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Strategy #4: Realise that procrastination might not just be a bad habit you can lifehack your way around. It may well be a symptom of an anxiety disorder, and you need to get that thing checked.
Strategy #4: Realise that procrastination might not just be a bad habit you can lifehack your way around. It may well be a symptom of an anxiety disorder, and you need to get that thing checked.
Yes. Generally, excessive procrastination has been linked with ADHD.
At some point, you have to stop fiddling and finish what you started. Even if you procrastinate productively, spending ten minutes on a musical instrument, then another ten on reading an article, and then delving somewhere else is marginally better than binging on Youtube and Netflix. The constant context switching prevents you from going deep. All you gain is superficial knowledge. This, in my opinion, the bad "good…
I used to spend 99% of my time wandering. But at one point I (finally) realized it was going nowhere and I was feeling like a muddy lake. And even sweating doing chores felt better.
Kickstarting it is never that easy, but I know now that I'll enjoy my time a lot more after it done.
Hacker News No Procrastination Settings: maxvisit 30, minaway 30. Eventually I'll wean myself down to 15/45. But in all seriousness, Pomodoros are great when I'm unsure / keyed up about a new project and prone to wander off "researching." IME, eventually the Pomodoros inevitably give way to extended sessions with flow.
I have also found this to be a great way to trick my mind into working. Promise myself "just one" pomodoro, then I can go do something else. If I get that first session started, by the end of it I don't want to stop even for the five-minute break, and then next thing I know four pomodoros have gone by and, lo and behold, the opposite of the usual procrastination timesuck: I actually spent two hours working on the thing without thinking about it! The mind is such a weirdo like that.
[...] what procrastination looks like for most people: - Think about working. - Immediately feel the urge to procrastinate. - Start beating themselves up with a bunch of negative self-talk for wanting to procrastinate (I’m such a procrastinator, why can’t you just stay focused?) - Feel badly, including a bunch of negative emotions like shame and disappointment, on top of the already-strong urge to procrastinate. - Pr…
I personally attribute this to anxiety/adhd where part of my brain wants to focus and get one thing done while the other is desperately concerned with trying to "keep an eye on everything at once". So there ends up being a deadlock between the two, in which case his strategy works for me, I do a little bit of everything because at least I get stuff done then.
The only thing that forces me to focus on a single thing for any length of time is a hard deadline and even that's no picnic it tends to leave me completely exhausted.
I have a list called "Low-energy tasks" which I use whenever I'm feeling burned out and can't focus on actual work. Simple things like "Organise my mailbox" or "Review documentation" that aren't taxing, but still count as work. I'll probably still procrastinate a lot on those days, but at least I can say I got something done.
https://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time
I've really taken this to heart and found that there are entire categories of "high-involvement" tasks that I'm simply not up to outside of my peak energy periods (mornings) but that still need to get done. Even breaking those high-involvement tasks down to micro tasks I find that my low-energy intervals can deal with some of those quite well.
Strategy #4: Realise that procrastination might not just be a bad habit you can lifehack your way around. It may well be a symptom of an anxiety disorder, and you need to get that thing checked.
Yes. Generally, excessive procrastination has been linked with ADHD.
I'm talking more about anxiety disorders like generalised anxiety disorder, and potentially depression. If you suffer from work-related anxiety, procrastination is a classical avoidant-style coping mechanism.
[...] what procrastination looks like for most people: - Think about working. - Immediately feel the urge to procrastinate. - Start beating themselves up with a bunch of negative self-talk for wanting to procrastinate (I’m such a procrastinator, why can’t you just stay focused?) - Feel badly, including a bunch of negative emotions like shame and disappointment, on top of the already-strong urge to procrastinate. - Pr…
> without any negative thoughts at that time. You'd be surprised...
At some point, you have to stop fiddling and finish what you started. Even if you procrastinate productively, spending ten minutes on a musical instrument, then another ten on reading an article, and then delving somewhere else is marginally better than binging on Youtube and Netflix. The constant context switching prevents you from going deep. All you gain is superficial knowledge. This, in my opinion, the bad "good…
Rather than finish more things, I became wary of starting things. This did not improve my overall output, and in fact lost me the experience I would have gained from many started-but-unfinished projects. It's taken me years to unlearn this advice in practice.
I especially take issue with calling out practice of a musical instrument. Ten minutes every day or two is much better than one hour every week or two.