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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

#351

Post by nickswan »

pmoriarty wrote: post #72

Tim Pychyl, who's ideas this article discusses, goes in to these ideas much more deeply in a really fantastic video 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=mhFQA9…

I could listen to Tim Pychyl lecture all day! Thanks for bringing his work up.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#353

Post by jp555 »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #345
jp555 wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a human evolve in isolation? I think we are interconnected with many systems in unknowably complex ways.

The system is complex, but I would argue against it being unknowable. We do not know all the details right now, but it is possible we will know them in the future.

I'm reminded of the The Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

It's evidence that knowing some things requires not knowing other things.

It may not be possible to know everything.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#354

Post by james_s_tayler »

mettamage wrote: post #171
TeMPOraL wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you listening to music just from games you've played, or game music in general? I do listen a lot to music from games, movies and series for that emotional boost, but it always has to be something I've already played/watched and engaged with emotionally in the past. The music doesn't generate new emotions in me, it pulls on the past experiences. Listening to arbitrary soundtracks wouldn't work on me.

Ah yes, I'm heavily into chillstep and liquid dnb. My favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiLCHmyAgEU -- this dnb year mix is a bit too explosive but a lot of my favorite tracks are in there. Chillstep, no good mixes but I've got some tracks I really like to get you started (if you're into this sort of thing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Hy0G0R3AQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKKERJpFuvo https://www.y…

di.fm has a chillstep channel that is my go-to.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#355

Post by stared »

andai wrote: post #337
stared wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest insight is this NOW vs NOT NOW. Rationally I know what is time (heck, I did my PhD in physics, so I have an edge here). When it comes to actions... I often zone out, daydream, get distracted by a random post, get too focused so I spend well more time than I realize on something I didn't plan to do, etc. Once I realized this NOW vs NOT NOW, I set some triggers to make a project "NOW". Of course, one natura…

I thought you might appreciate this clip from a lecture by Dr. Russell Barkley which explains how to use the environment to compensate for ADHD (externalize everything - time, to-do's, motivation, rewards, feedback) and how to keep your willpower reserves high (frequent breaks, positive self-talk and positive mental pictures, meditation and exercise). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tpB-B8BXk0

Thank you for this recommendation. The prosthetic/ramp analogy for external time structure was very helpful.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#356

Post by cjg »

Thorentis wrote: post #346

Agree with lots of the article but: > One study used ‘mood-freezing candles’ to trick some volunteers into thinking their low mood was frozen and, in this case, they didn’t bother procrastinating. What?

In "The Regulation of Emotion": "the experimenter burned scented candles in the room, which she presented as part of her research on aromatherapy. She told some participants that the candles would freeze their current mode state for about an hour. The rest were told that the candles would not affect their moods."

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#357

Post by criddell »

ck425 wrote: post #349
koheripbal wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the answer comes from ridding yourself of distractions, and asking yourself the question - "What do I want out of life?" I think focusing on the far out end-goal/meaning of life, is actually just another fun distraction. ...as are most time-management tools. Generally speaking, we know exactly what we need to get done, and the problem isn't figuring out the end goal, it is gaining the emotional strength to…

> Generally speaking, we know exactly what we need to get done I don't agree. I still don't know what I really want to achieve in life. I have a better idea but honestly a big part of that better idea is realizing the things I thought I wanted aren't things I actually want.

Thinking about what I want to achieve in life reminds me that I should buy a lotto ticket more often.

What I want from life isn't associated in any way with what I do to earn money and it's my need to earn money that stops me from living the life I want.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#358

Post by stronglikedan »

alexanderthe- wrote: post #239

I'm just starting to get a handle on this now that I hit 30. We look to successful people to see how they manage their time, thinking that by copying their routines and habits as inputs, we will be also be able to yield some of their success as outputs; however, we will never be able to copy the procedure that returns that output (consciousness, mindset, motivations, neurology, purpose, talents, traumas, upbringing,…

> If you can answer that question, you will also be able to manage your time efficiently, because you will always be directed toward that purpose.

I have answered that question, and I still procrastinate by negotiating myself out of progressing towards that goal, and then regret doing that but do it again the next time. It may be a valid solution for some, but it's not one size fits all (same as all of the solutions proposed). The real trick is to try all the proposed solutions, and find what works for you.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#359

Post by acephal »

emeerson wrote: post #201
beardedman wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about this a lot from time to time. > facing issues with our reward function I would say, we are facing issues with our CULTURAL reward function. For very long now our culture have deified those few people that can overcome, achieve and excel. What if the point to our existence isn't to overcome our obstacles to productivity in "getting things done" - but instead to go out, explore, create, drink, eat & be ki…

You don't have to imagine. You can do a real cultural economic comparison to other countries: Italy, Greece, Russia, Spain (and others) are countries that index more on your proposed value system: socialization, family, quality of life over hard work. China, Japan and the US index very highly on the productivity side of the spectrum, China probably significantly more than the US. Some of those QOL-indexing countries…

>Unemployment + GDP are probably the wrong things to optimize for. Personally I believe Unemployment is overloaded as our optimization function for economic health, where median wage increase is more representative of livability.

This is likely well known, it'd just be awful if the official measure of QOL put pressure on employers to raise wages. Better to measure something more abstractly valuable.

Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time

#360

Post by acephal »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #191
beardedman wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about this a lot from time to time. > facing issues with our reward function I would say, we are facing issues with our CULTURAL reward function. For very long now our culture have deified those few people that can overcome, achieve and excel. What if the point to our existence isn't to overcome our obstacles to productivity in "getting things done" - but instead to go out, explore, create, drink, eat & be ki…

What if, for some of us, it's neither? Not just getting arbitrary things done, with $things being a free variable. And not just living a life in maintenance/standby mode - the "drink, eat and be kind" part. To me, the latter sounds empty, and the former sounds pointless - because the whole point is that free variable. The things we do. One of the nice and addicting things about videogames is that they tend to set a g…

>I'm not totally convinced of this, but I have this feeling that the problem of our cultural reward function is that today, it's mostly defined as "do whatever you like, be whoever you want to be". Maximum freedom, but minimum direction.

This is right on the money as far as I'm concerned, see the throngs of men flocking to people like Jordan Peterson.

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