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Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

solvingprocrastination.com

31–40 of 232 posts

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#31
Two tiny hacks changed my lifelong procrastination and people-pleasing nature.

1. Instead of “what will they think?” always ask yourself the alternative question, “what do I want?”. This saves you a lot of time and trouble. Do what you like to see what people will say. Make it a fun game.

2. If something takes less than 2 minutes, just go do it. Make it your “kick”. After few weeks, work your way to turn 2 minutes to 5 then 10 minutes. You will get so much done because of the inertia.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#32
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Social support and accountability Reminds me of "Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)" - https://sivers.org/zipit - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7496923 (74 points | March 30, 2014 | 21 comments)

That's interesting! Although I haven't invested any thought in it, I would've assumed that announcing plans would have the opposite effect because people are now watching and know what you're trying to achieve, so you'd be more motivated to avoid losing face. Thanks for the article — I'll have to check it out!

Personally, it would make me feel a burden of shame to have announced a goal and then had a setback, which would become a greater discouragement then just facing a setback if I had not made a big deal about it in the first place.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#34

A true perfectionist such as myself must go through every social media feed before doing more demanding work. Those unclicked links, notifications and red dots must be cleanced.

Oh I feel you. I’m here reading your comment because I had something else to do.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#36
post #6

As a public open source (yep, open source can be private) programmer (currently x86_64 assembly), and I am very aware of this pitfall. It is very important to move forward in code, because you cannot predict how will actually end up a complex program: you need to have all the (sane) features in to actually know. Since code is all about trade-offs, there is "no perfect". You have to be carefull at avoiding falling int…

You piqued my interest: What’s private open source?

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#37
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friends help with everything in life. I can’t think of an aspect of my life that is not improved by my friends. Making friends is „easy“ too - treating people how you would want to be treated is a good first step.

I feel like I've long reached the point of having zero friends, which makes getting friends actually quite difficult.

It doesn't though, as long as you're willing to throw yourself out there. Meetup groups is a great way to meet fellow nerds, especially if you share interests. You'll probably meet some shitty people sometime, just stay clear and keep trying, you'll eventually find at least one or two people who you fit with :)

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#38
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friends help with everything in life. I can’t think of an aspect of my life that is not improved by my friends. Making friends is „easy“ too - treating people how you would want to be treated is a good first step.

I feel like I've long reached the point of having zero friends, which makes getting friends actually quite difficult.

Sorry to hear that. I’m not in a position to help you but there are many selfhelp support networks in your neighbourhood that can help(most likely, assuming you live in a city).

Showing up is already a giant step forwards.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#40
I’ve found some help with perfectionism and procrastination by using procrastination to overcome perfectionism.

Get a project to a “good enough” point, then tell myself “I’ll fix it next year”, when I really just want to rip it out and start over.

Of course ‘next year’ never comes as later I come to see that the project is totally fine and doesn’t need a re-do.

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