Research on precrastination1 confirms the drawbacks of being the proverbial early bird: Back in 2014, psychologist David Rosenbaum, Ph.D., and his colleagues had college students carry one of a pair of buckets to the end of a walkway, asking them to choose whichever bucket seemed easier. Instead of choosing the bucket closer to the end, most of them chose the one closer to the starting point. That meant they carried the bucket for a longer distance, when it would’ve been easier to complete the task by waiting to grab the bucket closer to the end. Rosenbaum and his fellow researchers speculate a few reasons driving precrastination. It could be driven by the belief that it’s best to get it done when we can, to relieve the load on our working memory. Or the idea that something as inconsequential as doing the task serves as its own reward. Or that completing the task is rewarding in itself. Consider how awesome it feels to check that task off your to-do list. Or better still, after having done something that wasn’t on your to-do list, to write that in and then check that off. But getting things done early doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be more productive. By precrastinating, you are actually expending more mental and physical effort, meaning you are unnecessarily spending some of your energy credits. Just because you’ve finished something faster doesn’t mean the time savings are proportional to your energy savings—consider the things you’ve completed quickly but ended up having to rest for a long time as it wiped out your energy. The problem is that we are running away from the root of the problem, and the background anxiety is still there. As you add the energy burned from precrastinating and fixing mistakes, your anxiety will just build, possibly to a point where you fear you’re losing control. Along with that, your self-image will likely decline. In many ways, precrastination can be a cocktail for self-sabotage if left unchecked. Here’s where the Taoist principle of WuWei comes in. In his book The Lunar Tao, Taoist master Deng Ming-Dao explains that WuWei is a form of acting without acting. It “does not mean refraining from acting. Rather, it means to act naturally.” In my head, WuWei is the opposite of charging forward like a bull in a china shop. There is an inherent wisdom to knowing when to step back rather than being reactive. She has been featured in Elle, Forbes, and Business Insider and has previously worked with Olympians, business professionals, and individuals seeking to master their psychological capital. She works globally in English and Mandarin-Chinese via Skype and Facetime, blending cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, and ancient wisdom.
