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Why I Procrastinate (2019)

invisibleup.com

121–130 of 166 posts

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#121

So how did you fix it? What was the solution?

Went to my therapist. Explained my symptoms. Took a few tests, got a diagnosis, fiddled with medications and dosages for a while, did some more therapy, and I seem to be in a good spot now.

Obviously, YMMV regarding the effectiveness of your treatment. I'm still sometimes up and down but the baseline is higher. Even if you decide not to take medication (it's not right for everyone and I won't pretend otherwise), do seek therapy. It's so incredibly helpful.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#122
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first paragraph is strawmaning. At no point did I demand that you recommend a 100% fix. You made a claim about how the industrial age was the problem. I was trying to make a point that even if true, that doesn't really buy you anything, since we live in the age we live in. If I failed to communicate that well enough, I apologize. As for the rest, it's hard to know what to make of it. It's like you're building a…

Well yeah of course I know what age we're living in, and that it's a thing, otherwise I wouldn't be saying these things. We're saying the same thing basically, but you asked what I recommend and I'm just saying I don't have an answer, because that wasn't the point. In other words it's outside the scope of my comment to make recommendations of any kind, or try to state what an appropriate course of action might be. It…

Thanks for replying.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is painfully relatable. "Screw you (me). You don't know what now is like. This is a priority now."

I think this is fair provided you also remember to thank past you for the things that are helping you today.

Past me thanks you, kindly. "Now" me says "Screw past me, and you for being a sympathizer. I know I said I'd go to bed on time but I need to watch 10 episodes of Game of Thrones right now!"

The ego is a tricky thing to navigate...

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I think what could possibly help us is a to-do list that's explicitly designed for that (e.g., has something like an "emergency mode"). If someone reading this feels the same and would like to hack together something like that, let me know and we could try it together.

Try Roam Research [1], it is awesome. I've been coming up and using various GTD systems for a better part of the last two decades. I'd be slipping in and out of different setups, tools, solutions, systems... Some would stick for years, the others I'd abandon pretty quickly. All of them worked for me to a degree, and were very helpful in keeping me organised and efficient, but never did I find a perfect setup that I'd…

I have found these links discussing Roam:

- https://nesslabs.com/roam-research

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22104366

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22085837

Personalny I just use git repo with markdown files and Bash script miss.sh to quickly send/get new content to central repo

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#125
By the point that the author had come upon what was "going on" I was literally afraid for myself since they had described EXACTLY what I've been doing and going through for so much of my life.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, author here. Since I wrote this article, I got professionally diagnosed and treated. Turns out, yeah, I'm doing a lot better now. On most days I don't have these symptoms, I can in fact study for classes and work, while also doing the things I love. I'm getting back into doodling, I've schedules all the appointments I need to, I have a great friend group, etc. etc. It's not perfect, I relapse sometimes, but I'm d…

As I said in my main comment ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22127841#22133387 ): Give up social media (all of it: Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, HN), porn, and TV (including Netflix) for a couple of months. Take up some form of exercise (lifting, running, even pilates or something), and re-evaluate your attention span. I'm not being flippant. If your therapist hasn't recommended this as at least a starting point…

> Whenever a friend tells me they're depressed, or anxious, or have attention difficulties or whatever, the first thing I ask is "what did you spend most of your time doing last week?". If the answer is "Oh, I found this cool new show and binged it", or "Oh not much, I wasn't motivated to do anything so mostly just scrolling the feed haha" - I immediately sit them down and suggest that maybe those things are the cause and not the symptoms. You aren't depressed, therefore you watch TV and observe other people's lives on Instagram. You are depressed because you do those things with the majority of your waking hours.

For me personally, having done all these things, even major lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, etc, causing extreme amounts of stress, there was VERY LITTLE benefit. I spend 99.9% of my energy to move my mood 10%, which reverted immediately upon anything knocking me out of the new routine for even a short amount of time. Being a couch potato will make a normative person a little more depressed or anxious. But thats like someone being depressed because of a life event, rather than something they deal with chronically.

There's something to people not being harmonious with their environment, and there's also something to environments not being harmonious to people. But most people have responsibilities and must go to work for a living, and don't have fully control over their environment. Western culture may be somewhat to blame, but for people who need help NOW just telling them to go on an information diet and exercise isn't going to help.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#127

It's like a brain dump from my head. I can 100% identify with everything this guy says. I've been fighting this since I can remember, certainly over 20 years. I thought I was the only one who never looked at grades/feedback/whatever. I'd probably be a CTO or a successful startup founder by now if I'd had a solution early in life. As it is I've done OK but it's always a struggle because work by its very nature is doin…

> ...work by its very nature is doing something you don't want to do because they're paying you... I emphasize with this, and work certainly has this aspect, but I think there's a better way to think about it: the nature of work is doing something valuable to somebody else for money. You don't get money for doing something you dislike and, crucially, people will still pay you to do useful things even if you enjoy the…

You're right, it's just that the things I enjoy doing (and do well) aren't valuable to anyone else... golf doesn't pay if you're in the top 1%, you have to be in the top .001% :)

With the skills I have that do pay well, I'm not sure what role I'd enjoy. I always thought being a physical penetration tester would be amazing fun, but those roles usually go to ex military types, not random joes like me with no formal background. I like designing systems, but architects aren't really a "thing" anymore. Writing code all day long is drudgery now.

I certainly should get some help, I'm 99% certain I have unofficially diagnosed ADHD. It just seems like a lot of work figuring out what to do, and then I get distracted by something else I'm doing... heh.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, author here. Since I wrote this article, I got professionally diagnosed and treated. Turns out, yeah, I'm doing a lot better now. On most days I don't have these symptoms, I can in fact study for classes and work, while also doing the things I love. I'm getting back into doodling, I've schedules all the appointments I need to, I have a great friend group, etc. etc. It's not perfect, I relapse sometimes, but I'm d…

As I said in my main comment ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22127841#22133387 ): Give up social media (all of it: Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, HN), porn, and TV (including Netflix) for a couple of months. Take up some form of exercise (lifting, running, even pilates or something), and re-evaluate your attention span. I'm not being flippant. If your therapist hasn't recommended this as at least a starting point…

On the one hand, I directionally agree with you that much of modernity is addictive and maladaptive.

On the other hand, your comment is not unlike telling a depressed person to just exercise when having the wherewithal to exercise is galactically out of reach for them.

There is no blanket advice that works for everyone, no one-size-fits-all solution. It simply does not exist and never will, because humans are a quite diverse bunch.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, author here. Since I wrote this article, I got professionally diagnosed and treated. Turns out, yeah, I'm doing a lot better now. On most days I don't have these symptoms, I can in fact study for classes and work, while also doing the things I love. I'm getting back into doodling, I've schedules all the appointments I need to, I have a great friend group, etc. etc. It's not perfect, I relapse sometimes, but I'm d…

Thanks for the reply! Let me elaborate on my point. Consider a thought experiment: If you would spend 3 months in the woods, do you think it is plausible your symptoms would disappear? If you don’t think this as being plausible (likely even) then we have to agree to disagree and that’s it. Not enough data. If you do agree that might cure you then what does it mean about your ADHD diagnosis? It means that you have ADH…

> It means that you have ADHD in the context of the demands society puts on you and not you have ADHD, period.

I tend to agree with this to an extent. But, for me, even in a situation with unlimited resources and time, I simply can't get done things that I actually (truly truly) want to get done.

Re: Why I Procrastinate (2019)

#130
post #34

A lot of people here are defending ADHD/procrastination, and while I agree with a lot of the points (especially the one about industrialization being maladaptive), it's worth considering the personal cost of not mitigating these behaviors. "Rework" ends with a good quote about inspiration being a diminishing resource. You might feel really passionate about some big project, but if you don't have the skills to organiz…

Its not a workflow problem, organization problem or motivation problem. Often one can be organized, motivated, and have the skills, but be unable to apply energy towards the problem.
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