4.3.3 FEAR OFPAIN
As noted in an earlier chapter, writing is a series of decisions. When you write a brief, or any analytical document, you have to decide which issues to address and which to ignore.
You must decide what authorities to cite and how to organize your discussion of issues. At the micro level, you must decide how to write each sentence, choosing which words to use and which sentence structures to arrange those words in. You must decide whether it is permissible to end a sentence with a preposition, whether you can split infinitives, and whether to use the Oxford comma.Facing so many decisions can be overwhelming, and many writers choose the pleasure of procrastination over the pain of decision. Good writing requires focused attention, and in our current culture, distraction and inattention seem to reap all of the rewards. We may start writing with all good intentions, but when we reach a difficult decision, we may feel almost a compulsion to stop writing. As Rasch and Rasch tell us, “[we] can easily be derailed from writing by the compelling and ubiquitous siren songs of e-mail, the Internet, parties, conversation, television, hot baths, the refrigerator, or the compulsion to scrub tile grout with a toothbrush.”24Furthermore, many distractions are readily available, either on our computer — which, ironically, we must use in order to complete the writing project — or on a smartphone that is probably in a nearby pocket or purse.
It is true that we will feel pain if we put off our writing decisions for too long — we will fail the course, lose the case, or damage our academic or professional reputation. These “pains,” however, are in the future, and they are abstract, potential pains rather than concrete, immediate pains.25 Most of us are much more likely to react to immediate, definite, concrete realities than to future, abstract, possible realities.26
Fighting pain-based procrastination requires finding methods for imposing selfdiscipline.
You may succeed by drafting a careful schedule and then sticking to it. (Take care, however, that you do not resort to refining the schedule as a new means of procrastination.) Checking off items on the schedule may provide enough satisfaction that you stop procrastinating to give yourself the pleasure of checking off more items.If making a schedule does not work, try to determine whether you are more motivated by rewards or punishments, or by some combination of the two. You may succeed if you find a way to reward performance and reduce distractions. It might be a good idea to give a friend your phone — or your social media password — with instructions not to give it back until you have completed a certain number of pages. Certain apps can shut off electronic distractions for a set time period. In this way you are motivated to go through the pain of writing in order to reap the reward of reuniting with your favorite distractions.
If devising rewards does not work, try to find ways to impose an alternate “pain” that is immediate, and that is worse than the pain of writing. Ideally, you should use this method as a way to force yourself to create an early draft; for most lawyers, the pain that will result if you fail to finish any draft at all should be enough to force you to create some sort of work product by the final deadline. But your goal here is to write a draft early enough to allow time for revision. Even if your teachers require interim drafts, you will do better if you allow time for writing and revision before your interim due date.
I have used (and recommend) a method advised by Richard Thaler, one of the authors of the book Nudge, which addresses behavioral economics and human decision making. To motivate a new faculty member at Thaler’s school, Thaler asked the faculty member to give Thaler a series of $100 checks, dated for a series of self-imposed deadlines for a writing project. If the professor did not meet any deadline, Thaler would deposit that check.
Thaler promised that he would use any deposited money to host a party to which the faculty member would not be invited. The faculty member met all of the deadlines.27Another version of this method can be found on the Web site Stickk.com, which was founded by other behavioral economists.28I tried this method on my own by giving a friend a check written out to a nonprofit organization whose goals I despise. If I did not meet my deadline, he was allowed to mail the check, and I was confident that he would do so. By writing the check, I created the possibility of present “pain” that was worse than the pain of writing. I did not want to give that organization money; perhaps worse, I did not want to get on that organization’s mailing list. Having that concrete, present pain before me helped focus my attention in a way that promising myself a cookie just didn’t achieve.You may not want to write a check, but if procrastination hinders your progress, set up some sort of consequence for not creating an early draft. For example, instead of giving your phone to a friend to avoid distractions, you may want to give your friend the right to take your phone overnight (or longer) if you fail to meet an interim deadline. Most of us are so emotionally attached to our phones that the prospect of losing access to the phone might be more painful than losing money, and it might provide just the motivation you need to crank out an interim draft.
Perhaps you are one of the lucky few who eat your Brussels sprouts first, and who never have trouble with procrastination. If so, reading this section might have made you grateful that you don’t have this problem. If you are a procrastinator, realize that you are not alone, and that just as you can learn to write, you can learn to defeat procrastination.