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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

#371

Post by [deleted] »

shiftless wrote: post #285
keiferski wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm talking about something much deeper, more fundamental, than delayed gratification. For example: > Delayed gratification tends to lead to better outcomes in the long term These outcomes are mostly considered better because they are made in the context of the system we live in. Often they are only better in the sense that they solve a problem which the system caused in the first place. E.g. if you can delay the gra…

I had the same insight. If I'm having trouble bringing myself to do something, there is usually a good reason for it. Often it's because there is more thinking needed, or some other fundamental underlying reason. It's smart to learn to trust one's instincts, and to examine things more deeply, instead of trying to forcibly overpower one's subconscious. On a related note, some people say that smoking weed doesn't make…

[deleted]

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#372

Post by mujina93 »

jacques_chester wrote: post #368
mujina93 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read your writeup on ADHD. I really appreciated the advice that you give (seeking help, finding ways to commit, etc), but you (as any other existing resource on ADHD) could not convince me that ADHD is a thing. The symptoms you described, you explicitly say, are rather unique. If I think about most of the people I know, I would instead say that they are quite common. Either everyone around me, me included, has ADHD…

I'm prepared to bet folding money that the folks who worked on the 5th Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-5) have given at least as much thought as you have to these matters. The implication that research and practicing psychologists and psychiatrists, as a profession, are unaware of the profound variability of human beings is just silly.

I'm not saying that all psychologists and psychiatrists are unaware of mind's complexity and are sloppy/mechanical when applying diagnoses. But I would definitely say that some of them are.

However, my main point was not to attack a profession, but rather to point out that the claim that "ADHD exists" is somewhat weak, given some evidence (like differences in percentage of diagnosed cases among continents, official guidelines that seem arbitrary on some points and open to various interpretations on other points, and the fact that some of the symptoms typically assigned to ADHD are present in all sorts of mixes and magnitudes in almost every human being).

I would rather see the medical community substitute this claim with a more saner "there exist a lot of diverse psychological symptoms, and they all have roots in problems that people have".

Therefore, we need more psychology (as in "let's talk, see what's wrong, and get to the causes, to the roots, and try to solve them") and less "medicine done wrong" (i.e. "let's see what symptoms you have, let's see in what box you fit, and let's stuff you with pills for the rest of your life without ever getting to the root of your problems").

And I would like a society which is more aware of the importance of mental hygiene, of introspection and communication as ways to solve problems (which should almost never be solved with pills), and that is more educated and mature on drugs (I would love to see less kids being stuffed with Ritalin and other meths, and more adults instead experimenting with these drugs for productivity and psychological self-exploration, aware that they are doing amphetamines and aware of the risks and benefits involved).

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#373

Post by jacques_chester »

mujina93 wrote: post #372
jacques_chester wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm prepared to bet folding money that the folks who worked on the 5th Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-5) have given at least as much thought as you have to these matters. The implication that research and practicing psychologists and psychiatrists, as a profession, are unaware of the profound variability of human beings is just silly.

I'm not saying that all psychologists and psychiatrists are unaware of mind's complexity and are sloppy/mechanical when applying diagnoses. But I would definitely say that some of them are. However, my main point was not to attack a profession, but rather to point out that the claim that "ADHD exists" is somewhat weak, given some evidence (like differences in percentage of diagnosed cases among continents, official g…

Your objections are based on spending a few minutes looking at guides intended for the general public. May I suggest spending some time with the professional literature? These issues are canvassed by researchers and practitioners in enormous depth.

But if you'd like to know the broad conclusion so far from decades of research with multiple lines of evidence: ADHD exists.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#374

Post by flyGuyOnTheSly »

moretai wrote: post #238
flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #223

I shot out of bed for the 5th morning in a row today to make it to Mysore style yoga class at 6am. I was tired and hungry. I had to pick up my better half from the airport last night at 2am because her flight was delayed. I was nervous that I wouldn't remember the standing sequence for the 5th time in a row. I lost my chant card already that I was just given yesterday... I had every excuse in the book not to go, but…

If you can manage to do it everyday in a row for 5 months, then we shall see the truth of those last two statements.

I've done yoga every single day for 11 months straight now...

I only just started Mysore 5 days ago (from the time of this comment).

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#375

Post by jlokier »

pas wrote: post #103
scandinavegan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have an ADHD diagnosis, but I struggle with procrastination. Does it help you at all to have external recipients of your work, or does it not factor in at all in what gets done? It helps me if I tell someone else "I'll send you the report today", because it makes me more accountable. I'll probably delay it until panicking at the end of the day, but I will at least hammer something out and send it off. Or wors…

Not OP, but. It helps, because eventually people will start to call you and inquire about the thing you promised them. This of course causes anxiety. Eventually, after spending enormous amounts of energy on riding that guilt wave some work gets done, typically at night.

"Typically at night" made me smile :-)

So true.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#376

Post by whoisnnamdi »

summerdown2 wrote: post #246
twic wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the point of this anecdote is that you get good at quality by pursuing quantity. It's an appealing idea because it's counterintuitive, and here on HN were are absolute suckers for contrarian ways to outsmart the herd. But we have been given no reason to think it actually works.

Well, in writing terms, it seems to have worked for Ray Bradbury: > The best hygiene for beginning writers or intermediate writers is to write a hell of a lot of short stories. If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. Can’t be done. At the end of 30…

Really like this piece of advice. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#377

Post by mbrodersen »

klik99 wrote: post #73
onion2k wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this works for potters but I don't think it'd work for developers. If a compSci lecturer suggested one group would get an A for writing a perfect, bug free app and the other group would get an A for writing 50,000 lines of code, I wouldn't expect the group writing as much code as they could to make the best app.

Knuth suggests, in TAOCP, that the best way to write a program is to write it once, scrap it completely and rewrite from scratch. Very much in line with spending an entire semester making one perfect program vs spending a semester writing and rewriting new programs from scratch.

A better approach in my experience is to grow the whole system from a “skeleton” implementation, refactoring the architecture and code as your understanding grows. With the key use cases being your guide.

Re: Tricks to start working despite not feeling like it

#378

Post by lodi »

jdsully wrote: post #305
achikin wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminds me of William McRaven quote: "If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed... If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed, will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed w…

I know its not the point of the quote, but I can't believe I'm the only one who feels less comfortable in a made bed. Tightly tucked sheets feel so constricting.

For me, "made bed" just means re-aligning the sheets/blankets/pillows so that nothing is tangled or crumpled up, but never any extra nonfunctional things (no tucking, no tiny decorative cylinder pillows that no one ever uses, etc.)
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