Read this if you often sit down to work brimming with plans and determination... only to crash a few minutes later from a crushing lack of motivation.
“Three weeks. The deadline is in three friggin weeks.”
You’re outside, pacing. You just had to get out and get some fresh air. Clear your head a little.
“How is this even possible? Like how did I let myself get into this situation… again? I had months to chip away at this thing. Now all I have is 21 days until the deadline.”
You stop and close your eyes, allowing a wave of regret, frustration, and anger to wash over you.
It stings. Like a lot. As it should.
You take in a long breath.
“Okay, let it go. What’s done is done.”
You let the exhale carry with it some of your stress, anxiety, and discomfort.
You take in another breath… and release.
Then another.
Then another.
You feel better. Calmer.
Okay.
“21 days. 21 days is okay. 21 days is doable—plenty of time, actually, if I buckle down and crank it out. I just gotta strap myself in the chair, ignore any and all urges or excuses to get distracted, and just get it done.”
As you speedwalk back towards your workstation, you imagine yourself in front of your computer. You visualize yourself in a deep state of concentration, working hard and tirelessly, getting it all done.
You arrive back at your seat, still feeling charged up and determined. You crack your knuckles, readying yourself to dig in towards hours of focused work.
You begin to type.
2 minutes and 14 seconds later, a Hot Cognition charged impulse has you opening YouTube.
And, just like that, the rest of your day is gone.
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If you’re wondering how I was able to enter your brain and extract, in freakishly accurate detail, a recent experience of yours… just know it's because I’ve lived through that exact scenario hundreds of times.
It happened when I was a university student. It happened when I was working my first office job. It even happened not long ago, including after I posted the original version of my method to Reddit.
It just took me a while to understand the core driver of this issue. I knew it had something to do with my motivation levels and how they were being suppressed... but it couldn't be only that.
And it’s not. It turns out, a lack of motivation is just the half of it.
The other half, I realized, is what actually gets us into trouble.
Expectation Gaps
When it hits you that you've been procrastinating, that you're now super behind, and that you really need to get going… what goes through your mind? What do you end up doing mentally?
You make some plans, right? You tell yourself. “Okay, first I’ll work on this, then I’ll work on that…”
You might even, as with the previous story, visualize yourself doing the work.
That's all good and great, but there’s a simple reason why that never works—why it backfires into time-wasting. It's because you aren’t actually setting plans. You're setting expectations.
And expectations, when unchecked, are absolutely deadly.
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Expectations aren’t bad in and of themselves. In fact, the individuals we admire, those who tirelessly hustle and have achieved incredible feats, do so largely due to the exceptionally high standards they set for themselves.
However, their high expectations are matched by an equally high level of innate motivation. Put simply, there's never any gap between their expected productive output and their actual capacity for productivity.
There’s no Expectation Gap for the Ali Abdaals and David Goggins' of this world.
Meanwhile, when you frantically make plans to crush it as soon as you sit down because of how much you've been procrastinating, there is an Expectation Gap—and a huge one at that.
Now, you may be thinking,
“I don’t know. When I’m feeling all resolute and determined, I have motivation in droves. I really want to get to work. I’m beyond willing to sit down for hours, to concentrate deeply, and get stuff done.
Motivation isn’t my problem here—self-discipline is.”
But here’s the issue. As I explained in the intro webpage, you’re mixing up inspiration with motivation. Even though they feel related, they’re not the same thing.
Inspiration is that rush of determination you get when you decide it’s time to work. Motivation is what actually lets brun calories and work once you sit down. You might feel fired up in the moment, but if your motivation system isn’t operating properly, that "determination" vanishes almost instantly.
I’m not saying getting pumped up or whatever is useless; it can kick things off. But with Vice Induced Depressive Syndrome symptoms in play, the parts of your brain that keep you powered through long stretches of work are being shut down. Until you sustain the one and only cure—avoiding vices—you’ll keep getting hit with that ugh, I just don't feel like sensation each time you sit down to work. And when you don't feel like it... you waste time.
The take-home is this:
When they exceed your motivation levels, expectations don't lead to focus and productivity. They lead to vices.
The pressure we put on ourselves
We all put so much pressure on ourselves, it's unreal.
Whether this stems from our own personal standards or from the combined weights of societal norms, parental demands, and professional obligations, one thing is beyond certain: pressure never actually helps.
That's because pressure can only translate to high expectations. And high expectations, when unmatched by our motivation levels, lead to our vices.
This creates a vicious cycle. The more we fail to meet our high expectations, the more our Hot Cognition drives us to our vices as a coping mechanism, kicking starting the Doomscroll Feedback Loop. And the more we rely on our coping mechanisms, the more we fuel Vice Induced Depressive Syndrome symptoms, which detract from our ability to be productive, further widening the Expectation Gap.
It becomes a self-perpetuating loop of procrastination.
And yet you keep trying because, I mean, what else can you do?
Every day, you pick yourself up and you try again. And really you do try your best.
But that doesn't work, so you waste the entire day.
You try again the next day.
Then the next.
Then the next.
Over and over, you experience the same crushing defeats; the same crashes.
And that's a really big problem.