Matrix procrastination (postponing cases "for later")
For a better understanding of this post, first read the previous post about procrastination.
If, when I was in school, you asked me whether I was a procrastinator, I would certainly answer “yes”. School students are taught to “keep pace” with large projects. And I proudly kept pace more than anyone I know. I never missed the deadline, but did everything at night before the deadline for work. I was a procrastinator.
Actually I was not. The school curriculum is full of deadlines and short assignments. And even long projects consist of intermediate deadlines that do not allow much relaxation. There were only a few terrible moments, but in most cases, I still did everything at the last minute, because I knew that everything would be fine with me, so why not.
')
Without any doubt, the Monkey of Immediate Pleasure was in my head, but it was sweeter than anyone in the world. With constantly looming deadlines, Panicky Monster never slept and Monkey knew about it. Of course, she constantly distracted, but she was not in charge.
My brain is at school:
- If I do my homework now, I can watch TV later.
- Or!
Or you can work out garbage for 4 hours and increase the level of stress!
After 4 hours:
Enough monkey! Now it's really time to work!
Once the school ended, and with it, my life ended as a normal person. College doesn't look like a school. The tasks are large, with a lot of time between deadlines, and since you are no longer a child, no one treats you as a child - no one forces you to keep up the pace. Most of my classes included several term papers, mid-semester exams and a final exam for 4 months, which means there were no strict deadlines on the horizon.
Without deadlines, my Panic Monster, who can't think too far in advance, spent a lot of time in hibernation. My Little Decision Maker (PDP), who never realized how much he had always relied on the Panic Monster, begins to have difficulty making plans.
- To get the most benefit from classes, you need to read the given.
- Never ever
The more Monster Panic slept, the more confidence Monkey gained. The decision maker, the only one who sees the world clearly, was worried — he knew that college assignments were much bigger than school assignments, and keeping pace was no longer a reason for mockery, but a critically important thing. He would have stopped going to parties, but that would not solve the problem.
- Hey! We are going to the cinema. Will you come with us?
- I would love to, but I need to work. Next time.
- Only 2 days left before the deadline for submission of course work. It was the right decision.
- charming
2 hours later:
- What a wonderful movie!
- How is your work?
- To hand over work in 5 hours, and I have not even started yet. How did I allow that again?
No matter how obvious the decision was for the PRP (Decision Maker), he was clearly unable to control the Monkey without the help of the Panic Monster.
Wait ... wait ... there was an extension
Extension of the deadline for work. Praise everyone!
Too good to be true. A minute ago, I cursed myself for bringing things to such a terrible situation. And now, as if by God himself, my life was extended. I now have enough extra time I dreamed of. I can relax, really do my coursework and do it. This is the best…
- Time for fun
While for EPR, the college was most often a discouraging experience, for Monkey it was a complete renaissance, she studied the whole spectrum of activities in search of herself. With a synthesizer next to my desk, the monkey incredibly wanted to play the piano. There was a feeling that the more work needed to be done, the more Monkey wanted to put on headphones and play the piano.
Education was definitely not my thing and I was delighted when college ended. I broke into the world of 1000 ambitions to do 1000 things. I had everything that could be offered to this world except knowledge, skills, and work ethic.
My CRP thought about it a lot, and understood that Monkey tried to tell him something very important in college - I want to be a composer . Obviously it was a thing that I was completely absorbed in, and finally, it would become what I should do every day. No more battles with Monkey - she would finally get what she wanted. I figured out what I wanted from life and moved to LA to write music for films.
In order to pay bills, I began to work with children at school in their homework and preparation for the SAT (university entrance examination in the USA). I chose this work because it would not distract me from becoming the next John Williams (American composer, conductor, one of the most successful film compositors in history). Then the strangest thing happened. Only I was sure that I had found myself, the Monkey began a spiritual quest. When the PRP and I would sit at the piano to write something, Monkey refused to join us. The CRP was starting to feel helpless, like in college.
Meanwhile, Monkey found a new interest - she was interested in my tutorial work. Everything went well, the recommendations grew, and as soon as the PRP insisted that we were already working with too many students, Monkey accepted every new incoming job offer. Then Monkey began to think wider and hire my friends to tutor for me. The whole day went by for phone calls. Monkey went into business.
The monkey refused to give us the opportunity to pursue a musical career, and the ECP refused to be included in the business career of the Monkey.
It was at a time when my best friend Andrew moved to LA. Andrew is not like me. He lives and breathes business, without any interest in achieving anything in art, and since I met him when I was 5, his Monkey was accustomed to a little infection that did what she was told. After the move, we discussed the possibility of doing business together. My CRP refused to take the business seriously, but the prospect of doing business with Andrew and really making every effort was seductive. And Monkey was obviously very interested in business, there what IT could be is what I should have been doing in actual fact. We founded a tutoring company together.
The PRP was still struggling with the decision to postpone a music career, but the company grew rapidly and the PRP slowly began to feel ok about the business.
That for Monkey was a signal to become an avid blogger.
- Oh, come on
At that time I post something from time to time for several years, but the rise of the business was just what the Monkey needed to plunge into her new hobby entirely, and over the next few years I wrote hundreds of posts during off-hours. I went to work every day, but instead of doing what entrepreneurs should do after work in order to develop the company, I thought about what this would write to the blog.
In 2013, Andrew and I decided to start something new, we looked at the monkey and its immersion in the blog and decided maybe this is what I should have been doing all this time. And we started Wait But Why. Andrew would continue to develop the company, and I would be completely immersed in the new project, giving Monkey what she so passionately wanted.
The fact that college was a classic procrastination transformed into a bizarre form of madness as soon as I entered the real world. I seemed to be chasing the Monkey. After she beat me in college, it seemed to me that fighting her was not right from the start. She was born in some inner part of me, so maybe it makes sense to pay attention to her inclinations and use them as a guide.
This is what I did. Every time Monkey was fascinated by something new, I built my life around this hobby. The problem was that it looked like a mirage. As soon as I got there, the Monkey was no longer there. She was somewhere else. It was confusing. She was there, because she wanted to be there, or because there was no EPR. Was this really her vocation or did she constantly distract me from achieving something great with my talents and energy?
Last year, I came up with a small diagram that seems to me to answer these questions. I called it the Eisenhower Matrix.
1 quadrant = important and urgent
2 quadrant = important, but not urgent
3 quadrant = urgent, but not important
4 quadrant = not urgent and not important
The Eisenhower matrix relates everything that you do to 2 ranges: from the most urgent to the most non-urgent, and from the most important to not important.
The matrix was popularized by Stephen Blood's book, The Seven Skills of Highly Effective People, and is named after President Eisenhower. Eisenhower was known for his extraordinary productivity, which Covey credits to his “first things first” attitude towards wasting time. And for Eisenhower, the “first things” were always important things. He believed that you should spend almost all your time in quadrant 1 and 2.
Q1 - do now
Q2 - decide when to do
Q3 - delegate
Q4 - delete
And that's great for Dwight. Damn him, take Eisenhower. But do you know what Eisenhower didn’t have in his bald head? Almighty Monkey Immediate Pleasure. If he did, he would know that the procrastinator matrix looks like this:
Q1 - to do when from urgent turns into appallingly urgent
Q2 - delegate yourself to the future
Q3 - do when Q1 is urgent
Q4 - do now
If you need any information on quadrant 4 - how to get there, where to eat and so on - ask any procrastinator. They live there. For non-procrastinator, Q4 is a happy place to spend time. After a productive day, having worked on important tasks, it is very pleasant to spend time in Q4. And for this square there is a name - Happy Playground . But procrastinators have no tendency to spend time there after a productive day of work - they are there more often, against their will, because Monkey dragged them there, while the EPR begged them to leave. And they have their name for this quadrant - the Dark Playground .
As for quadrants 1 and 3 - urgent quadrants - most procrastinators will find themselves there from time to time, usually in cold sweat, with the Panic Monster screaming in their faces.
There is also Q2. For a procrastinator, Q2 is a strange and unfamiliar place, somewhere far, far away. Like Atlantis, or Narnia. He knows that this is an important place, and he tried to get there many times, but there is a problem - the Monkey refuses to go there, and the Panic Monster is not very concerned about them. And this is a deadly combination.
The reason why this is disastrous is that the path to the dreams of the procrastinator goes directly through Q2. Q1 and Q3 are places where people survive, and Q2 is where they grow and thrive.
If you're a procrastinator, you're in luck. We have an ace up your sleeve - some are brave and fearless, with unlimited energy and talent, someone who can beat the Monkey as easily as stepping on an ant is The Future.
Future You are your most important ally - someone who is always there and ready to support no matter what. I know everything about this guy. The future Tim is a great guy.
My to-do list consists of two parts - a short, easy part for me, and a long one, consisting of things that I cannot even imagine what I will do, because they make me scratch myself nervously. The future Tim will always deal with him, without complaint. The Future Tim also has no problems with vile social obligations. I was recently invited to give a feedback to a 3-4 hour play written by someone I practically do not know. Of course, I had no intention to participate, but I would feel guilty by refusing. So I said that I have a very busy 2 months, otherwise I would be happy to join next time this summer, then this will be the problem of Future Tim, not mine.
The future Tim also has the discipline and balance of life that I could only dream of. I never really went to the gym, but Future Tim lives in it and does all the exercises for both of us. And I like how the Future Tim is passionate about healthy nutrition, because personally I don’t have time for that. The future Tim is the kind of guy we all want to be like. You can get to know him closer by purchasing his books, for he is a prolific author.
But the most important role that the Future Tim plays in my life returns us to the Eisenhower Matrix. By a happy coincidence, the Future Tim spends most of his time in a place I would never have got into in Q2. The future Tim is the caretaker of Q2. And when I make a list of important things and notice that most of them fall on Q2, I do not need to despair, I know that the future Tim is over it. Which is good, taking into account in what terrible situation Past Tim, this useless dick from the mountain, left me:
Look at you, fucking Past Tim. You're the only reason we are in this terrible situation. See the Future Tim over there? Thank God, he is here to fix it. I would have removed your mess myself if I had not been busy with this damn Monkey.
But to all the merits of the Future Tim, he has one flaw that spoils everything: he does not exist.
It turns out the future you - this is the same mirage, like Monkey passion for a hobby. Tim's future is never near, only this muddle is Real Tim. Which can not perform any tasks, since they can be performed only by someone without Monkey. You set tasks for the Future You and all hope that it will exist.
Here is what happened when I pursued a career as a composer:
Q1 - nothing
Q2 - all important things for my composer career
Q3 - tutoring with students
Q4 - tutoring company management
And when I decided to follow Monkey and go into business, I missed an important point: “to do business” meant to do business with what I should do, which translated it from unimportant tasks to important tasks - moving from Q4, Monkey’s favorite place, in Q2, the least favorite.
Q1 - tutoring company management
Q2 - development of a tutoring company
Q3 - a ton of minor things that take up at least half of my time
Q4 - blogging
The fact that I thought Monkey will remain passionate about the business after moving it to Q2 indicates how little I understood Monkey. Monkey Passion has never been music or business or blogging. Monkey's passion has always been Q4.
When I started writing posts for Wait But Why, I knew that I wanted to write about procrastination. It was necessary to somehow pronounce the madness that was happening in my head. Once I did it .
The reaction was overwhelming. In addition to 1,300 comments, I received a huge number of e-mails:
- Emails about procrastination
- Emails about other blog posts
Thousands of emails. It seems all this is not just about me.
Many made my post cry. And not from my crooked drawings, but because they read about one of the most serious problems in their lives.
The profiles of those who wrote to me were very different. All ages, different professions from almost all countries of the world. But all of them, including myself, had the same problem - Instant Monkey Monkey, which cannot be controlled. But I noticed one thing. The differences between the stories can be divided into 3 categories:
1. The Disastinators (Catastrophes)
Of all the procrastinators, disaster is the worst form. Catastrophic is constantly in Q4, and procrastination completely destroys his life. Most often, the procrastinator becomes Catastrophic for 2 reasons:
A. Their monkey ceased to be afraid of the Panic Monster and became omnipotent.
B. They are ordinary procrastinators, but there is no external deadline or pressure in their lives.
Situation A is very gloomy, and as I learned from the letters, it is not so rare. These people have lost the ability to do almost everything that is important for them and either fly down in a spiral, or surrendered altogether.
In situation B, Catastrophic is no worse than any other procrastinator, just their circumstances are catastrophic for their personality type. The nature of their life and work does not cause the Monster Panic to wake up.
As a result, Catastrophics do nothing, never. Many PhDs fall into this category.
2. The Impostinators. (Rogues)
We haven't talked much about Q3, but it can be a particularly dangerous quadrant of all, and there are rogues reigning there. Their life looks like this:
The rogue seems productive, but in reality he is an impostor - a procrastinator, who has put on the mask of a productive person. He seems always busy as he spends a lot of time in Q3. He is actually busy. But it never seems to make progress with true goals.
Rogues have clever Monkeys, and Q3 is the Monkey's cleverest trick. The little monkey knows that the PDP can be pretty credulous, it can be reassured if she spends most of her time outside the Q4 of the Dark Playground. Rogue monkey fights a battle between Q3 and Q4, and it works because Q3 feels productive. It seems to a crook to be busy = productive.
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If, when I was in school, you asked me whether I was a procrastinator, I would certainly answer “yes”. School students are taught to “keep pace” with large projects. And I proudly kept pace more than anyone I know. I never missed the deadline, but did everything at night before the deadline for work. I was a procrastinator.
Actually I was not. The school curriculum is full of deadlines and short assignments. And even long projects consist of intermediate deadlines that do not allow much relaxation. There were only a few terrible moments, but in most cases, I still did everything at the last minute, because I knew that everything would be fine with me, so why not.
')
Without any doubt, the Monkey of Immediate Pleasure was in my head, but it was sweeter than anyone in the world. With constantly looming deadlines, Panicky Monster never slept and Monkey knew about it. Of course, she constantly distracted, but she was not in charge.
My brain is at school:
- If I do my homework now, I can watch TV later.
- Or!
Or you can work out garbage for 4 hours and increase the level of stress!
After 4 hours:
Enough monkey! Now it's really time to work!
Once the school ended, and with it, my life ended as a normal person. College doesn't look like a school. The tasks are large, with a lot of time between deadlines, and since you are no longer a child, no one treats you as a child - no one forces you to keep up the pace. Most of my classes included several term papers, mid-semester exams and a final exam for 4 months, which means there were no strict deadlines on the horizon.
Without deadlines, my Panic Monster, who can't think too far in advance, spent a lot of time in hibernation. My Little Decision Maker (PDP), who never realized how much he had always relied on the Panic Monster, begins to have difficulty making plans.
- To get the most benefit from classes, you need to read the given.
- Never ever
The more Monster Panic slept, the more confidence Monkey gained. The decision maker, the only one who sees the world clearly, was worried — he knew that college assignments were much bigger than school assignments, and keeping pace was no longer a reason for mockery, but a critically important thing. He would have stopped going to parties, but that would not solve the problem.
- Hey! We are going to the cinema. Will you come with us?
- I would love to, but I need to work. Next time.
- Only 2 days left before the deadline for submission of course work. It was the right decision.
- charming
2 hours later:
- What a wonderful movie!
- How is your work?
- To hand over work in 5 hours, and I have not even started yet. How did I allow that again?
No matter how obvious the decision was for the PRP (Decision Maker), he was clearly unable to control the Monkey without the help of the Panic Monster.
Wait ... wait ... there was an extension
Extension of the deadline for work. Praise everyone!
Too good to be true. A minute ago, I cursed myself for bringing things to such a terrible situation. And now, as if by God himself, my life was extended. I now have enough extra time I dreamed of. I can relax, really do my coursework and do it. This is the best…
- Time for fun
While for EPR, the college was most often a discouraging experience, for Monkey it was a complete renaissance, she studied the whole spectrum of activities in search of herself. With a synthesizer next to my desk, the monkey incredibly wanted to play the piano. There was a feeling that the more work needed to be done, the more Monkey wanted to put on headphones and play the piano.
Education was definitely not my thing and I was delighted when college ended. I broke into the world of 1000 ambitions to do 1000 things. I had everything that could be offered to this world except knowledge, skills, and work ethic.
My CRP thought about it a lot, and understood that Monkey tried to tell him something very important in college - I want to be a composer . Obviously it was a thing that I was completely absorbed in, and finally, it would become what I should do every day. No more battles with Monkey - she would finally get what she wanted. I figured out what I wanted from life and moved to LA to write music for films.
In order to pay bills, I began to work with children at school in their homework and preparation for the SAT (university entrance examination in the USA). I chose this work because it would not distract me from becoming the next John Williams (American composer, conductor, one of the most successful film compositors in history). Then the strangest thing happened. Only I was sure that I had found myself, the Monkey began a spiritual quest. When the PRP and I would sit at the piano to write something, Monkey refused to join us. The CRP was starting to feel helpless, like in college.
Meanwhile, Monkey found a new interest - she was interested in my tutorial work. Everything went well, the recommendations grew, and as soon as the PRP insisted that we were already working with too many students, Monkey accepted every new incoming job offer. Then Monkey began to think wider and hire my friends to tutor for me. The whole day went by for phone calls. Monkey went into business.
The monkey refused to give us the opportunity to pursue a musical career, and the ECP refused to be included in the business career of the Monkey.
It was at a time when my best friend Andrew moved to LA. Andrew is not like me. He lives and breathes business, without any interest in achieving anything in art, and since I met him when I was 5, his Monkey was accustomed to a little infection that did what she was told. After the move, we discussed the possibility of doing business together. My CRP refused to take the business seriously, but the prospect of doing business with Andrew and really making every effort was seductive. And Monkey was obviously very interested in business, there what IT could be is what I should have been doing in actual fact. We founded a tutoring company together.
The PRP was still struggling with the decision to postpone a music career, but the company grew rapidly and the PRP slowly began to feel ok about the business.
That for Monkey was a signal to become an avid blogger.
- Oh, come on
At that time I post something from time to time for several years, but the rise of the business was just what the Monkey needed to plunge into her new hobby entirely, and over the next few years I wrote hundreds of posts during off-hours. I went to work every day, but instead of doing what entrepreneurs should do after work in order to develop the company, I thought about what this would write to the blog.
In 2013, Andrew and I decided to start something new, we looked at the monkey and its immersion in the blog and decided maybe this is what I should have been doing all this time. And we started Wait But Why. Andrew would continue to develop the company, and I would be completely immersed in the new project, giving Monkey what she so passionately wanted.
The fact that college was a classic procrastination transformed into a bizarre form of madness as soon as I entered the real world. I seemed to be chasing the Monkey. After she beat me in college, it seemed to me that fighting her was not right from the start. She was born in some inner part of me, so maybe it makes sense to pay attention to her inclinations and use them as a guide.
This is what I did. Every time Monkey was fascinated by something new, I built my life around this hobby. The problem was that it looked like a mirage. As soon as I got there, the Monkey was no longer there. She was somewhere else. It was confusing. She was there, because she wanted to be there, or because there was no EPR. Was this really her vocation or did she constantly distract me from achieving something great with my talents and energy?
Last year, I came up with a small diagram that seems to me to answer these questions. I called it the Eisenhower Matrix.
1 quadrant = important and urgent
2 quadrant = important, but not urgent
3 quadrant = urgent, but not important
4 quadrant = not urgent and not important
The Eisenhower matrix relates everything that you do to 2 ranges: from the most urgent to the most non-urgent, and from the most important to not important.
The matrix was popularized by Stephen Blood's book, The Seven Skills of Highly Effective People, and is named after President Eisenhower. Eisenhower was known for his extraordinary productivity, which Covey credits to his “first things first” attitude towards wasting time. And for Eisenhower, the “first things” were always important things. He believed that you should spend almost all your time in quadrant 1 and 2.
Q1 - do now
Q2 - decide when to do
Q3 - delegate
Q4 - delete
And that's great for Dwight. Damn him, take Eisenhower. But do you know what Eisenhower didn’t have in his bald head? Almighty Monkey Immediate Pleasure. If he did, he would know that the procrastinator matrix looks like this:
Q1 - to do when from urgent turns into appallingly urgent
Q2 - delegate yourself to the future
Q3 - do when Q1 is urgent
Q4 - do now
If you need any information on quadrant 4 - how to get there, where to eat and so on - ask any procrastinator. They live there. For non-procrastinator, Q4 is a happy place to spend time. After a productive day, having worked on important tasks, it is very pleasant to spend time in Q4. And for this square there is a name - Happy Playground . But procrastinators have no tendency to spend time there after a productive day of work - they are there more often, against their will, because Monkey dragged them there, while the EPR begged them to leave. And they have their name for this quadrant - the Dark Playground .
As for quadrants 1 and 3 - urgent quadrants - most procrastinators will find themselves there from time to time, usually in cold sweat, with the Panic Monster screaming in their faces.
There is also Q2. For a procrastinator, Q2 is a strange and unfamiliar place, somewhere far, far away. Like Atlantis, or Narnia. He knows that this is an important place, and he tried to get there many times, but there is a problem - the Monkey refuses to go there, and the Panic Monster is not very concerned about them. And this is a deadly combination.
The reason why this is disastrous is that the path to the dreams of the procrastinator goes directly through Q2. Q1 and Q3 are places where people survive, and Q2 is where they grow and thrive.
If you're a procrastinator, you're in luck. We have an ace up your sleeve - some are brave and fearless, with unlimited energy and talent, someone who can beat the Monkey as easily as stepping on an ant is The Future.
Future You are your most important ally - someone who is always there and ready to support no matter what. I know everything about this guy. The future Tim is a great guy.
My to-do list consists of two parts - a short, easy part for me, and a long one, consisting of things that I cannot even imagine what I will do, because they make me scratch myself nervously. The future Tim will always deal with him, without complaint. The Future Tim also has no problems with vile social obligations. I was recently invited to give a feedback to a 3-4 hour play written by someone I practically do not know. Of course, I had no intention to participate, but I would feel guilty by refusing. So I said that I have a very busy 2 months, otherwise I would be happy to join next time this summer, then this will be the problem of Future Tim, not mine.
The future Tim also has the discipline and balance of life that I could only dream of. I never really went to the gym, but Future Tim lives in it and does all the exercises for both of us. And I like how the Future Tim is passionate about healthy nutrition, because personally I don’t have time for that. The future Tim is the kind of guy we all want to be like. You can get to know him closer by purchasing his books, for he is a prolific author.
But the most important role that the Future Tim plays in my life returns us to the Eisenhower Matrix. By a happy coincidence, the Future Tim spends most of his time in a place I would never have got into in Q2. The future Tim is the caretaker of Q2. And when I make a list of important things and notice that most of them fall on Q2, I do not need to despair, I know that the future Tim is over it. Which is good, taking into account in what terrible situation Past Tim, this useless dick from the mountain, left me:
Look at you, fucking Past Tim. You're the only reason we are in this terrible situation. See the Future Tim over there? Thank God, he is here to fix it. I would have removed your mess myself if I had not been busy with this damn Monkey.
But to all the merits of the Future Tim, he has one flaw that spoils everything: he does not exist.
It turns out the future you - this is the same mirage, like Monkey passion for a hobby. Tim's future is never near, only this muddle is Real Tim. Which can not perform any tasks, since they can be performed only by someone without Monkey. You set tasks for the Future You and all hope that it will exist.
Here is what happened when I pursued a career as a composer:
Q1 - nothing
Q2 - all important things for my composer career
Q3 - tutoring with students
Q4 - tutoring company management
And when I decided to follow Monkey and go into business, I missed an important point: “to do business” meant to do business with what I should do, which translated it from unimportant tasks to important tasks - moving from Q4, Monkey’s favorite place, in Q2, the least favorite.
Q1 - tutoring company management
Q2 - development of a tutoring company
Q3 - a ton of minor things that take up at least half of my time
Q4 - blogging
The fact that I thought Monkey will remain passionate about the business after moving it to Q2 indicates how little I understood Monkey. Monkey Passion has never been music or business or blogging. Monkey's passion has always been Q4.
When I started writing posts for Wait But Why, I knew that I wanted to write about procrastination. It was necessary to somehow pronounce the madness that was happening in my head. Once I did it .
The reaction was overwhelming. In addition to 1,300 comments, I received a huge number of e-mails:
- Emails about procrastination
- Emails about other blog posts
Thousands of emails. It seems all this is not just about me.
Many made my post cry. And not from my crooked drawings, but because they read about one of the most serious problems in their lives.
The profiles of those who wrote to me were very different. All ages, different professions from almost all countries of the world. But all of them, including myself, had the same problem - Instant Monkey Monkey, which cannot be controlled. But I noticed one thing. The differences between the stories can be divided into 3 categories:
1. The Disastinators (Catastrophes)
Of all the procrastinators, disaster is the worst form. Catastrophic is constantly in Q4, and procrastination completely destroys his life. Most often, the procrastinator becomes Catastrophic for 2 reasons:
A. Their monkey ceased to be afraid of the Panic Monster and became omnipotent.
B. They are ordinary procrastinators, but there is no external deadline or pressure in their lives.
Situation A is very gloomy, and as I learned from the letters, it is not so rare. These people have lost the ability to do almost everything that is important for them and either fly down in a spiral, or surrendered altogether.
In situation B, Catastrophic is no worse than any other procrastinator, just their circumstances are catastrophic for their personality type. The nature of their life and work does not cause the Monster Panic to wake up.
As a result, Catastrophics do nothing, never. Many PhDs fall into this category.
2. The Impostinators. (Rogues)
We haven't talked much about Q3, but it can be a particularly dangerous quadrant of all, and there are rogues reigning there. Their life looks like this:
The rogue seems productive, but in reality he is an impostor - a procrastinator, who has put on the mask of a productive person. He seems always busy as he spends a lot of time in Q3. He is actually busy. But it never seems to make progress with true goals.
Rogues have clever Monkeys, and Q3 is the Monkey's cleverest trick. The little monkey knows that the PDP can be pretty credulous, it can be reassured if she spends most of her time outside the Q4 of the Dark Playground. Rogue monkey fights a battle between Q3 and Q4, and it works because Q3 feels productive. It seems to a crook to be busy = productive.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/303140/
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