Sunday Setup
A weekly newsletter to help get your mind set up for a positive workweek.
05.18.2025 — ChatGPTarot Cards
(Coffee) Grounds for Divorce
You can tell a lot about a person by the decisions they make. From the clothes we wear, to the car we drive, to the people we date — our choices define us. But what do you do if you're really not that good at reading people? Enlist the help of AI, of course.
That's basically what a Greek woman recently did when she asked ChatGPT to "read the coffee grounds" in her husband's cup. After uploading a picture of his cup's contents to ChatGPT so it could practice tasseography — the ancient art of divining present secrets or future fates based on patterns left behind in tea leaves or coffee — she filed for divorce. The woman did not procrastinate because according to the omniscient ChatGPT, her husband was secretly fantasizing about a woman and was fated to begin an affair with her.
It's one thing to be smacked awake by a fuming female because she merely dreamed of your unfaithfulness, but being served divorce papers three days after an inanimate object prognosticated your infidelity from a snapshot of wet beans makes about as much sense as hanging an air freshener on a motorcycle.
I get that AI can help simplify and expedite some tasks when properly used, but asking a computer that consumes one bottle of water for every 100 words it produces to be the next host of Cheaters is a bridge too far. What are we doing, people?!
Just Do It
I hate wasting time. I have difficulty sitting around idly waiting for something, or worse, devoting excessive time and effort to an inefficient process. Time is too much of a precious and limited resource to squander on an unproductive task, and yet I am still a periodic procrastinator.
If procrastination were a professional sport, I'd probably be a perennial all-star, maybe even a hall of famer. Too often when I've had something I really didn't want to do but I kinda had to — like spend an obscene amount of time preparing a trivial weekly report that no one seems to read but everyone seems to notice when it's unavailable to be read — I've kicked the can down the road in lieu of something more mentally satisfying in the moment. But who hasn't done something like that?
The problem with all that can kicking, especially when it comes to a task that absolutely has to be completed, is it only delays the inevitable and further complicates the future. Choosing short-term rewards over long-term benefits can not only compromise productivity, but it can also negatively impact your mental health. That immediate dopamine hit from doom scrolling on social media might feel good in the moment, but the regret and frustration that comes with the realization you still have the same amount of work but less time can lead to distress and anxiety from being overwhelmed.
The next time you're tempted to step off the Task Train at Procrastination Station, consider taking the following steps instead:
Recognize
Think about what's really behind your desire to avoid doing the work. Procrastination is merely a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks. Are you feeling insecure over self-perceived ineptitude or irritated by an inane process?
Reframe
When you have negative thoughts and feelings towards a task it's easy to justify procrastination. Instead of basking in the bad vibes of the present, try to focus on the positive gains of the future. If you consider an assigned task to be menial and a waste of your talent, try to reframe it as an opportunity to improve your ability to accept things you can't control.
Reward
We tend to avoid tasks that we’ve identified as lacking value. To increase your motivation to focus on an undesirable task in the moment, incentivize yourself with the promise of an enticing reward upon completion, like logging off early and completely disconnecting until the next work day.
Procrastination is as human an action as binge watching a TV series. Actually, binge watching a TV series could be considered a form of procrastination, so maybe that wasn't the best simile. Regardless, my point is procrastination is something that afflicts us all from time to time. But a mindful approach to assessing the underlying root cause can help us overcome this temporary illness and ward off future flare ups.