I trick my well-developed procrastination skills • Hacker News Board

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#151

Post by kondu » Tue, May 19, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

ssijak wrote: post #40

renewiltord wrote: post #9

Faster way is to just use Modafinil (barely addictive) or Adderall (very addictive).

Modafinil makes me edgy and very bad in communicating with humans. Also, after a few days, my brain feels a tiredness from it, like some kind of unpleasant emptiness. Armodafinil is slightly better but same. I would not recommend them for regular use.

+1 to everything. It's effects are also significantly reduced after the first couple days as you build resistance, and chasing that "moda effect" can lead to taking increasingly larger doses

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#152

Post by kyuudou » Tue, May 19, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

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…

I'm working out the pseudocode for this and it's already spaghetti ;)

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#153

Post by prawn » Tue, May 19, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

mleonhard wrote: post #118

prawn wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?"

This is question invites a judgemental attitude which can be extremely counterproductive. It's far better to use mindfulness and let yourself do what you really want to do.

What if I really want to help myself make positive decisions? I'm talking about picking up a toy left in the hallway by a child or a scrap of paper that fell out of the bin - things that others walk past and pretend they didn't see. Am I the sort of person to just deal with it right then, or take the lazy option. I don't find it extremely counterproductive at all.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#154

Post by seph-reed » Tue, May 19, 2020, 11:16 PM UTC

robotresearcher wrote: post #147

seph-reed wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's not the part of your life where you should be studying. If you don't really want to, it seems like your mind isn't going to make the positive associations with learning that information that it kind of needs to have in order to develop an actual vested interest and move the subject forward. This world is full of people who market knowing stuff they don't care about and it might actually not be that great.

But you do really want to. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't a terrible, painful conflict between what you want to do and what you do.

I feel like maybe you're confusing what you want to do with what you think you should do. Or with what you want to want to do.

It's pretty normal, most people are pretty oblivious to what it is they really want. That's why we have corporate jobs, and cars, and empty relationships when really our favorite things in life are community and taking naps in the shade.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#155

Post by badpun » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:01 AM UTC

fenwick67 wrote: post #137

badpun wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This approach probably works for non-creative tasks, but most of King's novels are just mediocre, which I guess reflects his factory-like attitude to writing.

It's easy to dump on King for being a philistine, but it's a stretch to imply his work is non-creative.

For me the main problem is that the writing seems unspired and lazy - i.e. the language, actual sentences and paragraphs looks like something slapped together without that much regard for quality or excellence (which, given his writing process and speed, is probably exactly what happens).

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#156

Post by maximente » Wed, May 20, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

Ductapemaster wrote: post #148

maximente wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

integrity issue IMO. you're OK with making commitments and not delivering on them. controversial, perhaps, but fixing your integrity issues can go a long way. part of that means making commitments that matter, not role-playing about them. most try to fix their integrity issues overnight by doing things like dieting, planning to go from 0 to insane exercise, or whatever else. that's tough, and probably won't work unle…

This is an excellent observation, thank you for the perspective. I realized that this is likely what I struggle with, and procrastination is rather a symptom of the issue. I find it very hard to make commitments to myself (and sometimes others) that I will follow through on. Once I am in a groove, I will continue, but starting is painful. Have you dealt with rebuilding this in yourself?

a little bit :)

most helpful for me was making a "said i'd do it" category on my planning document. it has led me to:

- commit to doing things i put on the list - even if they suck

- lead me to promising to do a lot less things (generally good)

but, mostly i just wondered: do i want to see myself as someone who flakes? who says they'll do something and doesn't? does that reflect on my behavior in things that aren't so small? and decided that i needed to do better for myself.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#157

Post by renewiltord » Wed, May 20, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

kondu wrote: post #151

ssijak wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modafinil makes me edgy and very bad in communicating with humans. Also, after a few days, my brain feels a tiredness from it, like some kind of unpleasant emptiness. Armodafinil is slightly better but same. I would not recommend them for regular use.

+1 to everything. It's effects are also significantly reduced after the first couple days as you build resistance, and chasing that "moda effect" can lead to taking increasingly larger doses

I only take it about once a month. That helps me capture the feeling. Then I just have to reach internally for the feeling. I also only ever take 50 mg. It's too powerful over that and I also feel itchy.

Re: I trick my well-developed procrastination skills

#158

Post by Ductapemaster » Thu, May 21, 2020, 5:05 PM UTC

maximente wrote: post #156

Ductapemaster wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an excellent observation, thank you for the perspective. I realized that this is likely what I struggle with, and procrastination is rather a symptom of the issue. I find it very hard to make commitments to myself (and sometimes others) that I will follow through on. Once I am in a groove, I will continue, but starting is painful. Have you dealt with rebuilding this in yourself?

a little bit :) most helpful for me was making a "said i'd do it" category on my planning document. it has led me to: - commit to doing things i put on the list - even if they suck - lead me to promising to do a lot less things (generally good) but, mostly i just wondered: do i want to see myself as someone who flakes? who says they'll do something and doesn't? does that reflect on my behavior in things that aren't s…

Thanks for the insight! I definitely have some introspection to do on the topic, but I like the idea of the "Said I'd Do It" section for to-dos. Those tasks are inherently different than normal ones and I think the separation is a good training mechanism.