Procrastination: The future-you cannot be trusted

This is the best article about procrastination I’ve ever read.

The main point is this: The “future you” cannot be trusted. It doesn’t matter if you know better now. The wisdom and perspective you have right now will be absent when the time to decide arrives. The future you will be too tired to go on a morning run. The future you will go for that extra piece of cake. The future you will rummage through your email instead of starting on your taxes.

If you’re going to beat procrastination, you have to outsmart the future you by tricking him into doing what you know he should be doing. And you have to be good because the future you has all sorts of tools he can employ. He’s got excuses galore. Access to endless distractions. An arsenal of justifications. He’ll even strike personal bargains.

And while you can never stop him for good, you can manipulate the situations he’s in, and thus you can force his hand, one challenge at a time.

Definitely some food for thought.