counterforce Since habit is such a powerful influence, and we're used to pursuing our impulses to gain and avoid outside our own choice, we should

set a contrary habit against that, and where appearances are really slippery, use the counterforce of our training. Epictetus Discourses 3-12-16 When a dog is barking loudly because someone is at the door, the worst thing you can do is yell. To the dog it's like you're barking too. When a dog is running away, it's not helpful to chase it. Again, now it's like you're both running.

A better option in both scenarios is to give the dog something else to do. Tell it to sit, run in the other direction. Break the pattern, interrupt the negative impulse. The same goes for us. When a bad habit reveals itself, counteract it with a commitment to a contrary virtue. Sometimes when you find yourself procrastinating, it's best not to dig in and fight it. Instead, get up and take a walk to clear your head and reset instead.

Try what the artist Austin Kleon calls productive procrastination. A kind of promiscuous working in which I procrastinate on one project by working on another, sometimes switching between two or more projects until all the projects are done. Oppose established habits. Use the counterforce of training to get traction and make progress. Channel the negative impulse into something, anything positive. Get One Small Win Well-being is attained by little and little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself. Zeno Seneca wrote a lot of letters to his friend Lucilius.

We don't know a lot about Lucilius, only that he was from Pompeii. He was a Roman knight. He was the imperial procurator in Sicily, then its governor. He owned a country villa in Ardea. For all his success though, we get the sense that he struggled with many of the things we all struggle with. Anxiety, distraction, fear, temptation, self-discipline. So it's good that he had a friend like Seneca, someone who cared about him, told him the truth and gave him advice. One of the best pieces of advice from Seneca was actually pretty simple.

Each day, he told Lucilius, you should acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well. One gain per day. That's it. This is the way to curbing your procrastinating tendencies, remembering that incremental, consistent, humble, persistent work is the way to improvement. Your business, your book, your career, your body, it doesn't matter. You build them with little things, day after day.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a filmmaker, entrepreneur, author, former governor, professional bodybuilder, and father of five. He's also a fan of the Stoics and said in a recent video to people trying to stay strong and sane during this pandemic, just as long as you do something every day, that is the important thing. Whether it's from Seneca or Arnold, good advice is good advice and truth is truth. One thing a day adds up, one step at a time is all it takes. You just gotta get one small win, and the sooner you start, the better you'll feel and be. Remind yourself of the archer.

Stick to what's in front of you. Idea, action, utterance. Marcus Aurelius. Em, what do you look for in a globally massive pop star? Oh, I want sensationally inappropriate outfits, incredible glamour, and an almost unapproachable cool. Well, for the latest series of Terribly Famous, would you settle for some plaid shirts, ginger hair and an acoustic guitar? Er, no. No, I won't.

What if there's a loop pedal? Alright, keep talking. That is actually it. Well, it just sounds a bit ordinary. Emily, this is Ed Sheeran. You really won't believe the twists and turns his story takes. Okay, fine. Sell me Ed.

Addiction, shame spirals, family interventions, grief, massive court cases, obsession. Okay, okay. I'm listening. Ed mapped out his whole career when he was just a teenager, and he has followed that path to some very strange places. How strange? Jennifer Aniston's son, Langer. Just an ordinary guy. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to podcasts,

or listen early and ad-free on Wandery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wandery app. Focusing on outcomes is a good recipe for feeling overwhelmed and then procrastinating. Which is why the Stoics were reminding themselves to focus on process. Don't get caught up imagining what the results were going to be. Marcus wrote, remind yourself that past and future have no power over you, only the present. In other words, stick to what you can control. Massimo Pelleucci explains this using the metaphor of an archer.

As Cicero put it in the third volume of De Finibus, where he has Cato the younger explain Stoic doctrines, an archer will do whatever he can in order to hit the target, but once the arrow leaves the bow, the actual outcome is not up to him. Hitting the target is, Cicero says, to be chosen, but not to be desired. DF-111-22 That's the way I think about my book, or really anything else I try to accomplish in my life. I put forth my best effort, and I'm doing my best so to reach people who may benefit from it. But I regard the actual outcome in terms of sales, attention, etc. as a preferred indifferent. It really relieves a lot of pressure.

Interestingly, this is a core Buddhist teaching as well. In Zen, in the art of archery, Eugene Herigel says that the good archer is one who shoots well, which doesn't necessarily mean always hitting the target. He says the goal is to shoot well while not hitting the target, although paradoxically this may lead to one hitting the targets more often. When two ancient traditions reached the same idea independently, you'd be a fool not to apply it to your life. Whenever you find yourself contemplating the future, stressing over the target way out in the distance, letting your imagination get crushed by life as a whole,

remind yourself of the archer. Focus on your form. Focus on the process. Be present. It will help you shoot better, but most importantly, it will help you live better. Be ruthless to the inessential. It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire

and give up, if you aren't busy in yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed. Marcus Aurelius Procrastination can often be a product of overwhelm. We have so much on our to-do list, we don't even know where to begin, so we don't begin. Seneca liked to use the word discursive. When we have our attention pointed in so many different directions, we have it pointed nowhere. He compared it to the nomad. Everywhere means nowhere. The way forward is to zero in on what's most important. It was Marcus Aurelius' simple recipe for improvement and for happiness. And the fact that it came from such a busy man with so many obligations and responsibilities should not be forgotten.

If you seek tranquility, he said, do less. And then he follows the note to himself with some clarification. Not nothing, less. Do only what's essential. Which brings a double satisfaction, he writes, to do less, better. Follow this advice today and every day. So much of what we think we must do, so much of what we end up doing, is not essential. Don't let it swirl around and overwhelm you. Rip off the chains of obligation to things that are inessential. Then you'll be able to better

do what is essential and get a taste of that tranquility that Marcus was talking about. A double satisfaction. Create a sense of urgency. Stop letting yourself be distracted. That is not allowed. Instead, as if you were dying right now, stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future. Marcus Aurelius Cyril Northcote Parkinson's adage was that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Parkinson's law, as we know it, states that a task swells in importance and complexity in proportion to the amount of time allowed to it. If you have two weeks to write a paper for school, it will take two weeks. If you block off all day Sunday to clean your house, it will take all day. If you give something unlimited time, it will take forever. When we're pressed by a deadline, we don't procrastinate. We can use Parkinson's law to our advantage, and the Stoics did. Momento Mori was their reminder. Remember you are mortal. Remember you are always pressed by a deadline.

Remember what Marcus said. You could leave right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. It wasn't to create panic, but priority, humility, urgency, appreciation. As wonderful as it would be if there was no such thing as death, we can use death as a tool. We can use it as a spur to move us forward. We can use it as a reminder of what's truly important.

We can use it to beat procrastination. Associate with people who make you better. Above all, keep a close watch on this, that you are never so tied to your former acquaintances and friends that you are pulled down to their level. If you don't, you'll be ruined. You must choose whether to be loved by these friends and remain the same person, or to become a better person at the cost of those friends. If you try to have it both ways, you will neither make progress

nor keep what you once had. Epictetus. Discourses. 4, 2, 1, 4, 5. For thousands of years, we've known that humans are influenced by the people we spend the most time with. Nature gave us friendship, Cicero wrote. As an aid to virtue, not as a companion to vice. Seneca's line was, associate with those who will make a better man of you. Gothe famously said, tell me with whom you consort, and I will tell you who you are. It's a pretty observable truth. We become like the people we spend the most time with.

That's why we have to be so careful about the influences we allow into our life. The research is clear too. The first major study on the depth of social influence was conducted by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. They examined the data from the Framingham Heart Study, one of the largest and longest running health studies ever, when they realized that the study covered more than just heart health.

Participants were probed with all sorts of demographic questions, including questions about family members and friends. Christakis and Fowler's results found If a friend of yours becomes obese, you are 45% more likely to gain weight over the next 2-4 years. If your friend smokes, you are 61% more likely to be a smoker yourself. If a friend of your friend smokes, you are still 29% more likely to smoke. And for a friend of a friend, the likelihood is 11%. A friend who lives within a mile and is happy with their life increases the probability that a person is happy by 25%. If a friend of

a friend of a friend is happy with their life, then you have a 6% greater likelihood of being happy yourself. Consider that other studies suggest that a $10,000 raise only triggers about a 2% increase in your happiness. If you are feeling stuck, consistently procrastinating, experiencing a lack of motivation, struggling to make the kind of progress you know you're capable of. Take a good hard look at the people surrounding you. Do they inspire you, validate you, push you to be better?

Or do they irritate you, offend you, drag you down? Are they positive, rational, motivated, reliable, loyal? Or are they hypocritical, fake, lame, pretentious, flaky, dishonest? The proverb in the ancient world was, if you dwell with a lame man, you will learn how to limp. But that idea of dwelling with a lame man cuts both ways. Epictetus was famously lame, having had his leg crippled while in slavery. Marcus Aurelius spent enormous amounts of time with Epictetus' writings. It didn't make him limp, it made him wiser, a harder worker, more resilient, calmer, more compassionate. Epictetus passed those things on to him.

A slave shaped a king and made him better. If you want to connect with a community that will push you to be better, we'd like to invite you to check out our daily Stoic life program. It's the largest gathering of stoics in the world. It's people just like you, struggling, growing, and making that satisfying progress towards the kind of person they know they can be. Some folks pursue philosophy and self-improvement as a side project, but some treat it seriously. They want to go deep, and they know that the best way to learn is to surround themselves with like-minded individuals and people who will push them.

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