Leonard Ng

Horror: The Ultimate Procrastination Inducer

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Image by Krzysztof Krupa.
Image by Krzysztof Krupa.

Have you ever felt that you simply can’t get started or simply can’t focus your attention on a specific task?

It’s like the task has a force field around it, a sort of deflector shield that keeps moving you away on a tangent to go start doing something else.

This task could be anything.

It could be writing a report, preparing a lesson, filing your taxes, crafting an ad, going for a run, killing a roach, reading a textbook, sending an email, making a phone call, filling out a form, cleaning your kitchen.

It could be a big project that feels too large to tackle, or a small project that requires a significant mental shift from what you’ve been doing.

Whatever it is, it feels like the task is beyond you. You procrastinate like mad. It escapes you, it deflects you, you’re completely paralysed when you try to deal with it, your brain somehow seems to shut down and stop working.

And whenever you try to get it done you always seem to wind up doing something completely unrelated instead.

This happens over and over again, becoming increasingly traumatic each time.

I have a name for this state of affairs.

I call it horror.

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How to Be Mindful When You Don’t Have Time

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hawk
Image by Adrian Kirby.

Meditation is good, but you don’t practise it.

You’re too busy, or you have too many things to do, or you’re always in a hurry to get somewhere, or you’re too tired at the end of the day.

And even when you do sit down to try and empty your mind, you feel a massive sense of guilt about everything else you ought to be doing instead.

(Oddly enough, sitting still for 15 minutes feels like a giant waste of time, while 15 minutes spent on social media doesn’t…

…because one forces you to pay painful attention to the messed-up inside of your head, while the other lets you take refuge in comforting distraction.)

Whatever your reasons, it all boils down to one thing:

You don’t have time.

So here are three ways to remain mindful even when you’re on the go — quick check-ins that will bring you back to the present moment and allow you to centre yourself before your next activity.

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The Levers of Optimism: How to Become More Optimistic

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glasses cat
Image by Octavio Fossatti.

Previously I talked about how both optimism and pessimism can be useful to you, depending on the circumstances you find yourself in.

But is it really possible to alter the way you see the world quickly and easily?

The answer is yes.

Pessimism and optimism are not a part of your genetic makeup. They are learned responses based on your environment, your family, and your experiences while you were growing up.

And if they are learned responses, then they can be unlearned and relearned.

At the very least it’s possible to adjust your interpretations of events, making them less pessimistic and more optimistic (or the other way around, if that’s what you prefer).

To understand how this can be done, let’s take a look at the dimension of optimism and pessimism called explanatory style.

What’s Your Explanatory Style?

Explanatory style has to do with how we explain and interpret the events of our lives, both good and bad.

(Good events are events that we want to have more of in our lives, while bad events are events that we don’t want to have.)

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The Advantages of Optimism (and of Pessimism)

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emotions
Image by Gratisography.

Meditation helps us to see things as they really are, unclouded by our emotions and impulses.

Through diligent practice we learn to bring our minds under control, and so become more able to act wisely in the world.

That said, we humans do have a natural tendency to view the world through two major perception filters. Both of these can significantly affect our lives.

These two filters are optimism and pessimism.

And both of them can be good for you.

What Are Optimism and Pessimism?

Let’s think of optimism and pessimism as emotional lenses that affect the way we perceive the world.

Optimism can loosely be defined as a positive view of the world: the belief that life is generally good and/or that life will get better.

Pessimism is the opposite: a view of the world based on the belief that life is generally bad and/or that life will get worse.

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Slow Down to Go Faster: What to Do When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed

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low gear
Image by hhabicht.

Life can feel too much for us sometimes.

It feels like we have too many things to handle at once. Too many things to think about, too many things to juggle.

And when this situation lasts for too long it can start to feel like there isn’t any point to life any longer. After all, what’s the point of living when we no longer have the time or energy to do the things that are actually important to us, that actually give our lives meaning?

When faced with such a situation, it’s very easy to give in to despair and hopelessness. And most of the advice out there doesn’t help.

Because most of the advice out there falls into 2 broad categories: either 1) quit or 2) suck it up / force your way through.

The problem is that, in a great many situations, neither of these solutions is realistic.

Fortunately, there’s a better option.

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