Ask HN: Does procrastination advice help you?

For me, it was the realization that all my needs are met so my brain doesn’t want to push more. You need discipline at this point. Read david goggins or jocko.

What are OP's own thoughts on the nature of their procrastination after watching and reading articles, blogs and videos?

Did they address any of the identified reasons, and if so, in which way?

Personally, I think the core of my own procrastinating is a misguided sense of perfectionism.

I want the tasks that I'm working on to be simultaneously easy, stimulating and myself to deliver perfect work. If any of these dimensions is missing or unlikely, I will procrastinate without end. I've arrived at a point where I've come to accept complete failure on almost all endeavours and feeling like a permanent loser, I won't even try any more.

So far I found it impossible to become okay with delivering imperfect work, since, at work or in private life, I'm objectively being judged on the quality of it and my reputation hinges on it as well.

Hillary Rettig wrote a book called _The Lifelong Activist_ that addresses procrastination (among other issues). She claims that procrastination comes from perfectionism and that giving up on getting things perfect will end your procrastination.

I'm not sure this is 100% true for all people but I found it to be a helpful way to think about things. The book is worth reading overall, and I think a lot of the advice in it would apply to anyone who wants to be able to spend a large portion of their life on focused work, whether that's activism, running a company, parenting, etc.

Do a test for sleep apnea. I didn't realize I had apnea but my dad and brother had it, so I did a sleep test. Turns out I had severe apnea.

I suffered from massive procrastination and focus problems in the couple years leading up to the test. Once I got a CPAP machine to sleep better, it made a profound change in my life. Mental acuity, productivity, mood, everything was far better. Sleep is no joke. For about a month, my dreams were crazy long epic sagas as my brain caught up on REM sleep it had been deprived of for years. My bosses at the time mentioned I was like a different person altogether. Got great performance reviews.

So, just my tale on how I beat procrastination. Probably not what you expected.

Three books that have helped me:

- "Feeling Good" by David D. Burns

- "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore

- "Getting Things Done" by David Allen

"Feeling Good" is about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, and will teach you some practical ways to get yourself out of a bad mood (depression, anger, self-criticism, etc). Procrastination is a logical response to how you are feeling about some task, for example, you are feeling anxious about failing a test, so you play video games because it feels better to play video games than to feel anxious. This book will help you get past the anxiety, so you can focus on the studying. If you only read one of these books, I would recommend this one.

"The Now Habit" offers you some practical advice on how to beat procrastination and schedule your time so you don't feel like all you do is work, work, work.

"Getting Things Done" has a lot of practical advice about how to keep track of what you've got going on in your life so that you can get all your stuff done.

And yes, if you think you are depressed or have undiagnosed ADHD, go see a doctor and/or therapist.

Hope some of this helps.

edit: formatting