Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
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Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#2> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence.
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> What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation.
So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that.
Hypothesis:
emotion regulation (bad) --> coping (none-existent) --> procrastination
emotion regulation (bad) --> coping (e.g. mindfulness or CBT) --> less procrastination
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> What's the song of the procrastinator: "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," and usually there's the chorus of: "I'll feel more like it tomorrow."
That's a very playful way to phrase a characterization: what's the song of. I'm stealing it ;-)
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#3Just want to say that if someone here truly has tried to overcome procrastination, but still fails, try to get screened for ADD/ADHD.
Even though it's a condition that is also quite over diagnosed, it's simultaneously a condition that's underdiagnosed IMO - it really depends on where you're looking / sampling. A lot of kids fly under the radar, because they don't show any obvious signs, even more so those with ADD / non-hyperactive.
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#4Also there is a thin line between procrastination and brutal prioritization. I often feel that procrastination ping and think to myself, is this really the next most important thing for me to do? Often times it is not, and once in a while it is. A lot of my work is creative in nature and forcing the creative process when you’re blocked is not always a good use of time. There is a balance between deadline, now and the time it comes to you with a force that screams to leave your body. The trick is understanding yourself and being honest, am I putting this off because it’s too fuzzy, not clear what the next step is etc? or is it just brutal prioritization?
Also note that I’ve changed roles quite a bit in my life and when I delete the final TODO list I look back at the things I did not get done. It’s as informative to review your accomplishments as it is your failures, but also what you never got around to doing. Often that last category will make me laugh “look at all those stupid things I thought were important”... rm -f TODO
And as I tell people all the time, the day after you die there will be more email in your inbox. If you focus on emptying your inbox your life will be empty when you leave. But your inbox will still be filling up.
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#5> Here's the magic — the next time you face a task that your whole body is screaming, "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," ask yourself: what's the next action? What's the next action I'd need to take to make some progress? Don't break the whole task down. That will be sure to overwhelm you. I think if most of us broke our whole task down, we'd realize that life's too short, you can never get it all done. Instead just say, "What's the next action?" and keep that action as small and as concrete as possible.
I'm actually handling this area in my life right now, and I decided I'd use my intuition rather than my intellect to handle it (and analyze with my intellect if my intuition came up with something interesting).
It did.
Here is my idea: be playful about the tasks your procrastinate on. Don't cater to your intellect, cater to your emotions.
I have 2 examples with flexibility training and lifting weights.
Flexibility training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity, such as
"how does this feel?"
"what do I like about it?"
"what do I dislike about it?"
"will I think similar ideas the next day if I answer these questions (spoiler alert: I personally don't)"
And then focus relentlessly on the fun (if you have some of it) and really indulge in it. I've likened flexibility training to a lot of things I find fun.
--- Example 2 ---
Strength training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity and fun! Such as
"How does it feel fun?"
"How does the pain feel fun?"
"What is it that I don't like about it? Why?"
"Are there moments when there's a part of the activity that I dislike or like and it flips to the other side, why?"
In practice: I mostly ask "how does it feel fun?" and shamelessly focus on it.
--- Some theory ---
I'd want to ask the professor if he considered playfulness and curiosity as potential moderators or mediators that could enhance motivation to procrastinate less.
I believe that playfulness and curiosity are related to the competency and autonomy aspect of self-determination theory, so to me it makes sense that those aspects heighten motivation in general and therefore reduce motivation.
Another idea: talk with people about your workouts that you've done (then you also bring in the "relatedness" part of self-determination theory).
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#6> Randy Pausch, an M.I.T. professor who died of cancer
How does this get into the article without basic fact-checking? He was a professor at CMU.
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#7I'll say it again: procrastination is a bullshit detector of the free and cry for the help of non-free.
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#8> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence. --- > What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation. So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that. Hypothesis: emotion regulation…
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Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#9I read the article while procrastinating on a work task I should be doing. I think the author nails it. When I just get started on a task, picking the simplest thing to do first without much planning, then I naturally get into a flow where small sub-tasks present themselves as I go.
If instead I start planning out all that is left to do, I quickly become demotivated and overwhelmed not knowing where to start. A sort of "analysis-paralysis".
The big problem for me is that even if I get into a productive flow its much to easy to run into a blocker that pulls me out into paralysis again (could be a family interruption, a harder sub-task, etc).
Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert
#10As in games I hope we one day come up with an Energy bar.
With teams or family it feels like a question of regenerating Energy in Others whose tanks are drained or not that large in the first place.