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Stoicism for Procrastination
Procrastination is usually fear wearing the costume of comfort. The Stoics favored action over endless deliberation: decide what a good person would do, then do it, today, because life is spent while we postpone.
Stoic ideas for this
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
Seneca · On the Shortness of Life
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
Seneca · On the Shortness of Life
Put it into practice
A Stoic tool is only useful if you actually use it. Try this small loop the next time procrastination shows up:
- Name it plainly. Say what is happening without the story you are adding on top of it.
- Split what’s yours from what isn’t. Invest your energy only in the part you can actually choose.
- Do one small thing. A single deliberate action today beats a week of intending to.
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