3 недели назад - horiblocks
· 5
мин чтения
Why the Relativity of Time Counts; Progressive versus Procrastinative Action.
This post was originally made on 29 June, 2022 on walnutmind.org, shortly before the inception of the brainful project.
Somebody once told me that when you really like something, you will follow through. I never quite understood it because every time I tried, I would get bored, burn out, and stop. Is it not that the best times are short-lived?
It has been a while since my last post. Inspired by David Goggin's famous words, "Don't stop when you're tired, stop when you're done, " I had unironically lost track of time. After thousands of lines of code, countless cups of coffee, and dozens of sleepless nights, the website edges towards its first stable release.
It turned out that writing this:
```
```
profile = Profile(user = request.user)
profile.save()
```
```
instead of this:
```
```
Profile.objects.create(user = request.user)
```
caused me to go on an emotional rollercoaster across 50 browser tabs over 5 days, and all to no avail. Initially, I believed it was a database issue, but rather it was an issue with how the object was being saved. Nevertheless, this was not the least of my problems because not long after, I almost broke my project after thoughtlessly typing in Git terminal commands.
The process is usually as follows. The excitement from the idea. Eagerness towards implementing it. Anticipation in deploying it. Anger at the console errors log. Eventual frustration makes you question, 'why bother?. Just to repeat this process, like Sisyphus pushes his rock up the hill, over and over again until time disappears behind these transient states of awareness and action.
When panic sets in, you tend to crumble. It is usually in those times of despair when you need to step away from the problem and revisit it later. This had me thinking as to why. This very concept extends to a lot more than bugs in software. World leaders to businesses to writers tend to make rash decisions when they do not take their time. A writer does not produce a masterpiece on his first draft, just as a world leader does not improvise a memorable speech (and of course, there will be exceptions).
Why is it that we usually tend to produce better results when we take the necessary intervals and time to do it? After much thought, I boil it down to emotion, and distilled it into a brief diagram you can see here. In short, I believe that most decision-making is a consequence of sequential state transitions from emotional to rational processing; effectively, the quality of the decision is a result of the extent of 'settlement' of the emotions.
Albert Camus stated in his magnum opus ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, “We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking" (Camus, 8). As much as the human senses, he is a rational decision-maker that speaks his mind, which could not be further from the truth. Political conflicts, firms, and economies have flourished based on their emotional states.
However, the unironic piece of the puzzle is that great works also require periods of great focus. The end result in the production is great works is a somewhat consistent 'phased' work approach. Many tend to be illuded by the idea that pure output and speed is a valid indicator of their productivity, but what is not realised is that this does not necessarily lead to better outcomes. More often than not, quality precedes quantity. Unfortunately, we cannot force the creative process into our idealistic plans. We tend to overestimate our capabilities and underestimate our lack of situational awareness and understanding; in fact, according to the Inc columnist, up to 67% of strategic plans fail (Inc.).
I mapped this quality versus time period of meaningful work into three phases of work. This is where time management becomes an essential aspect in our lives. We tend to think of procrastination as the enemy, but in fact, and somewhat counterintuitively, it plays a critical role in the creative process and how we tend to ideate and produce work in general. If you have not already seen Tim Urban's TED Talk 'Inside The Mind of a Master Procrastinator,' I would highly recommend it.
However, if not managed correctly, procrastination could very quickly become our worst enemy. The main reason for procrastination is the emotional state that we are in when we are about to do something (Levine). When you are in the zone or flow state, as some call it, time ceases to exist. You become one with what you are doing, and everything else around you fades away. This is the ideal state to be in when performing any task because your emotions are secondary to your desire to act upon your ideas.
The takeaway from all this is that time is relative, and it counts. Take the necessary time to plan things adequately, don't be afraid to procrastinate, and most importantly, find the right balance between the two.
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. Penguin UK, 2013.
PhD, Bobby Hoffman. "The Scary Truth About Procrastination. "Psychology Today, 8 Oct. 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/motivate/201510/the-scary-truth-about-procrastination. Accessed 29 June 2022.
Prive, Tanya. "Why 67 Percent of Strategic Plans Fail. " Inc., 23 Oct. 2020, www.inc.com/tanya-prive/why-67-percent-of-strategic-plans-fail.html. Accessed 29 June 2022.
Urban, Tim. "Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator. " TED Talks, Video, 15 Mar. 2016, www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator. Accessed 29 June 2022.
0
0
12
ответить на запись