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Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#131

Post by rabidrat »

vntx wrote: post #23

Some things that have been extremely useful for me: Play video games that require intense focus for prolonged durations to perform well like Starcraft 2, CSGO, DOTA 2 helped me build mental endurance. Reduce social media. I’ve found that this was the most productive. Social media was fragmenting my attention by making me anxious and addicted. After I reduced Reddit and Facebook usage, my mental discipline increased d…

Modern video games are a focus hack that works within the game but does not translate to non-dopamine activities. Meditation would be cleaner, but if you want a game for focus, I would suggest Go (the classic board game). Moreso than I think any other game, it encourages and rewards beneficial human traits like patience and concentration.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#132

Post by jacobolus »

rubicon33 wrote: post #129
jacobolus wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My “mindset” (if you can call it that) is that most people don’t get much experience tackling hard problems, at least up through school. In light of that, what I would “advocate” is that people should try to get practice working on problems at their current level of stamina/ability (which might be very low), and slowly work their way up, instead of beating themselves up when a problem much more difficult than what th…

Taking your example of your 3.5 year old's book reading attention and interest ... What would you say if they were bored / distracted by everything you read to them, not just the difficult things?

That is a description of my 3.5 year old when he hasn’t had enough exercise for a day or two and is tired and/or hungry.

I haven’t spent an appreciable amount of time with a kid who is always completely uninterested in stories of any kind. But I can speculatively imagine a variety of possible causes for that: other distracting stimuli, malnutrition, exposure to toxins, disease, congenital brain abnormality, emotional abuse, ...

Do you have some particular kid in mind?

Or if this is an analogy to problem solving: if someone literally can’t manage to attempt any kind of problem no matter how trivial, then “easily give up when I face a hard problem” would not be an accurate description of the situation.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#133

Post by eru »

kharak wrote: post #70
hsartoris wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow ADHD sufferer here to second this. Thinking about ADHD as a deficit of motivation, which is much more accurate than an attention-oriented view, tends to clarify this sort of situation.

I have trouble focusing on work most of the time and lack the motivation for almost everything, unless not doing it would cause problems. But everything I've read about ADHD doesn't sound like a me at all. Never heard of your way of describing it though.

There are different ways for ADHD to manifest.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivit... has a list of symptoms in adults.

> But everything I've read about ADHD doesn't sound like a me at all.

If the symptoms listed there don't match, you probably don't have a ADHD, I guess.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#134

Post by marciojmo »

tl;dr: Role play a robot.

Try to block "thinking". Every time you catch yourself "thinking about" instead of doing, stop thinking and do something related to the task. Remove all distractions. Put your phone in another room, close your e-mail and do the smallest thing you can do to move your task forward, don't "think about", just do it, as if tou were a robot. Once you get tired, be satisfied with your progress and relax (release your thinking from prison, Now it is allowed to come in). Practice "I must do this" in other areas of your life as well, without thinking, until you develop grip.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#135

Post by eru »

lovehashbrowns wrote: post #110
toomanybeersies wrote: post #18

There is the potential that you have ADHD, because what you're describing sounds similar to my situation. I eventually ended up on stimulant medication to help, but there's non-stimulant medication available (if you're opposed to eating amphetamines for breakfast), as well as counselling and other treatment options that don't involve medication. Even if you don't want to seek professional treatment, you could look up…

I am currently getting help with ADD and this is a similar situation to me as well. However, I was diagnosed because I'm trying to get help for insomnia. Specifically, I have a lot of trouble falling asleep. I'm just adding another data point in case anyone is relating to OP, the comment I replied to, AND has difficulty falling asleep. It's always good to have a clear picture of what your mental health is like.

I got diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

I also had sleep issues, but never bad enough to seek help for them. Fortunately, the ADHD meds fixed the sleep issues, too.

Have you tried taking some L-Tryptophan in the evening? For some people it works wonders for sleep and mood. L-Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that you can buy over-the-counter. Your body needs it to make melatonin and serotonin amongst other things.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#136

Post by paulcole »

You might also want to consider the possibility that you’re a lazy person who doesn’t have great potential. This is the conclusion I came to about myself and it has actually made my life a lot easier. No more stressing about not achieving anything, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#137

Post by dvcrn »

thatsenough wrote: post #85
dvcrn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving a third +1 here. I had (have) similar issues with motivation and got diagnosed with ADHD at age 25. I'd describe it as "a disability of knowing how to do something, but not actually doing it unless there are external consequences involved"

How do you differentiate this from laziness/apathy?

The feeling can feel similar which is probably why a lot of people think they are just lazy. But ADHD is more of a reduced / lack of self-drive combined with a self-regulation + internal prioritization problem. Maybe a bit like laziness but the feeling is multiplied.

I of course have moments when I feel lazy and just don't want to do anything, but then there are the other moments when I want to do something, work on a project, practice a hobby but just don't. There is this disconnect, it's hard to explain

Best to look at other key ADHD symptoms as well like emotional regulation, rejection sensitve dysphoria, focus, (mental) hyperactivity (= your brain can't just chill), the need to constantly do something, impulsiveness (like with money), etc etc etc.

It's of course a spectrum and some people are worse in x while other people suffer more on y.

Best to talk to a doc if it affects your life. Could be ADHD, could be something else. It's very common though so admitting that there might be a problem is the first step to getting better

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#138

Post by eru »

apostacy wrote: post #111
toomanybeersies wrote: post #18

There is the potential that you have ADHD, because what you're describing sounds similar to my situation. I eventually ended up on stimulant medication to help, but there's non-stimulant medication available (if you're opposed to eating amphetamines for breakfast), as well as counselling and other treatment options that don't involve medication. Even if you don't want to seek professional treatment, you could look up…

I highly recommend checking out this thread about stimulant medications: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16033574 As someone who has ADHD and has taken stimulant medications for a long time, I would like to share my experience. There is a very faustian aspect of taking these medications. Don't think that you can change your brain chemistry and not change who you are. I would not have the career I have today with…

I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago when I was 30.

I tried a few medications. When I as on Vyvanse, I noticed similar personality changes as what you described. Most notably, my sense of humour suffered. (And before on dexamphetamine, I was really grumpy when it wore off. So I did get into fights.)

Things got better after I changed to methylphenidate. For me, it's milder in the side effects.

Modafinil and nicotine patches also work reasonably well with only mild side effects. (See https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine about nicotine. Please don't start smoking.)

Caffeine never worked at all for me. Just messed with my sleep. L-Tryptophan seems to help me very slightly, but I have friends who report great effects, especially with sleep and mood.

Enough ranting, my point is: you can try different stimulants to see if there's anything else that works better for you.

Finding the minimal dose that still works is of course still a good idea.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#139

Post by manmal »

Regarding motivation, I‘ve had good results with Cannabigerol - just like CBD, it’s a non-psychoactive compound of hemp, but it’s effects are different. It’s a powerful neuroprotectant (suspected to promote new brain cell formation), and for some reason it makes me super interested in technical problems and their solutions, and with it comes the motivation to code and tinker. Near infrared radiation of the forehead also helped [1], but for me that is more for mental capacity and less for motivation. For me, Co-enzyme Q10 also helps a bit with motivation, as does chocolate (obviously a short term hack, and I don’t eat it often as I get dependent easily).

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21042852

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#140

Post by dvcrn »

ExtremisAndy wrote: post #83
dvcrn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving a third +1 here. I had (have) similar issues with motivation and got diagnosed with ADHD at age 25. I'd describe it as "a disability of knowing how to do something, but not actually doing it unless there are external consequences involved"

Oh wow... you just described me with frightening accuracy. I’ve never seen my issue described so clearly and concisely. Basically, if there aren’t negative consequences for me not completing a task, my brain simply never gets motivated. It’s almost as if my brain is saying: “meh... you don’t really have to do this... so go play on Facebook some more”. If I could resolve this issue which has plagued me for years, it w…

When in doubt always best to talk to a doc. Best case you are completely fine, but doesn't hurt checking. (The irony is that people with ADHD are probably the least likely to get up by themselves and make an appointment given that there are no consequences of not doing it lol)

ADHD is of course not just motivation but a spectrum of symptoms. I'd highly recommend listening to Dr. Russell Barkley talk about ADHD on this playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg6cfsnmqyg&list=PLzBixSjmbc...

Watch from 1B onwards and see if you feel like it describes you

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