Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
washingtonpost.com
Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
1–10 of 101 posts
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#2I'll read this later
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#3Oh the irony. I came across this here, while procrastinating, and decided this was too long so I sent it to Instapaper, where I will probably never read it...
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#4[deleted]
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#52 ways to deal with procrastination:
1. Don't worry about it. We all procrastinate and most of the time it works out OK. Our instincts know what they're doing.
2. Break tough tasks down into very, very laughably small tasks. Don't even worry about doing them. Once the first task in the list is small enough you'll think "sod it" and do it right away.
If you try to improve your self control you will fail. Go with the grain -- either stop worrying, or find a chunk of the task so is tiny and easy that it becomes instantly gratifying to do it.
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#6Oh the irony. I came across this here, while procrastinating, and decided this was too long so I sent it to Instapaper, where I will probably never read it...
Somewhat off topic but I hadn't heard of Instapaper before, have you used Pocket and if so what do you like better about Instapaper? Looks like they have a speed reading and kindle sync option which is pretty cool.
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#7I'll read this later
Comment winner.
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#82 ways to deal with procrastination: 1. Don't worry about it. We all procrastinate and most of the time it works out OK. Our instincts know what they're doing. 2. Break tough tasks down into very, very laughably small tasks. Don't even worry about doing them. Once the first task in the list is small enough you'll think "sod it" and do it right away. If you try to improve your self control you will fail. Go with the g…
I didn't even click the article (the pain of reading it seemed too large) so I came directly to the comments.
Awesome tips! "Our instincts know what they're doing" is very true. I tend to procrastinate when two conditions are fulfilled 1) the task is boring/painful, and 2) in the back of my mind, I've already calculated out the time and I can afford to push it until later. Trying to force myself just increases my expected pain of the task, so I should just go with it.
(And look, I'm procrastinating so much I made a HN account so I could comment about procrastination!)
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#9This may may have been just the article I needed, but I will never know because I realised it must be a good three or four months since I last refreshed my memory about the events leading up to the Chernobyl disaster.
Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop
#102 ways to deal with procrastination: 1. Don't worry about it. We all procrastinate and most of the time it works out OK. Our instincts know what they're doing. 2. Break tough tasks down into very, very laughably small tasks. Don't even worry about doing them. Once the first task in the list is small enough you'll think "sod it" and do it right away. If you try to improve your self control you will fail. Go with the g…
Both those ideas appear is some form in David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done). I'm not a particularly big fan overall--I don't much care for systems. But some of his individual ideas include:
- the idea that, if you can do something in 5 minutes or so, just do it rather than keep putting it on to do lists.
- breaking down complex projects into discrete small concrete tasks.
Both are good ideas which do help me.
One thing about procrastination that often seems to be overlooked though is procrastinating about things that really do need to get done sooner or later (If I don't do the expense report, no one else is going to do it for me.) versus procrastinating about doing some project or making some plans because there's a voice questioning whether you really need to or want to do this project at all.
Now, I suppose in the latter case, a hyper-organized person would create an action item to "get more information" or something along those lines. But sometimes letting ideas just sit and percolate in a future projects queue works OK too.