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Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

davidthorpe.dev

101–110 of 165 posts

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#103

> 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

Yawn. When I read such low-effort comments, I wonder if the people writing them ever read the article or if their job is just to spout off uninformed opinions.

I think it's a valid comment that operating without email is a non-starter if you're employed.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#104

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…

Oh god x1000 this. I need to write something really complex, and I have grasp of few components. But not so sure how those would interconnect, and how exactly all should work.

I am anxious and discouraged when working on it and often fallback on safety of procrastination.

This is exacerbated by the fact that I like to have a holistic view and understanding of something before implementing something. And I can't do that here :/

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#105
To me there are two keys:

1) Keep the phone far out of reach

2) Every time I get overwhelmed, try to stop thinking about the big picture and think "What's the smallest piece I can do right now?" Starting my IDE, starting the software, fixing some obvious typo. Whatever.

3) Yes, block distracting apps, but not permanently. If I do that, I relapse and feel guilty. Instead, I use a Chrome app called Focus (there's a million of them out there) to block distractions for 30 minutes at a time. Enough for me to do work, but not enough where I want to give up.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#106
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really find mental fuel to be a thing[1]. In fact, I find the opposite. The more discipline I instill, the more discipline I have. Each block of discipline makes the next that much easier. That includes discipline over procrastination. [1] Of course there is general fatigue, but this is different from only being able to focus on something for a couple of hours/day or not being able to start something at all.

Of course everyone is different, but there are at least some studies the does lend credence to the "willpower as a finite resource" theme.

There's only really one study that backs up the "willpower is finite" thing, and it has failed replication.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-way-you-think-about-w...

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#107
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Listened to "Daily Ritual: How artists work" recently and the most common pattern seemed to be, work intensely for 2-4 hours in the morning, most people being finished by 1-2 in the afternoon, then go out for a long walk before doing light admin stuff in the mid-late afternoon. It's also been my observation that this is how I actually want to work. I feel ready and able to tackle anything first thing in the morning,…

I think each one have to find where those 2-4hours lies. For me they start between 5pm and 6pm. I can spend the day in front of my screen doing (almost) nothing or admin stuff. And then it kicks on and I’m (a lot more) productive. The problem is that it’s around the time I have to take care of the kids when my wife can’t...

Weird! I'm nearly the same - I can sit in front of my machine for most of the day, completely unproductive, and then in the late afternoon it's like there's a switch in my brain and suddenly I can work without any distractions at all. What really botheres me is that I finish nearly every day thinking "I'm just going to do exactly what I've been doing now, but first thing in the morning, and then have the afternoon and evening free", and it almost never happens. I just can't find the right focus/frame of mind until after lunch. It's extremely rare that it happens.

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#108

If you are have a lot of procrastination problems and if you have always had those problems from an early age, don't dismiss the idea that you may actually have ADHD. There really isn't adult onset ADHD, but there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD. Take an online screening test and that will tell you if you might want to see somebody about a full test. This article is talking about the idea that w…

At this stage I'm beginning to wonder if not having ADHD is the condition and ADHD is the norm?

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#109

If you are have a lot of procrastination problems and if you have always had those problems from an early age, don't dismiss the idea that you may actually have ADHD. There really isn't adult onset ADHD, but there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD. Take an online screening test and that will tell you if you might want to see somebody about a full test. This article is talking about the idea that w…

> there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD

Are there even people who don't have ADHD these days?

Re: Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

#110
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…

do you use any tools for pomodoro? Or just the stopwatch on your phone?

I have to switch between various machines so I use my phone. Then I find any app to be overkill and limiting at the same time. I recommend using a timer and your phone's timer will do. Set timers for 25mins, 5 mins and 15mins and go!
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