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Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

structuredprocrastination.com

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Re: Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

#41

Post by xlm1717 »

vinceguidry wrote: post #34

What I have found is that the subconscious will resist taking action on something perceived to be important until it's worked out an appropriate approach. As a result one can avoid doing things like planning and preparing and simply query the subconscious as to whether you're ready to work on something. Yes has me start on it and either complete it or hit a snag. If it's a snag, then I'll analyze it briefly and then…

Honestly, this sounds like justification to go days/weeks/months just reading articles to me.

"Don't worry boss, maybe next week my subconscious will come up with a brilliant solution that will sink our competitors. You'll see."

A little planning goes a long way. You can avoid doing things like planning and wait days/weeks/months for your attachment to the task to clear up. You can also plan out what you'll need to accomplish a task and once you're done, your mind can essentially go on autopilot till you either hit a snag (in which case back to the drawing board you go for more planning), or finish the task.

You can trust your subconscious to show you the right way and hope it's correct, or you can plan the right way and have more of a guarantee that it's correct.

Re: Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

#45

Post by TheGunner »

drb311 wrote: post #6

There's an old saying: "If you want something done ask a busy person." Busy people always come through for you. I used to think this was because they were super efficient, super disciplined. But maybe your task is a welcome distraction from something even worse? And besides, everything we do is a distraction from the most looming, vaguest, most intractable deadline of all. The End.

I think most people are both, I certainly notice it as a developer, times when my head is in the right place and my productivity goes through the roof and then the downtimes where it can be half that. I think it does tend to coincide with how busy you are, if you have too much time to think that's all you tend to do, over analysing tasks rather than just getting on with it.

Re: Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

#47

Post by gpvos »

meesterdude wrote: post #10
gpvos wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are apparently not in the target audience of this article.

As someone who battles procrastination and other avoidant behavior, I was under the impression I was.

In that case I understood you wrongly, I read it as you being not a procrastinator. My apologies.

Re: Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

#48

Post by etingel »

rdudek wrote: post #20
drb311 wrote: post #6

There's an old saying: "If you want something done ask a busy person." Busy people always come through for you. I used to think this was because they were super efficient, super disciplined. But maybe your task is a welcome distraction from something even worse? And besides, everything we do is a distraction from the most looming, vaguest, most intractable deadline of all. The End.

This actually makes sense. I seem to be more efficient at getting things done when I have multiple things to do, but can never get something done if it's one and only thing left. I get easily distracted by other things that keep me away from accomplishing that one task or goal.

Could it be that we humans are afraid of running out of things to do? After all, if we finish that last task, it would seem that we no longer serve a purpose. As long as we have one task left, there is still hope that we can find more to do.

Of course, that is a poor way of thinking since all it does is make you lose your sense of purpose before you actually run out of tasks, but the human brain is weird like that sometimes.

Re: Structured Procrastination: Do Less, Deceive Yourself, and Succeed Long-Term

#49

Post by nxb »

vinceguidry wrote: post #34

What I have found is that the subconscious will resist taking action on something perceived to be important until it's worked out an appropriate approach. As a result one can avoid doing things like planning and preparing and simply query the subconscious as to whether you're ready to work on something. Yes has me start on it and either complete it or hit a snag. If it's a snag, then I'll analyze it briefly and then…

> What I have found is that the subconscious will resist taking action on something perceived to be important until it's worked out an appropriate approach.

Yup, that's why whenever I get stuck on the high-level design, I'll often start doing some of the small sub-tasks for which I'm highly-confident will be a part of the end-solution, and for which I'm highly confident that I know the interface they'll need, no matter what high-level approach is taken.

That extra domain work on the sub-tasks often feeds back to helping with the high-level planning too.

This, combined with abstract non-functional high-level prototypes will attack the problem from both the top and bottom. Hopefully you eventually complete the task when you meet somewhere in the middle.

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