Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

deprocrastination.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 163 posts

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#41

Post by darkwater »

izgzhen wrote: post #16

Not to dismiss this course since I never tried it, but my personal experience is that I procrastinate a lot when I don’t enjoy my work, have a lot of FUD around the project, or simply not passionate about the profession. On the contrary, when I got motivated by my work and feel excited, I just naturally stop procrastination. In fact, it becomes difficult to pay attention to things beyond work at that state. My advice…

Yes and no. I usually procrastinate also when the project or even ticket is too big or I'm not that familiar with the topic and I get a form of "writer's block". In that case, pairing with someone else or try to split the task in smaller chunks helps me. But not always, unfortunately.

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#42

Post by unlimit »

jordwest wrote: post #36
izgzhen wrote: post #16

Not to dismiss this course since I never tried it, but my personal experience is that I procrastinate a lot when I don’t enjoy my work, have a lot of FUD around the project, or simply not passionate about the profession. On the contrary, when I got motivated by my work and feel excited, I just naturally stop procrastination. In fact, it becomes difficult to pay attention to things beyond work at that state. My advice…

Agreed, but for me there have been a few more reasons than boredom. Broadly I see 3 reasons I’ve procrastinated in the past. 1. I’m bored, and not learning anything new, just doing the same thing over and over. 2. I don’t see where this is going, or the point of doing it. Felt this a lot with university assignments in particular. 3. I’m afraid. This is the only one where I think it’s worth persisting. Sometimes somet…

Completely with you on 3. This is the most dangerous one - its like not wanting to hear bad news or give bad news. I have found myself doing this with health issues.

1 and 2 can be helped with a bit of discipline and perseverance.

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#43

Post by vitabenes »

12ian34 wrote: post #40
vitabenes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the feedback! Much appreciated. Trust - Yes, I've collected some testimonials from other products (book, extension, Deschool program), but none about the course yet, since it's brand new. I'll work on this. Video - Thank you. I'll plan on improving the course continuously. I'm more animated in some videos, but I'll re-record others. This is the 1st version of the product. My background is programming, s…

It is a great v1 - keep it up!

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#44

Post by redmaverick »

Haven't watched the video.

For me the only thing that works. The only hack that works is having a contract with a third party.

You don't procrastinate on paying your mortgage right. You do it every month.

You don't not show up for work right. Or for meetings right.

You don't procrastinate on paying your cellphone bill/internet bill/paying rent etc.

Why? Because you have contracts with another party and there are consequences if you miss them.

Losing weight? No consequences! That novel you've been meaning to write.. no consequences! Want to learn a new language/do a passion project etc.. there are no consequences to not doing it.

For me I resolved this issue by going into a contract with a third party with consequences if I miss my obligations.

Inspired by a "lock-in" productivity based ted talk which was banned so I can't link it here.

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#45

Post by superasn »

izgzhen wrote: post #16

Not to dismiss this course since I never tried it, but my personal experience is that I procrastinate a lot when I don’t enjoy my work, have a lot of FUD around the project, or simply not passionate about the profession. On the contrary, when I got motivated by my work and feel excited, I just naturally stop procrastination. In fact, it becomes difficult to pay attention to things beyond work at that state. My advice…

Good advice. Also one thing that has very often worked for me which I learned from a run-of-the-mill Youtube video is just countdown from 5-4-3-2-1 and then do it for 5 minutes. So many times I've ended up working the whole day after that and often enjoyed myself too.

For a lot of people it's like the static friction vs kinetic friction kinda deal.

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#46

Post by hugosbaseball »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #7

Perfect, now I can procrastinate in front of a video by pretending I'm working on not procrastinating.

And pay $70 for the privilege of having access to 35 videos, of which only 15 exist at the moment. OP is going to make 35 videos about procrastination? Alllllrightythen.

Something something suckers, money, parted, soon, etc.

OP has provided zero information in their post or even on their site about who they are and what their qualifications are. Which means they don't have any qualifications.

Is there literally any moderation of the front page, or can any rando submit "ShowHN" posts that are basically spam for a scam?

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#47

Post by tomjen3 »

Sanguinaire wrote: post #31
izgzhen wrote: post #16

Not to dismiss this course since I never tried it, but my personal experience is that I procrastinate a lot when I don’t enjoy my work, have a lot of FUD around the project, or simply not passionate about the profession. On the contrary, when I got motivated by my work and feel excited, I just naturally stop procrastination. In fact, it becomes difficult to pay attention to things beyond work at that state. My advice…

I need a catalyst - motivation is fine once I'm going, but my activation energy for most tasks is enormous.

Oh man, I feel exactly the same way. Even if it is something I actually like, just getting started can be so hard.

My only real trick is to try and do something for ten minutes and then I can continue or not as I want. Often I want to continue, sometimes so much I get irrationally angry on the timer because it interrupts my work.

Do you have any other strategies?

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#48

Post by n1000 »

jordwest wrote: post #36
izgzhen wrote: post #16

Not to dismiss this course since I never tried it, but my personal experience is that I procrastinate a lot when I don’t enjoy my work, have a lot of FUD around the project, or simply not passionate about the profession. On the contrary, when I got motivated by my work and feel excited, I just naturally stop procrastination. In fact, it becomes difficult to pay attention to things beyond work at that state. My advice…

Agreed, but for me there have been a few more reasons than boredom. Broadly I see 3 reasons I’ve procrastinated in the past. 1. I’m bored, and not learning anything new, just doing the same thing over and over. 2. I don’t see where this is going, or the point of doing it. Felt this a lot with university assignments in particular. 3. I’m afraid. This is the only one where I think it’s worth persisting. Sometimes somet…

4. I am exhausted or did not sleep enough. Sometimes it is difficult to realise / accept that I simply need some downtime. In that case cut yourself some slack.

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#49

Post by codesternews »

redmaverick wrote: post #44

Haven't watched the video. For me the only thing that works. The only hack that works is having a contract with a third party. You don't procrastinate on paying your mortgage right. You do it every month. You don't not show up for work right. Or for meetings right. You don't procrastinate on paying your cellphone bill/internet bill/paying rent etc. Why? Because you have contracts with another party and there are cons…

Give me practical example of this? What and how you did

Re: Show HN: I made an interactive anti-procrastination video course

#50

Post by arkitaip »

vitabenes wrote: post #28
arkitaip wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably right about preventing procrastination. The pomodoro technique is often recommended because it prevents procrastination from happening within small time boxes. But then again, how would I as a procrastinator reach this pretty profound insight? Any information targeting me has to be skillfully crafted to guide me in the right direction while avoiding all the issues that cause me to procrastinate in the…

Well, yes, that's an issue. We hope to reach people via blog and Twitter - we post about all the various issues, so that people get exposed to them, and click or read when they encounter something relevant to them.

I like talking about this so I hope you indulge me, did you base your design on any specific research or works on procrastination? It would be interesting what the state of the art has to say about the causes of procrastination and potential solutions.
Post reply on HN