An Example of Evolutionary Self-Help

I think most of us will agree that procrastination is a bad thing. So how do you overcome this self-defeating habit?

1. Come up with the evolutionary psychology (EP) explanation
2. Come up with a technique that can help you within the EP framework
3. Use and test the EP technique

So procrastination? In the EEA (environment of evolutionary adaptation) it was important to conserve energy and only pursue things that gave immediate satisfaction. Long term goals were put on the back-burner; short-term pursuits are much more enjoyable because they present us with immediate rewards. With starvation right around the corner, the mind tends to favor things that bring immediate satisfaction. Eat your food now rather than save it for a rainy day. So flash forward to today, 2013. Unfortunately, many of life's rewards are long-term in nature.  A good job it is probably good to have if your a man because it could lead to higher reproductive success. But a good job probably requires mostly a higher college education (Bill Gates doubters aside!). But to get a good job we are in it for the long term! Which goes against the EEA strategy of get it now. So how do we cope with today's world realities based on a EEA brain?

The 5 Minute Technique

The 5-minute technique is a well known self-help technique to combat procrastination. Just do something unpleasant in the short term but beneficial in the long term. At the end of 5 minutes decide if you want to 5 more minutes or stop. If you stop, come up with another time where you will do 5 more minutes. Otherwise, try to extend to 10 minutes. Change to 10 minutes and see if your comfortable there. If you are, go up to 15 minutes. I wouldn't go past 15 minutes. I have found that 10 minutes for me is best. 5 minutes are too short and 15 minutes too long.

Why It Works?

Most Evolutionary Psychologists believe most pursuits with 15 minutes of work start to become painful because the rewards aren't immediate enough.