Archive for the ‘Procrastination’ tag
Low-Fat Diets, Morning Routines, and Procrastination (Sunday Reads #7)
Welcome to Sunday Reads on Refocuser, a collection of weekly links from around the web to help you do incredible things. These links span topics like creativity, performance, focus, exercise, nutrition, and positivity. I’m posting this on Saturday this time to make sure email subscribers get this on Sunday.
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On Food as Fuel and Athleticism
Not that this is a surprise to most of you, but the science behind low-fat diet advice was undercooked. “An international team of health scientists has completed a systematic study of the evidence available back in the 1970s and ’80s and concluded that a relationship of causation between fat consumption and coronary heart disease was never established.”
The U.S. is also dropping it’s crusade against cholesterol. Another example of how misled we’ve all been for so long.
The flavonoids in dark chocolate have anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-diarrheal properties. My favorite dark chocolate is Green & Blacks and I eat a cube or two every evening.
Is there a better way to become the ultimate athlete than the randomness of Crossfit? Max Shank puts forth a dedicated system with programming to be as strong as a gymnast, as fast as a sprinter, and as flexible as a martial artist.
The Incredible Power of Sleep
If you want to reduce body-fat levels, insulin resistance, and systemic inflammation, you should sleep in a dark room and avoid blue light before you sleep.
This one is weird, but night owls tend to be more exploitive and entitled than early risers.
How to Beat Procrastination One Step at a Time!
“Every year, hundreds of New Yorkers congregate on Tax Day at the 24-hour post office at 34th and 8th Avenue, polishing off their 1040s, filling out their registered mail slips, and sealing their envelopes. The lines snake up and down the cavernous interior of the building and most of the people are more tired than anxious. (With the exception of the few still filling out their forms.)”
Photo and description by Amit Gupta.
Last weekend I had the unenviable (yet unfortunately inevitable) task of getting our 2009 taxes prepared. I stopped actually doing our taxes about 10 years ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely off the hook here. There’s still just as much preparation involved to make sure everything is tracked and reported, and that my accountant has all the information he needs in order to file.
There are far worse things in the world, I know. But I definitely don’t look forward to this time of year. In fact, it’s probably the most postponed thing on my to-do list.
Let’s see… I could play with my daughter or sit in my home office surrounded by arcane forms. We could go for a walk down by the waterfront as a family or I could scan and shred documents instead. My wife and I could watch an episode of Friday Night Lights or read in bed… or I could sit at a computer adding up real estate taxes and 1099/W-2 forms. You get the picture.
I decided to take a different approach this year. Instead of dreading and postponing the project from week to week, I’d learn from it. I knew I didn’t want to do this, but I knew I had to. So I decided to use it as a sort of test for overcoming procrastination – how would I get myself to move forward despite knowing it wouldn’t be any fun? At the very least, I could write up my experience on Refocuser and see if the process helps others.
Just Do Something! 6 Ways to Unblock Yourself & Get Moving
Ed. note: The subtle irony of this post is that this is how I start just about everything on this site: I debate internally about how to get started. I write the first paragraph a few times, I go get a refill on my drink, I check Twitter three times. I struggle with the point of the post itself. I put it off until tomorrow, and then the next day. And then… I wise up and just write something.
Forget “Just Do It”… the procrastination-defeating rallying cry of this new decade is “Just Do Something!”
Procrastination is a funny word. It’s a long, strange sounding expression that strikes fear and a knowing empathy in the hearts of people around the world. Putting things off until a later date, even important things, is what humans are best at. You have to assume that even our biggest accomplishments and creations as a species came with equally large bouts of “I’ll just do it later” sentiments.
Could the Egyptian pyramids really have been completed without an architect taking one look at the enormity of his day’s work and saying “tomorrow… I’ll do it tomorrow”? I doubt it.
Assumptions that we can “just do it”, or that we’re supposed to get things right on the first try don’t help us. In fact, I’ve found that the reason so many people can’t get past their own thinking relates to a misunderstanding about the people around them. People frequently overestimate the talent, dedication, and circumstances of others while underestimating their own. They actually believe that the people who have been able to “do it”, did it without the same level of internal battles of procrastination that they themselves have. That these people either got lucky or got it right on the first try. And of course, that they don’t have the same ability to do so as these more capable people – that they’re either too lazy, stupid, or just aren’t in the right place or right time.
