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Additionally I ask about your demographics—maybe there are some correlations between procrastination and demography.
https://generic.typeform.com/to/plFSop
Would be very nice if you participate and I can share the aggregated result later if of any interest!
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Well in this case are you really procrastinating? Clearly your brain is making relatively solid decisions, considering how your career is moving (upward). In this situation I'd like to recall Bertrand Russel's great dictum: "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time". :) Totally changed how I think about my "procrastinating" time when I read that.
Nice quote. I just looked it up and it looks like it's not Bertrand Russel's: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/
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addicted to procrastination. Close. We're addicted to all manner of other things that give us that instant dopamine hit. When you ask somebody what do they do when they procrastinate, they rarely say they do something productive[0]. Instead, it's an activity that's designed to trigger that instant high: browsing the web, playing video games, eating, smoking. My reward system is completely divorced from reality. I get…
Instead of limiting your web browsing, I've found it to be more useful to eliminate certain sites. When things start going overboard for me I will stop visiting the web sites which are the biggest time wasters. The rest of the internet quickly loses its appeal, and though it is hard at first it is relatively easy to go cold turkey instead of trying to ration exposure.
I'm tempted to start consuming the internet solely through my kindle (again, just the instant fix sites: hn, reddit, facebook). It would slow my consumption way down and I'd only be able to use it when I'm not working. But, I need to find a way to stick to that and not also read HN and Reddit while I'm at the work computer. The only tried and true solution I've found for that is to get an accountability buddy. I tried to do that once in person with co-workers (I offered to give them $20 if they can catch me consuming caffeine), but in the end they were uncomfortable taking my money. The next step is researching those accountability buddy startups, where you give money to an organization you hate if you fail.
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! =)
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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. :)
Why would this be ADHD? I suffer from the same problem and yet when I'm doing something I like I can concentrate intently for hours if not days. I've worked 60 hour weeks for months when I'm invested. But when it's stuff I don't enjoy or I'm a bit down, it's a totally different ball game. I also tend to not be concerned about dates far in the future because I secretly believe I can pull a rabbit out of the hat whenev…
Frankly, the description you have given is very similar to AD/HD, especially the "I'm that fucking good" part. Yes, I know you weren't bragging, but that sense of infallibility and the letdown that invariably follows when your abilities don't manifest ... I'm guessing it sours you to the project you're working on? Can't seem to direct yourself back to it to care again like you did when you were focused on it the first time? Anxious to find something else that's more interesting where you can prove what a rockstar you are? That rush when you pull that rabbit out of the hat, feels good, doesn't it? Dopamine is great, when you do something that creates enough of it that your brain feels rewarded. For many, it doesn't take much. For many people with AD/HD, the last minute YOLO cramming/programming/building/working session is what it takes to feel like we're doing anything worthwhile.
There's some usefulness to that comment. Sometimes, procrastination can let the mind(including subconscious) figure out all consequences of an action. In other words, "Don't do any thing hasty." sometimes is the best plan? I know by procrastinating on certain legal/business decisions, I saved a lot of money/time. The more I thought about the problem/opportunity, the more I saw its flaws, and pitfalls of acting too quick. (No I didn't read the article, just the comments. I find myself going right to the comments on some topics. I wonder if other HN's do the same? I imagine it must tick off the website who wrote the original article?)
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The question would involve finding out a lot more details for the answer I gave. It would have to be proven to be pretty effective.
> It would have to be proven to be pretty effective. Good point. Just imagine and assume that this cure is the most effective cure available w/a success rate of 100% without knowing further details.
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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.
You have the time (doesn't feel that way, with all those DUE RIGHT NOW tasks I have that are way more important) to make the appointment (and why can't they just see me today, it probably won't take that long, it's just a questionnaire, right?), drive to the doctor (and deal with all those idiots on the road who clearly can't drive as well as I can, and where did they learn the rules of the road anyway?), wait in the waiting room (didn't I just fill out all this paperwork online like they asked, trying to be efficient? Why am I doing this again? I should tell them there are better ways of doing this! And that guy coughing over there, didn't he learn to cover his mouth? Ugh, figures, reading a trash magazine, probably doesn't know any better) and talk to the doctor (who I should totally tell about the nootropics I've been reading about to see if he knows about them too and can just give me some of those and send me on my way because I've got shit to do, and it ain't gonna do itself, and OH LOOK, THAT SQUIRREL JUST JUMPED TWO FEET IN THE AIR!). It can't hurt.
Note to the reader: the parentheses indicate my own thoughts when I did this years ago. I was told later by others I've met with AD/HD that they had the same exact thoughts, and it helped them to see a doctor. I was also told by others who didn't have AD/HD that I needed to grow up, suck it up, and just do it. To me, that clarifies the difference of someone with AD/HD and someone without. Either you can identify with every single one of those things in parentheses, or you think, "of course we all think some of those things, but we put our big boy pants on and get it done; it doesn't mean you have a deficiency in your neurochemistry, it just means you have to motivate yourself a bit more to get anything done."
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…
Well, if you have read the article then you should know yourself already that this might not work. Instead maybe a better way would be to approach your emotional state, make it real, with a pop-up when the plugin sees you are procrastinating. Instead of asking "what should you do right now" better ask "How do you feel right now? Why don't you work?" and then lets you enter an answer, to create a diary for you about y…
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 actually made that for Chrome. It worked. I got disheartened that no one ever downloaded it from the store so I destroyed it. All it did was pop up a Yes/No alert that said, "Really?!" It also had a back off that was configurable. There were times when I was doing actually productive research that the constant questioning was annoying, especially intrawebsite. So you could delay the next request for N minutes based…