I realized something counterintuitive about productivity the other day. My wife was upstairs reading to the kids, I was sipping coffee after work, and had a moment to think about a habit I've picked up. Whenever I feel a strong urge to do something, I resist the temptation and put it off. Not forever – just for a few hours or until the next day, or weekend, depending on what it is. I started doing it instinctively, but I have caught myself doing it the last few times, which has brought it to the surface of consciousness. Since then it has been somewhat deliberate.
It could be anything: writing down an idea while away from my notebook or computer, reading something I'm curious about, or even trying the new pair of running shoes that sits outside the door. It's not always when I'm starting something either. Sometimes I stop reading a book when I want to read more, stop writing when I have more to say, or stop running or working out when I've got more in the tank.
I don't remember when I started to do it, but if I were to guess, it'd probably be after becoming a parent. Having kids placed hard constraints on my time. I had to get creative and desperate about making the most of what little time I had for myself. Before kids, I could afford to waste a lot of it. I could binge-watch Netflix, stuff whatever junk food that I had the urge to eat at midnight, and crawl out of bed after doomscrolling for an hour. Now, if I don't wake up by 5 AM, my chances of getting at least an hour of "me time" in the day vanishes. Occasionally, I also get a pocket of time, 45m to an hour, later in the day. The scarcity of quiet, alone time has, surprisingly, made me more productive and disciplined. I can now switch to a productive state instantly. No warm-up routines or external motivations needed.
Putting things off helps in a few ways. When I deliberately resist doing something, my mind starts craving that moment. When that time arrives, there's no question of wasting it. Plus, in those times, I find myself better at what I'm doing. It's like my subconscious will have done the work of connecting the dots required for me to be productive. If I'm writing, the words start to pour effortlessly. If I'm reading or listening something, I'm completely absorbed. Successful and productive people, I thought, should have long known this. It must also have been studied in psychology, neuroscience, or in the realms of the science of motivation, productivity, or creativity. Turns out, many accomplished people and well-known techniques rely on similar principles.
Stephen King, often called the "King of Horror", is a big proponent of taking intentional breaks. He doesn't write every day and when he does, often stops mid-scene. He says that it allows the subconscious to "cook" the idea, allowing it to grow and develop while he's not consciously thinking about it. Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, was known for stopping mid-sentence sometimes or leaving a chapter unfinished. He would force himself to stop when he knew exactly what was going to happen next, which allowed him to get back to writing easily the next day and be excited to complete the idea. Legend also has it that Isaac Newton came up with the idea of gravity while sitting under an apple tree, most likely a break from focused thinking or writing. While apocryphal, it speaks to the value of allowing the mind to wander. Speaking of wandering, Jeff Bezos talks about wandering in this Lex Fridman podcast. His book is even titled Invent and Wander.
There are also established techniques and frameworks that are built on similar ideas. The Pomodoro is a time management method that involves working in 25-minute intervals, called pomodoros, separated by short breaks. It's meant to help improve focus and productivity. Deliberate rest days and periods of "active recovery" that athletes follow are similar in spirit. They are forms of forcefully disconnecting from intense training, which allow the body and mind to recover, building anticipation for the next training session, and creating a sense of scarcity for the time athletes have to train.
When I read more to find out why the technique works, I stumbled upon some interesting ideas behind it. Here are some explanations about what's going on.
The Incubation Effect refers to the process where stepping away from a problem or task allows your subconscious mind to work on it in the background. Research shows that when you're consciously focused on something, you often get stuck in familiar patterns of thought. Taking a break allows the subconscious to explore novel connections and solutions, leading to what we call "aha!" moments when you return. From the perspective of neuroscience, this is linked to the default mode network(DMN, brain's rest-and-reflect mode) in the brain, which is active when you're not focusing on an external task. The DMN is thought to play a role in creative thinking, problem-solving, and consolidating memories. When you distance yourself from a task, your DMN gets a chance to work on the ideas you've planted. This is also why many people have epiphanies and realizations while taking a shower, or during long walks.
Goal-gradient hypothesis/Finish-line effect states that as an individual gets closer to a desired goal, their effort and motivation to reach the goal increases. And the increase isn't a linear progression. It suggests that the motivation accelerates as the end becomes more imminent. This has been true in my experience more than once during long distance runs. I'm surprised to find out that my body and mind muster the resources to run faster when the finish line is in sight, even when I'm struggling before.
How is this related to the idea of forced disconnections? By delaying the start, or by forcing a break in the middle of the activity, you're using the increased motivation built from the desire to complete the activity and building tension, like a stretched rubber band, to spring back with full force when you eventually return to it.
[!NOTE] A Side Note about Socioemotional Selectivity Theory(SST) [SST](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2790864/pdf/nihms156796.pdf), a study done by Laura Carstensen at Stanford, aims to provide a different angle on human motivation and desires. It says that the subjective sense of future, and the perception of finiteness of remaining time, plays an essential role in goal selection and goal pursuit. Talking about differences between old and young people in what they crave for, she says that older people want to limit their spheres of interests and go deeper, with increased focus in them, while the young want to expand their horizons. This made me think about the goal-gradient hypothesis, and see it from a different perspective - time. As you approach a goal, your sense of remaining time changes. As you expect less time remaining, the desire to focus on it well, and get it done increases, much like the old or terminally ill.
Related: [[Notes - Being Mortal#Socioemotional Selectivity Theory(SST)]]
Scarcity Principle - When something is less available to you, you tend to value it more. By practicing intentional resistance to the activity that we wanna do, we're creating artificial scarcity, potentially increasing its perceived value.
The Zeigarnik Effect states that you tend to remember unfinished tasks better than finished ones. Leaving the process incomplete creates a mental "to do" that your subconscious keeps nagging at you about. This effect is thought to occur because the tension and cognitive load associated with an unfinished task remain active, keeping it salient in your minds. It's also linked to the increased activity in parts of the brain associated with goal-oriented behavior when a task is incomplete, prompting us to want to finish it.
The main differences lie in what motivates it, and how it makes you feel. Procrastination is driven by fear, anxiety, perfectionism, or lack of motivation to do something, where as forced disconnection is more strategic, intentional delay with a pre-determined return time in the context of something you want to do. Procrastination is accompanied by guilt, stress, or regret, while pulling back creates positive anticipation, and enhanced focus later. From a psychological perspective, procrastination feels like running away from something, while pulling back builds tension towards it.
Let me break down a simple example - I get super hungry around 5 PM everyday. I feel like eating whatever I can get my hands on. But I also know that if I were to succumb to that, I'll end up eating something I'll feel guilty about, and that I'll not feel like eating dinner until much later. Beyond the impulse of that moment, I know I want to do two things - eat right, and early in the night, not too close to my sleeping time. So I pull back for 30-45m. I resist eating anything until 5.30, or 5.45 PM, when I skip the snack and directly go for dinner. During that time the desire to eat is still burning, but by aligning actions with my goals, I feel much better about it.
So here's what's going on -