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Procrastination is Not Laziness

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Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#171

Post by bjeanes »

calhoun137 wrote: post #79
bjeanes wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, that's not procrastination. That's just guilt-free play. The key is that you are still getting things done that you need/want to do. You're just aware of when you need a break and are comfortable letting yourself do so. That's not the procrastination that the OP is talking about...

You have a very valid point, and even though I call it procrastinating it's not the same. However, I am all too familiar with the procrastinating of the type described by the OP, as I have experienced it myself quite severely. I suppose the reason I made my comment is one day I realized that it was actually a positive thing to "procrastinate" for a non-trivial amount of time before I even start working; as long as I…

Thats awesome. I'm reading the Now Habit at the moment (mentioned by the OP) and that seems to be one of the main points. "Guilt-free play" is about doing the things you WANT to do when you want to do them, so you can focus on important stuff later. Guilt is a huge part...

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#173

Post by j-kidd »

jmj42 wrote: post #13
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…

I disagree as well. My reasons for procrastination tend to fall around artificially creating a high stress situation. You see, I perform very well (very high productivity) under stress, to the extent that high performance may actually be a stress coping mechanism for stress. I certainly do not procrastinate because I'm lazy, or have poor work ethic, or even risk averse. You can ask my family about that one. None of t…

It is easy to feel overachieved when the deadline is tight. What we fear is to under-perform when given ample resources, when "it's on".

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#174

Post by merusame »

limmeau wrote: post #92
okamiueru wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

O_o Is this a bot in development? Comment history is awfully strange, always linking to http://news.ycombinator.com , suggesting it is a placeholder for later links. ... Maybe I just need my morning coffee... or internetdude313 is high as a kite, with a crush on lisp.

Perhaps botnet C&C?

skynet!

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#175

Post by Uncompetative »

Uncompetative wrote: post #170
calhoun137 wrote: post #68

I have a very different take than this author, and apparently many of the people in this thread. I absolutely love to procrastinate and it's very important to me. Actually I am procrastinating by writing this comment right now. Allow me to explain: When I program, or do math, it's very important to me to have a clear head; and I take procrastinating very seriously because I know if I don't do certain things then I wi…

I think that you make a very important point about discontinuity. It made me think about how I could reduce the inertia of refamiliarization when I resume editing some program after some interruption. I find that I can concentrate for about four hours before my ability to maintain a mental model of the salient aspects of whatever subsystem I am modifying break down and I start to make unconscious mistakes that I fail…

I also welcome anyone's anonymous cowardly downvotes

;-)

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#176

Post by taproot »

Felix21 wrote: post #155
calhoun137 wrote: post #68

I have a very different take than this author, and apparently many of the people in this thread. I absolutely love to procrastinate and it's very important to me. Actually I am procrastinating by writing this comment right now. Allow me to explain: When I program, or do math, it's very important to me to have a clear head; and I take procrastinating very seriously because I know if I don't do certain things then I wi…

I'm not sure you have experienced the kind of procrastination the op speaks about. You have a to-do list of 5 items for today and then a week later(with up to 11 hours of busy-work everyday), you're on item number 3. This kind of procrastination is a sickness and has causes a lot of emotional distress. You're reading hacker news(or even working on a less important project) full of guilt and indescribable negative fee…

I have bouts of getting out of this cycle, but always seem to return, how did you get out?

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#177

Post by spoiler »

neltnerb wrote: post #142
eksith wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So I've found that exactly one thing helps me focus on work -- boredom. I am definitely not OCD, but I still find that I can't just work on something at any time for any length of time. I have to be in the right mood. I'd also add that procrastination and perfectionism is something I've seen a lot of, and which has always struck me as particularly insidious. I managed to finish my PhD by 26, but the reason is because…

I've had friends (...) wanted it to be perfect. And since "perfect" was unattainable they spent all their time playing video games instead.

I feel naked in front of that statement. :(

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#178

Post by Felix21 »

taproot wrote: post #176
Felix21 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure you have experienced the kind of procrastination the op speaks about. You have a to-do list of 5 items for today and then a week later(with up to 11 hours of busy-work everyday), you're on item number 3. This kind of procrastination is a sickness and has causes a lot of emotional distress. You're reading hacker news(or even working on a less important project) full of guilt and indescribable negative fee…

I have bouts of getting out of this cycle, but always seem to return, how did you get out?

When i got into this cycle i was in a desperate place.

I got out of my first startup because "Chinese importers" had driven prices down so much that I couldn't turn a decent profit.

A few weeks later, i got in touch with my manufacturer about a new product for the iPhone 5 and as they were in the process of manufacturing my new product, i listed it on amazon for pre-orders.

I was selling about 10 pieces an hour and had a few thousand pounds in my account after about 5-days, enough to cover my manufacturing costs.

Then amazon reached out that my account had been blocked because it was somehow related to another account they have previously blocked and i cant continue to sell with them or open another account.

They froze my funds and cancelled my account, so i had to refund all those pre-orders and at the time amazon was 99.9 percent of my sales(big mistake)

After that disappointment, i was a bit depressed and decided to leave that business and come into web startups.

I started learning how to code and while i do enjoy coding, its not something i really want to do as much as something i felt (at least at that time) that i had to do. I think it was this mental block + the mild(not clinical)depression that caused me to continue to procrastinate this way.

I was like this for i think about 6 months.. it was bad.

Along with a complete lifestyle optimization (i went in hard on reorganizing my life to be efficient), the big change came when i started working on another promising project - i now had something to look forward to and a hope to hold on-to and i think that's what really made the difference and got me "productive" again.

I can send you details about my lifestyle optimization if you are interested.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#179

Post by Dan_Nguyen »

danenania wrote: post #115
Miserlou57 wrote: post #97

I'm reaching out here because I really need some advice. This is a great thread, but I think it only semi-applies to me. I am 24 years old, and I seriously struggle with motivation to do... just about anything. I have a midterm tomorrow in Dynamics (a mech engr course), and I have pretty much neglected the class entirely, and I am most certainly going to fail it, and I'll have to withdraw. This isn't surprising, beca…

For me, the essence of it was to stop trying to please other people, stop trying to fit into some sort of mold, stop thinking of myself as being on or off some mythical 'track'. The only track is your own life, and what makes you happy and lets you survive. Everything else is pointless, just a bunch of noise. When you give up that way of thinking, life becomes so much simpler and less stressful. There's nothing you'r…

I know I'm a little late on replying, but I just wanted to say thank you for your comment. This entire post was something I needed to hear.
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