I clicked on this waiting to see (interesting) Doom gameplay loops. I was greatly disappointed.
Procrastinatory Doom Loops
181–190 of 290 posts
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#182The funny part is when the person you committed to is yourself.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#183This 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…
While the analogies in these articles are great, from personal experience, the second article's tips on how to beat procrastination are abysmal. Yes, breaking large steps into small chunks is good advice, but your goal should not be to live in a constant state of stress and anxiety by setting up "panic monsters". That's just a recipe for getting yourself burned out and becoming a "disastinator".
What I would instead suggest is reducing your workload, resting, and if that fails to fix the problem, seeing a medical professional to check for ADHD or other executive dysfunction issues. (It also really does bother me that Tim Urban never even mentioned that "procrastination" is known in the medical community as "executive dysfunction" and that clinical treatments are an option. Not saying that it's the root of all procrastination issues, but for major problems, it's worth looking at.)
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#184I will read this later.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#185>I do tasks on three timescales: they either get done immediately, after a shamefully massive delay, or not at all. There’s little in-between. To anyone relating: that's an ADHD symptom. It falls under the umbrella of Executive Dysfunction[1]. I have been beating myself up for it all my life, and turns out there are many things that work differently for people with ADHD - and many things that help (from medication[2]…
Here is another excellent write-up on the struggle that ADHD can be: https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#186Earlier 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 had a very similar experience with Selank, minus the saying dumb things. Intended to "chill out" a bit about some tasks to get them done, suddenly did not give a single whit about the tasks or anything else surrounding them. Not a productivity tool!
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> John Cleese in his book about creativity talks about how procrastination is actually our natural ability to be most creative. If we are leaving something until the last minute, it often means we don't really have a great solution or don't have enough time to think about it. Even if we do have a solution in mind, leaving it till the very last minute gives us enough time for other ideas to come up. YES. This is why I…
>This is why I don't code as a job What do you do for a living instead?
I work in political communications/education as the only techy person on a non-tech team. I have a background in front-end/UX + librarianship and instructional design. So while I do code when I make instructional materials + use my knowledge when I do things like our metrics/data analysis, it's not the majority of my job and none of my teammates can code at all (all but one of them break out in hives if they have to look at HTML).
Minuses: Nobody appreciates when you pull off something difficult/do something impressive.
Pluses: Coding is black magic to them so if I need more time I can say 'this will take me longer' and they're like 'alright'. That wouldn't fly in an actual developer job.
I also do research, outreach, and do things like give educational talks on civics + administrative law concepts. So I prefer to make a living with my research skills and public speaking/presentation abilities as opposed to my creative/coding ones.
I like to use my creative/coding skills as an extra: I'm a LOT better at my job than I would be without my tech background.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#188>I do tasks on three timescales: they either get done immediately, after a shamefully massive delay, or not at all. There’s little in-between. To anyone relating: that's an ADHD symptom. It falls under the umbrella of Executive Dysfunction[1]. I have been beating myself up for it all my life, and turns out there are many things that work differently for people with ADHD - and many things that help (from medication[2]…
I was very defensive when my wife said that I should consider being screened for ADHD, I have the exact experience you do (a the OP) around this stuff. The defensiveness was something that I sorted out, and looking back on things, so many of my "vices" were just self-medication for ADHD. They were mostly coping strategies (with the exception of some social vices).
My adult diagnosis has been a game changer for me. I know most people don't mean that literally, but I mean that literally. It changed the game.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#189>I do tasks on three timescales: they either get done immediately, after a shamefully massive delay, or not at all. There’s little in-between. To anyone relating: that's an ADHD symptom. It falls under the umbrella of Executive Dysfunction[1]. I have been beating myself up for it all my life, and turns out there are many things that work differently for people with ADHD - and many things that help (from medication[2]…
Good stuff. I have lived with ADHD as long as I remember. Going on and off prescriptions. Adult ADHD has mostly revolved around depression/mood swing cycles of hyper focus and motivation (new interesting project/work, new job) and procrastination, lack of focus, and depression caused by that feeling of know I should be doing X but not being able to bring myself to. I have some coping techniques and it isn't something…
Exactly the same for me. I'm currently in the "I know I should be doing X but not being able to bring myself to" cycle on a piece of a major project. It's not hard work, I know how to do it, but I just cannot do it.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and have avoided the medication my whole life. Recently, I decided to try Adderall. It's like magic to be honest, and has helped tremendously in multiple ways. I can focus on a single task, less pain in getting started on tasks, can actually stay focused, can listen without the draining mental effort to force myself to, and am less forgetful.
But for some reason, this one project has put me right back in the same old 'cannot do this' state even with the Adderall.
Re: Procrastinatory Doom Loops
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just want to point out - one can have symptoms of a disorder that don't rise to the level of a disorder. I have what OP describes like crazy, I beat myself up over it frequently and think I need to do better. Yet somehow I keep getting glowing reviews at work and even just got promoted without asking. So don't automatically think, "omg I do that too! I need medication." Start to worry if it has a substantial negative…
Yeah, I deal with a lot of the listed symptoms. But I've never been diagnosed and I seem to be a fairly functional person.
It took me until I was 45 to finally get screened. I really wish I had done it sooner, it is not that rough. But I said the exact same thing when I bumped into this notion. I was quite resistant to the idea, which is itself a fascinating mental knot to untie.