How to Beat Procrastination
Tim Urban,/one of the Internet’s most popular writers,/shares his thoughts on a variety of topics/from everyday psychology to artificial intelligence on his blog,/Wait But Why.// Here he writes a post on his own bad habit/—procrastination.//

　　I’m just a lifelong procrastinator/who thinks about this topic all the time.// I’m still in a total battle with my own habits,/but I have made some progress/in the last few years,/and I’m drawing my thoughts/from what’s worked for me.//
　　To understand why procrastinators procrastinate so much,/let’s start by comparing the non-procrastinator’s brain/with the procrastinator’s brain://
　　Do you notice anything different?// It seems the Rational Decision-Maker in the procrastinator’s brain/is coexisting with a pet/—the Instant Gratification Monkey.// This would be fine/if only the Rational Decision-Maker knew/how to own a monkey.// But unfortunately,/it wasn’t a part of his training/and he’s left completely helpless/as the monkey makes it impossible for him to do his job.//

　　The fact is,/the monkey is the last creature/that should be in charge of decisions.// He thinks only about the present,/trying to maximize the pleasure of the current moment.// The monkey doesn’t understand the Rational Decision-Maker;/the Rational Decision-Maker doesn’t understand the monkey either.// Why would we continue jogging,/the monkey thinks,/when we could stop,/which would feel better?// Why would we practice that instrument/when it’s not fun?// He thinks humans are insane.// In the monkey world,/he eats when he is hungry,/sleeps when he is tired,/and doesn’t do anything difficult.//
　　There’s one thing that scares the monkey.// It is called the Panic Monster.// The monster is inactive most of the time,/but he suddenly wakes up/when a deadline gets too close,/or when there’s danger of public embarrassment/or some other scary consequence.// It freaks the monkey out of the wheel/and the Rational Decision-Maker regains control to finish the task/in the last minute.// However,/some procrastinators don’t even respond to the monster.// In the most desperate moments,/they run up the tree with the monkey,/entering a state of shutdown.//

　　Now,/let’s examine the diagram/which represents the challenge at hand/anytime you take on a task.// The Critical Entrance/is where you go when you start the task;/the Dark Woods/is where you’re actually doing the work;/and once you finish,/you’re rewarded by ending up in the Happy Playground/—a place where you feel satisfaction/because you got something done.// You occasionally even enter a state of Flow,/where you’re so immersed in the task/that you lose track of time.// Sounds pretty simple,/right?//
　　Unfortunately,/procrastinators tend to miss out on both the Happy Playground and Flow.// For example,/consider a procrastinator/who couldn’t bring himself to get started.// He spent hours in the Dark Playground,/one of the monkey’s favorite places,/knowing the deadline was drawing near.// He was only making his life harder by not starting.// Eventually,/the deadline got so close,/the Panic Monster suddenly came roaring into the room,/causing him to fly through the task/to hit the deadline.// After he finishes,/he feels decent/because he accomplished something,/but he’s not that pleased/because he knows he rushed to do it.// He also feels/he wasted most of his day procrastinating.// This lands him in Mixed Feelings Park.//

　　What should you do/to keep this from happening?// First,/you must make it through the Critical Entrance.// This means stopping whatever you’re doing/when it’s time to begin the task.// You put away all distractions and get started.// This is the hardest part,/because this is where the monkey puts up his fiercest resistance.// He absolutely hates stopping something fun/to start something hard.// You need to be the strongest.// If you can get started/and force the monkey into the Dark Woods,/you’ve broken a bit of his will.//
　　The Dark Woods is where you’re working.// It’s not a fun place to be,/and the monkey wants nothing to do with it.// To make things harder,/the Dark Woods is surrounded by the Dark Playground.// And the monkey will try as hard as he can/to leave the Dark Woods.//
　　If you can power through a bit of the Dark Woods,/something funny happens.// Making progress on a task/produces positive feelings of accomplishment/and raises your self-esteem.// When you feel a jolt of self-satisfaction,/the monkey finds a High Self-Esteem Banana in his path.// It doesn’t suppress his resistance entirely,/but it goes a long way toward distracting him/for a while;/you’ll find that the urge to procrastinate has diminished.// If you continue along,/something magical happens.// Once you get two-thirds of the way through a task,/you start to feel great about things/and suddenly, the end is in sight.// This is the Tipping Point.//

　　The Tipping Point is important/because it’s not just you who can smell the Happy Playground up ahead/—the monkey can smell it too.// Once you hit the Tipping Point,/the monkey becomes more interested/in getting to the Happy Playground/than the Dark Playground.// When this happens,/you lose all impulse to procrastinate,/and now both you and the monkey/are speeding toward the finish.// Before you know it,/you’re done,/and you’re in the Happy Playground.//
　　One last word of caution:/what makes procrastination so hard to beat/is that the Instant Gratification Monkey has a terribly short-term memory.// Even if you succeed on Monday,/when you begin a task on Tuesday,/he has forgotten everything/and will again resist entering the Dark Woods.// And that’s why persistence is such a critical component of success.// Laying each brick yields an inner struggle.// But in the end,/your ability to lay brick after brick,/day after day,/is what lies at the core of a procrastinator’s struggle/to gain control over his world.//
　　So much of what makes people happy or unhappy/—their level of satisfaction,/their self-esteem,/the regrets they carry with them/—is severely affected by procrastination.// So the time to start improving is now.//