Dancing with the Instant Gratification Monkey

Procrastination is evil, right?

“Early bird gets the worm.”
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”
“Procrastination is the thief of time.”

Most of us know the Instant Gratification Monkey quite well. The YouTube rabbit holes. The “importance” of reorganization (desk, inbox, spice drawer, etc). Doomscrolling your favorite social media app. The “there’s not enough time anyway” rationalization. Working on the fun little Python task rather than digging in on sending out sales letters.

A lot of truth in these statements. I talk a lot about how important it is to get started, productively “unproductive” time, task lists, getting back on track, time prioritization, etc. These things have helped me, so I put them here.

Sometimes, however, the right thing to do is to get out your dancing shoes and spin that monkey around the floor. Jive, foxtrot, and salsa till you’re exhausted (He doesn’t get tired. I think he’s a he. Not sure). 

Dancing with that monkey can do a couple things for us. The first, it may simply be enjoyable. You learned something new and weird, your desk is clean, you figured out what that smell was in your neighborhood. Sometimes it’s OK to simply enjoy. 

The second is that your mind might be working the problem in the background. One way to get your thoughts straight is to get started. Muscle through it. Write and rewrite. Another is to let them simmer subconsciously. 

OK, mostly “no!” Make your list. Start knocking things off of it. You know what you have to do.

But every once in a while — not often, not normally, not because you feel like it — if the list just isn’t working, it’s OK to spin that monkey around the dance floor.