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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

#351

Post by lazyjones »

dfsegoat wrote: post #291
lazyjones wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If nothing happens when you skip one day of work, perhaps you should work less or be fired. In important jobs, not working stalls processes and sometimes even endangers lives.

This feels like grasping at straws here: How do you handle acute illness? Do you just "push through" and potentially get your coworkers sick, all while cranking out sub-par work? Further, should I be fired or reduce my schedule if I am hospitalized after a car-accident, or require a surgical intervention like the one I 'skipped' 7 days of work to have done? ...The logic of your argument just really doesn't compute, b…

> How do you handle acute illness?

Hopefully, you accept the negative impact on your work as reasonable under the circumstances.

If there is none, why do you "work"?

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#352

Post by AstralStorm »

spodek wrote: post #328
charlieflowers wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Can you elaborate? What kind of tricks?

Things like if I want to run but am feeling lazy, I put on my running shoes and clothes, which means I'll eventually run. To put on the shoes is trivial, but it works to get me on a run, however long. Before I lift weights, I mop the floor since some of my exercises put me on the ground. Mopping is easy and makes lifting automatic. For some reason, once I mop, I automatically transition to lifting. Starting my burpee…

The short form of the trick is to fool yourself you've sunk costs enough to not stop.

It is still self deception.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#353

Post by cercatrova »

Valakas_ wrote: post #160
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…

For me that doesn't work because then I learn that "yeah you say just walking but we both know it will end up in running." What works instead is I promise I will walk. And then I actually only walk even if I feel like running. That way you will trust yourself. If I say "ok i go to the gym 30 mins. just for a quick training." Then even if I'm in the flow at minute 30, I stop and go home. Next time I remember that and…

I've read in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that the solution is to only do that much time and actually just stop right afterwards, even if you want to do more. Therefore, it's at most 30 min rather than at least. This teaches you rigor and in fact motivates you more because now you know it's not actually a trick.

""" The Two-Minute Rule can seem like a trick to some people. You know that the real goal is to do more than just two minutes, so it may feel like you’re trying to fool yourself. Nobody is actually aspiring to read one page or do one push-up or open their notes. And if you know it’s a mental trick, why would you fall for it?

If the Two-Minute Rule feels forced, try this: do it for two minutes and then stop. Go for a run, but you must stop after two minutes. Start meditating, but you must stop after two minutes. Study Arabic, but you must stop after two minutes. It’s not a strategy for starting, it’s the whole thing. Your habit can only last one hundred and twenty seconds.

One of my readers used this strategy to lose over one hundred pounds. In the beginning, he went to the gym each day, but he told himself he wasn’t allowed to stay for more than five minutes. He would go to the gym, exercise for five minutes, and leave as soon as his time was up. After a few weeks, he looked around and thought, “Well, I’m always coming here anyway. I might as well start staying a little longer.” A few years later, the weight was gone. """

From https://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#354

Post by prawn »

adenverd wrote: post #331
prawn wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We built an app* for this and use it ourselves - it's very effective. I have tasks for working (even a token amount) morning or night on a side project, working on the biggest roadblock task I have, and things like that. The app splits tasks into a "front six" and "back six" so I have six focused on work/business and then six focused on home (reading, trying to learn a language, etc). I remember at one point having '…

Came here to suggest Streaks, I've been using it for a few months now. My favorite features are: - Streaks that track Apple Health data. Really nice job with the integration. I use this for tracking daily calorie, macronutrient, and workout goals. - "X times per week" streaks. I take rest days from working out, so it's nice to have an abstraction that doesn't treat them as failures or breaking the streak. I guess I s…

Thanks! From the start, I found that having an easy-to-reach automatically-tracked Health goal (x,000 steps/day) was a good way to keep you feeling like you were accomplishing something. Went some way towards keeping you on track.

I wish they'd open up the screen time tracking because I'd like to have a Streaks task of keeping my daily screen time under a certain level.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#355

Post by AstralStorm »

gregoryl wrote: post #312
samsonradu wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without knowing the op’s condition (so take this with a grain of salt), I’d advise against running 5km each & every day as it could wear out your knees, specially running on harder terrain (as most do). For amateur practitioners it’s good to alternate different activities so that certain muscles get to recover.

Do you have some evidence to back that claim? I run long distances, and whilst I have been given repeated advice of this nature, I have never seen any actual evidence that this is a problem?

https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-of-knee-pain-in... - evidence of reduced risk.

However the thing is the group is self selecting, people who experience joint problems stop running or do not run ultramarathons. (Ex-runners in this study did not in general stop because of joint problems.)

Ultimately, the activity seems safe from standpoint of miles ran.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#356

Post by AstralStorm »

Sean1708 wrote: post #89
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…

This is a technique often employed to help people suffering from anxiety, you can always break something down into smaller tasks and eventually you'll get to a point where the task feels doable.

Doable does not mean fun or worth doing.

(There are other effective ways to exercise and keep healthy than running. Find one that you find fun.)

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#357

Post by vbtemp »

For me, recently, procrastination (at work) was something deep down inside telling me that I was not happy where I was at work. When I got a new job with much more autonomy, and the position was what I could make of it, my procrastination problem pretty much vanished.

At my old job I tried all the tricks and ways to frame it mentally, but all it served to do was suppress something my instinct was telling me I need to get out of.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#358

Post by Sean1708 »

AstralStorm wrote: post #356
Sean1708 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a technique often employed to help people suffering from anxiety, you can always break something down into smaller tasks and eventually you'll get to a point where the task feels doable.

Doable does not mean fun or worth doing. (There are other effective ways to exercise and keep healthy than running. Find one that you find fun.)

But equally something being fun or worth doing doesn't mean you won't procrastinate doing it. Cleaning the house, for example, is definitely worth doing but many people procrastinate doing it, and it's actually a really good time to apply this technique:

You don't have to clean the whole house, you can just clean one room. You don't have to clean an entire room, you can just clean a bookcase. You don't have to clean the entire bookcase, you can just clean one shelf. You don't have to clean the entire shelf, you can just put one thing back in it's place. You don't even have to put it back, just go over and pick it up. ...

You can keep on going if none of those seem doable, right down to something like wiggling your big toe, but most people would probably at the very least find putting a single thing back doable.

And I've used an example of something that is worth doing but most people don't find fun, but there are plenty of examples of things that are both fun and worth doing that people still procrastinate (probably mostly occurs in mental health sufferers, but that was the entire point of my original comment).

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#359

Post by dboreham »

danielbln wrote: post #135
bemmu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can relate to that ”moment of struggle”. Thinking about stopping the use of any dev tools that don’t have instant feedback, as having to wait a few seconds for something (currently deploying to google app engine mostly) makes me instantly alt-tab to reddit.

I've been finding this browser extension very useful: https://prodtodolist.com/ It will block the time waster websites you configure and will block them for you until you've ticked off the list. It's simple but effective for catching that mindless ctrl+t -> reddit reflex.

I use: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#360

Post by loco5niner »

mourner wrote: post #31
ramblerman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea is captured nicely in the book "Art and Fear" with the following anecdote: "The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroo…

There’s exactly the same anecdote in the popular book “Atomic Habits” but instead of pottery, it’s a photography class.

Man, I could get an A in like, 20 seconds.
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