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Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

bbc.com

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Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#41

Post by philips4350 »

temporaryvector wrote: post #4
adamnemecek wrote: post #2

Procrastination is a signal that you hate what you are supposed to be doing. Don't ignore it.

Not always true. I frequently procrastinate on things that I actively enjoy doing and want to do. There are times when I want nothing more than to be doing something and I still procrastinate doing it. This applies to things that aren't work or aren't productive just the same, things that take little effort like watching a series or playing a video game. Medication does make it a lot better and I don't procrastinate…

Wow its scary how much i can relate to your comment. I always procrastinate even on things that i enjoy doing.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#42

Post by wltprgm »

temporaryvector wrote: post #34
idclip wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes i did mean mindfulness meditation, i have been to several mindfulness retreats (vipassanas) and used to have ADHD. I find cold showers and a morning/evening mindfulness sit work wonders.

I suppose I should clarify the kind of mindfulness I'm talking about. Basically what I was taught was how to pay attention to what I'm feeling and where those emotions are coming from. This helps a lot with lowering my anxiety and stress levels. Unlike meditation, this isn't something that I stop to do, aside from maybe a brief pause to take a couple of breaths, it's something I do throughout the day when I start fee…

the book way of the peaceful warrior, and the word is carpe diem

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#44

Post by tsukurimashou »

suyash wrote: post #12

This is a gem of an article, I always looked at Procrastination from a logical approach, turns out the real reason is emotional.

I would recommend looking at this video if you're interested in the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc

He also has a full playlist on human behavior which is very interesting

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#46

Post by mettamage »

rvz wrote: post #35

If you are going to procrastinate somewhere, you might as well do it here on HN. At least you can be inspired about other people's projects, tutorials and learn something etc. But reading generic news articles like this about procrastination? I don't think so.

Yea but ultimately no.

Too much of anything screws you over. Too much HN feels like hoarding huge piles of clothes in your house. Except, the clothes are knowledge.

The problem is that you’re not structuring the knowledge inside your mind. This can be fine when reading an article but not when you read 20 to a 100 per day.

I’ve been there, I wouldn’t be able to remember what I read.

With that said, you do learn something.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#47

Post by mettamage »

Yesterday I had a bit of a talk with myself about my behavior pertaining to procrastination.

I am addicted to:

- YouTube

- Gaming

Worse, I have quite a runway due to low living expenses.

I came with a new idea today, I hope it helps anyone else.

I need to get good at generating my own feelings. This is why I play games and watch videos. I do it to feel something.

In order to do that I need to stay as close as to the activity itself while doing it myself.

I came up with the following replacement rules:

TouTube —> tell a story to myself. Yesterday I started a story about an alien who is a cat (and I wasn’t thinking about the show Salem even!). This cat/alien has seen humans for 5000 years.

Games —> digital product design. Yesterday I imagined how it is to design a newsletter, in terms of aesthetics and UX.

I hope this idea might help anyone. I sure haven’t read it anywhere.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#48

Post by didibus »

> The task we’re putting off is making us feel bad – perhaps it’s boring, too difficult or we’re worried about failing – and to make ourselves feel better in the moment, we start doing something else, like watching videos

I always thought this was the agreed upon perspective. I actually had never heard that some people explained it as a time management problem.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#49

Post by john_minsk »

mettamage wrote: post #47

Yesterday I had a bit of a talk with myself about my behavior pertaining to procrastination. I am addicted to: - YouTube - Gaming Worse, I have quite a runway due to low living expenses. I came with a new idea today, I hope it helps anyone else. I need to get good at generating my own feelings. This is why I play games and watch videos. I do it to feel something. In order to do that I need to stay as close as to the…

Interesting, did you just start doing it or has been on it for some time?

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#50

Post by gyulai »

I really don't see the point of studying statistical correlations between cat videos and heart disease.

The way I see it, these statistical correlations give you clues about where to start looking for mechanisms of causation, but as long as there is no causal mechanism, there's just nothing there. -- It's like a detective forming a theory of a crime so they know where to start looking for evidence. But the evidence is what a court is going to need to convict someone.

If you look purely at correlations, I bet that almost any psychological condition correlates with almost any other, to the extent that they are all caused by an unobserved outside factor. Let's call that factor "having a shitty life". A shitty life probably involves having a boring job, which makes you more likely to procrastinate. But a shitty life will also make it more likely that you'd be an alcoholic, drug-addict, suffer from depression and/or anxiety, etc etc

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