|
This past weekend I went out on a camping trip in Podunk, Nowhere. I’m not going to share the exact location. This isn’t a travel blog. But it was far enough away that I was “off the grid” with no cell service available (or at least sporadically available) Outdoors. Yay!  I know kind of ironic coming from a procrastin8r, who stays all day in bed. But goddamnit. I say that without a hint of sarcasm I swear. I love being out in the woods. It’s so relaxing. Besides, it’s a good way to gather thoughts and really unplug from the world of obligations and distractions. As Robin Singh said on episode 12 of the ProcrastiN8r Podcast: The best ideas come from leisure time. You’re not gonna come up with great ideas while slaving away in front of a machine from 9 to 5. You’re gonna have a great idea when you’re just like, chilling somewhere, like you’re hanging out in nature. The sounds of birds chirping and the nearby stream flowing. The scent of flowers and leaves. The feeling of a cool breeze and the warm sun upon your face. Makes me wanna tie up a nice hammock and chillax, man. Just let the ideas flow.  And you may be thinking “But Nate, chilling out in nature is one thing, but camping. Dude, that’s completely different. All the tent pitching and hiking and fire building just to cook. Seems like a lot of work to me.” And you know what? You’re right.... Camping is NOT for the lazy man. Nope. At least in terms of practicality. I mean it is much easier and lazier to heat up a hot pocket in a microwave at home or order pizza then say, build a fire, light it up, put together ingredients in a dutch oven and bake yourself a Taco Pie. (Which by the way, is fucking delicious. Take everything you love about a taco: the meat, the cheese, the lettuce, cilantro, onions, and tomatoes, hot sauce and layer it sort of like a cake or pie. I mean if there’s one reason to do camp cooking, this is it.)  It’s lazier to just crash on the couch watching Netflix then pitching a tent, staking to the ground, and rolling out a sleeping bag while listening to crickets chirp. As one of my exes said about camping: “You’re just pretending to be homeless out in the forest” And to some extent, as humorous as that is, I suppose it’s true. I mean I never thought of it like that. But yeah, you leave your nice warm, comfortable home with all the modern amenities to go outside and live in a makeshift shelter, making meals for whatever is available (or that you pack), using as little resources and tools as possible, sort of like a homeless person would.  It’s survival at its core and something primal in me finds joy in “living off the land” or whatever, or maybe it’s just playing too many survival games like Far Cry, Tomb Raider, and Red Dead Redemption. Either way, there is some value in camping though, even for the lazy man. If anything, it makes you appreciate that comfy couch even more. See, because sometimes doing things the hardest way possible makes you realize just how easy you have it; it opens your eyes to things you should appreciate. Camping is an opportunity to connect with nature and also escape the routine. When you get stuck in a routine, you begin to feel kind of..apathetic. It’s like you’re running through the motions without actually experiencing them or being conscious of what's happening. You begin to appreciate things that you normally take for granted. After going on a camping trip and coming back to “real life”, the daily routine seems less mundane and I find myself getting excited about the little things that I normally don’t even think twice about. Like showers and WiFi and a flushing toilet.  It also seems like things I thought were hard work, really are quite easy. After pitching a tent, making your bed doesn’t seem so bad, for example. And a gas stove seems like a freaking phenomenal invention after having to gather logs, construct a decent fire pit, attempting to light it, then keeping it ablaze while you cook things. Do things the “hard” way and the“normal “way of things becomes a lot easier. Whether I’m secretly LARPing or just enjoying the “great outdoors”, I have to admit camping also has a bit of nostalgic factor for me. I used to go camping a lot with the Boy Scouts, like at least once a month. I remember going on a winter camping trip in an Adirondack. I hated it. I hate the cold, first of all. Like hot can be uncomfortable. I get it. Especially when you’re just standing there, sweating your balls off, without any sort of physical effort. It sucks. But cold...Cold actually hurts. Cold goes beyond slight discomfort and brings actual pain.It hurts to be cold. I mean you reach the point where like you can’t even move. You’re frozen. Cold is a terrible sensation And in case you don’t know what an Adirondack is, it’s a three-walled “mini-cabin”  What the fuck. Look, I may procrastinate. I’m lazy, but at least I get shit done. A 3 walled cabin is not a complete project and is certainly not efficient, I mean if we’re gonna talk about minimizing effort and maximizing results here. The design has no protection from the elements, at least temperature wise. So you’re basically outside with a roof. It’s similar to sleeping outside in a picnic pavilion. Might as well. Like yeah, it’ll keep you dry from the rain and snow, but if it’s cold, it ain’t doing shit to keep you warm. Oh and that’s assuming it doesn’t rain sideways, which if it does, you’re fucked. Sure there’s supposed to be some “clever design” where the roof is arched a bit to prevent rain from getting in, but there is just some wind that ain’t stopping to that bullshit. You’ll come back and all your gear will be maybe not soaked but at least damp from the heavy pouring rain. There’s no 100% protection from the elements in these mini 3 walled fuckers. But ya know what would work really well in keeping your stuff dry? An actual cabin. Ya know, with FOUR freaking walls. Leave the fourth wall breaking to DeadPool.  Anyway... We would sleep in what’s called a “mummy” bag, which is a sleeping bag that is literally shaped like an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, with a wide top for the head and torso and thin bottom for the feet. It’s designed to be a thick blanket to keep you warm with a tiny little hole for breathing. You can tighten the hole with a pull string. You have two options. Either put your nose and mouth in this tiny hole so that part of your face, namely your nose and mouth, were exposed to the cold air or cover the hole and not only limit your breathing but also get your sleeping bag all wet due to the moisture in your breath. I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep when my face is cold and I certainly can’t sleep in a wet blanket. So I basically spent the whole night rolling over, trying to get comfortable.  Another one I remember was actually my first camping trip. Long story short, we were on a field and I mean it not only rained, but it poured. So bad that I swear I saw Noah’s Ark floating by. One of the things you do when packing for camping is put your clothes in a plastic bag and sela it so they don’t get wet. Well, you’re supposed to suck all the air out when doing so because if you don’t, as a I found out the hard way, they pop. All of my bags popped and my clothes got soaked. And my Boy Scout Handbook, which I used for the rest of my scouting career up to Eagle was water damaged on Camping Trip #1. I remember one of the leaders saying: “It ain’t camping if there ain’t rain.” There were also some really awesome moments in camping too, and I don’t want to sound like I’m just complaining about it. There was one trip we were dropped off in the middle of the wilderness, via float plane and had to paddle back to civilization. Along the way we came across a village. Population:14. There was a guy selling root beer and fudge there. I felt like we discovered a secret NPC or something. There was also several times I got to climb a high obstacle course up in the trees, which was pure conquest!  Good or bad. It was always an adventure. And that’s the key thing, adventure. There was a moment when I was freezing wet and cold, thinking to myself, like “WHY?” “Why am I doing this?” “What’s the point?” I mean I have a home. I’m NOT homeless. I don’t need to “suffer’ like this. But then I realized, it’s because it was an adventure. A lot of people are just machines with machine brains. Going to the same 9 to 5 job, doing the same tasks, eating the same meals, driving the same roads, watching the same shows. Over and over again. They aren’t living. They’re existing. They’re running like a computer program, following the same set of patterns and behaviors.  Adventure, camping, makes you feel alive. It breaks you out of your comfort zone. It takes you out being “stuck” in the routine. Go camping for the “escape” the grind - to get out of the routine. Do so not for the likes or the karma but to reconnect yourself back to...LIFE! Unplug yourself from the digital world. Detach yourself from the 9 to 5 grind. Sometimes you need to put yourself in a situation of a bit of discomfort in order to appreciate the comfort you already have. You need to break routine to be human and avoid being a machine. Camping puts things into perspective and makes you appreciate the modern technologies and conveniences we have today. Whether it’s the “perfect weekend” with clear skies for a camping trip or a stormy mess, every single camping trip gives you a sense of adventure, a sense of feeling alive. And trust me, the bed feels 10x comfier after a camping trip than it did before going.  Take it easy and go nap in a sleeping bag once in a while.
- N8
0 Comments
Ah, sleep is one of the best feelings man.
I mean think about it. When you wake up, how many times are you like “No, I just wanna stay in bed. It’s so warm and cozy.”? Like you just want to continue that sleep. Sleep is the second best thing in bed that makes me feel so euphoric and serene. We’re gonna give an ode to sleep today and take a look at some studies and fun little anecdotes that show how awesome it is. You wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery, you normally panic and run to a charger ASAP before it hits dead zero. You oughta jump in bed and get some rest as if it’s just as much as an emergency as charging your phone. Cats nap throughout the day and they always land on their feet, so maybe they’re onto something. Sloths are animals that literally just sleep all day and look, they’ve managed to survive through centuries of evolution. They even out lived “go-getter” hardworking predators, like the 20 foot alligator that had long legs and could gallop at full speed.( Literally, they were *too* efficient at killing that they ran out of prey to eat.) You should sleep as much as possible and do it whenever and wherever you want, with no shame. Embrace your inner sloth and sleep like it's your goddamn job. A study from the University of Michigan actually concluded that naps during the job are quintessential to productivity and emotional control. More naps, less stress People that take naps are not as easily frustrated or bothered. They don’t get caught up in drama; they’re relaxed and laid back -- as a procrastin8r should be. If you have a cranky boss or bitch co-worker, it’s probably because they aren’t taking enough naps (and they’re probably also diagnosed with assholiphrenia but that’s another story) “staying awake for an extended period of time hinders people from controlling negative emotional responses,” said Jennifer Goldschmied, University of Michigan Boost your focus, creativity, and productivity with a lil nap In the study, people that took a nap were able to focus on tedious tasks for longer than their non-napping counterparts. Naps were found to be" enhancing the ability to persevere through difficult or frustrating tasks” Nappers were also able to generate ideas more efficiently in creative tasks and overall slam out better productivity. So the next time you fall asleep during work or class, just tell your boss or teacher that you’re trying to be as productive as possible. In Japan, they literally encourage falling asleep during work. Napping in the day time is seen as a sign of diligence. So exercise your due diligence and take a nap. Other cultures like in Spain have the tradition of having a “Siesta”, a mid afternoon nap. Only here in America do we seem to try to run humans like machines, fueled by coffee, which we’ll get to. Remember, remember You may not always remember your dreams (and the ones I do are quite bizarre), but getting enough sleep can enhance your memory in the waking life. Why study when you can just sleep? Study for a little bit then take a nap and you’ll have a better chance at retaining that information than if you “pull an all-nighter” trying to memorize as much information as possible. And you could always just drop out if you don't feel like taking tests to begin with. Dream about losing weight, literally Lack of sleep throws your hormones that regulate appetite out of whack. Forget all the crazy ass diets that require all these charts and meal prep, learning new recipes and reading boring nutrition information. Just sleep and you’ll increase your metabolism and lessen your hunger, which is key to losing weight. The Zzz Diet Prevent depression with a dose of 40 winks Stress leads to anxiety and anxiety leads to depression, so by doing something, say napping, that lowers your stress, you are therefore lowering your chance at developing a severe case of depression. Of course one of the symptoms of depression is sleeping too much. Go figure. When your depressed, your brain is working hard with anxiety and you need to calm it down with laziness. You also need to stop giving a fuck about things that go wrong and say "mistakes are meh" Depression is a serious topic that I’d like to dive in further though at some point and apply it to the Lazy Mindset, maybe share my story of how I got out of it. Sleep On It How many times have you heard that phrase? Whenever you have a big decision to make , you may be told to just "sleep on it" This will give you time for your brain to process all the information and rest so you can make the decision in a refreshed and relaxed state of mind. Likewise, if you're experiencing "writer's block", you can use sleep to gain some creative energy. "Yesterday" by the Beatles, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix, and the "Every Breath You Take" by the Police to name a few hit songs that were written...while sleeping. The artists claim the inspiration came from their dreams. If you have a big decision to make or project to work on, don't jump on it right away. Sleep on it. Mmm...Coffee Well all you coffee lovers are gonna love this. A caffeine nap. But before we get into what that is. Let's take a moment, a little tangent, to just examine the bizarre culture around caffeine. Caffeine is the only legal drug in America that’s widely accepted fully and completely-- to the point where you can grab a cup from nearly every office break room or purchase it from every corner at your local convenience store. There’s really no stigma against it. Any other drug or even marijuana or alcohol has *some* type of back lash for its consumption. People might raise eye brows if you light up a joint or drink some scotch or whiskey too early in the morning. But... Drink coffee without any sort of stigma, even a little bit, ANY TIME OF DAY, morning, evening, doesn't matter and that’s completely okay. Despite the fact that caffeine is more dangerous than a lot of other substances, especially weed. It can cause muscle tremors, anxiety, permanent heart damage, insomnia, high blood pressure, digestive issues, and even bladder and kidney failure. But ya know, “gotta have muh cuppa joe”. People are real addicted to the stuff man. It’s the only “psychoactive” drug that's accepted by the mainstream. It’s really like Speed Jr. only it’s socially acceptable. It’s as acceptable as drinking tap water (unless you’re in Flint) Probably because it keeps people energetic enough to work grueling hours, but we’re not gonna use it to work grueling hours, we’re gonna use it to rejuvenate. And by the way, I’m just pointing out the bizarre nature of our culture and not hating on it. I mean damn, do I love me some WaWa Cuban Roast coffee. I just feel other substances should be as accepted as caffeine, considering how dangerous it is or whatever. It's no more or less dangerous than other drugs and has no more ore less psychoactive effects as other drugs. They say America runs on Dunkin. False. Only parts of the country that lack WaWa run on Dunkin.WaWa. I know sounds like a silly name, but it’s freaking beast! It’s like a *gourmet* 7-11 basically, for those of you not in the Northeast. Many people drink a cuppa joe “to wake up” in the morning, but we procrastin8rs use it to rejuvenate our energy. Maximize results. Caffeine doesn’t typically “kick in” until after about 10-20 minutes after you drink it, which is perfect for a power nap. Instead of waiting for the energy burst to hit ya, take a short little nap instead. When you wake up, you’ll feel refreshed from the nap aaaaand you’ll get the kick from the caffeine around the same time. So you’ll be like, basically super human at that point. I’ve got the power! The premise behind a power nap is to hit the “Goldilocks” zone of your sleep cycle. You want to sleep “just long enough” so that you get a good rest, but not so long that you enter a deep sleep and wind up waking up all groggy like you’re hungover after a night of downing shots of rum and tequila. 20 minutes is typically the sweet spot, but this varies from person to person. Some people are not even able to do these power naps and just wind up staring blankly at the ceiling at the whole time. If you can pull it off though, you get the benefits of sleep, without the downside of wasting hours or feeling groggy. You may need to sleep longer or shorter to “feel the power” This is a good little card to play when you feel yourself getting drowsy at 3 AM playing Rocket League and wanna make it through a few more rounds or maybe “just one more level” in Runescape or maybe even do a few surveys online for pay, whatever. It’s recommended to take a nap in a dark quiet place, but basically wherever you’re comfortable and wanna doze off is good. A Full “Night’s” Rest is whenever (and wherever) you want. Of course power naps, siestas, cat naps, and other mid-day naps can only get you so far. Nothing compares to a full R.E.M deep 40 winks sleep. It works wonders on your brain ,greatly enhancing your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. The benefits of being well rested are pure conquest. It can increase memory, productivity, metabolism, and emotional control, as we already covered. Games like Fallout and World of Warcraft take a prompt from Real Life and add a temporary boost to your stats when your character is “Well-Rested” The word "night" is optional, by the way. You don't have to sleep at night. You can sleep whenever you want, as long as you get to that "Well-Rested" status. I am definitely NOT a morning person, or a go to bed by 10 and wake up at 6 type dude. I prefer staying up to the wee hours of the morning and waking up late afternoon and sometimes early evening. Hit that Snooze The Snooze Button is my best friend. I slap that baby like 4 or 5 times before facing the fact that I have to get up. My reaction to an alarm is not to get up and out of bed. Instead, it’s: “Just five more minutes” There isn’t a specific study I could find that examines the specific effects of “hitting snooze” However, according to Business Insider, David Dinges, chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine says that The extra 10 minutes you get by snoozing can actually help to gently awaken the mind, rather than jolt it back to wakefulness” On the other hand, Jeanne Duffy, a neuroscientist and sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School suggests that by snoozing after your alarm, you risk entering “sleep inertia”, a state of grogginess that last up to 30 minutes after waking up. Essentially hitting that snooze means either feeling brand spanking new or like you’ve been slammed by a truck. I would surmise from this that it is good to snooze, but you have to find the right amount of length in time that works for you. Gotta catch up on on ‘em all Some studies insist that NO, you can NEVER catch up on sleep. While others say, well, yes, actually you can. Is sleep like student loan debt that can be repaid eventually? Can you catch up on sleep? Who knows? With varying results from different studies, the data is rather inconclusive. All I know is that if I personally pull all nighters saying to myself “just one more level” or “just one more episode” and feel tired all week for doing so, but later decide to sleep in until the early evening on the weekend, I feel totally refreshed and well-rested. I think catching up on sleep works in some cases but not all. Not everyone can "catch up" on sleep and some need a consistent pattern. And I do think it depends on how much sleep you “owe” to yourself. Like, it may take a few days of playing “catch up” before really feeling like you don’t severely lack any sleep. But take my totally non expert opinion with a grain of salt. I'm just a lazy dude that enjoys sleeping in and also catching up on sleep if I stay up too late playing video games. It's YOUR Sleep! The takeaway here is to sleep when you want, where you want, and not be pressured to meet someone else's sleeping schedule. Do things on your terms. Sleep on your terms. Create a life where you sleep in as late as you want and don’t have a boss hollering at you when you do finally get up. I’ll end it with a quote from an actual expert: According to Time Magazine, Dr. Sara Mednick, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life. says “Everyone’s different. If you feel good, whatever you’re doing is fine.” Now I’m pretty tired after all this writing, so I’m gonna go take a nap. Take it easy, N8 Entrepreneurship. Sounds intimidating. Sounds like a lot of work. Running your own business. Doing it from scratch. No thanks.
But here’s a truth bomb: Entrepreneurship is really just euphemism for “being a lazy bastard who makes money doing what he wants”. But the Evil Lazy Masterminds that run this whole shit show don’t want you to know that. They want obedient workers. Compared to the typical 9 to 5 job, entrepreneurship is NOT extra work; it’s not more difficult; it’s not even riskier. It is simply a mindset shift. In a day job, you work 40+ hours for SOMEONE ELSE, building the dreams for someone else, helping someone else gain profits. You might as well put that time, or even a fraction of it, into building yourself and building what you want. All that energy you spend, all that time you spend on someone else could be your own. Entrepreneurship is simply saying “I’m doing what I want, not what somebody else wants” It’s making your own decisions because you don’t care what other people think and you don’t care about their “professional standards”. You don’t have to be a go-getter or a hard worker to be a successful entrepreneur. As a matter of fact, being a Lazy Entrepreneur has quite a range of benefits that we’ll cover today. Without further ado, here’s a list of why being a Lazy Entrepreneur, a PROcrastin8r if you will, leads to success: You don’t deal with bullshit. If a customer/client is giving you a hard time, you’d rather not deal with them than wait on hand n’ foot to. You cut them off instead of going above and beyond You follow the principle of “Limited Effort”, meaning there’s a limited amount of effort you are willing to give to each client and once you reach that threshold, you tell them to go. Truth is, there are certain clients that probably won’t be happy no matter what you do anyway. They’re just going to complain and give you 2 stars at best. It’s better to cut your losses than attempt to please someone who insists on being unhappy. You put energy into people that yield results. You Work ON the business rather than IN it. Every bit of work that you do do has a direct impact on growing the business. You’re creating systems, creating goals, and scheduling tasks for others to do, rather than actually doing it all yourself. The work you do is about growth, leveling up your business as opposed to providing maintenance or doing routine tasks. You don’t put effort into things that aren’t helping you and your business move forward because that’s a waste of energy. You’re the head of business, not an employee. Decide how much an hour of your time is worth and ask yourself “Is this really worth that much?” For example “Is it really worth paying $100 per hour for someone to clean the toilets?” You can say No Too many people are “Yes men” (or women) and end up committing themselves to more things than they have the time or energy for. You, on the other hand, procrastin8r, lazy entrepreneur, say NO up front and avoid signing up for or making promises to anything extra beyond what you want to do (or can do for that matter). You don’t deplete your resources ever because you say NO before it reaches that point. You get other people to do work for you. Don’t feel like doing something? Good. You delegate. You don’t do a lot of work because most of it is something you assign to someone else. Like any true leader, you’re lazy as fuck Honey badger Don’t Care You’re not emotionally invested in the business. Mistakes are meh and you don’t get caught up in the work place drama or frivolous ideas. That’s too exhausting. Instead you focus on numbers, key metrics, and most importantly, results. You’re approachable You’re laid back, cool, calm, and collected. People like you and they appreciate how you’re not breathing down their neck as they’re trying to work. You’re open to new ideas and solutions and that means people do a lot of the brainstorming work for you. You lead through encouragement rather than micro managing every little thing. You set the direction and people follow. They come to you, rather than you having to go chase them down yourself. You make them feel comfortable and at ease because you create a cozy environment. You don’t waste time in meetings or decision making processes. Sitting around in a meeting is boring and rarely productive. There’s no sense in talking about what needs to be done when it could just be getting done instead. Although you’re laid back you don’t want to be a complete door mat and have people walk all over you, so you are firm. Although you’re open to suggestions, when you make decisions, you stick to them and don’t open up a huge debate. Talking back and forth and discussing every little caveat and detail along the is way more effort than it’s worth. You can run a business from the COUCH No sitting in front of an uncomfortable desk, no standing in a factory line. Lay on back and enjoy the comforts of your couch. You can do all the marketing, hiring, and even day to day work all from your laptop while you lay on back in a cloud of pillows. Plus, this saves you on start up cost since you won’t have to invest in any real estate. You make money without even trying You find ways to generate passive income so that you aren’t actively working Maybe it’s drop shipping, maybe it’s selling a software or e-book that’s auto delivered and requires no inventory maintenance. You find a way to make money from your business that requires no effort on your part (or anyone’s part for that matter). You control your own life and career. You don’t have a boss making decisions for you. Want to sleep ‘til noon? Go right ahead. Wanna sip Captain n Coke instead of coffee at your desk? Done. Wanna take a couple days off without having to file any paper work? Have at it dude. You are in the driver’s seat and get to choose where to go and what to do at any time. There are no arbitrary rules you have to follow or behavior standards. You can burp or fart as loud as you want to. You are patient Later, eventually, whenever -- these are common words in a procrastin8r’s vocabulary. You, as well as your employees, are in absolutely no rush and consequently, a hell of a lot less stressed compared to a company with strict quotas and deadlines. You take things one step at a time. You’re not trying to be “the next big thing” within a few months, rather establish a lazy lifestyle over the course of many years. You’re in it for the long game and take it slow n’ steady. You’ll eventually crush competition because they’ll burn out way more quickly than you do. You are a cheap bastard You don’t like to spend a lot and so you look to cut costs wherever you can, like buying used equipment from closing businesses, as Colby WIlliams mentioned he did for Parengo Coffee on lvl 40 of the ProcrastiN8r Podcast. “Frugal” is the nice little word they use to describe your behavior, but maybe stingy is more accurate. That’s okay you’d rather have something old and reliable than the latest and greatest. You can spend the money you save on marketing (to spread the word about your business for you) or hiring more employees (to do work for you). That said, you are cheap but not greedy. You don't underpay or undervalue your employees or friends and family that do you a favor, if anything because they'll be more likely to do more work for you and will stick around because they won't burn out. You are inventive You come up with solutions to problems because you don’t want to deal with the hassle. You find the easiest and most effective way to do something that requires the least amount of steps and the least amount of work. Remember: every invention ever, since the wheel was created by a lazy person. Overall, Entrepreneurship is Easy. The only reason someone would tell you otherwise is because they want you working for them (or someone they know), instead of yourself. Entrepreneurship is not about starting your own business, it’s about choosing to be lazy enough to quit your day job and actually do what you want instead of what someone else wants. Take it easy, N8 P.S. Check out my interview with Colby Williams, author of the book Small Town Big Money, who started his own coffee shop using these Lazy Entrepreneurship principles, in case you missed it. This is it. I’m writing my last blog post. I am done. Retired. Sayonara. Bon voyage. See ya never.
Thank you all for the support along the way. It’s been real and it’s been nice, but it hasn’t been real nice. I'm too lazy to write any more. As always, stay classy and take real easy. N8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What? Still here? I told you: I'm done writing. No more content. That’s it. Capeesh? Jeez... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Damnit! You are persistent. I will give you that. But STOP SCROLLING. Because there’s literally no more to read. I'm tellin ya! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Really? Still here? Again? What do I have to tell you? Scram, kid!. Get outta here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April Fool's! Oh...it's May? Well I'm always late to the party. Fashionably late of course. TROLOLOLOLO! Anyway, I plan on continuing to create content. Don’t worry. But.. The mental attitude of “being done” (perpetually) is what it took to write this. Of course I normally procrastinate and put off writing this until the last minute, but I always get shit done! I honestly didn’t have the motivation to write this article today at all, though, beyond just waiting ‘til the last minute. Maybe I’m partly burnt out, maybe I’m just too emotionally charged after seeing End Game, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t want to write this blog today. Like not in the least bit. But I did. I got through it. I did it. And how did I pull that off? How did I gain the inspiration and energy to write an entire new blog article? By telling myself that this was the very last one I was going to write. Ever. And even playing up on that imagination a little bit. That gave a great feeling of “relief” and actually made me roll right through this without even thinking about it. See, when we say “oh I’m just going to have to do this again” next week or tomorrow or at some point, whenever, we don’t give our minds the rest they need. We create a mental prison of eternal work, and that’s just no good. That’s a hardworking mindset, not a lazy one. We create the “pressure of Eternity”, making us feel like this (whatever work load or project you have) isn’t ever going to end -- that you’re just going to have to do it again, over and over. It's like singing that ole Lamb Chop song to yourself. We look at the next thing before we’re done the first thing in front of it and see no end to it. It has to be done (your goals) one step at a time. It’s one thing to have direction, it’s another to try to finish the whole race in one step. Staring at the screen, wasting time, I realized it’s not that I didn’t want to write today’s blog, it’s that I didn’t want to write all the blogs I would write ever. Instead of focusing on the task at hand TODAY, I was mentally preparing myself to do every single blog I’d ever write IN THE FUTURE. This was where my “writer’s block” came in. I became so bogged down by the sheer amount of potential blogs that I wasn’t actually focusing on this one specifically. I was gauging my energy and willpower against the plethora of blogs I’ll write in the future…instead of just this one simple article I have to write today. I put myself up to do more than I actually had to do, in my head. Luckily, I caught myself in this hardworking mode of thinking, took a deep breath, relaxed, and put a stop to it. I decided to approach this with the attitude “I’’ll be done forever after this.” That gave me the motivation I needed to do the thing. By giving myself a little “ta da” finale victory, I was able to strive through writing this little blurb here. We live in a "work hard" mantra society that forces us to believe that there is no such thing as "DONE". (and let me tell you, old habits die hard) It's one project after another. Done is a fleeting state and unobtainable, as we are taught. You are not done until you die and/or retire. "Work 'til you die" or are at least physically unable to, basically. Well, I'll tell you what, we didn't always hold this ridiculous belief that "DONE" is not an option. Think about summer time when you were in school as a kid…. Summer time was the best time as a kid! Over 90 days of swimming, camping, roller skating, making s’mores, or even playing video games in the AC when I didn’t feel like actually going outside But before the 3 month long vacation, there was that week or two in school where I entered this same “I’m done” attitude that I took while writing this blog. I remember sitting in the hot classroom, looking out the window, daydreaming about Slip n’ Slides and playing tag. I would get home, hop on the Playstation for a few hours, then... face the inevitable monster -- my homework. I hesitated, procrastinated, for quite a bit. I even considered not doing it at all. But then I was like: “Fuck it. It’s the last week before summer. I’ll just get it done. I won’t have to worry about this shit for a while after that.” Almost there. Just this one little thing. Of course, perhaps the word “fuck” and “shit” was not in my childhood dictionary, but you get the point. It was easy to pull through the last stretch because there was that big reward at the end -- summer break. I managed to do my homework because I was almost done with any sort of school work for the rest of the year anyway. I could push through the final stretch. It's like sprinting full speed the last few yards in a marathon race. No matter how tired the runner may be, they've already made it so far and might as well give it all they got as they cross the finish line. (Of course summer school is a different story but I want to focus on the mental attitude present in that moment) Summer meant one word: FREEDOM! It meant I didn’t have to wake up early. I could sleep to noon. It meant I didn’t have to sit in a classroom (and be brainwashed), and could lay on the couch. It meant I didn’t have to hear the teacher yell at me for falling asleep. It meant I didn’t have to do homework. I could go outside and play tag with my friends or trade Pokemon with them or just stay inside and try to beat Gex or Final Fantasy VII. There were no obligations. Only possibilities. I didn’t even think about school during the period of those few months. (Well other than those “summer readings” we had to do. Goddamn teachers who assign summer readings. Like c’mon we know you already read this and it definitely wasn’t during the summer, but you gonna make us read it during the summer while you enjoy all the free time. Who ya tryin’ to play?) Even though we’re not kids any more, and most of us aren’t teachers who get the entire summer off, we should still give ourselves a “summer break”. I don’t mean literally take off the whole summer, though that would be nice and you should do that if possible; also it’s my goal to create a life where I’m living a permanent summer vacation. What I mean is we should strive to give ourselves the mental relief as an adult that summer break gave us as a kid. You need to find something that you enjoy and take the time to well, enjoy it. I don’t mean like taking the weekend to do something in the way you may hit up the club or hit up Overwatch with your buddies on a Friday evening after a 9 to 5 job. I mean fully engulfing yourself in the activity you enjoy to the point where you don’t even think about your work duty or obligations, not just distract yourself for a bit. There's a difference between finding enjoyment and finding distractions. As a kid, heck you never put a time stamp on it. At least I didn’t As a kid, I literally did NOT keep track of what the date was, yet alone what the day of the week it was. I wasn’t staring at the clock on the wall in a classroom, and was before cell phones too, so literally there were two times during the day: “light and dark” I didn’t think about what sort of assignments I would get in the next grade. I didn’t worry about how hard the homework would be or how confusing math would be in the upcoming year. I was even back then: a procrastinator at heart. School wasn’t something I thought or cared about during the summer. The summer was...the summer! That’s it. Enjoyment in it’s purest form. Nothing else mattered except having fun. That’s what you want to achieve -- that level of enjoyment -- when you take a break or vacation from your work. I wasn't distracting myself from school. I was enjoying summer Like the only reason I knew summer was even ending, coming to a close, was because my parents would nag “you’re going back to school soon”, followed by a trip to buy school supplies and new fitting clothes for my uniform (yes I went to prison *ahem* um, Catholic school). I was like “oh snap, I guess it’s August. Aw man.” I mean yeah, it went by fast but I was actually living those moments, not just worrying about what the future would hold. Often times when we get down to do an assignment, we think more about what else needs to get done, rather than what we are actually doing That feeling of “Almost done” (any sort of obligation) makes things easy and it’s imperative to achieve that with every move you make. It allows you to focus on what you are actually doing, rather than what is yet to come, just as you don't think about next year's classes right before "School's Out" before summer or even during summer for that matter. Plus, the more you appreciate the little goals you achieve, the better you’ll feel about yourself and your ability to achieve things, so take time to relax and celebrate, even if for a few minutes. As you’re working, look forward to a positive future, where you get to relax and do what you enjoy, rather than think about the other things on your to do list or how often you’ll have to repeat the specific task you’re currently working on. Then...give yourself a break, give yourself freedom. Do nothing. Immerse deeply in lazy relaxation to the point where any “have tos” or obligations are far gone from your mind, just like you did as a (lazy) kid during the summer. Live in the moment of enjoyment, not in the future of obligations. Procrastinate moving on to the next assignment and move at your own pace. Slow n’ steady. Make summer all year long. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my Switch waiting for me on the couch. Take it easy, N8 Have you ever done unimportant tasks in order to avoid doing one BIG task?
Today we’re going to talk about what I like to call “Procrasti-ductivity”, which is basically putting off important projects to do, well, other seemingly productive things that have nothing to do with said project. It’s an odd concept. I know I mean either you’r e either productive or your not, right? ...or so it seems. Stick with me though. Procrastination is not just black or white, though. There are some grey areas to cover and today we’re going to dive into one of those grey areas. Sometimes we end up doing things that don’t really need to be done immediately in order to procrastinate what does. I remember during my college finals I had ten page paper to write. Well you bet your butt that I kept putting it off and I found rather ridiculous ways to do so. I mean of course I went through the normal rhetoric of browsing Reddit, watching YouTube videos, playing PS4, ya know...the usual. But eventually (like super later last minute, hours before it’s due, eventually) I was like “alright, let’s uhh...do this thing.” But then, my laziness kicked into double time. I said to myself... “Well I shouldn’t really work with a messy desk. I should clean up my desk a bit so I can focus better." So I went ahead and cleaned up my desk, which took about an hour because we’ll just say I’m not known for keeping my desk too tidy and there was a lot to put away and/or throw out. Yeah, I know what the fuck, right? That’s not something I normally do. Clean up? The fuck?I don’t normally “tidy up” except when I’m procrastinating apparently. Well lo and behold my desk was clear, wiped and shiny I was for all intents and purposes “Ready” to begin writing my paper. BUT OH WAIT! “What if I have to get up and use the bathroom?” My laziness interrupted. “Certainly I can’t be bothered with all the mess on the floor. I mean that would just stress me out. I got to clean it up” And so I went ahead and put away my clothes (that were on the floor), scrubbed out some stains of god knows what, and threw out candy wrappers and other wrappers before sitting back down on my desk. Wow, how productive! “Okay. NOW we’re ready…” or so I thought, “Nope, not quite,” replied my laziness. You see, after picking up all that trash on the floor, now my tiny little shopping bag trash can was full. I shouldn't sit there with a full can of trash. I should take it out. And so, for the third time, I decided to... yet again, do something quote on quote “productive”in order to put off doing my paper, which of course was the most important thing I had to get done but at least I was doing other productive things...kinda? Nonetheless, I took out the trash to the garbage closet in my dorm, headed back to my room, and proceeded to start my paper. And by start my paper I mean open up Microsoft Word. Progress. But man… After all the cleaning up and given the fact I was just in the trash room, I worked up quite a sweat and a bit of a stench. “ I should go shower” I thought to myself in a voice of laziness, not reason. Laziness, uncontrolled, has this tricky thing it does where it will logically convince you that procrastinating your most important task at hand in order to do more minuscule, unimportant things, is not only acceptable but desirable and maybe even necessary. It’s not, it’s just your mind playing tricks on you, but we’ll get to that. Of course I followed that line of lazy logic and decided to go shower. Now of course I can’t take a quick shower. I have to relax and enjoy the warm water. I have to sing songs and enjoy the reverb. “I’ll take a nice long one so my mind is relaxed and ready to focus on this paper [that I should have started about 2 hours ago and counting]” It took a bit to adjust the perfect temperature, given these were dorm showers and there were basically 2 temperatures: frostbite and Mordor. I found the Goldilocks zone eventually, showered, and then just stood in the hot water, reflecting on life, the best place to do it. #showerthoughts After probably about 20 minutes I shut the valve off, grabbed my towel, and as I was drying myself, I looked in the mirror. “Oh man, I need to shave.” “When was the last time…” And guess what I ended up doing after my shower. (No, get your mind out the gutter!) I shaved. (No, not there either. I mean my face! Gutter. Out.) Anyway, body sparkling, clean shaven, mind relaxed. But wait…*growls* I can’t do this paper on an empty stomach! And so next thing ya know, I’m taking the elevator down to the campus cafe. I’m ordering a cheesteak and fries. And decided to eat there, instead of getting it “to go” so I could eat while I work, because I figured “Well then I’ll get crumbs all over my freshly cleaned desk. I then went outside to get some fresh air and smoke a cigarette (ah, irony) so I could relax. Besides, I deserve a little break. I mean,I got a lot done today...even if none of it was my paper. After finishing a stog or two, I headed back up to my room. But now, after eating and smoking, I had to brush my teeth. I mean wouldn’t want stinky breath while trying to write that paper, amirite? C’mon now. I brushed my teeth, clocking in the full two minutes like you’re supposed to using the stopwatch app on my phone and... You know what? I haven’t flossed in a while. I should probably do that while I’m here. So I freaking go ahead and floss my teeth. That’s something I never do and am ashamed to admit, but I’m too lazy to dig a little string in between each tiny crevice of my oral abyss. Ain’t got no time for that! This time though. Whoo boy. This time, we were gonna floss and we were gonna floss right. No matter the fact that I started bleeding like a virgin on prom night, just like I do every time I go to the dentist. By the way when I go to the dentist,the second they walk in the room, I’m just straight up like: “Hey, just so you know I didn’t floss since probably about the last time I’ve been here” just to avoid that awkward conversation: Doctor: “Oh how often do you floss?” Me: “Uh.. Doctor: … Me: ... Me: When was my last appointment?” Anywho... So I cleaned my desk, cleaned the floor, took out the trash, showered, ate some food, smoked a cigarette on a nice walk, brushed AND FLOSSSED my teeth. I was good to go, after I also scrubbed the toilet and scrubbed the sink. I kid you not, but then I was good to go. No for real this, I *actually* started to write...and finished! I finished that baby just in the nick of time, minutes before class. Procrastination brings out adrenaline and I turn on BEAST MODE. I got an A on that paper. Booya! But it’s really kind of a similar victory to HULK smashing things wildly without having control over the big green guy inside.I felt drained and powerless. It didn’t feel good. See, looking back, I was letting my laziness use me and not the other way around. I was being just plain lazy and not SUPER lazy. I was procrastinating, of course, but not with purpose. I was avoiding my most important task (writing my paper) by being oddly productive on things that while did need to be done, weren’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things, especially the night before a more important project was due. My goal was to graduate and none of those little clean up tasks contributed to that. You may have had a similar experience where you put off a “big project”, whether it’s a paper or a phone call or video, whatever, in order to do seemingly productive things. These tasks, however, are really just distractions and diversions as much as a video game or social media page may be. They keep us unfocused from the road of our main objective, our main goal at hand that we’re trying to accomplish. Now the solution is not to “just do it” or “work hard. No, the solution is to EMBRACE your laziness, and use it to your advantage (as opposed to letting it take advantage of you), Laziness is actually quite awesome. It’s an emotional response that encourages you to avoid over-exerting yourself. You procrastinate hard tasks because your primal senses are telling you that would be too much energy depletion (and likely death) Procrastination is a hard-wired survival instinct. Back in the hunter-gatherer days, our ancestors needed to save their energy because they didn’t know when the next meal would come. They had to “get the most” out the calories they had. They could go after a large hunt, but they also had to save energy to fight off invaders. It would be a waste to try a hard hunt only to either fail or be too tired to provide protection for the rest of the tribe. While taking down the “next big hunt” was important, it was also equally, if not more so, important to defend yourself and your tribe. Ya know, to kind of make sure you lived another day. Thus, saving energy, procrastinating, was necessary for survival. You didn’t go after a big hunt because it could mean a matter of life and death. Now, we’re not out living on the land, but we still feel those hard-wired impulses We put off “the next big hunt”, (or “the next big project” in the 21st century lingo) in order to...survive, like our ancestors. But look, it’s not a matter of life and death here. You may get drained mentally or maybe even physically. However, the big thing ya gotta do is in no way, shape, or form as energy intensive or dangerous as say, fighting a bear or some shit. It can feel that way, though. Basically your brain is playing tricks on you to make you think you could literally die by doing the hardest and most important task at hand. But we’re in control now, us procrastin8rs. We’re evolved beyond just the lizard brain. We understand what our emotions are telling us, what our laziness is telling us. It’s telling us “Woah buddy, that’s a bit too big of an undertaking. You’re gonna burn out if you take it on.” Your solution thus far has been to distract yourself with smaller, easier tasks. But this just puts you in a position of doing excessive work. You are essentially working hard without being productive. Any work you do or effort you give should bring about productivity. Productivity is of course progress towards your goal. Everything from cleaning up my desk to scrubbing the toilet had absolutely NOTHING to do with my actual goal -- to graduate -- only writing the paper did. I ended up doing chores that were, well, kind of pointless in doing. I gave myself extra work above and beyond the call of duty. That’s not the Lazy Way. All I had to do was write the paper. I mean I still had to write that paper after all those chores. It’s not like it went away. I added a more to my work load that what was originally required, in the long run. While it may have seemed productive to do all those little chores, it really wasn’t. Again, because productivity is directly measured by results and progress towards a goal. I wasn’t making any progress on graduating by scrubbing the toilet. Procrastinate with purpose. Put off the chores for another day. And by the way, if you want to learn how to get chores done the lazy way, check out Lvl 36 of the ProcrastiN8r Podcast. You want to embrace your laziness and avoid putting in any work or effort that doesn’t directly result in productivity. Instead of distracting yourself with “easier” tasks to complete, just make the BIG task smaller and a lot easier. The whole reason you’re avoiding it in the first place is is because your hard-wired laziness is saying “don’t do this or you wil DIIIE!” You’re not gonna die, but ya gotta kind of work with your brain. So.. Break it down into chunks. Convince your brain that “it’s no big deal, man. We got this. It’s just a little bit.” Using the paper example, you could say, “Okay, I’m just going to write one sentence and that’s it.” Do one thing -- do one push up, write one sentence, sing one note. And be done. You’ll probably end up doing a lot more than just that one, but the hardest part is getting started. You just gotta do “enough” for your brain to get the message: “It’s all good, dude. We’re not gonna run out of energy or starve.” Meanwhile, you can procrastinate most of your to do list and just do it later. Use your laziness, but be in control of it. Make progress towards your goals instead of flossing your teeth. Take it easy, - N8 |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed