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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

#21

Post by VBprogrammer »

londons_explore wrote: post #12

People wouldnt procrastinate if there wasn't some evolutionary advantage... Personally, I have found that if I get on with certain tasks in a team environment with too much vigor, I start to get other team members feeling left out or feeling their input isn't adding value. Keep doing it and the team will fall apart. Sitting around and being lazy for a bit helps keep the team together and has more forward progress ove…

It's amazing the number of things which have been top priority for some time which them drop off the list never to be heard from again, or at least modified beyond recognition.

It is probably a poor defence of procrastination but it certainly does occasionally pay to put something on the back burner for a while to see if it actually needs doing.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#22

Post by daffy »

mrspeaker wrote: post #14
juskrey wrote: post #7

I'll say it again: procrastination is a bullshit detector of the free and cry for the help of non-free.

Can you say it again, but with some more context? I have no idea what that sentence could possibly mean!

The claim seems to be: (i) if you are economically independent, procrastination is an indication that the postponed task is not worth doing after all; (ii) if you are forced to do it for money, procrastination is just a natural reaction to being forced to do something one doesn't want to do, namely not doing it for as long as possible.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#23

Post by watwut »

Procrastination is an act. The pop-psychological theory that assumes that everyone procrastinates for the same reason is as ridiculous as theory that would assume everyone is violent for the same reason.

What about one person procrastinating without any difficult emotions just cause she is lazy and other people procrastinating for variety of reasons from difficult to simple.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#24

Post by Cthulhu_ »

londons_explore wrote: post #12

People wouldnt procrastinate if there wasn't some evolutionary advantage... Personally, I have found that if I get on with certain tasks in a team environment with too much vigor, I start to get other team members feeling left out or feeling their input isn't adding value. Keep doing it and the team will fall apart. Sitting around and being lazy for a bit helps keep the team together and has more forward progress ove…

I've experienced that on the other side; I ended up procrastinating a lot because any effort I did would already be done by someone else, and faster or with more insight, or the work I did would be done over by someone else in half the time. It also didn't help that the work and technology weren't giving me much satisfaction.

I'm the sole developer on a new project now, it's giving me a lot more satisfaction. I do run into procrastination and analysis paralysis though.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#25

Post by superasn »

For me the biggest help has been David D. Burns (the author of feeling good) technique called the TIC-TOC technique(1).

It's basically like a Pros and Cons list but targeted to cure procrastination but identifying the cognitive distortions in the TICs (or task-interfering cognitions). It has been so helpful for me that I ended up writing a small web-app for myself to do this whenever I don't feel like doing anything!

(1) http://www.elizakingsford.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TIC...

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#26

Post by qqj »

i found that at least in relation to tech and software engineering, procrastination happens when you need to do mundane work, or worse - work on code you know is ultimately meaningless. another factor is stress, which is usually generated by management via deadlines or constant harassing to get things done (tm). it's basically oppression, it's just hard to see or admit because you're being reasonably compensated, and not doing hard labor. but it's oppression nonetheless.

free yourself, before you have a nervous breakdown or get fully domesticated by the system.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#27

Post by mc32 »

melvinroest wrote: post #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. --- > 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…

“ > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert”

That makes sense for some procrastination, but other procrastination is laziness.

Mopping the floor, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn types of procrastination... those are under your own purview and don’t involve big emotions or decisions...

So I think it explains some kinds of procrastination but not all.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#29

Post by ddlec »

superasn wrote: post #25

For me the biggest help has been David D. Burns (the author of feeling good) technique called the TIC-TOC technique(1). It's basically like a Pros and Cons list but targeted to cure procrastination but identifying the cognitive distortions in the TICs (or task-interfering cognitions). It has been so helpful for me that I ended up writing a small web-app for myself to do this whenever I don't feel like doing anything!…

Mind sharing a link to your web-app? I ask this while actively procrastinating from work.
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