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To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

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Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#11

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…

It's not really an oversimplification. It's a compressed principle from which a lot of implications come out of it.

You don't use the same part of the mind that exercises intellectual understanding in order to gain emotional intelligence. For some, it's like an underused-mental muscle. It grows stronger with practice.

"It's like asking an alcoholic to understand the emotions of why he drinks."

That's a great question to ask!

Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#13
post #8
post #5

Ok, here's an idea for a procrastination preventer. It's like the ones you've seen already, which you add to your browser, and then they kick you off reddit after 15 minutes or whatever, or blog problem domains entirely. Instead of that, a popup that asks "what are you supposed to be working on right now?" with a short text input. You type an answer, and carry on procrastinating. Then after 15 minutes, it pops up aga…

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 med…

May I ask, what specific technique/type of meditation have you been practicing?

I've used some meditation exercises coming from kundalini yoga to tackle other problems, and they have worked wonderfully. Nevertheless, I haven't encountered something like what you're mentioning.

Thanks!

Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#14
post #2

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 s…

Yep, there are different intelligences including emotional intelligence. It uses a different part of the mind. Emotions don't have logic or rationality, but they do have a observable, sometimes predictable dynamic.

The processing of emotions are simple: experience it when it arises, allow it to do it's thing, and allow it to pass. There isn't a need to comment on it, though it is possible to gain some interesting insights by observing them.

Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#15
One thing I like to do is "ratchet down" by saying, "OK, what's the most amount of time I can handle on the task I'm putting off." Sometimes it's as little as 5 minutes. So I set a timer for 5 minutes, do that much work, and then take a break to do something fun. By stacking enough tiny slices together, eventually I get back in the groove, and in the mean time it's amazing how much you can get done even in 5-minute increments.

Speaking of which, I have some writing to do… See you in 5.

Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#17
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 med…

May I ask, what specific technique/type of meditation have you been practicing? I've used some meditation exercises coming from kundalini yoga to tackle other problems, and they have worked wonderfully. Nevertheless, I haven't encountered something like what you're mentioning. Thanks!

Meditation will follow the same principles regardless of the specific techniques or tradition. The reason is that there isn't much to it. When you come down to it, there isn't much difference among Zen (Chan), Vipassana, Insight, Taoist shengong meditations, etc. This is because they all touch on the same ground of being (emptiness). (And yes, you'll find this in Western traditions and indigenous tribal traditions).

The exercises that will have the most variants are concentration exercises, usually some sort of one-point concentration on a sensory object -- sight, sound, touch, kinesthetics, taste, smell, etc., tangible or untangible in varying forms of abstractions. Journeying methods (where you visualize a space, or say, in Gestalt therapy where you allow fragments of your persona to embody) are variations on concentration techniques. Despite the emotional connotation of the word 'concentration' (which usually mean, some sort of pressure, stress, or force), skill in concentration has more to do with relaxing than stressing.

Kundalini yoga is interesting because you'd have to distinguish between Kundalini Yoga (tm) (the specific lineage of Kundalini yoga promoted by a genius in marketing) and kundalini yoga (the class of practices or yoga designed to awaken shakti and kickstart the Kundalini process). I don't know the details of your practice, but I wouldn't doubt that you would find them helpful. If you are arousing energy, then you will start surfacing up buried emotions, memories, habits, etc. and a complete system will also include methods on dealing with it. If nothing else, there is simply "sitting through it", and that is where it intersects the mindfulness practices like vipassana or insight.

Does this help?

Re: To Stop Procrastinating, Start by Understanding the Emotions Involved

#19

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…

I don't mean to sound flippant, but it seems like AD/HD to me. No real concern for due dates far off in the future: "Look, it's either due now or not now."

Describes me perfectly. :)

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