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Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

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Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#71

Post by heimatau »

abalone wrote: post #44

That title sure promises a lot. I read all the way to the end and this is their solution: 1. Forgive yourself 2. Ignore your feelings about whether you're in the mood to work on it 3. Break it down into small steps I would say #2 is easier said than done for an extreme procrastinator. But, decent article. Sometimes it's good just to hear that change is possible. I would add to it that once you adopt new patterns they…

I was thinking about this article and feel it 'clicked' for me. Especially since HN had another article about procrastination recently [1]. I know abalone is saying it's all about emotional management but...I feel the writer of the article was confused since they quote 'you don't tell a depressed person to be less apathetic' yet the author seems like they are encouraging emotional management.

My big takeaway from this article and the last [1] is that two major ideas are being seen in the research:

1. Forgive yourself. 2. Be kind to your future self.

#1 can be done with some mental tricks, if someone is having difficulty. Namely, thinking about 'what if my friend did x [something i just did], what would be my response to them'. This answer is generally positive and procrastinators tend to be hard on themselves, so...looking at how we would treat others would be a mental hack, for us to treat ourselves better.

#2 is where I feel something just 'clicked' for me just now. In some ways, it's developing on the idea of 'a procrastinator would be nice to someone else, so be nice to yourself'. Since this 'someone else' is your future you.

Self control, emotional regulation, yadda yadda. I think all of those can help but don't help everyone. They didn't help me.

These two beliefs and mental hacks have given me insight to my behavior. I hope the next time this issue comes up on HN, that we can have more research into the procrastinator's disassociation between time and self. Because to me, that's the problem, not self-control nor emotional regulation.

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11541675

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#72

Post by justsaysmthng »

willcodeforfoo wrote: post #3

Oh 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...

Just procrastinated for 10-15 minutes setting up Instapaper on my machine and on my iPhone and testing it out. Looks good. Now I can procrastinate more efficiently :)

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#73

Post by justsaysmthng »

clentaminator wrote: post #45

The real reason you procrastinate: You fundamentally don't want to be doing whatever task it is that you're avoiding, and while it might be the logically "correct" thing to do, that doesn't mean you want to do it. What we want and what we are pushed into doing are not always aligned. News at ten.

I disagree. I often procrastinate on the things that I really really want to do.

My explanation for that is not the fundamental lack of interest in the project, but the hidden fear of failure that accompanies every project that I work on.

I've worked on so many failed projects that I've kind of lost hope of actually producing something that won't be forgotten immediately.

(Mind that this is not necessarily true - some of my work (as a comedian/writer/actor) has been viewed millions of times, while some of the code I've written is being executed by millions of machines every day, but I still feel like I've failed at everything, because that was just "blind luck" ).

If all this effort results in disappointment and depression, why bother waste energy on it now - this is the kind of hidden thought process that's going on in my head and I guess in many other's people's heads too.

Paradoxically, this is the thought process that also disarms you a little bit every day, until the task becomes painful and not worth pursuing and once again you've failed to accomplished what you've set out to.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, but also hard to break since it's not happening on a "rational" level, but on a lower "fight or flight" subconscious level, which is very hard to control.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#74

Post by maxxxxx »

drb311 wrote: post #5

2 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…

Your advice sounds a little like telling lonely people go out more and everything will be fine. It's not so simple for a lot of people. I have serious procrastination issues in some areas (anything that involves paperwork) and it's causing me a lot of stress despite having followed your advice many times.

Advice is good if it helps people but you have to resist the urge to generalize.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#75

Post by zepto »

justsaysmthng wrote: post #73
clentaminator wrote: post #45

The real reason you procrastinate: You fundamentally don't want to be doing whatever task it is that you're avoiding, and while it might be the logically "correct" thing to do, that doesn't mean you want to do it. What we want and what we are pushed into doing are not always aligned. News at ten.

I disagree. I often procrastinate on the things that I really really want to do. My explanation for that is not the fundamental lack of interest in the project, but the hidden fear of failure that accompanies every project that I work on. I've worked on so many failed projects that I've kind of lost hope of actually producing something that won't be forgotten immediately. (Mind that this is not necessarily true - som…

Do you want to do then because they give you pleasure to do, or because you desire the results?

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#76

Post by patmcguire »

The great benefit of procrastination is that it saves a lot of work. Future you isn't going to have to do it in two months, because no one is going to have to do it. Something will come along and tableflip everyone's plans and then you'll have done the original thing and the new thing too.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#77

Post by hboon »

dazc wrote: post #43
ghaff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

- 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. This seems so obvious now I've read it. When I think of how many small tasks I've never got around to doing it's embarrassing.

> 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.

A small, but important part of GTD: there is a concept of a "capture system". As soon as there's something that's a TODO or task to be done and you are working on something, put it into your capture system, be it a text file, a TODO app, etc. Process the capture system regularly, filing the items into projects (can be as simple as separate TODO lists). So here's the key difference to what you mentioned: only now while you are filing, do you do those tasks that take 5 (or 2) minutes or less.

As a developer who works on my laptop most of the time, I have a global keyboard shortcut that brings up a prompt with textbox that lets me quickly something (appended to a text file) and go back to work without disrupting my flow.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#78

Post by meanduck »

drb311 wrote: post #5

2 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…

That is completely opposite of what article implied. Do not (over)feed the "lets have fun/lets not suffer" monkey (like the point 2 says). Do not ignore the red "consequences" deamon (like point 1 says).

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#79

Post by agumonkey »

dazc wrote: post #43
ghaff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

- 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. This seems so obvious now I've read it. When I think of how many small tasks I've never got around to doing it's embarrassing.

often, no matter how stupidly simple a task is, I'll goo full meta and reflect on how to do it properly, the solve all these problem on paper by reflecting on how to do them properly, hey, time to take cook dinner and the garbage out !
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