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Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

deprocrastination.co

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Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#161

Post by pritovido »

yodsanklai wrote: post #123
e19293001 wrote: post #29

I'd like to share this post[0]: The last two weeks I made it a goal to run 5km every morning. A few times, particularly today, I felt lazy and run down, but I got out of bed anyway and told myself that I'll at least walk. The next thing I know I'm running and feeling amazing and on to set one of my better times. The point: When you tell yourself "just one more game" or "just one more post", or "just one more video" a…

Sometimes I have a really hard time to start working on some tasks and I think it is linked to anxiety and stress, not mere laziness . As long as there are no big expectations (like when exercising), I have usually no procrastination issues.

Anxiety is an emotion that you feel when you expect something bad to happen in the future.

Anxiety can be measured, your body segregates hormones in order to change the state of your entire body in order to prepare for this danger.

Unfortunately danger for primitive humans are different than current society dangers. It usually prepares you either for a fight or a flight (running away as fast as possible).

If you get too anxious for example fighting for your life or your children, you can break your bones and don't feel pain.

But this natural response is of no help if you feel that you will lose your job, or break your relationship...

In fact some work can't be done at all under these hormones influence, like intellectual work. Your body prepares you for action, not for reflexion.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#162

Post by matwood »

itchynosedev wrote: post #94
e19293001 wrote: post #29

I'd like to share this post[0]: The last two weeks I made it a goal to run 5km every morning. A few times, particularly today, I felt lazy and run down, but I got out of bed anyway and told myself that I'll at least walk. The next thing I know I'm running and feeling amazing and on to set one of my better times. The point: When you tell yourself "just one more game" or "just one more post", or "just one more video" a…

I damaged my shin bones because I was running too much too soon and currently taking 2 months break. Side note, I used to run 20k every week, then stopped. Be careful of the problem on the opposite side of the spectrum: your body might not be able to keep up with your motivation.

To quote an amazing motivator, Jocko Willink, "Good". Now you have more time to do cycling or strength train or some other exercise instead of running.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#163

Post by kortex »

yodsanklai wrote: post #123
e19293001 wrote: post #29

I'd like to share this post[0]: The last two weeks I made it a goal to run 5km every morning. A few times, particularly today, I felt lazy and run down, but I got out of bed anyway and told myself that I'll at least walk. The next thing I know I'm running and feeling amazing and on to set one of my better times. The point: When you tell yourself "just one more game" or "just one more post", or "just one more video" a…

Sometimes I have a really hard time to start working on some tasks and I think it is linked to anxiety and stress, not mere laziness . As long as there are no big expectations (like when exercising), I have usually no procrastination issues.

There's a name for that phenomenon, the Wall of Awful:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uo08uS904Rg

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#164

Post by Valakas_ »

JonathanFly wrote: post #3

>Start sloppy >Another trick to start sloppy - you might have high expectations of your finished work. >You want to write a great book, not just a good one. Or create a stellar artwork, or start a great business. >All those expectations can put more pressure on you than you can bear, leading you to avoid it by procrastinating. >Instead, you can escape those expectations by starting deliberately badly. I use this one…

> Start in a way that you could enjoy. Start doing in in a way that you could have fun, even if it's not as efficient as other boring/normal ways, so that the fun itself is the motivator.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#165

Post by matwood »

nyxtom wrote: post #125
e19293001 wrote: post #29

I'd like to share this post[0]: The last two weeks I made it a goal to run 5km every morning. A few times, particularly today, I felt lazy and run down, but I got out of bed anyway and told myself that I'll at least walk. The next thing I know I'm running and feeling amazing and on to set one of my better times. The point: When you tell yourself "just one more game" or "just one more post", or "just one more video" a…

Just waking up at the same time every day and kickstarting yourself (practically no matter what time you end up going to bed) seems to work absolute wonders.

This. And, for most people the bed time naturally fixes itself.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#167

Post by sk0g »

fastbeef wrote: post #59
mcv wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's often easier to add to something that already exists than to start something new from scratch. And when you're the one who created the thing in the first place, it's that much easier to make the improvements. Even if the initial thing is so terrible it needs to be redone completely, at least you figured out what you don't want. All while getting into the habit of doing the thing.

I stumbled upon this when trying to get started with my master thesis. In frustration, I threw a bunch of buzzwords and random thoughts at LaTeX and then stashed it for a day or two. After that, I picked it up, looked at it critically and went "well, this paragraph is obviously wrong, here's what it SHOULD say..." and two hours later I had a very rough draft finished.

Currently struggling with writing a bachelor's thesis hard, so any other ideas/ tips you have, would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#168

Post by pojntfx »

Doing something bad intentionally first is a really great tool. I do this a lot with my Go projects; I'll write a really crappy, huge `main` function, push it to GitHub and then my mind tells me "hey, you can't let that be out there in public like this!" and I can't help myself but to start actually writing on it.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#169

Post by kekebo »

matwood wrote: post #162
itchynosedev wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I damaged my shin bones because I was running too much too soon and currently taking 2 months break. Side note, I used to run 20k every week, then stopped. Be careful of the problem on the opposite side of the spectrum: your body might not be able to keep up with your motivation.

To quote an amazing motivator, Jocko Willink, "Good". Now you have more time to do cycling or strength train or some other exercise instead of running.

Here's the video of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#170

Post by Tyr42 »

Scarblac wrote: post #130
yodsanklai wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I have a really hard time to start working on some tasks and I think it is linked to anxiety and stress, not mere laziness . As long as there are no big expectations (like when exercising), I have usually no procrastination issues.

Sometimes I'm kicking myself that I should really start work on this now, and it doesn't work, and I get more and more anxious. Upon reflection (sometimes I get to that point sooner, sometimes later) the problem is usually that the task is too vaguely defined to start working on it.

Yes! Exactly! I had a issue that I wasn't sure how to start, and didn't understand too well, and it was killing my productivity.

I ended up just doing something, anything, even if it's wrong. Then I could correct it and do it properly. But sitting there fretting about it being hard and vague wasn't making any progress

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