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💡In these fast-paced times, worry seems to be our common enemy. Whether it's a work report or a trivial life matter, troubles arrive uninvited, trapping us in cycles of self-blame and anxiety. During my development of WeChat Mini games, I experienced this firsthand. The process of optimizing game mechanics became particularly challenging. I turned to this book to help manage my struggles with setting deadlines and breaking down projects. While it helped improve project progress and prevented my Mini games from failing, the psychological toll remained significant. The book "Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now" helped me approach my challenges from a psychological perspective and find solutions. The key lesson? Don't aim for perfection—embrace iteration!!
📝Psychology of Procrastination
Problem: It's not just about time management
The author points out that procrastination is not just about time management—it's deeply psychological. We experience internal conflict: while we want to change our current situation, we simultaneously fear uncertainty and risk. This contradiction often leads to endless self-struggle.
I experienced this contradiction while developing Mini games. I constantly hesitated to optimize the game mechanics, fearing I couldn't meet my own high standards. This fear caused me to repeatedly delay taking action.
Three main reasons for procrastination
The Psychology of Procrastination reveals three main causes: physiological factors, psychological fears, and perfectionism. Our brains evolved to pursue immediate gratification, which conflicts with society's need for successful long-term planning.
Psychological factors include fear of failure, fear of success, and fear of losing control. Perfectionism, meanwhile, drives us to set unrealistically high standards before we even begin.
Perfectionism is definitely my challenge. I always hoped my game would be flawless. While intensively studying Mini game mechanics and user engagement techniques, I developed high expectations for my first Mini game. These expectations made me anxious—I feared I couldn't live up to my ideal vision.
This became particularly apparent during my career transition. In my previous role, perfectionism was actually necessary. Different projects require different approaches. In integrated marketing, especially social media marketing, both the final deliverables and each content piece needed to be perfect, as any social media post could pose reputational risks. Game development, however, follows a different philosophy—it thrives on iteration and evolves through user feedback. This growth-oriented approach was new to me. Rather than perfectionism, it demanded rapid experimentation and learning from failure.
Procrastination strategies
The book's solutions are straightforward yet effective, with an emphasis on lowering expectations. Setting concrete deadlines is crucial for efficiency. Creating a distraction-free workspace helps maintain focus. Most importantly, adjusting our mindset—specifically, lowering initial outcome expectations—makes it easier to take the first step.
I learned to shift my approach, embracing a more iterative process instead of seeking immediate perfection. This meant allowing myself to make mistakes and letting the product improve gradually. Breaking down complex tasks into smaller projects also proved helpful. As the book explains, this provides the immediate psychological satisfaction we crave. Completing each small segment creates momentum, making it easier to start the next one. This approach helps us tackle large projects while maintaining a positive cycle of achievement and reward rather than falling into frustration and self-criticism.
Through this journey—from corporate life to entrepreneurship, from developing WeChat Mini games to transitioning from integrated marketing to game development—I've grown significantly. Our project development process has consistently improved with each iteration. I've learned to accept my imperfections rather than blame myself for setbacks or worry about uncertainties. Every challenge has a solution; the key is finding the right approach. Both striving for perfection and experiencing failure are natural human responses. If I struggle with self-management in the future, I can accept that too. After all, whether we choose to pursue innovation and excellence or seek stability and comfort, both are valid ways of living.
