Procrastinate? Train Your Brain

One of the great things about living in this modern age is that we can readily assign all the goals we fail to achieve to something else. “It’s not my fault I didn’t eat healthy; I just couldn’t let the grilled flatbread and cheese spoil.” “It’s not my fault I didn’t finish this essay; there were other things on my to-do list to get done.” …and on and on and on. The truth is that most of these excuses are merely ways we procrastinate.

A great many personal development gurus have written dozens of articles and books, created videos, TedTalks, podcasts and the like, which attempt to help people like me to hurl myself over the procrastination hump and into the realm of intentional living, authorship, or whatever the measure of success or completion of a goal. Miracle Mornings, 5-second rules, atomic habits. Been there, done that (sort of).

In this struggle to overcome my procrastination, I have quite blithely convinced myself that whatever goal I set will be accomplished at some point, but when, at the end of the day, I find myself no closer to completing an essay, or an article on health, the usual ingrained excuses are there to let me off the hook. It is not a place I want to be; it is not a place I want anyone to be.

The latest of my attempts to circumvent my procrastination comes via The Great Courses series. I found this add-on to my cable bill which was free for a week, and thought many of the 193 course offerings interesting (and likely something I could add to my procrastination excuses, because I…