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Dear procrastinator

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Re: Dear procrastinator

#71

Post by silverbax88 »

geekfactor wrote: post #67
silverbax88 wrote: post #22

I'm sorry to disagree, but I do. My own battle with procrastination is completely due to laziness. No one likes to do difficult things, and sometimes even things we kind of enjoy. The reality is that we, as humans, never procrastinate when we really, really want something. Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. In short, we accomp…

Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. I can't speak to what's going on inside your head, but I think people trick themselves into playing those few extra minutes all the time. I know I do: - "I've got plenty of time. A few extra minutes won't hurt." - "I didn't really need to get that done today anyway." - "If I stay focused I ca…

Those are all rationalizations to allow us to do or continue to do what we really want.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#72

Post by aangjie »

geekfactor wrote: post #67
silverbax88 wrote: post #22

I'm sorry to disagree, but I do. My own battle with procrastination is completely due to laziness. No one likes to do difficult things, and sometimes even things we kind of enjoy. The reality is that we, as humans, never procrastinate when we really, really want something. Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. In short, we accomp…

Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. I can't speak to what's going on inside your head, but I think people trick themselves into playing those few extra minutes all the time. I know I do: - "I've got plenty of time. A few extra minutes won't hurt." - "I didn't really need to get that done today anyway." - "If I stay focused I ca…

Actually, i do that with reading blogs,books,hacker news(anything involving reading)..always a few more extra minutes.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#73

Post by Tichy »

janjan wrote: post #6

This is not true for myself at all! Actually I think in my case all the stuff you read about procrastination does not really aplly to my procrastination: I think I am one of the worlds worst procastinators and it took me about 10 years to figure out what might be the main reason for my behaviour. It has nothing to with all the stuff you read in all these procrastination books. It's not about the fear of failing, it's…

Can you learn to do unpleasant stuff? What does that mean - that your will is broken? Unpleasant stuff is after all unpleasant.

I managed to see some positive things, for example when I do the dishes I enjoy the clean state of the room afterwards. Or in general I try to see cleaning as a workout. But you can only trick the mind to a degree...

If procrastination really is there to prevent us from doing stupid tasks, maybe it is not desirable to learn to do unpleasant stuff. It would mean circumventing that protection.

Thinking about it, maybe the way to learn doing unpleasant stuff is really to look at the bigger picture and why it makes sense to do the unpleasant stuff. If it doesn't make sense, not doing it might be the right decision.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#74

Post by vrode »

silverbax88 wrote: post #22

I'm sorry to disagree, but I do. My own battle with procrastination is completely due to laziness. No one likes to do difficult things, and sometimes even things we kind of enjoy. The reality is that we, as humans, never procrastinate when we really, really want something. Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. In short, we accomp…

You have surrendered to the ideology of laziness. But there is no such thing.

The energy enters you, you transform it and then you use the transformed energy to suit your needs.

In this chain, something is broken. People tend simplify this by calling it laziness when they need to put a tag on someone they don't like.

But the real reason for you inability to accomplish tasks at hand is that something in the chain I have described earlier - is broken.

You either struggle to get enough energy (food, sleep, emotion), or you struggle to transform it (usually abundance of low-quality energy sources and inability to improve their quality)

The only way out of this state (which is not permanent) is to revise your routines and methods. Improve and rationalize everything you do, so it won't call to those 'woeful' associations when you start working on something.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#75

Post by Tichy »

silverbax88 wrote: post #22

I'm sorry to disagree, but I do. My own battle with procrastination is completely due to laziness. No one likes to do difficult things, and sometimes even things we kind of enjoy. The reality is that we, as humans, never procrastinate when we really, really want something. Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. In short, we accomp…

But did you ever really only want to play video games or relax in other ways, or did you sometimes really want to do "real" things? I think your statement becomes tricky quickly once you start thinking about what it means to really want something (unless you define it as things you can do without procrastinating).

Attributing one's own procrastination to mere laziness could also be a way to avoid facing the real issues.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#77

Post by [deleted] »

Tichy wrote: post #73
janjan wrote: post #6

This is not true for myself at all! Actually I think in my case all the stuff you read about procrastination does not really aplly to my procrastination: I think I am one of the worlds worst procastinators and it took me about 10 years to figure out what might be the main reason for my behaviour. It has nothing to with all the stuff you read in all these procrastination books. It's not about the fear of failing, it's…

Can you learn to do unpleasant stuff? What does that mean - that your will is broken? Unpleasant stuff is after all unpleasant. I managed to see some positive things, for example when I do the dishes I enjoy the clean state of the room afterwards. Or in general I try to see cleaning as a workout. But you can only trick the mind to a degree... If procrastination really is there to prevent us from doing stupid tasks, m…

[deleted]

Re: Dear procrastinator

#78

Post by umjames »

What about scheduling some time (daily or weekly) for doing the things that you would normally consider your procrastination activity? Has anyone here tried that? How did it work out? The more details you can provide, the better.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#79

Post by silverbax88 »

vrode wrote: post #74
silverbax88 wrote: post #22

I'm sorry to disagree, but I do. My own battle with procrastination is completely due to laziness. No one likes to do difficult things, and sometimes even things we kind of enjoy. The reality is that we, as humans, never procrastinate when we really, really want something. Not once in my life did I have to "trick" myself into playing a video game a few extra minutes or watch a big basketball game. In short, we accomp…

You have surrendered to the ideology of laziness. But there is no such thing. The energy enters you, you transform it and then you use the transformed energy to suit your needs. In this chain, something is broken. People tend simplify this by calling it laziness when they need to put a tag on someone they don't like. But the real reason for you inability to accomplish tasks at hand is that something in the chain I ha…

No, again, it's completely because humans have a desire to avoid things that are not considered interesting. We must get our kids to school on time, so we push ourselves to get up early, get them ready, and either drive them to school or get them to the bus stop. What all of us would rather do is read, or play games, or watch TV. Laziness is part of our human makeup, and our success in combating it makes the difference in our lives.

Re: Dear procrastinator

#80

Post by orillian »

jodrellblank wrote: post #32

That doesn't seem to answer anything. If human beings procrastinate to feel in control, what of soldiers? They can be happy and fulfilled, work damn hard, and be only doing exactly what they are told. The next question, for you perhaps, is "what do you fear so much about the idea of not being in control of your life?"

A soldier is programmed to be the way they are, their lack of procrastination is beat into them as a response to fear, primarily the fear of death. Do what you’re told or your squad mates will die, your commanding officer will die, and by extension "you" will die. Death is one of the ultimate motivators.

That said you get a soldier outside the army life and he finds ways and methods of procrastination that rival the rest of us.

I have always fought with procrastination, and it always has boiled down to feeling forced to do things. If something is not happening in the moment, if it’s not feel spontaneous then I balk at doing it.

The analogy of rebelling against a virtual or fictitious oppressor self is very fitting, for me, and my natural reaction to this internal dictator is only heightened when it is influenced by an external entity.

I might internally procrastinate about doing dishes for example, but if my wife dares to even suggest or ask if I’d be willing... that procrastination will flare into an outright rebellion against doing that “THING” that is “required” of me. Not saying I externalize the conflict, but mentally that part of me that was causing me to procrastinate is now engaged in guerrilla warfare.

My morning was just ambushed by this small bit of writing btw. I'm "supposed" to be doing some programming you know. Deadlines are looming, people are getting anxious and I'm writing about my penchant for procrastination. ;)

O.

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