Gardening and Procrastination

It took several months, but I finally got the second Italian Cypress  stump out.  The stump has been waiting since September.  Some of the delay was procrastination.  Some of it was due to weather.  Too hot in September.  Too rainy in winter.  Rain, good.  Procrastination, bad. 
 
“Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem,” said Dr. Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa. 

Put simply, procrastination is about being more focused on “the immediate urgency of managing negative moods” than getting on with the task."

Nothing can put me into a more negative mood than the thought of digging out a stump.   It is hard, tedious, and it hurts.  Hurts back, hurts shoulders, hurts neck, hands, knees.  Hurts, hurts, hurts. 

  "Procrastination is partially derived from the ancient Greek word akrasia — doing something against our better judgment. It’s self-harm."

It's also harmful to plants.  I procrastinated far too long about watering the Eucalyptus stump of Tillandsias on the patio table.  Take them off the stump, soak them, put them back on the stump.  That is difficult?  Why procrastinate?  

I finally realized the Tillandsias would be better off where they would get regular, automatic sprinkles of irrigation water, as well as more humid conditions via being close to moist(ish) soil.  A healthier place for them than the dry, dusty patio table (a whole other procrastination issue).  I moved the first Cypress stump, the one I had dug out in December, (it hurt!)...

  ...to a place under the 'Oshio Beni' Japanese Maple, and then arranged the Tillandsias on that stump.  Already happier.  All of us. 

   "We have to find a better reward than avoidance — one that can relieve our challenging feelings in the present moment without causing harm to our future selves. The difficulty with breaking the addiction to procrastination in particular is that there is an infinite number of potential substitute actions that would still be forms of procrastination."

There's room for the second newly dug out stump to go near the first one.  But I procrastinate about moving the second stump.  It's very heavy.  Moving it will hurt.  I go take more pictures of the Iris show instead.  Because in a few days, they will be gone. 

Might as well take a few pictures of the front slope, too. 

 "Several studies show that self-compassion supports motivation and personal growth. Not only does it decrease psychological distress,  which we now know is a primary culprit for procrastination, it also actively boosts motivation, enhances feelings of self-worth and fosters positive emotions like optimism, wisdom, curiosity and personal initiative. Best of all, self-compassion doesn’t require anything external — just a commitment to meeting your challenges with greater acceptance and kindness rather than rumination and regret."  

To show self-compassion, admit letting the stumps dry out made them lighter and easier to move.  Admit letting repeated rains soften the soil made the stumps easier to dig out.  Even procrastination is not black-and-white.  It's sometimes emulsified with patience, like vinegar with oil.

Further procrastinating:  the Clivia seedling flowers have opened.  Yellow!

"Cultivate curiosity: If you’re feeling tempted to procrastinate, bring your attention to the sensations arising in your mind and body. What feelings are eliciting your temptation?"

I felt uneasy about the Tillandsias living on the patio table.  There proved to a better solution;  it just didn't spring immediately to mind.

"Consider the next action: This is different than the age-old advice to break up a task you’re tempted to avoid into bite-sized chunks. ...focusing only on the “next action” helps calm our nerves, and it allows for... “a layer of self-deception.” At the start of a given task, you can consider the next action as a mere possibility, as if you were method acting: “What’s the next action I’d take on this if I were going to do it, even though I’m not?”  Don’t wait to be in the mood to do a certain task. “Motivation follows action. Get started, and you’ll find your motivation follows”"

Next action:  I scraped some of the soil off the second stump to make it less heavy, but then I went to look at Leucospermum 'Blanche Ito' which has started to flower for the first time. 

Are those flowers are motivating!

"Make your temptations more inconvenient:  we can take what we know about procrastination and “use it to our advantage” by placing obstacles between ourselves and our temptations to induce a certain degree of frustration or anxiety.  Make the reward value of your temptation less immediate."

In the garden, in early Spring, the temptations of just looking around are so immediately rewarding.

 "Make the things we want to do as easy as possible for ourselves.  If you want to go to the gym before work but you’re not a morning person, sleep in your exercise clothes. “Try to remove every, every, every roadblock”" 

But...when the roadblock looks like Lotus 'Amazon Sunset'...

From (possibly paywalled):  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html?

I'll get that second stump moved soon.  Very soon.  Out of the soil for a few weeks, it will be 20 lbs lighter...