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Procrastinatory Doom Loops

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Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#131

Post by pydry »

argc wrote: post #40
Tepix wrote: post #35

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.

I have found this works insanely well for me.

Me also, which is why it threw me immensely when I joined a team where they're somewhat dismissive of pairing.

I realized that I'd been using it as a sort of crutch for a while.

It not only motivated me it drew me out of my shell. It made me more willing to reach out to people i needed coz i was already in a "social mindset". It also made it easier to assess and take risks as a pair.

Whereas alone I become somewhat risk averse and asocial.

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#132

Post by ModernMech »

Shared404 wrote: post #6

Oh hey, that's a picture of my life. Anyone have coping mechanisms they can suggest? This is really getting out of hand. So far the best I've been able to do is intake massive portions of caffeine and use the resultant high/numbing of emotion to allow myself to push through. Not the healthiest or most sustainable option.

I find that the biggest hurdle to getting things done is the context switch. Just getting started is so hard, but after I get started I can keep going until the task is done.

So I trick myself and say “I’m not going to do the whole thing tonight, I’m just going to do a single trivial thing.” So I do it. It takes a second. Then I do another. Then something more substantial. And before I know it I’m working in earnest.

For instance, if I have to do a sink full of dishes and clean up a whole dinner, I will say “just one dish”. But after one dish the water is hot, the gloves are on, so why not a second dish? Then a third. Before I know it the dishes are done!

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#133

Post by doctorhandshake »

jacquesm wrote: post #93
cipheredStones wrote: post #33

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…

What really gets me is that if I push stuff off and then finally get around to it how little time it usually takes to deal with the thing I've been putting off. I'm quite capable of spending 3 days to avoid 10 minutes of concentrated hard work. Very frustrating.

I discovered this in my early 20s and it has been the key to my rarely if ever dealing with with issues with procrastination. When I think of something I don’t want to do immediately, one of the first things that pops into my head is both how quickly it will get done and how good it will feel to have it done, and so I do it right then and there.

The satisfaction of knocking off something you didn’t want to do is the corollary to the negative feelings holding you back, and it’s the key to establishing a positive feedback loop in place of the painful one you’re experiencing.

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#134

Post by bluejellybean »

Another trick that I haven't seen anyone talk about in this thread is visualization. I'll use this whenever I notice the loop, but still don't have the courage to actually stop. I'll pause for a moment, tell myself that I am NOT going to do the thing exactly at this moment, but instead I will just visualize the exact steps needed for when I eventually sit down to do it.

This helps for those situations in which I'm procrastinating due to a realized or unrealized ambiguity of a given task. If I'm slacking because I don't know how to do something, it gives me the questions that I need to go find answers to. Googling around for answers or pinging a coworker is way easier than actually doing the work, and thus I can 'get the ball rolling' so to speak.

Even if I still procrastinate a bit afterwards, the tasks seem much more manageable as I already 'know' what needs to be done, letting ideas stew at this point. Usually after a snack or bathroom break, I'll come back and just crank out the work (or at least start!) because I'm so sick of thinking about how simple that first step actually is, again, because the details are already worked out in my head.

In a literal sense, this is 'work/working', but it never feels like it, and that's part of the key for me to overcome it. It's just thinking, right?

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#135

Post by tailspin2019 »

IAmYourDensity wrote: post #119

I've read lots of books (Eat That Frog, Getting Things Done, The Pomodoro Technique, The Now Habit) and tons of blog posts on procrastination and rarely do I find them very actionable (heh). Here's three techniques that work for me: 1. Baby Steps 2. Warp Speed 3. Multitask __ Baby Steps Do the simplest possible step to start the task, and repeat. For example, just open your word processor or IDE. Just write one sente…

Great ideas. I’ve used similar techniques too!

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#136

Post by evancoop »

It's not simply a matter of willpower to avoid procrastination. The "doom loops" emerge in the absence of a structure that returns awareness to a task (but does not require anxiety about the task BEFORE that return). We've all made to-do lists...then avoided looking at the list for some unhealthy period of time. That's the cognitive dissonance hell (don't look! don't acknowledge the problem!).

The answer presumably lies in habits, external structure, and patterns that allow items to be acted upon, quickly captured with minimal thought (e.g. "Getting Things Done" or some such system), and then, crucially, returning to that external structure early and often!

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#137

Post by piva00 »

dcminter wrote: post #103
piva00 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I once read that procrastination is rooted in fear. I think this generally holds true for me. For me as well. It's rooted in fear of failure, fear of the unknown. I notice it quite clearly when I switch jobs or teams, initially when I'm out of my depth with the new domain I'm working in I get almost paralysed with starting something, eventually I started it after guilting myself on not being productive. Then comes…

Are you me? :) One other thing that sometimes works is that I will tell myself: Ok, you should start this thing, but you only have to do ${trivial-amount} on it. Then you can do ${more-enticing-thing}. I don't know why this works since obviously I'm fully privy to the subterfuge... but if I can manage that first trivial amount (e.g. when I was writing tech books it would be one paragraph) I would often end up finishi…

Nothing is new and we aren't all that unique, haha.

The more you described your issue and how you deal with it the more I thought the same "are you me?".

Instead of tech writing I try to produce music (still learning, just 3 years in) and I ended up using the same subterfuge: when I avoid opening my DAW to make music I just tell to myself "open it, create a motif with a preset sound you like and save the project", something that wouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes to be done with. After I start with that most of the time I simply keep going.

I try to apply the same to work tasks, it's just a little harder to get the initial commitment when I feel very paralysed, every time I do the "just 5 minutes" thing it does work though.

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#138

Post by wffurr »

sshine wrote: post #47
asxd wrote: post #44

I had this issue with my first software job right out of college. I was unproductive for weeks, just due to culture shock and (shamefully) malaise. The procrastination snowballed. Luckily a fellow engineer eventually noticed, sat down with me, and recognized exactly what was going on. In the kindest way possible, he sat down behind me and basically made me finally start my next project. He stayed there with me for th…

That's an amazing experience report. I remember teaming up with a former colleague at a point where their SRI had just kicked in, and my motivation was down the drain. I felt they were doing me a huge favor, and they felt the same way back. Pair programming is, so far, the only certain cure to my procrastination. I'll certainly work when not pair programming, but pair programming will make me give 100% for 12+ hours…

What does "SRI" mean in this context?

Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops

#139

Post by hiptobecubic »

doctorhandshake wrote: post #133
jacquesm wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What really gets me is that if I push stuff off and then finally get around to it how little time it usually takes to deal with the thing I've been putting off. I'm quite capable of spending 3 days to avoid 10 minutes of concentrated hard work. Very frustrating.

I discovered this in my early 20s and it has been the key to my rarely if ever dealing with with issues with procrastination. When I think of something I don’t want to do immediately, one of the first things that pops into my head is both how quickly it will get done and how good it will feel to have it done, and so I do it right then and there. The satisfaction of knocking off something you didn’t want to do is the…

For that to work you need to be able to frame the problem as something that can be done immediately. If the problem has a blocking step, like "fill out this form, then in two weeks, check back to see if it worked," I find it much harder to see the joy in completing the task.
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