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Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

davidthorpe.dev

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Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#21

Post by tappio »

mnky9800n wrote: post #5

I find that a lot of my procrastination comes from the anxiety of the thing I want to start doing not being completed. Literally, because I am worrying that the thing I want to work on is not already completed, I procrastinate from doing it. This is obviously counter productive and creates a feedback loop. Something I'm bad at but seems to work is to have a conversation with myself that sort of comforts me about the…

Another source for me is things that I want my "ideal self" to do, but I don't enjoy in reality. Like finishing a project. Once you have enough those on list you feel constantly bad and start using procrastination as an easy escape. It has been good to just terminate projects that don't really excite me anymore. When the "I'm feeling bad about not doing x" disappears, the amount of procrastination seems to shrink also.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#23

Post by vitabenes »

davzie wrote: post #9
nautical wrote: post #7

I have made "device of purpose" that fixes this behavior over time. 1) Laptop is for work only ( every thing else is blocked ) 2) Mobile is for social media and procrastination ( I switch off internet while working. )

This is my next thing I want to trial. Complete block on anything non work related on the laptop. Complete block on anything that doesn't further my values on the phone. But then have an iPad for mucking around and consuming junk content. The idea that it's not easily accessible since the iPad won't be with me at work and it won't be in my pocket being constantly accessible.

I used to have Twitter (my main source of distraction) on my phone and iPad, now I don't have it on any device and it's helped tremendously.

On my computer, I block all distracting sites with the extension I built until noon, then I have 20 minutes for mostly Twitter, then all blocked until 4PM, another 20 min break, and then blocked until 8PM. 8PM-midnight, I do whatever I want. I've found this a fair agreement with myself that I have no reason to break. It created a rhythm for me.

So perhaps if a complete block is too big a stretch, you can give yourself a couple well-defined "fun breaks".

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#24

Post by laurentdc »

> On my iPhone I move every single application into a folder named “.”. I then move that onto the second screen. My phone dock has four apps: Phone, Headspace, Things and SMS:

Yawn. When I read these minimalism tips I always wonder if people giving this advice ever had a real job or if their job is actually giving people minimalism advice. Good luck trying to justify being the only one without Skype/Slack/Gmail

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#25

Post by k__ »

Procrastination is a very delicate problem.

I mostly embraced it. As long as I'm procrastinating good things by doing other good things, it works pretty well.

It also helps to do things you like.

I'm still on my smartphone 90% of the day and sleeping until 12 every day, btw.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#27

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I like his writing style.

One of the biggest tools that I employ, is a fairly rigid schedule.

I work @home, these days (like everyone, but I've been at it longer).

I get up at 5AM, even though I don't need to.

I do my morning exercise, even though I don't need to.

I start my workday at around 6:30AM, and try to wrap it up by 5 (seven days a week -my GitHub page is solid green).

I plan to do unpleasant, boring things when I set up my projects; for example, configuration management, refactoring, testing, release coordination, and...yuck...documentation.

And then...I do it!

Shipping (as opposed to writing) software has a lot of boring, repetitive, pedantic stuff.

I have to be careful not to fall into the automation trap, where I see automation (especially release automation) as a "silver bullet" cure for boredom.

But that's just me. YMMV.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#28

Post by have_faith »

maheart wrote: post #19

I think I've successfully managed to "beat" procrastination by adopting the pomodoro technique. I've shipped software for years now. What I've come to realise however is that the brain/body can only do so much work in a day. I can program for a few hours a day (on a good day) and then it becomes increasingly more effort to do more coding. Sometimes, depending on the task, I'll be able to switch to another task. Howev…

I've come to a different conclusion. I used to think it was a "fuel" problem until I realised that if I moved onto some other non work related task that I was interested in, which could include programming, all of a sudden fuel wasn't an issue. For me it came down to motivation and interest with "mental fuel" rarely being the deciding factor. I manage to conjure up fuel when I'm sufficiently motivated by a problem. Obviously this might not be the case for everyone and I have hunch it is related to ADD behaviour I exhibit (self diagnosed).

Tricking my brain into investing into the outcome of work I am not interested in takes up most of my time now trying to get over procrastination. And of course I have a deadline today and I'm writing this message on HN... but like any good developer that needs some pressure to work I've got the plates all spinning for now.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#29

Post by petargyurov »

A key insight that helped me beat procrastination is to recognise when your brain is trying to procrastinate. We all experience lulls in productivity and instinctively open that social or news website link - when you do this you need to actively tell yourself that your brain is getting distracted.

This comes from a study (which I can't find, but I think it was featured on the BBC not too long ago) - procrastination impulses come and go in waves - when you know how to effectively tackle the wave, you can return to the calm seas of productivity.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#30

Post by superpermutat0r »

maheart wrote: post #19

I think I've successfully managed to "beat" procrastination by adopting the pomodoro technique. I've shipped software for years now. What I've come to realise however is that the brain/body can only do so much work in a day. I can program for a few hours a day (on a good day) and then it becomes increasingly more effort to do more coding. Sometimes, depending on the task, I'll be able to switch to another task. Howev…

pomodoro also works for me, I've had weeks of doing almost nothing, after I started simple 25 min bits with pauses, for some reason it can go on forever.
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