I'm procrastinating right now. You probably are too.
The world is a divided place right now. Coke vs. Pepsi. Team Jacob vs. Team Edward. Twizzlers vs. Red Vines. Could Jack have fit on the door with Rose? The list goes on. But if there’s one thing that unites us all, it’s procrastination.
You’re likely procrastinating right now. You’re reading this newsletter when you know you should be doing something more important.
Don’t worry—I’m procrastinating too. It’s Wednesday night, and I’m just now writing this newsletter so it goes out tomorrow morning. I should’ve started writing it a week ago, but I didn’t. It’s not that I was dreading it, but I could be playing Animal Crossing or watching a TV show instead.
And that’s what I did.
Maybe there’s a larger project at work you’re putting off because, oof, it seems a bit daunting. You’ll start that tomorrow when you have a clear mind. Then tomorrow comes and, well, you have emails to go through. And then, look at that, it’s an hour until lunch—no sense in starting on that big project right now. I’ll shoot the shit with a coworker instead. You get the picture.
You might think you’re lazy for procrastinating, but it’s really just your present self and future self arguing with each other. Your present self usually wins because humans want to do stuff that’s instantly gratifying. We love instant gratification. We crave it.
That big project you’re putting off will give you gratification when it’s complete, but it’s not gratifying you right now. That’s how procrastination creeps in. We value immediate rewards over our future consequences, even though we know what those consequences will be and how shitty they’ll make us feel. The happy emotions you feel right now outweigh the emotions you’ll experience tomorrow when your boss wants that report on his desk first thing in the morning. But when tomorrow rolls around, those happy emotions you felt yesterday definitely don’t seem worth it. But we can’t help that feeling of instant gratification.
So, how do you stop procrastinating?
Full disclosure: It feels weird to give advice on handling procrastination when I procrastinated on the very thing you’re reading right now. So I’m not sure I’m the perfect candidate for this.
BUT, I have a solution that sometimes works for me: Just start. Think about the thing you’re procrastinating on and tell yourself you’ll spend 10 minutes on it. That’s it. Just work on that project for 10 minutes. If 10 minutes is too long, try two minutes. Literally, just two minutes.
You might notice it’s easier to continue working on the project once you get started because you’re past that initial friction point.
That’s what I did with this newsletter. I thought about starting later tonight and finish it up in the morning. But I told myself that I’d just spend a few minutes right now getting my thoughts down and then come back to it later tonight, just to give myself a head start.
But here I am, and I’ve pretty much written the entire newsletter. It was the friction of getting started that was holding me back. But once I got going, it was easier to keep going. Newton was right.
Overtime
Other work-related stuff I want to talk about without dedicating an entire newsletter to it.
Salary transparency laws are slowly sweeping the nation. New York's law went live on Tuesday, and it requires companies to list a "good faith salary range" in their job listings. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington have (or will have) some kind of salary transparency law on the books.
While some companies are finding loopholes, this is nothing but a great thing. It'll prevent job seekers from wasting time applying to jobs that don't meet their wage requirements. And let's be real: Even though companies are fighting these laws, listing a salary range saves them time during the hiring process.
Happy Hour
Fun things I’m doing, TV shows and movies I’m watching, games I’m playing, music I’m listening to, and other neat stuff I want to share.
My wife and I spent the weekend putting together The Office Lego set, and it's incredibly detailed with a bunch of easter eggs. We're not Lego fanatics, but this was one Lego set that we had to get.
I bought a fancy used Sony a6300 camera because I'm becoming more and more unhappy with my iPhone 13 Pro's camera. It objectively has one of the best smartphone cameras ever, and I chose it specifically for the camera, but I'm just not getting the results I want out of it. Maybe I'm expecting too much from it. Either way, I'm done chasing the best smartphone camera and instead relying on dedicated cameras if I want a great-looking photo.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in two weeks. In the meantime, catch up on some older newsletter issues if you’re a new subscriber, and feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram for my off-hours shenanigans.
Also, let me know if there are topics you want to read about or questions you have—I'm all ears! And if you think a friend or family member would enjoy this newsletter, feel free to forward this email and tell them to subscribe!