FROM PROCRASTINATION TO FLOW:
A PERSONAL TAKE

Procrastination — a sign of misalignment between what we have to do and our internal state. By understanding this and cultivating flow, we can effortlessly accomplish what’s necessary without grinding.

A simple search for the word “procrastination” in the Oxford Dictionary of English (3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2010) brings up one of its definitions: “the action of delaying or postponing something”. So why do we tend to delay that “something”?

If we take “something” to mean an action we must do, we might not want to do it. This leads to a misalignment between having to do something and not wanting to. The choice we face is: either we grind through it, or we delay doing it.

Some of us often delay because deep down, we know that things can be done in a state of flow, where everything happens with ease. We’ve all experienced moments when tasks just seemed to “happen” without friction, especially when we were kids. We were simply doing things. So how can we avoid procrastinating or grinding?

We should actively create the conditions for flow, rather than waiting for it to be triggered by unhealthy urgency. Like in the case of a river, our flow can be blocked by “rocks”—obstacles that make us grind. By becoming aware of these “rocks” and removing them, we untangle our misalignment and naturally restore the flow state. This way, we can accomplish tasks with ease and avoid procrastination altogether.