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Procrastination is Not Laziness

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31–40 of 180 posts

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#31

Interesting theory but I'm not sure it's the whole picture. Personally, while I definitely identify with the "fear of failure" personality trait, I find my procrastination is down to two things: depleted willpower and inertia. To help with willpower, I try to keep my home environment as tidy and organized as possible (which doesn't come naturally). There's not too much I can do about my dayjob other than minimize my…

Thank you for this.

"Start... then continue."

It's something that I needed to read and really let it sink in to get my ass into gear. Really appreciate it.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#32

Also worth reading on the same topic and written by the philosopher/logician John Perry: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

This essay always resonated with me. Incidentally, John Perry won an Ig Nobel for this essay! [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perry_(philosopher)

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#33
I read a book in 2006 called Mindset, by Carol Dweck, a Stanford Psychologist. I could see how having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset might help in this case of life-long procrastination. Just a thought. I'm curious if others on HN have read the book and think it would be helpful. There is a website associated with the book that might also have some useful information: http://mindsetonline.com/

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#34
This is perfectly timed for me, having spent the last two days procrastinating (yesterday, by staring at someone else's code but not really reading it and today by running errands). It feels like the opportunity to be brilliant can so easily slip away until my deadlines have passed and I'm out of time.

The last 2.5 months for me have been nothing but struggling to figure out something that I barely understand. Something that seems to come pretty easily to a number of people I associate with, so it's difficult to retain perspective. To wit, that they've been doing this stuff a lot longer than I have, and that at least I can get some of it (and will someday probably get more of it).

So this rings pretty true for me, as I had just gotten a thing I'd been working on for what seemed like forever to (mostly) function, now it has to be expanded to handle this other thing that I know pretty much nothing about. It seems like either there are far better people who could be doing this than me, or maybe my belief that if I keep smashing my forehead against the spec, it will gain entry to my brain.

So far, starting out on my own with the idea that I could make a product has been lonely and isolating. This work is damned hard. If I fail, I won't be in a bad place, but it's still overwhelming me. My respect for certain people who have the temerity to do this (and I think you all know who I mean) has grown considerably. But don't tell him I said that, because I still need him to take the garbage out from time to time.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#35
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 '

On a smaller scale, I often observe a general feeling of uneasiness without knowing why, and can usually trace it back to something I was thinking about in the most recent 10-20 minutes.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#36
If you have persistent, severe problems with procrastination, willpower, and organization, don't rule out the possibility of an attention disorder. Smart people can often scrape by -- but proper diagnosis and management could dramatically help and improve your life.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#37
post #29

From the blog post: "Almost every Sunday night I mourn another blown opportunity to catch up" The author may also want to consider removing the notion of "caught up" from his vocabulary. Although it's not covered in the Now Habit, it's discussed in other respected books on procrastination and time management. I used to beat myself up a lot with the idea that there was a (poorly defined) state of having gotten "caught…

I'd like to give this a try. Any tips for removing that feeling?

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#39
This is interesting to me from the perspective of being a parent and having high expectations for my children. I think that as a parent it's important to have high expectations, but that there's a tricky line to walk regarding what kind of high expectations to have. I grew up under the expectation of acing everything, and as a result I do feel a lot of what he talks about in the post. However, I'm trying to raise my children with a focus on persistence and confidence even in the face of the unknown. To that end, I'm always trying to find things for them to do that are a bit beyond their ability, but that they can solve with some work.

I've found that it's hard to break the habit of seeing "good" as synonymous with "right the first time" though, even when I know what the result of that attitude has been for me. I'm hoping that I can help my kids by focusing on the idea of learning from failure and improving by working hard, rather than trying to avoid failure. Any other parents out there working on this problem?

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#40
post #23

Let me second the OP and recommend Neil Fiore's book "The Now Habit". There are lots of good strategies in that book, such as: The Unschedule * a weekly calendar of committed recreational activities and breaks, meals, etc * productive periods of work are recorded after they are accomplished * encourages starting earlier on projects once you see how much time is already committed * 30 minute chunks of productive work…

Thank you for this. It's easy to think you'll have something similar in your head, but actually seeing it makes it harder to ignore.

My procastination is usually due to a stupid case of OCD. I say it's stupid, because I can see how blatantly counter-productive it is... and yet, it's still there.

I keep my OCD down to "mild" levels by purposely flinging my socks as soon as I come home. This, in a way, breaks the cycle of "can't get down to do this because everything isn't perfectly clean". Ordinarily, something becomes a source of discontent that keeps me from getting things done and the best way (that works for me, YMMV) is a hot shower after a bit of excercise, LOTS of coffee followed by soothing music. "Soothing" in my context is usually Testament or Slayer, but you get the idea.

I also make it harder on myself to get distracted by turning off the ringer on my phone or taking out the battery to make Twitter et al. harder to get to (I don't remember my Twitter password, so I'd have to go into my "mega-list-of-all-passwords" text file which is PGP encrypted).

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