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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

#171

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

mywacaday wrote: post #90

I have had a weird relationship with procrastination, I find I get more appropriate work done when I'm exhausted. When I have no energy it will take all my concentration to stick to the job at hand but I do stick to it, when I have plenty of energy my monkey brain gets distracted easier. I've also found the the GTD technique of breaking items into smaller tasks, setting a next action and make sure the action starts w…

My understanding is that, when you are fatigued, you might experience higher levels of dopamine because the brain works in mysterious ways. The reverse also seems true: low levels of dopamine can make you feel tired or sluggish despite being well-rested.

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

#172

Post by ashtonkem »

At the risk of being a bad trope, if you’re struggling with the emotional half of things I would recommend therapy.

Even if you don’t “discover” something traumatic in your past that explains everything, having someone to explain your feelings to often does wonders for your emotional well being in general. A lot of therapists will also specialize in procrastination, and may have extra strategies that help.

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

#173

Post by leadingthenet »

seebetter wrote: post #126
partyboat1586 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ritalin suppresses some of those deeper emotions. It also gives you additional rewarding feelings for completing tasks here and now. Unless you have ADHD due to genetic factors then imo it's just a mask over the real emotional issue. A very effective and useful one but still a temporary measure.

I view Ritalin and Adderall as a performance enhancer. I have never seen a biological study proving ADHD except perhaps some EEG. Virtually everyone I have known prescribed amphetamines abused them. (Anecdotal warning) And my ex roommate was a large prescriber of Adderall. He would see patients for 3 minutes. He had 3 homes (one an $8m condo) and drove a matte black Lamborghini Aventador. He was way overweight and dr…

That view is actually both extremely common, and very dangerous for the people genuinely suffering from ADHD symptoms, like myself.

Many years of misery could’ve been avoided had I not met people that thought this way, earlier in life.

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

#174

Post by yesco »

laurieg wrote: post #78

Sometimes comments like "Oh I'm procrastinating by reading this article while at work (at my successful software engineering job)" seem a little insensitive. It's like telling a blind man "Yeah, I close my eyes too sometimes".

I'm not sure what you mean, it's not like procrastinating is a mental disorder or permanent disability like being blind. If you are avoiding work that you need to be doing then by definition you are procrastinating, career success has nothing to do with it.

It's not like it's insensitive to say you are anxious about something minor when there exists people with more severe anxiety problems. It's just the name of a symptom.

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

#175

Post by monktastic1 »

shdwbnvdnce wrote: post #156
sosuke wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been able to find a "final" solution. Most recently I've been writing things down with pen and paper to keep me on task. To make the ethereal physical and break it down into steps and checklists. Again totally recommend this video on the wall of awful for ADHD procrastination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo08uS904Rg

[flagged]

Your green username indicates you're new to HN. Gratuitous swearing and accusing are not really part of the culture here, which is why you're being downvoted. There are already (too) many places on the internet for that sort of behavior.

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

#176

Post by leadingthenet »

downerending wrote: post #163
TrackerFF wrote: post #3

Just 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 /…

I probably have that, but then what? The treatment seems to be doses of speed, essentially, and I worry that the cure would be as bad as the disease.

Trust me, if I could’ve gotten on medication sooner, my life would be clearly better today.

Don’t let the years go by, moderate consumption of stimulants can be really beneficial for someone with ADHD, and you don’t realise this until you’ve tried.

No harm in talking to a professional about it.

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

#177

Post by Broken_Hippo »

seebetter wrote: post #126
partyboat1586 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ritalin suppresses some of those deeper emotions. It also gives you additional rewarding feelings for completing tasks here and now. Unless you have ADHD due to genetic factors then imo it's just a mask over the real emotional issue. A very effective and useful one but still a temporary measure.

I view Ritalin and Adderall as a performance enhancer. I have never seen a biological study proving ADHD except perhaps some EEG. Virtually everyone I have known prescribed amphetamines abused them. (Anecdotal warning) And my ex roommate was a large prescriber of Adderall. He would see patients for 3 minutes. He had 3 homes (one an $8m condo) and drove a matte black Lamborghini Aventador. He was way overweight and dr…

See, that ancedote tells me absolutely nothing.

If he was rich, why did he have a roomate? Was this pre-riches? How in the world would you know he was a 'large' prescriber of Adderall? How would anyone go about making that claim? Did he happen to be a psychiatrist in a private practice and/or a specialist in his field? Was he in a lot of debt? I know it is an ancedote, but it doesn't really say much.

As far as "I've never seen a biological study...". This goes for a lot of things. People only usually bring it up with things like ADHD or whatever favorite thing is viewed as 'over-diagnosed', though. In this case, a quick google search can get you information that explains the brain scan differences comparing ADHD to neurotypical kids - like this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016271/

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

#178

Post by zerkten »

ashtonkem wrote: post #172

At the risk of being a bad trope, if you’re struggling with the emotional half of things I would recommend therapy. Even if you don’t “discover” something traumatic in your past that explains everything, having someone to explain your feelings to often does wonders for your emotional well being in general. A lot of therapists will also specialize in procrastination, and may have extra strategies that help.

I highly recommend therapy. Generally, men in the US find it difficult to seek out help. Often they think it's a failing and avoid it, especially in the context of relationships. Therapy is something you could almost do for yourself, if you could work out the puzzle. Therapy can do wonders at breaking the initial problem and giving you some things you can work on.

Therapists can also provide useful inputs for career and work optimization. They get treated as mental health problem solvers, but you may get more optimization out of therapy than attending a conference or doing something that's traditional for career development.

Finding the right therapist takes some effort. Don't expect it to help initially. Do some education on the kinds of things they treat and mental health in general. I suffer from anxiety, but I never made that connection before.

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

#179

Post by jonpurdy »

hirundo wrote: post #55

Time boxing is the best treatment I've found. A project may feel overwelming, but usually I can bring myself to bite off one tomato (25 minutes) of it. I can generally make a noticeable amount of progress in that time, and more importantly, clarify the next actions whose ambiguities have been leading me to procrastinate. In one such session I actually completed a project I had put off for years

Same here. I tend to do work in super efficient batches. I've completed two months worth of small tasks in under an hour sometimes.

My default is to put everything off and do it in a batch right before (or after) it's due. But the past few years I've focused on doing batches way ahead of time. Less stressful and much more satisfying. Getting into Project Management certainly helped with that!

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

#180

Post by eming1 »

nisa wrote: post #73

Words of warning from a not so young (36) chronic procrastinator with a rather messed up life: Take it seriously. I'm not talking about reading HN in your 7th work hour when doing stupid Excel sheets. I'm talking about messing up years and years of your life. I believe it's a symptom of some deeper issues and it won't go away from alone. Lack of sleep, stress, work overload, information overload amplify the effects b…

A really good book on getting to the emotional root of procrastination is "Procrastination Why you do it, what to do about it now" by Burka & Yuen. It takes a psychoanalytic approach, with a chapter on neuroscience and some practical steps to manage and improve.

One fact I found really interesting is that fear is embedded in your brain & body. A fear response is triggered immediately (30ms) even decades after the original incident. Learning to identify and resolve causes of fear can help you lower the barrier to doing your tasks. If we consider procrastination as a barrier preventing you from doing something, you can either up your will power, lower the barrier, or a combination of both. Good luck on your journey!

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