The way I solved my procrastination problems is that I do at least one thing per day towards my goal. More often than not, this puts me in a mental state that leads me to doing many things. I find that simply starting a task is the most difficult step.
How to minimize procrastination
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
My point is that quite a few websites nowadays depend upon Javascript in a questionable manner. I wasn't trying to discredit the original commentator.
Haha, well shit. Turns out we were agreeing, only i failed to pick up on your sarcasm. :)
I am happy that we were able to clarify this :D
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#53Read HN less?
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#54If you procrastinate a lot, it usually means that you really want to do something different with your life. Go find out what it is, rather than submitting yourself to all sorts of masochist self-discipline schemes.
Of course, but there are things that can't be avoided like seeing your doctor about that pain you've been feeling/paying bills/finding a job/finishing that task your boss asked you to do/doing house work etc. Procrastinating can appear in various different areas of life, not just in those related to following your dreams and passions.
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#551. Go to HN to procrastinate. 2. Find article on how to not procrastinate. 3. Ack.
Or the classic 1. Want to stop procrastinating and get stuff done 2. Spend hours reading "how to get stuff done" blog posts
This is me. What's the reason behind this? Is this because it gives me the "I'm doing something productive" feeling while simultaneously doing nothing productive?
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#56What do you do when procrastination becomes more serious and develops into life avoidance? (You procrastinate on everything, regardless of how you frame a task, regardless of the difficulty of it). In the extreme case procrastination isn't a obstacle to task competition but a learned habit of avoidance. It becomes an addiction in the same way that gambling, drugs, etc do. How do you beat an addiction whose very natur…
I actually was at that stage a couple of years ago - I couldn't get anything done, which made me feel bad and depressed, which made me not get anything done. I couldn't even start doing something in a meaningful way. It's such a bizarre thing to think back on that I can't even fully empathise with my former self.. This is what made me realise what was going on and rectify the situation, it all just "clicked". I had b…
It's a weird feeling, procrastinating on work by reading an article about how to stop procrastinating.
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or the classic 1. Want to stop procrastinating and get stuff done 2. Spend hours reading "how to get stuff done" blog posts
This is me. What's the reason behind this? Is this because it gives me the "I'm doing something productive" feeling while simultaneously doing nothing productive?
Yes, I think. See http://www.aaronkharris.com/things-that-arent-work and http://www.aaronkharris.com/things-that-arent-progress for similar thoughts.
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#58Procrastination pays: http://dilbert.com/strip/1996-03-22
I don't have your Dilbert-fu, but there is another, I think more recent, comic in which Dilbert is triumphant about how his boss's poor leadership, which resulted in a project's requirements changing, and in the project's final cancellation, didn't affect him because he simply didn't work on the project.
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#59What do you do when procrastination becomes more serious and develops into life avoidance? (You procrastinate on everything, regardless of how you frame a task, regardless of the difficulty of it). In the extreme case procrastination isn't a obstacle to task competition but a learned habit of avoidance. It becomes an addiction in the same way that gambling, drugs, etc do. How do you beat an addiction whose very natur…
> If I want to stop procrastination do I have to be doing something productive 24/7?
My instinct would be to do the opposite. Clear my schedule as much as possible and give myself only one, small thing that I need to accomplish for the day. From there, I'd build on each successful day and work up to the point where I'm taking on more satisfying expectations. If procrastination is my expectations of myself minus what I can get done, there's two ways to beat it...increasing action (your suggestion) or temporarily decreasing expectations.
To put another way, think about avoiding procrastination as a muscle, you can view becoming productive in the same way you'd view becoming strong. No one would suggest that a beginner go out and try to bench press 300lbs. Start with smaller weights and add weight as your strength increases.
Re: How to minimize procrastination
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually was at that stage a couple of years ago - I couldn't get anything done, which made me feel bad and depressed, which made me not get anything done. I couldn't even start doing something in a meaningful way. It's such a bizarre thing to think back on that I can't even fully empathise with my former self.. This is what made me realise what was going on and rectify the situation, it all just "clicked". I had b…
It's a weird feeling, procrastinating on work by reading an article about how to stop procrastinating.
It's a weird feeling, bookmarking an article about procrastinating to read sometime later.