I somehow managed to break to the other side of things: when I'm tasked with something, I say "okay I'm gonna do it anyway sooner or later" and start getting the job out of the way. Instead of stressing myself out and procrastinating and postponing, I start them as soon as possible. Also did it when I was in college back then: when I had to study for a final, I started a relax study cycle days before, not in last night.
I know we tend to procrastinate and what I've explained is easier said than done. But next time you're tasked and is about to procrastinate just remember that you'll be doing it anyway and if you did things ahead of time everyone will be happier and less stressful, and you'll have all your time to do whatever you want when the task is finished, without the stress. Maybe it will help someone.
The pills help but motivation is not some emergent property of normality. You first need to care about, and genuinely want to do, the task required to accomplish your goals. I’m a fan of this quote from Steve Jobs – (paraphrasing) “every day you wake up and look in the mirror, do you like what you’re doing that day? If not, it’s time to do something else.” The other quote I like is Jeff Bezos and his “picturing mysel…
In your experience does the medication get more effective if you can find ways to work with it? I've been trying to make it work for a while now and it seems like it either does nothing or makes me lock on to some random tangential (usually useless) task I'm near when it kicks in. Really not getting a quieting like with caffeine, which has been disappointing.
This sounds like the meds dont work (for you). Try different ones, if they do not help much then depending on how clearcut the diagnosis was, consider that it might have been misdiagnosed.
That's me. And still in the same loop after several ADHD medications; this makes me think that it's not something that can be solved by a pill. I hope I can solve this someday. My coping mechanism is to never commit to anything (outside work obligations).
The pills help but motivation is not some emergent property of normality. You first need to care about, and genuinely want to do, the task required to accomplish your goals. I’m a fan of this quote from Steve Jobs – (paraphrasing) “every day you wake up and look in the mirror, do you like what you’re doing that day? If not, it’s time to do something else.” The other quote I like is Jeff Bezos and his “picturing mysel…
Why would I ever want to contribute to this roiling cesspit of a society? Why would I ever be happy working to increase the share value of some faceless company? What value does the human species have when life is mostly pain? Why would I care to try in a world full of selfish ignorant entitled morons? While I work to be an honest decent human being others around me lie and cheat and have so little self awareness that it's like competing with a swarm of locusts. I cannot fathom how decent, intelligent people ever have motivation in this place. Let alone for something as utterly unproductive as programming for a corporate.
And these ludicrous notions of needing to provide because you are male and that's your job. Get lost. So the world wants me to perform in a certain way because I was born into it and will judge me harshly if I don't. Take a hike world. But my mind exists in a cage of hardwired pleasure responses and no matter which way you twist and turn you cannot escape the pain of not confirming to them. Get lost world you are too cruel and too stupid to be worth my effort and as a side note, I will not be dictated to by some mindless watchmaker.
I have noticed I tend to procrastinate on a task until the anxiety caused by potentially running late or failing exceeds the anxiety of starting the task.
Pair programming can be a solution. Your employer may fear you are slower than on your own but in reality it will vastly increase your productivity and make you feel better at the same time. Also the result will often be better than what you would have eventually achieved by yourself.
This worked incredibly well in my experience for debug sessions.
Yes definitely. I had quite a long a period of procrastination a while ago, then suddenly a colleague called and asked me to help debug some issue he had problems with. That day the time went very quickly and we solved the problem together. I felt a lot better afterwards, not only because the problem was solved but also felt so productive. Sometimes I need a trigger like that to get out of procrastination mode.
I somehow managed to break to the other side of things: when I'm tasked with something, I say "okay I'm gonna do it anyway sooner or later" and start getting the job out of the way. Instead of stressing myself out and procrastinating and postponing, I start them as soon as possible. Also did it when I was in college back then: when I had to study for a final, I started a relax study cycle days before, not in last nig…
I doubt there are many procrastinators around who don't realise that if they "just ... did things ahead of time" it would solve their procrastination, but you must realise that failing to do this is the very definition of procrastination. None of us like being procrastinators.
All you're telling us is that you're not a procrastinator.
I once read that procrastination is rooted in fear. I think this generally holds true for me. I've often found it helpful to identify the source of fear and that this sometimes breaks the loop. But just starting sooner? Yes, it's that simple but no, it's not that simple.
The pills help but motivation is not some emergent property of normality. You first need to care about, and genuinely want to do, the task required to accomplish your goals. I’m a fan of this quote from Steve Jobs – (paraphrasing) “every day you wake up and look in the mirror, do you like what you’re doing that day? If not, it’s time to do something else.” The other quote I like is Jeff Bezos and his “picturing mysel…
Why would I ever want to contribute to this roiling cesspit of a society? Why would I ever be happy working to increase the share value of some faceless company? What value does the human species have when life is mostly pain? Why would I care to try in a world full of selfish ignorant entitled morons? While I work to be an honest decent human being others around me lie and cheat and have so little self awareness tha…
Usually, I solve this by making it the only thing on my list that day, and clearing as many hurdles as possible the day before. This can mean anything from preliminary googling to cleaning up my workspace and taking out the required tools. This means that on the fateful morning, it’s the first thing I do after making coffee. No checking emails, no small chores, just a shower, coffee and getting to work. I read somewh…
This is great advice, even if it sounds cliché and obvious. I like to say that you have to set yourself up for success. That is, make it as easy as possible for your task to actually be easier and more straightforward (i.e. get the other stuff out of the way the day before, clean up, mute your phone, empty your agenda, etc) It’s very common for us to do the exact opposite, and then we feel bad later because we failed. Of course! We made it even harder for ourselves then it already is. I think that many people (especially coders) got used earlier in life to do things naturally, to have natural motivation to work and that was enough. If at some point that’s not the case anymore, because you’re older, has more responsibility, is tired, or a combination of all these, you lose your “method” and don’t know what to do. So: recognize the difficulty of what you are going to do, and set yourself up for success. And also learn to expect less from yourself and be happy when small goals are achieved (you’ll learn this the hard way anyway; after not doing anything, even a small thing will feel like success).
I spent about a third of 2021 more or less consumed by this phenomenon. In my case it was triggered by job searching: I quit my existing position, intending to do a leisurely search over a few months... and then avoided nearly everything related to the job search for over four months. (While still experiencing a ton of stress as a result of constant anxiety and guilt about it.) Once I actually started, I landed an am…
If you landed a good job afterwards, I’d say those four months were necessary and even beneficial. Sometimes your body/mind will simply force you to stop, and procrastination can be one of their tricks to convince you to do it.
>1. I commit to someone that I’ll do something “soon,” or by a deadline.
The elephant in the room is that you can commit to, or you are committed to something that you don't want to do ("hi, IRS!").
Why should the mind be able to do that? We can't do things that we don't want to do.
Procrastination is a form of self-preservation that prevents us from following any silly thought that randomly pops up in our heads. Procrastination is not a bug but a feature.
Step 2 should be: call that 'someone' and chancel your commitment.