To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

Emotions are cognition. I think in the blooming of rationality as a mode of engaging the world we forgot to keep that in mind. It is easy to focus on the mode of cognition most amenable to rational methods, the verbal. Just because emotions are not words does not mean they do not follow their own logic. Engaging your emotions 'rationally' is extremely important! There is a reason why we fall in love with people who speak to us in a way that seems to transcend mere words.

Emotions change as they are 'processed' and as new observations are made. That sounds like a 'logical' process to me. It's just hard to turn such processes into processes involving words (at least for me!).

Geometric, visual thinking is often as invaluable as logical, verbal thinking in mathematics. I believe that emotional thinking (some uses of the word 'thought' render that phrase paradoxical) is valuable in many human undertakings, too. I admire those who can swiftly translate emotions into words and back again. It is a form of power just barely beyond my grasp.

I am a remote worker and suffer from chronic procrastination. "Understanding emotions" is an oversimplified solution because many are addicted to procrastination. It's like asking an alcoholic to understand the emotions of why he drinks. I have procrastinated as a student and my entire career and have always gotten away with it. I've been rewarded with praise of my great work, higher paying positions, and bonuses. I find myself enjoying waiting until the last minute and then using stress to help me succeed. It is a vicious cycle. I want to stop procrastinating but at the same time I like doing it.

Yep. That's been my experience with procrastination too. I didn't get any headway with it until I started addressing the underlying emotions. It could be anything: anger, fear, shame, guilt, and at the bottom of it is existential anxiety.

Tried it. I have been using such a plugin for a couple years now. (I gave myself no more than 60 mins within a defined working our).

I've also tried pomodoro. Printing up reminder signs. Talking myself into it. All sorts of things.

If you are avoiding the underlying emotional issue, it works like a bandaid: helps in the short term, doesn't address the root problem.

It was only until I started seriously practicing meditation that things start to move, and not because meditation magically fixes procrastination. Rather, if you are practicing meditation correctly and stripping away self-deceptions, then you will eventually start surfacing up the things that lead to avoiding things that are important or urgent.

And it can go the other way too: people who are busy doing stuff may well also be procrastinating the really big, important issues in their life. Doing things that are urgent but not important becomes another procrastination tool, and helps with the self-deception that "you are doing something about it".

It's also been my experience that trying to face procrastination face on, takes on the quality of the emotions involved.

For example, if you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anxiety, the way you would go about it will be skittish, and avoid it. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anger, you will start to get aggressive towards your anger. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on depression, then you'll get to the point where you say, what's the point in being aware of depression?

I've said it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10144329 ... Emotional intelligence will supercharge your intellect because for most people, their lack of emotional intelligence holds back an otherwise brilliant mind.