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Why I Procrastinate (2019)

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Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine that brilliant feature isn't just "a break" but the norm... it's not just "when I get bored," it's: - In the middle of flow - Trying to fall asleep - Trying to go back to sleep - In the middle of important conversations - During meetings - even one's you're leading - When you're getting dressed - When you're making breakfast (where the hell did I put the 3rd spoon I've pulled from the drawer) - When you're in…

That would be super annoying, I concur. I would say the article nicely highlights the problems with ADHD diagnosis, because when I read it, I thought for pretty much every point "oh I also do that sometimes"

Yeah, they did a good job covering the social issue around it; as most people do most of what we do sometimes; and the key word is always 'sometimes,' ADHD is a daily occurrence of high tide and low tide marks for attention and active effort; some days are easier than others but that isn't always setting the bar very high.

Like for me, depending on where I'm at in existence from day to day my therapist has said the 'H' portion of ADHD is minor for me, other times it's been a major contributor to issues; but I have to have a level of introspection to even catch when certain parts of my diagnosis are sitting at high tide or low tide...

Sometimes I can remember every detail of every interaction and task for weeks at a time, nearing eidedic memory; but most days I'll misplace a knife I was just using for butter.. and yesterday I forgot all the time I spent doing chores because I essentially was on auto-pilot, my wife thanked me, I said "for what?" high tide and low tide...

I'll hyperfocus on creating a task-list for a project I'm super excited about, and __usually__ forget the Trello board exists or misplace the papers or let the notes go through the wash or... high tide and low tide...

Some days I'll be able to fall asleep as soon as I lay down. Most days though I can't get my brain to shut up, taking notes to free up the brain space makes more room for something else to jump in, meditation/breathing exercises are momentary fixes that don't last long enough to allow sleep to come, a glass of water or bathroom break turns into an hour on reddit, etc and then suddenly it's 5am... high tide and low tide...

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#52
post #22

Doesn’t this contradict the other article that was upvoted on how procrastination is more emotional than anything else? To say it is ADHD is to suggest it is neurological e.g. some chemical imbalance in the brain, but if it’s really an emotional response then saying you have ADHD is more like pointing out the symptom rather than the cause here.

Difficulty regulating emotions is a component of ADHD.

ADHD is a shortcoming of executive function, which manages near-term memory and keeps people "on task".

"I'm going to endure this unpleasantness for a better future" is a goal that requires executive function to hang on to – you have to continue grasping it with the part of your subconscious that ADHD undermines.

So you end up prone to a brand of nearsighted emotional hedonism because it's difficult to keep track of the "why"s that motivate long term management of emotions. It's basically time blindness.

In other words, keeping your cool, keeping your word, and keeping your car keys are all "keep doing X", and ADHD will kneecap all of those in equal measure.

A second component – and this is just anecdotal – is that ADHD makes the emotional component of procrastination worse. You drop tasks more often, and if you've got any self awareness at all, you'll notice that. Of course you feel a little bad about it. Now noticing dropped tasks makes you feel a bit worse. But your ADHD means dropping more threads, so you feel more badly more often. The pit of emotional misregulation surrounding procrastination gets steeper, faster, for someone with ADHD, because there's a compounding fit where you're twice as likely to take blows to your productivity, and half as able to recover.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#53

EDIT: My apologies. I was overcome with a bout of head-in-ass-syndrome.

First, the other commenters are correct. Your tone is needlessly hostile. Would you talk to a cashier like this? Or a peer at work? I hope not.

Anyway, related to your actual post – you said:

> Buckle up and get it done, it's that simple.

Would you tell a depressed person

> Cheer up and go outside, it's that simple.

If so, what evidence do you have that this is an effective treatment?

If not, what makes the two situations (w/r/r "culpability" for ones cognitive abilities) different?

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#54

EDIT: My apologies. I was overcome with a bout of head-in-ass-syndrome.

Maybe you need to suspended disbelief, and imagine that it is possible that people do have mental health issues with various causes, perhaps genetic or because of trauma, and that some of those issues might cause people to "procrastinate", which I have put in quotes as it sounds like a pejorative anyway.

I am interested where your viewpoint comes form, can you elaborate? Maybe you are trolling? Or in your experience of life, people and your own mind can you bootstrap your way out of anything going on in your mind?

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#55
post #39
post #2

All these procrastination articles are obviously finding their target audience here on HN!

I sometimes feel like these articles are popular because procrastination is just a universal part of the human condition. I doubt anyone scrolls past these articles and thinks “that doesn’t affect me at all”. I procrastinate to the point where it’s causing me real problems in life, yet it feels kinda indulgent to say that as if I’m the victim of some disease, when I’m actually just failing to deal with something that…

I think that might be the British in us. I feel like Americans are much more open to diagnosis of mental conditions like anxiety and depression. Perhaps because they are constantly bombarded with advertising for medications for them and other conditions.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#57
post #18

> I'm really prone to letting my thoughts get off on the worst tangents, and it will take a while to get myself back on track Sometimes I'll be listening to an audiobook and I'll start thinking about something else. By rewinding the audiobook I can figure out how long the distraction was (could be over a minute). It also amazes me how I have no recollection of the portions of the audiobook that were playing while I w…

This happens to me a lot, but it often ends up being 5+ minutes lost.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#58
post #18

> I'm really prone to letting my thoughts get off on the worst tangents, and it will take a while to get myself back on track Sometimes I'll be listening to an audiobook and I'll start thinking about something else. By rewinding the audiobook I can figure out how long the distraction was (could be over a minute). It also amazes me how I have no recollection of the portions of the audiobook that were playing while I w…

I've mostly been able to solve this problem (unless I'm really frazzled and have a lot of other things on my mind) by adjusting the audiobook's playback speed.

Too slow and I'll be bored and my mind will wander a lot, and too fast and I'll miss chunks even with the smallest mind wandering. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.

For reading written material, I found a trick that worked for me in college, when I had mountains of assigned books to read. Whenever I noticed my mind wandering, I'd make an arbitrary mark (like a simple checkmark) on a piece of paper and immediately go back to reading. This kept my focus and I was able to barrel through a ton of reading.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#59

I recommend “Procrastination” by Burka & Yuen. For the kind of person who frequents this site and endures suffering due to procrastination, even seeing their clinical definition of maladaptive perfectionism (and learning why procrastinating provides relief from it) could reduce your level of anxiety and self-flagellation, if not help you change your behavior. The first section of their book provides a framework for u…

Along similar lines, there's a fantastic video by procrastination researcher Tim Pychyl here: [1]

I've watched a ton of videos on procrastination, and read a lot about it, and this video is head and shoulders above everything else. Highly recommended.

He also has the iProcrastinate Podcast[2], which also has some useful and interesting episodes.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA

[2] - http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#60
Something tells me these articles on procrastination are generally permanently relevant to the people that view HN during business hours (me included). I am curious if the number of hits per day has dropped as a result of posting them a lot this week!
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