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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

#61

Post by OJFord »

spdustin wrote: post #19
hashberry wrote: post #4

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. :)

I've tried to get around this by self-imposing deadlines. But it always works for a bit, and then it'll start slipping - I'll duly "catch up", but it slips again, and eventually gets to the point where everything's slipping faster than I can catch up, which is just depressing -_-

Seeing as they were self-imposed, the easiest 'solution' to the resulting 'depression' is just to lift them! Great! Oh, wait, we're back where we started..

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

#62

Post by dasboth »

vishaldpatel wrote: post #42

Here's 'one weird trick' that will instantly stop you from procrastinating: - Schedule the activity - When the time comes, you'll probably try to think of ways to put it off - ohh the great internal debate: to do, or to punt. Tell yourself that you might as well get started while you rethink your position. You'll find that you only need to be motivated for about five minutes before you're cruising right along! =)

My experience tells me you're right - once you start, the barrier to continue is infinitely smaller than the one that stopped you starting in the first place. However, I promise you if it were that easy, this discussion would be moot :)

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

#63

Post by louhike »

spdustin wrote: post #19
hashberry wrote: post #4

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. :)

I've been wondering if I have AD/HD as I have several symptoms. I don't know if I should try to confirm it with a professional to try to do something about it or if I should just live with it.

It causes me problems with others as I work/communicate quite differently but I've learned to use it as a strength, as I tend to be really creative and to think out the box easily.

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

#64

Post by kinleyd »

hosh wrote: post #8
Kluny wrote: 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…

Thanks for this and the follow on posts. I've been inconsistent in my meditation, and have been consistent with it only during periods of extended freedom, usually between jobs or tasks. I've not had the discipline to stick with it when my To Do lists starting flowing over... and of course that's when the procrastination and anxiety kick in. I'm going to have a stab at more consistent meditation practice, and hopefully I'll benefit with a bit of what you describe.

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

#65

Post by config_yml »

mariusmg wrote: post #53

How about a popup that tells you "get the fuck back to work otherwise you'll get fired and end up on yhe street" ?

How about it auto calls the police or some other place which would result in utter embarrassment? External pressure works best for me.

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

#66

Post by blumkvist »

_bdog wrote: post #50

The main emotion involved in procrastination is disgust. A basic emotion that is as strong as fear, but is completely learned and can be attached to every kind of situation, activity or just the thought of starting them. Procrastination is protecting yourself from feeling the upcoming revolting disgust these activities can bring. You avoid feeling it, like you avoid touching a hot plate, that's why the disgust never…

Any literature in English?

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

#67

Post by jblow »

nitrogen wrote: post #49
jblow wrote: post #47

This is one of those cases where science, viewed globally, is being dumb. Is it not consistent with the scientific narrative that procrastination, being a universal behavior, must have been developed evolutionarily for some benefit? It is a pretty sophisticated behavior after all (as the article even describes). So isn't it naive to assume it is a problem to be solved? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but shouldn't the e…

Instincts are useful tools for making fast decisions, but in my view we should see them as nothing more than tools. As self-aware beings I see no harm in deciding for ourselves when to follow our instincts and when to override them.

I agree! But the first step in a good decision is a clear understanding of the situation, and it is a barrier to understanding to just blanket-decide that procrastination is completely bad without even considering otherwise.

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

#68

Post by tscosj »

hashberry wrote: post #4

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…

Please, don't ask an alcoholic about his emotions of why he drinks...please!

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

#69

Post by mattlutze »

louhike wrote: post #63
spdustin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

I've been wondering if I have AD/HD as I have several symptoms. I don't know if I should try to confirm it with a professional to try to do something about it or if I should just live with it. It causes me problems with others as I work/communicate quite differently but I've learned to use it as a strength, as I tend to be really creative and to think out the box easily.

Core to treating the disorder is

1. understanding how it particularly manifests in (you, if you indeed have it), and 2. developing foundational patterns of action to support repetitive tasks and activities throughout your day.

Talking with someone who has expertise in diagnosing the disorder can be supremely helpful. If nothing else they'll help you narrow further where those effects are stemming from if not AD/HD, and if a diagnosis does make sense, they can help you start to build the structures and patterns in your life that can help alleviate those symptoms.

Driven to Distraction by Hallowell and Ratey was supremely helpful for me in understanding the deficit better and in helping to develop strategies to overcome / shore up some deficiencies in my day-to-day.

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

#70

Post by florian-f »

Kluny wrote: 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…

I like the idea. It reminds me of something I want for myself but can't really formulate well.

For example, let's say I'm working on a paper and while writing, I encounter a latex problem that I want fixed so I go off and look it up on stackoverflow (instead of making a note that I need to fix this later). Ideally I'd go right back to working on my paper after solving the issue. Unless I can't solve it and have to do more digging and on and on. Until I'm interrupted by someone/ something and when I get back to the task at hand I don't even know what I was working on and why.

So I thought that it would be nice to have something like a stack trace of things I'm doing. I'd be able to see where I left off and more importantly how and why I got there. But I'm not sure that a stack is the right data structure for this, and if not, what else to use. Also, I can't imagine how to build something like this in a way that I'd actually use it, because it would probably require too much typing/ other overhead.

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