31–40 of 64 posts
Suck it up. Stop reading blogs, stop reading HN, stop making excuses. Start working. There are no tips that will break you out of it - just self discipline. I was you once. GTD by David Allen helped. Going to the gym daily with my brother (who is a gym rat) helped, but I finally realized that I had everything in the world that people are dieing to get and I was squandering that gift by wasting my time. Procrastinatin…
Paul Allen founded Microsoft
Full of practical advice. In the same vein, it's good to read all e-mails / blogs after lunch. Keeping IM, Twitter off till that also helps.
In a nutshell, the mind, like money, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master! Hope this helps.
Suck it up. Stop reading blogs, stop reading HN, stop making excuses. Start working. There are no tips that will break you out of it - just self discipline. I was you once. GTD by David Allen helped. Going to the gym daily with my brother (who is a gym rat) helped, but I finally realized that I had everything in the world that people are dieing to get and I was squandering that gift by wasting my time. Procrastinatin…
David Allen... Paul Allen founded Microsoft
Instead of aiming to do 1 thing and failing to do it, aim to do 20 things and accept that 5 of them will slip. Do that and basically shift to whatever you feel like doing at the time (with the only caveat that it should be relatively productive stuff - ie. not "play WoW", more like "write a blog post" or "design a new homepage"). You probably will still get stuff done just before the deadline when it has a hard deadl…
Funny, that's exactly the opposite of what I would suggest: Work on only the most important thing and nothing else. It's helped me maintain focus no matter how crazy things get. pg says it much better here: http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html "What's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?" Just goes to show you: Ask 2 hackers a question and get 3 answers. You'll just have to figure out…
I would add one more category of procrastination: doing something when the time is right. It's an idea I borrowed from "Zen and the Art of Archery" where the author was struggling with how to know the right moment to shoot so that his arrow will have the right trajectory. His instructor told him that "it" will shoot when the time is right (what I've written doesn't do justice to the lesson I learned in this simple example - so I highly recommend reading this ~96 page book).
Many might translate this behavior to doing it whenever I feel like doing it (or procrastinating), but most of these downtimes are spent thinking or designing in my head what needs to be done. It would seem that "it" has a life of its own in my mind and perhaps at the right moment, I am compelled by something do get "it" done. I must say that this is merely a model (that works well for me) about transforming procrastination from a negative to a positive.
I suppose my answer to the original posting would be that if I feel like I'm "type-C" procrastinating, then this can be remedied by thinking about the more important tasks that need to be done. Usually when the thought gets translated into action, the results are much better than if I forced myself to take action without properly preparing myself mentally.
When you have to work, disconnect your Ethernet cable.
It could be a chemical imbalance, have you looked into adderall for ADHD? I know it sounds weird, and nobody wants to think of themselves as having any type of disorder as if their a defective piece of software, but seriously talk to a doctor and be sure.
- Plan out your daily deadlines the day before and stick with it.
- Do NOT extend a deadline. If you go over a deadline, stop the activity and move on to the next one on the schedule. This will condition you to prioritize more effectively next time. (e.g. Knowing that you only have two hours to code something really boost up your code productivity.)
I'd say that your issue doesn't need a organizational solution, it's a deeper question. I go by "when why gets bigger, how gets easier". I would suggest sitting down and writing out 100 (or however many) reasons for what you are trying to accomplish. As you have those done, your motivation will grow and get you past the little distractions. The more reasons you have for accomplishing your goals, the easier it will be…
That's also been my experience. There is a really good book that can help you get a handle on why precisely you procrastinate: "Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It" by Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen. It was published in 1983, but I still haven't seen a better one on the psychology of why people procrastinate. EDIT: The problem is big and complex enough to need a book to cover it. Blog posts and magazine a…
1) The market for the idea
2) Feasibility
I wouldn't advise against reading, the more knowledge you acquire should result in a more sound understanding of the current situation around you.