The best advice I think I've heard so far against procrastination is: First, find a small sub-task of the thing you want to do, and lay it out clearly. Then commit a small amount of time to starting on that sub-task. Not on finishing it, just on starting it. Usually once you started the thing, you will have no trouble seeing it through in time. Rinse, repeat.
Procrastinatory Doom Loops
81–90 of 290 posts
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#82I 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…
Well that's all well and good for those who have somebody who loves them. What if you're single? Guess we're all doomed.
The level of pessimism here seems a bit gratuitous. Working with my partner worked well for me, but I've seen people in similar situations achieve a lot of success through participating in supportive online communities (e.g. a Slack group for alumni of a coding bootcamp), or coworking with friends (whether or not everybody is working on the same stuff). Therapy can also be helpful, both in addressing the roots of the problem and in providing some external accountability. And there are doubtless many other options if you look around a little.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#83[deleted]
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
> be solved by a pill Most likely, especially that if it's exactly like described in the article it's more like a anxiety and/or long-term-miss-conditioning problem then one caused by a short attention span.
I've only tried xanax once but if anyone thinks that will solve this.. it probably won't, because once on xanax you lose the anxiety but also you won't care about the thing that's causing anxiety, in my case I didn't care about anything, said "stupid" (things I wouldn't normally say so casually that hurt them) shit to people I knew because I didn't care about the consequences. This likely stems from me usually just d…
I wanted to include that point:
> xanax you lose the anxiety but also you won't care about the thing that's causing anxiety
but I didn't as I was missing the expertise/experience with that.
Just from my understanding anxiety is (often?, sometimes?(1)) a unhealthy over reaction of the same "thing"/"system" which makes you care about thing. I heard about it before that for some people with anxiety disorder and depression, the time they where least anxious was the time they where most depressed, because they simply didn't care about anything anymore.
(1): Anxiety and especially depression are not a very clear cut defined (i.e. not like a broken bone) and can have noticeable different effects on different people, I do not have the expertise to guess in which range this effects can lie for it to still count as depression and/or anxiety.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#85I'd love to hear suggestions for an employer or manager who expects or knows an employee or report is in or prone to this situation. Not experiencing that now, but definitely have in the past.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#86The book The Now Habit has helped me
Can you share briefly how it has helped you?
Procrastination is usually caused by anxiety and the way we speak to ourselves, and this book is all about addressing that. You can have all sorts of rules and systems, but if you don't treat yourself with positivity and respect none of those will matter. My biggest takeaways are that you should not let work bleed into your leisure time, and you shouldn't base your self worth on your work.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#87So many people suffer from this. I guess most of us had at least stretches in their career where procrastination dominated the work day. For some, this is just the standard mode of operation. It is important to understand that this is a sign of exhaustion. Work is hard and if we don't have the energy to start then it doesn't get done. Personally I found the following to help: 1) Get enough sleep. Every day. Nothing d…
Not sure if it makes sense, but after the christmas holidays I made a bad habbit of sleeping to much, which also made me tired.
So, get enough sleep, but not too much. Don't start another sleep cycle.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#88This is an oldie so many may already know it. But always relevant reading for my fellow procrastinators. Part 1: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti... Part 2: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.h... Bonus: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/procrastination-matrix.html Highly recommended! While I still procrastinate this understanding has helped me control my urge tememdou…
This was so well written, an eye opener indeed! Thanks
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'm quite sure that they were not: anxiety-driven avoidance is far more stressful and exhausting for me than any fruitful work. And having a constant feeling that you ought to be making up for lost time is a serious bar to genuine relaxation. I did need a break after my last job, and it's very possible that contributed to the problems I had, but this was definitely a bug, not a feature.
Exactly. It's not a way to relax, it's more like spinning your wheels in place and having the engine overheat from all the wheel spinning. You just feel worse and worse the longer you stay in that state.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#90This is an oldie so many may already know it. But always relevant reading for my fellow procrastinators. Part 1: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti... Part 2: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.h... Bonus: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/procrastination-matrix.html Highly recommended! While I still procrastinate this understanding has helped me control my urge tememdou…
I've added these to my "read later" list.