Sorta Random Sunday: The Time Action Paradox

Bear with me here. Because this is my own hypothesis that I’m going to share based on my own experiences and internal musings. Maybe someone else has thought of this before as well. Or called it something different. I don’t know. But I call it the time action paradox.

What is the time action paradox?

Put very simply, the time action paradox states that the longer you wait to do something, the harder it gets to do.

This may seem kind of similar to analysis paralysis. But it’s not. Because analysis paralysis explains the reason for not doing something. Because you overthink it – again put very simply. The time action paradox explains the phenomenon that the longer you actually wait to do a task – whether you procrastinate due to analysis paralysis or something else – the actual harder it gets to do that thing.

I feel like this is a universal truth. But for some reason it took me a long time to crystallize it in my mind.

Why is the time action paradox the way it is?

I guess this is really a question for the psychologists.

But from my perspective, it happens because the longer we wait to do something, the less fresh it is in our mind. And it takes time and effort to re create the mental atmosphere necessary to complete whatever the task is.

Whether it is something physical like completing a manual chore or something more mental like sorting out an interpersonal issue.

I do think that is also something of a band-aid effect here. The long we wait, the more we anticipate something that will take effort to do, and the more painful that experience ultimately feels (mentally or physically).

What are some examples?

I’ll take them right out of my own life.

Doing a chore around the house
Cleaning the house
Folding laundry (also why I outsourced this task)
Writing a blog post
Planning an event
Reading
Studying
Budgeting
Respond to an email

And there’s a million more I’m sure you can think of.

How do we fight against this?

I have a pretty consistent strategy that overall works very well.

I try very hard to consistently to do things before they become a task. In other words, I minimize the time between thinking of doing a thing and actually doing it.

Let me explain via example.

If an idea for a great blog post comes into my head, I try to write that post as soon as I can. Remember, I am the one writing these posts! When the idea comes into my head, it is fresh and I’m super excited about it. My brain is stimulated thinking about all the things we can talk about. If I write the post then, it’s really easy and enjoyable.

However, if I put it on my list of topics and do it later, it becomes more of a task. It again takes effort and thought to get back into the mental milieu that I was in before. I need to get back into a flow state that I naturally was already residing within in the past.

Same goes for emails. People are always amazed how quickly I respond to emails. The reason is that when I get them I usually already know how I want to respond after reading them. Waiting only makes it harder because I have to remember everything. Plus it becomes another “task” weighing me down.

It becomes a thing.

And I’m not saying that these tasks can’t be enjoyable when done later on. They can and most often do, I find. But it does take more effort.

It’s like tennis

I’ve talked about how Winning at Finance is the Same as Winning in Tennis before. But this is a different tennis metaphor.

I look at task like this. Tasks are like tennis balls being hit back across the net to me. First, I decide which are worth engaging with or not. We need to be intentional with our time and effort. But once I decide that a tennis ball is worth the effort, I hit it back over the net to the other person.

That’s a lot easier than letting the ball go by, trying to find it, then pick it up, find the right partner again and hit the ball back.

So there you have it…the time action paradox!

And here are some other great mindset resources:

And don’t forget to check out my best-selling book, Money Matters in Medicine!

What do you think? Have you experienced the time action paradox? What do you think causes it? And what can we do about it? Let me know in the comments below!