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

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

#61

Post by fenomas »

aethertap wrote: post #31

I'm a big procrastinator, but I finally found a way to get around it. Instead of thinking about the big tasks, I just allot myself a fixed amount of time that I'll be doing something, work on it steadily during that time, and quit at the end regardless of the state it's in. For some reason, it really makes it easier to face big important projects if I just say "I'm going to spend 8 hours putting up siding today, then…

This is a bit like Raymond Chandler's process for writing:

> The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least when a professional writer doesn’t do anything else but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window, or stand on his head, or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Write or nothing.

He commented somewhere that it works on the same principle as school - you can't force children to learn, but if you prevent them from doing anything else, the bright ones will learn just to stave off boredom.

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

#62

Post by Matumio »

galfarragem wrote: post #35

Maybe it was just me but I couldn't find any juice on this essay.. The best I essay I ever read on procrastination was from mark Manson [1]. [1] http://markmanson.net/procrastination

Quote: "The more you care about the outcome, the harder it feels to achieve." This was great to read, thanks for posting it. It focuses more on anxiety. I agree it's more juicy but I think the original article talks about a slightly different topic.

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

#63

Post by paulryanrogers »

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.

Or maybe busy people often have trouble saying 'no'

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

#64

Post by drb311 »

fenomas wrote: post #61
aethertap wrote: post #31

I'm a big procrastinator, but I finally found a way to get around it. Instead of thinking about the big tasks, I just allot myself a fixed amount of time that I'll be doing something, work on it steadily during that time, and quit at the end regardless of the state it's in. For some reason, it really makes it easier to face big important projects if I just say "I'm going to spend 8 hours putting up siding today, then…

This is a bit like Raymond Chandler's process for writing: > The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least when a professional writer doesn’t do anything else but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window, or stand on his head, or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not re…

Strikes me you have three choices:

1. Force yourself to sit here and do nothing else until the task is done. The Chandler method, which requires a great deal of discipline.

2. Keep telling yourself "I'll start just after I check Hacker News / Twitter / watch one more episode on Casualty". This means you never achieve anything and feel forever guilty and worthless.

3. Put the task to one side for now and do something else enjoyable and marginally useful. You make progress in other tasks, feel valuable, and only a little guilty.

Structured Procrastination is the third option. If you can't manage Option 1 -- and who can? -- it's better than Option 2.

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

#65

Post by sk8ingdom »

jtheory wrote: post #12

Notice that this is just a short essay. A blog post, maybe. But it's also potentially a reason to search for available domain names; to actually register one (after exploring the compromises around what registrar to choose), to find a host (navigating the truly bewildering options), to decide whether wordpress might be the right way to go, and what theme, and what big header image. Plugins? And what if it really goes…

I remember stumbling on this site a while ago and the format [1] was completely different.

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20150214165654/http://www.structu...

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

#66

Post by w0rd-driven »

xlm1717 wrote: post #41
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 a…

If you only have a single task to complete, then yes that's precisely justification to sit there and do nothing but collect a paycheck.

Hopefully your boss is putting multiple things in front of you that can be juggled so that as you put something in the background something can take its place.

I've solved some of the most challenging problems I've ever faced in my professional life this way. By focusing on something else, usually another task in an entirely different project or section or even just looking at Youtube I'll often have an epiphany about something in a completely unrelated task. I'll go to prove my assumptions and sure enough, problem solved. Much more efficiently I might add.

When I only have one major thing to accomplish this looks like I'm doing nothing because on the surface I'm not. I'm often here on HN reading articles or on other websites filling my brain with useless trivia but it doesn't mean my mind isn't churning through the plates I have spinning. I'll also often pull a task out of background, make more assumptions, prove them incorrect, then put the task back in background mode until that efficient answer comes. This is not every task mind you, some things I can solve immediately. For the things I can't, this model absolutely does work for me 100% of the time.

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

#67

Post by aethertap »

drb311 wrote: post #64
fenomas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit like Raymond Chandler's process for writing: > The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at least when a professional writer doesn’t do anything else but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window, or stand on his head, or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not re…

Strikes me you have three choices: 1. Force yourself to sit here and do nothing else until the task is done. The Chandler method, which requires a great deal of discipline. 2. Keep telling yourself "I'll start just after I check Hacker News / Twitter / watch one more episode on Casualty". This means you never achieve anything and feel forever guilty and worthless. 3. Put the task to one side for now and do something…

The trick for me is always just getting started. Once I actually get over the hump and start working, I generally find it's pretty easy to keep going. It's getting started without sidetracking myself that really puts up the biggest resistance.

That may not work for an author who's lacking inspiration, but in my case I found that when I sat down at the keyboard to work on my book, if I couldn't think of what to write I'd just start writing utter crap for a while until it started to flow a little better, then I was usually off to the races.

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

#68

Post by vinceguidry »

xlm1717 wrote: post #41
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 a…

> A little planning goes a long way.

Planning can be accomplished like any other task in exactly the same way. "I need to plan the Xyzzy presentation, am I ready to do this?" "Yes, let's give it a go. What sorts of information am I going to need?" And go about your plan.

"Planning" can be just the thing your subconscious has decided a particular task needs. At this point it's no longer a task, but rather a project, and gets 'filed' differently in my mind. For each project, the first thing I do is decide what constitutes "done" for that project. I may be ready for the task of making that decision or my subconscious might decide I'm not ready for even that step yet.

From the conception of done I can then create a road map from here to done. Road maps have tasks, each task gets accomplished individually in the same subconscious-driven fashion. The road map isn't typically written down, it exists in my mind 'somewhere'.

A lot of times, subconscious 'nopes' alert me to the fact that there's something wrong with the road map or the approach.

One of the keys to making this work is to prioritize learning. Every nope contains a lesson, one of the reasons I let things go as long as they need to is so that I can give the subconscious space to bring these lessons to awareness. I consider the lessons to be more important than task completion in all but truly urgent and pressing issues.

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

#69

Post by marcusgarvey »

I've found the Getting Things Done method of putting only the "next physical action" on your to-do list to be very helpful. "Write a Masters Thesis" sounds much less daunting when you focus on the NPA which might be something as non-threatening as, "Go to the store and buy index cards."

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

#70

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #63
rdudek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or maybe busy people often have trouble saying 'no'

Yes!
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