The Battle of the Lizard Brain

Procrastination is an activity of the lizard brain--check out Seth Godin's blog for his take on it. Our most primitive selves will do anything to avoid discomfort (discomfort equals danger...danger means we might not survive...this part of our brain is fairly unsophisticated) If you equate working out with discomfort, expect the lizard brain to chime in on why not working out is a better idea. Loathe your chores? The lizard brain will come up with some other chore to keep you from doing the first one (see? stupid).

I can literally feel my frontal lobe short circuit when my lizard brain is kicking in--it feels like all the strands of my thoughts are being violently pulled and matted temporarily. It stops me--it feels like coming to a wall or a crevasse. Then almost by magic some other soothing, easier to do thing is put in front of me and whatever it was that activated my lizard brain falls out of my thinking to be done "later".

The scenario is so deceptive because later really does seem like a real time that things will happen. It could be "later" that day or "later" in the week or the all time favorite "tomorrow". Later is a powerful illusion--doing its job by keeping us safe from "discomfort". And we'll get whatever it was done "later", right?

It takes effort to overcome the lizard brain--maybe you can manage to do it a couple times a day but its going to deplete your energy. Eventually fighting it will become too much and you will fall off track of whatever it was you set out to do (oops, I mean it will get done "later").

Bottom line, you want to have your mental and emotional resources available to do the things that are truly important to you--fighting the lizard brain simply takes up too much of that valuable energy.

The best way I have found to counter the lizard brain is to create a ritual that masks whatever it is I would normally procrastinate on. The activity needs to be something simple and pleasant that allows me to  transition from one activity to the next without activating the lizard brain. It takes far less energy to do this than to use will power.

When I want to work on a project such as practicing my language skills I have a simple ritual that puts me in the proper frame of mind to begin.

First off I schedule the work--this keeps things from getting random and haphazard. At the appointed time I take a short walk around my home or office and then get a cup of tea or coffee. I'm then ready to work. That's it. If I'm at home I sometimes will I will substitute the walk with a hot shower. The point is to relax.

But you might ask "hey, isn't going for tea/walks/showers just more procrastination?"

No--here is the reason why. Rituals are purposeful. Procrastination is random. If you sit down to work and all of a sudden need to take out the trash you are engaging in procrastination. However, if you purposefully empty the trash before sitting down to work, that is a ritual (and could be exactly the sort of relaxing transitional activity you need so your mind is fully available to work--I'd rather have a cup of tea).

Play with rituals and see how much more you are able to get done.