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I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

wolfgang.gassler.org

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Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#41

Post by mjayhn »

grawprog wrote: post #24
Tade0 wrote: post #3

I read the whole thing, but knew from the get go that these tricks wouldn't work on me. Mostly because I know the source of my procrastination and it boils down to two things: 1. I've gotten away with a lot of stupid shit in the past. 2. Because of that I think too highly of my skills. I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last…

>I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last minute. I tend to do this a lot and so far it's managed to work for things that actually have deadlines, though it always ends up being more stressful. I find though, with things that don't have deadlines it kind of falls apart and last minute just becomes never happens.

Doing what they said (and I'm good at it) just stresses me out to the point that I don't even sleep the night before. I'm sure it's terrible for my performance the next day of said stressful thing, too.

It also causes my work to back up which leads to even more stress.

I forgot where I read it but there was something about ADD people getting so used to living in constant anxiety that they need it to thrive. I've been trying really hard to live with less anxiety and knocking my work out early has really helped.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#42

Post by mroche »

grawprog wrote: post #24
Tade0 wrote: post #3

I read the whole thing, but knew from the get go that these tricks wouldn't work on me. Mostly because I know the source of my procrastination and it boils down to two things: 1. I've gotten away with a lot of stupid shit in the past. 2. Because of that I think too highly of my skills. I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last…

>I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last minute. I tend to do this a lot and so far it's managed to work for things that actually have deadlines, though it always ends up being more stressful. I find though, with things that don't have deadlines it kind of falls apart and last minute just becomes never happens.

> I find though, with things that don't have deadlines it kind of falls apart and last minute just becomes never happens.

This is pretty much my situation as well. If a task has no deadline, it is not likely to be completed unless absolutely necessary (such as chores). Work tasks and such (assuming they have deadlines) I can be much better about completing not at the last minute, as long as the deadline is relatively close to the assignment date. My personal projects suffer because I get distracted super easily (like going on HN, Reddit, etc) rather than doing the work. I do have moments of spontaneity where I decide "this is a good thing to do", but I'm not sure if that's motivation or procrastination of other task...

Unless it was something school related. For some reason no matter what class or what task, that was going to be completed last minute unless it was a group project. I'm much happier being out of that environment.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#43

Post by Tade0 »

grecy wrote: post #7
Tade0 wrote: post #3

I read the whole thing, but knew from the get go that these tricks wouldn't work on me. Mostly because I know the source of my procrastination and it boils down to two things: 1. I've gotten away with a lot of stupid shit in the past. 2. Because of that I think too highly of my skills. I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last…

> I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last minute. Wow, that really resonated with me. I think sometimes I delay stuff as much as possible just to see if I'm up to the challenge of getting it done.. like I want to make it harder because it's too easy.

I usually don't do that intentionally(or do I?), but when it eventually does happen I feel, I don't know, alive?

I guess this is how thrill seekers must feel like.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#44

Post by gonehome »

errantmind wrote: post #29

Only one approach to procrastination has worked for me: lack of rational thought. The only conscious deliberation I allow is the decision of whether or not I should do something, after that i just _do_. No further thought required. If I catch myself thinking about it, I stop myself and just act, the decision was already made. Sometimes, rational thought is overused.

Yeah I can relate to this, I think having two mindsets is effective.

The 'architect' that's deciding long-term goals and plans to follow.

The 'implementer' that follows the guide from the architect. The implementer is not allowed to vary the plan in any way and if the implementer fails then the architect has to reevaluate the strategy.

This way you're able to consider long-term goals with feedback loops that are not immediate. The return from eating cake right now vs. being fit in 6 months for example. The reward of the cake is too extreme and too immediate to be able to easily make rational short term decisions on that kind of thing (you end up rationalizing why this exception is okay, it's one time, etc.)

I find a lot of things fall into this kind of category.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#45

Post by Tade0 »

tmaly wrote: post #11
Tade0 wrote: post #3

I read the whole thing, but knew from the get go that these tricks wouldn't work on me. Mostly because I know the source of my procrastination and it boils down to two things: 1. I've gotten away with a lot of stupid shit in the past. 2. Because of that I think too highly of my skills. I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last…

Parkinson's law?

Pretty much. And hilariously enough no IT department manager ever picked up on the lesson from it, so wherever and whenever work appears to stall, new people are added in the hope that this move would make things move faster - as if that was ever effective.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#46

Post by yepguy »

dijit wrote: post #36
yepguy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a master procrastinator. Mostly because I have so many things I could do that I have this background feeling that I'm neglecting everything else if I focus on one thing. That low-grade background anxiety is actually something that better organizational skills can fix. Although I suspect that if you did fix it, you'd discover that there's more to your procrastination problem than that.

Interesting. I am quite keen on resolving my procrastination problem. I used to be intently focused until I became senior enough to set my own tasks. Is there an entry point you’d recommend?

I may have overstated my point a bit, because everyone has a different base level of anxiety and tolerance for disorder, and everyone will also go through unavoidable periods of stress. I recommend (re-)reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Getting Things Done, and Deep Work if you haven't already.

I'm afraid my advice is not very original, but beyond a few common principles, getting organized is a very individual kind of thing.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#47

Post by uoaei »

gonehome wrote: post #44
errantmind wrote: post #29

Only one approach to procrastination has worked for me: lack of rational thought. The only conscious deliberation I allow is the decision of whether or not I should do something, after that i just _do_. No further thought required. If I catch myself thinking about it, I stop myself and just act, the decision was already made. Sometimes, rational thought is overused.

Yeah I can relate to this, I think having two mindsets is effective. The 'architect' that's deciding long-term goals and plans to follow. The 'implementer' that follows the guide from the architect. The implementer is not allowed to vary the plan in any way and if the implementer fails then the architect has to reevaluate the strategy. This way you're able to consider long-term goals with feedback loops that are not…

In Robert Anton Wilson's book Prometheus Rising (1983) he describes a mental model of the mind as "Thinker & Prover" in Chapter One. This is a duality where one part of the mind manifests thoughts and the other one rationalizes them into a consciously comprehensible concept.

Under this model, what you describe seems to be a way to turn this duality against itself, hijacking the proving step by shutting down the thought, putting idea into action, and seeing the proof when you're done. If instead you over-rationalize the initial idea, and you're anything like me, you will add unnecessary complexity until you've turned yourself around so many times that right looks wrong.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#48

Post by prawn »

dijit wrote: post #15

I'm a master procrastinator. Mostly because I have so many things I could do that I have this background feeling that I'm neglecting everything else if I focus on one thing. And I get distracted easily and I hate trying to come back in the middle of something. However, for some things, I have systems to cope. I make -very- simple unbreakable rules. I got fat, decided I needed to fix it, so now I set an alarm at 6am e…

Often, when about to ignore a mundane task that really should be done immediately, I say to myself "Which sort of person do you want to be?"

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#49

Post by grawprog »

mjayhn wrote: post #41
grawprog wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have no incentive to start preparing tasks or being organised because I've come to enjoy the thrill of doing everything in the last minute. I tend to do this a lot and so far it's managed to work for things that actually have deadlines, though it always ends up being more stressful. I find though, with things that don't have deadlines it kind of falls apart and last minute just becomes never happens.

Doing what they said (and I'm good at it) just stresses me out to the point that I don't even sleep the night before. I'm sure it's terrible for my performance the next day of said stressful thing, too. It also causes my work to back up which leads to even more stress. I forgot where I read it but there was something about ADD people getting so used to living in constant anxiety that they need it to thrive. I've been…

Yeah I find it's usually the stress itself that finally pushed me to actually do that last minute rush to actually do the thing. Which probably isn't the healthiest way to go about completing tasks in the end and doesn't necessarily lead to the best quality work.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#50

Post by Nition »

dnh44 wrote: post #27

When I’ve done a great job of procrastinating, I normally have a lot anxious energy that I feel I need to get rid of so I go for a 30 minute walk or run. During this outing I repeat the Mentat Mantra from the Dune film to myself the entire time. "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alo…

This is a great parody/insight into that feeling of "if I just get the conditions right, I can get started." Like all the great writers who just need six months in a forest cabin to write their great novel, but they never start it in the one hour of time they already have every evening.
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