Procrastination is connected to perfectionism • Hacker News Board

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#111

Post by ShamelessC » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 4:43 PM UTC

austin-cheney wrote: post #62

The article hints at psychology and then fails to dive into it. Perfectionism, only when intentionally and cognitively executed in an orderly fashion, is linked to extremely high consciousness and extremely high consciousness when not properly managed is highly correlated with anxiety. The slang for this is anal-retentive . This becomes complicated because anxiety is most typically concerned with high measures of neu…

> This becomes complicated because anxiety is most typically concerned with high measures of neuroticism but a person can score extremely low in neuroticism and yet still suffer symptoms of anxiety from too high of consciousness when their concerns for orderliness prevents timely accomplishment of a task. That specific set of personalities defines obsessive-compulsive disorder in contrast to anxiety in general.

Just to clarify, you're still referring specifically to "perfectionist" personality types? Because last time I checked anxiety is _not_ correlated specifically with any personality traits but rather spans a broad spectrum of personality types.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#112

Post by pjerem » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 4:54 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #86

ghoomketu wrote: post #67

The easiest antidote for procrastination is boredom. This may not work for everyone but for me it works exceptionally. Most often the reason why you don't want to work on something is because you find it too hard, too boring, or too irrelevant. But if you force yourself to be bored for a while, you will eventually crave some mental stimulation. And that's when you can pick up the task you have been avoiding and work…

> The easiest antidote for procrastination is boredom. From my experience with young people, the worst procrastinators will often choose boredom over the task they're avoiding. Doing nothing at all is less painful to them than doing the work they're avoiding. This is even more true for the perfectionist procrastinators: They are avoiding some exaggerated hypothetical pain that might come from failing at a task. If th…

It depends, do you define endless scrolling as boredom ? Because I think it’s not.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#113

Post by GuB-42 » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:01 PM UTC

almostnormal wrote: post #77

ghoomketu wrote: post #67

The easiest antidote for procrastination is boredom. This may not work for everyone but for me it works exceptionally. Most often the reason why you don't want to work on something is because you find it too hard, too boring, or too irrelevant. But if you force yourself to be bored for a while, you will eventually crave some mental stimulation. And that's when you can pick up the task you have been avoiding and work…

An alternative to boredom is something else more important even less desirable that needs to be done, that drives progress on what is being procastrinated. Unfortunately, it only shifts the problem elsewhere.

I have seen it called "structured procrastination".

The idea is that instead of trying to focus on what's important, leaving out everything else, make a long task list, including things that are not that important, but still productive. So that you have plenty of things to do to avoid doing the top items.

To avoid shifting the problem, it suggests self-deception, so that you put items on top that appear important, but are not really. So that you do the really important ones in order to avoid doing the falsely important ones.

I don't know how effective it is though.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#114

Post by waihtis » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

kthejoker2 wrote: post #100

I probably have a whole personal blog of my own on the topic, dear as it is to my soul. My two main pieces of advice: The bar is very very low, and share your burden quickly. 99 times out of 100 you are way overestimating the value of what you're delivering and people's expectations for it, and underestimating the value of time i.e. shipping quickly. I've turned in so many things I'm not happy with and gotten a "this…

This resonates so much.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#115

Post by electrondood » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:16 PM UTC

The most effective antidote to procrastination for me is to get up at 5am.

I have literally nothing to do for 4 hours, and I'm awake, and I have loads of energy, and no one else is up, so I may as well just do that thing I've been putting off.

Also, literally just starting the task, regardless of how I feel. That works too.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#116

Post by electrondood » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

getlawgdon wrote: post #43

jokoon wrote: post #30

there's nothing wrong with procrastination doctors say people work too much, and there's an epidemic of burnout homo sapiens are not made to work and feel guilty when they don't complete tasks it's a problem of work culture and productivism, nothing else

So we are not in fact what we have made ourselves? What are we then? What are we supposed to be?

We are abstractions, with no substantial reality apart from everything else. And thus, not worth getting hung up on most of the time.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#117

Post by jahewson » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:23 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #88

I developed a bad case of perfectionism-procrastination after working for a toxic boss. It didn't matter how polished our product was, he'd find a way to tear it apart. When he'd have a bad day, he'd start picking apart a random team's product. "Unbelievable!" he'd say in Slack, dropping a screen recording of the app that showed something we were supposed to be embarrassed about. It could be that the app took 3 secon…

Sounds awful. And I can guess exactly how that boss responded to any feedback or criticism directed in his direction!

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#118

Post by primitivesuave » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:24 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #88

I developed a bad case of perfectionism-procrastination after working for a toxic boss. It didn't matter how polished our product was, he'd find a way to tear it apart. When he'd have a bad day, he'd start picking apart a random team's product. "Unbelievable!" he'd say in Slack, dropping a screen recording of the app that showed something we were supposed to be embarrassed about. It could be that the app took 3 secon…

This so accurately describes my own experience a couple years ago, down to the specific anecdotes, that I had to double check the username to make sure it wasn’t something I drunkenly wrote last night.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#119

Post by motohagiography » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:26 PM UTC

Life is harsh, sure, but "perfectionism," is a terrible and over-freighted word for someone stuck in a double bind and suffering as the result of it. Consider the situations from which someone might acquire a pathological fear of some kinds criticism. A huge likelihood is that as the result of submitting to uncertainty they have been:

- personally abused and shamed

- made the object of sadism or cruelty

- humiliated to their peers

- had important things taken from them

- been isolated

- lost an important relationship

If you know someone suffering from a bind like that, find a way to tell them that "this is not that," and you can have a big impact on their life.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#120

Post by pessimizer » Mon, Jan 01, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #119

Life is harsh, sure, but "perfectionism," is a terrible and over-freighted word for someone stuck in a double bind and suffering as the result of it. Consider the situations from which someone might acquire a pathological fear of some kinds criticism. A huge likelihood is that as the result of submitting to uncertainty they have been: - personally abused and shamed - made the object of sadism or cruelty - humiliated…

I don't understand the purpose of taking a good word "perfectionism" for a pathological fear of criticism and rejection, and replacing it with a random incomplete list of things that might have caused a pathological fear of criticism and rejection.