Hello, listeners.
Today is June 11th, 2025.
Today is a full moon, and it's the strawberry moon.
We welcome you today to Social Skills Coaching, your guide to becoming more likable, more charismatic, and more productive.
Today's featured book is The Science of Getting Started, How to Beat Procrastination, Summon Productivity, and Stop Self-Sabotage, written by Patrick King.
Now, if you're a frequent listener to the podcast, you know, especially in our guest interviews, that just the concept of getting started is one of the biggest steps to getting things done.
That's what this entire book is about.
Today's episode is an excerpt from the book, The Introduction and the Beginning of Chapter 1.
The title for Chapter 1 is an eye-catcher.
Why are you a couch potato?
So we delve into the concept of what makes us want to procrastinate.
Now, procrastination is an age-old companion to humanity.
Its roots are deeply embedded in our language and our culture.
The word comes from the Latin, and it sheds a light on its essence, delaying for tomorrow what could be done today.
In this episode, we look specifically at the mysteries of procrastination's origins and its presence in our daily lives.
We're going to explore the typical triggers that set off what author Patrick King calls the procrastination cycle.
Now, there are five things when we have a task to do that might cause us to start this cycle of procrastination.
Those five things that we'll be looking at in detail today are unhelpful assumptions, growing discomfort, excuse-making rituals, avoidance behaviors, and their undesirable consequences.
And by understanding these elements, we aim to equip you with insights to navigate this common yet complex human tendency towards delay.
So that's what we're headed for in this episode.
If you want to get a quick summary, skip to the end, check the show notes for the time code, and we'll summarize these points again at the end of the episode, just to make sure you have all the highlights that you need.
So with that, let's get into it.
You've met procrastination before.
It needs no introduction, especially when you've known it all your life.
Since the moment you were old enough to recognize that you actually have the option to build a Lego castle rather than sit down to do your math homework, procrastination has been there in the background as the devil on your shoulder, encouraging you to do what is worst for you.
It's like your shadow.
You just can't shake it.
It's always with you, and it's easy to forget about.
But unlike your shadow, it's dead set on ruining your life.
Now you're stuck with it and are having problems because it's starting to control you, like one of those relationships that started out fun and exciting, but gradually morphed into something that just caused you unhappiness.
You know the ones I'm talking about.
So you want to break up with it to get your life back on track, but you don't know how.
The answer, in finally regaining control from the demoralizing domination of procrastination, starts with understanding what you're dealing with
and how you continually get tricked into handing over the reins to it over and over again.
The term procrastination was derived from the Latin pro, meaning forward, forth, or in favor of, and crastinous, meaning of tomorrow.
Its literal translation can thus be taken to be the moving forward of something to tomorrow or favoring tomorrow as the ideal time.
Action is never for today.
It's always another moment to be dealt with later.
For our purposes, procrastination is the act or habit of putting off something to a future time.
It involves delaying what needs to be done until the last moment, often to the end point of not doing it at all.
It involves a certain amount of self-sabotage and ignorance of any future consequences.
It causes undue stress and anxiety, often at the pursuit of short-term gratification.
It is responsible for an untold number of lost opportunities.
However, it's a mistake to assume that procrastination occurs simply because there is boredom or discomfort.
They are parts of the problem, but in reality, much more goes into our lack of action.
Just tackling an alleged lack of motivation and interest in something you need to do only shallowly addresses procrastination.
For instance, the thought of having to write out a 20,000-word research paper will certainly cause feelings of boredom and discomfort, so you may delay working on the task for as long as you can.
A movie sounds more fun, stimulating, and comfortable.
The next thing you know, you've put off writing the paper until it's just a day before the deadline, which wasn't exactly a rational move given the sheer size of work involved.
You feel guilt and shame about letting things get that far, but you still didn't sit at your computer to start typing.
You miss your deadline, lose your job, and your cat runs away from home.
Suppose the 20,000-word research paper was on a topic that you found stimulating and fun and comfortable.
Are you so sure that you would wake up eagerly each morning, ready to start typing and editing?
It might help, but it's still an unpleasant activity that you would rather substitute with fun.
Also, consider how many things you currently avoid even though they are relatively fun and comfortable.
They are too numerous to name.
This means there's something deeper going on here that gets you glued to your couch, physically or figuratively.
In fact, there's a cycle that researchers have articulated, and this is the first of the reasons in this chapter that you're a couch potato.
The Procrastination Cycle.
In some ways, the existence of a cycle is a relief because it means that beating procrastination isn't so much about reaching deep inside yourself
and relying on your guts to get the job done, although sometimes that part cannot be avoided.
It's actually about understanding the cycle of laziness and disrupting it before you get sucked into it.
It's the equivalent of understanding how to use a certain physics equation to solve a problem
versus trying to solve the problem differently each time and sometimes just trying out 20 different possibilities.
When you know what you're looking for, you're just going to be far more effective.
In practical terms, this means that doing what you need to do will be much less of a struggle in the end.
There are five main phases of the cycle that explain why you tend to keep sitting on your butt even though you know you shouldn't be.
It further explains how you justify sitting on your butt and even how you'll probably sit on your butt even more decisively the next time.
We can follow along with an example of washing a car.
You'll soon see how simplistic attributing procrastination to boredom or laziness is.
1.
Unhelpful assumptions or made-up rules.
Life is short, so I should enjoy it and not spend my precious time washing that dusty car.
Car washes are something you pay for anyway.
2.
Increasing discomfort.
I'd rather not wash the car.
It's boring and uncomfortable.
I know my spouse asked me to, but it came late.
3.
Excuses for procrastination to decrease psychological discomfort.
It's perfectly reasonable for me not to wash the car.
It's so hot outside I would melt.
My spouse didn't really mean it when they asked.
4.
Avoidance activities to decrease psychological discomfort.
I'll clean the bathroom instead.
I'm still productive.
I'll also arrange my desk.
Lots of things getting done today.
I did pretty well today, all things considered.
5.
Negative and positive consequences.
Ah, I feel better about myself now.
Cleanliness all around.
Oh, wait.
I still need to wash that car, and my spouse seems angrier this time.
Which brings us full circle.
The car isn't washed, and your assumptions remain the same, if not reinforced, only this time there's even more discomfort than you want to avoid immediately, and so it goes on.
Once you're in the cycle, it's hard to get over the increasing inertia keeping you from getting the task done.
Let's take a look at each of these phases individually.
We'll start right from the top.
This is where you're either failing to start a task or to complete a task already underway.
You know you should be doing these things, and they are in your best interests.
However, you've already made the decision against self-discipline, so what goes through your mind?
So, as we said, procrastination has been around far longer than just you or me.
It comes from the Latin pro, meaning forward or forth or in favor of, and crastinus, meaning of tomorrow.
So, putting off till tomorrow.
In everyday terms, it's when you put off something unpleasant, usually in pursuit of something more pleasurable or more enjoyable.
In this first chapter, we discussed the typical causes of procrastination and introduced five reasons why we start the procrastination cycle.
Unhelpful or false assumptions, increasing discomfort, excuse-making, avoidance activities, and the consequences.
And there you have it, folks.
Procrastination is a common human struggle that's been with us since the beginning of time.
Understanding its roots and the cycle it follows can be our first step towards breaking free from its grasp.
So, no more cotch potato.
Let's embrace this mindset and take control of our lives one task at a time.
This familiar quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.