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Procrastination is Not Laziness

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Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#3

Post by pm90 »

"Once you lose track of the specific items that are causing you stress, you tend to regard it all as one big ugly entity that you want to avoid"

This. I vividly remember when some problems got completely out of hand and my life turned downhill, this is exactly what it felt like. On shitty days, I tell myself, 'well, at least it wasn't as bad as that'

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#4

Post by przemoc »

I've read some blog posts about procrastination, but this one I think really hits the mark. Good read!

"You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything."

First paragraph in the text that stuck me so deeply. And it's not like I fear criticism (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5361495), but my urge for perfection is killing my performance and this in fact is indeed literally killing me.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#6

Post by d23 »

pm90 wrote: post #3

"Once you lose track of the specific items that are causing you stress, you tend to regard it all as one big ugly entity that you want to avoid" This. I vividly remember when some problems got completely out of hand and my life turned downhill, this is exactly what it felt like. On shitty days, I tell myself, 'well, at least it wasn't as bad as that '

I had an epiphany today that the biggest solution to this problem and other feelings of "shittiness" is to just tackle it with nonjudgmental awareness, breaking the problem down and analyzing exactly what parts of it are making me feel that way. It's then easier to reframe and put the smaller parts into perspective than it is to deal with one blob of stress, which is an illusion anyway.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#7

Post by RegEx »

przemoc wrote: post #4

I've read some blog posts about procrastination, but this one I think really hits the mark. Good read! "You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing…

I associate my performance in everything with my own value as a person, to an absurd extent. If I'm playing a multiplayer game such as Starcraft or Street Fighter and I make a mistake, I can't help but think "Wow, I'm really stupid". It's silly, but I can't help it. You can imagine how I feel in regards to things that actually matter.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#8

Post by Swizec »

"You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything."

I disagree.

My reasons for procrastination go like this:

1. I don't know yet how to tackle the problem. (and I munge on it in the back of my mind while procrastinating)

2. I am tired, but don't want to admit it. (and procrastination is faux rest)

3. I'm pushing off committing to doing X because finally jumping in is scary. (it closes options to doing something else and humans would rather do nothing and have many options than do something and have no options)

4. X just isn't that important to me right now. (it's much easier to clean the kitchen before cooking, than randomly in the middle of the day)

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#9

Post by RegEx »

Swizec wrote: post #8

"You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything." I disagree. My reasons for pr…

Those all sound like some form of fear to me. 1 sounds like fear of incompetence: You don't know how to solve the problem, but that's just because "you aren't really thinking about it", so you protect yourself from the idea that you might actually be clueless. #2 happens to me a lot, and it's being afraid that resting/sleeping will prevent you from getting work done (which may be true, but if a nap is going to make things late, it's already too late)
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