41–50 of 64 posts
The term therapy here might seem a bit off-putting, but the approach of being a mindful observer of ones thoughts, accepting them and then taking action in accordance with your values seems like it might be of help in getting you over the inertia you are dealing with.
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…
Both sites, among others, are now banned via my /etc/hosts file - this is a very good technique I find. It's not permanent, but having to sudo to get to it puts in a conscience filter.
HN is now the only aggregator I follow regularly, and even then I've become more disciplined about how much time I spend on here.
Become more conscious about what you're doing. When you find yourself idling surfing Wikipedia or whatever, catch yourself and ask yourself if there's something else you ought to be doing right now. Catch yourself enough and you will be surprised at how much more productive you become.
When you have to work, disconnect your Ethernet cable.
For many, that's not an option. My work requires Internet access.
1) Getting Things Done by David Allen gives you a system that works for keeping track of things and choosing what to work on when.
2) The Now Habit by Neil Fiore teaches you how to get rid of some stupid things we do and think that keeps us procrastinating.
3) Tribes by Seth Godin inspires you to go out and do great deeds, big and small.
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…
Instead, I noticed that almost all instances of my procrastination fit into three categories:
1.) I was trying to do something too ambitious, which I didn't have the skill level for, and so I couldn't complete it, yet wasn't able to admit that to myself.
2.) I was trying to bite off too big a chunk at once, so I'd get confused and wouldn't know where to start.
3.) The task is really boring and takes no real skill to complete, so I just wouldn't bother.
#1 is fixed by backing up and doing something easier - and oftentimes the "something easier" ends up being far more useful than the original task. For example, I spent like 3 years on FictionAlley.org (a PHP/MySQL rewrite of a website that had previously been 40,000 hand-written HTML pages), vs. a week on Scrutiny (Amherst's course-evaluation system). Once I'd done Scrutiny, though, FictionAlley was quite a bit easier for the practice.
#2 is tricky until you get some practice in breaking things down, but then it becomes quite manageable. For example, I was starting a new project for work this morning, one of those unsolicited I'll-build-it-and-then-show-my-manager things. Spent a half hour or so doing nothing but checking HN, then I created a git repository and figured "Hey, I can create a Django app. That's no problem." Then I figured "Hey, I create a basic HTML page with just the app's name on it. That's no problem." Then I figured "Hey, I can wire it up with django.views.generic.simple.direct_to_template", and suddenly I've got working code that just needs to be refined. The rest should be smooth sailing.
#3 is best solved with habits and routines, so that it really does become thoughtless. For example, I think paying bills and opening mail is about the most boring thing ever, so I always do it Saturday morning before going to the supermarket. It gets done, and since it's always at the same time of week I usually don't have to think about it. Same with responding to e-mail - usually, I make sure to respond immediately after reading or else not respond at all.
The smoke and mirrors can be quite useful. It works for me, at least.
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…
I've found this never worked for me. By attacking the problem head on, I made it more of a big deal than it already was, which just made it more stressful and unpleasant, which made me less inclined to do it. Instead, I noticed that almost all instances of my procrastination fit into three categories: 1.) I was trying to do something too ambitious, which I didn't have the skill level for, and so I couldn't complete i…
I suspect I'm note alone. Thanks for your post.
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…
I've found this never worked for me. By attacking the problem head on, I made it more of a big deal than it already was, which just made it more stressful and unpleasant, which made me less inclined to do it. Instead, I noticed that almost all instances of my procrastination fit into three categories: 1.) I was trying to do something too ambitious, which I didn't have the skill level for, and so I couldn't complete i…
E.g.
http://zenhabits.net/2007/07/how-to-actually-execute-your-to...
I hope you would find the following links useful at least in some ways. PG's Brilliant Essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=zs61txc4kwr4kd1q1rj... Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=procrastinating-again Letter to a Young Procrastinator: http://www.slate.com/id/2190918/…
From pg's essay: One reason is that you may not get any reward in the forseeable future. I find it helps to spend some time laying out a plan of attack that will yield results along the way - like an adventurer laying out a route with ports/oases/base-camps for reprovisioning - and ruthlessly cutting out nice-to-have features that don't contribute (while keeping some nice-to-have features that do contribute). A side-…
It's extremely difficult to sit down and write when I can easily make a living with what I can already do. However, writing is what I've always wanted to do and when I first committed I knew I was not going to get paid for it for a long time. I believe it's been about 7 years now, and I finally know it's time to finish the job.
Right now, the reward for my current actions is likely to pay off in maybe 2-3 years. There's always the chance I could make a tasty advance, however this is highly unusual. The first book usually doesn't matter anyway, it won't be until my third that I get a true pay-off.
I believe you have to have incredible determination, planning skills (so you do feel somewhat rewarded, I do this by printing out a chapter as soon as it's complete to give to my wife to read). It's very hard to do, however it helps a lot that I find doing it incredibly enjoyable. When you wake up dreaming from a different world, it's quite an amazing feeling.
I also don't believe that sitting at a computer screen is work. My brother is an excellent programmer and from what I can perceive is that his processes are entirely the same as mine. In fact, I learnt a few tricks from him. Ideas and solutions usually appear when your mind is relaxed, simply piling on the pressure by stressing out isn't likely to help.
However, if you don't have the motivation to start a project, I wouldn't necessarily call it procrastination. It's quite possibly it could be atychiphobia (Fear of Failure), as not starting a project is entirely different from losing your way during it as the start of a project is usually immense fun, until the real work kicks in.
If anyone has a fear of failure, I don't believe I know how to help with that. I have no real fear of failure, I jump into everything from the deep end. I've lost a large number of projects along the way to attrition, all are failures but a failure teaches you and I have learnt a great deal. The first time I'd ever hit a golf ball was when I went out with my future father-in-law who had no clue I didn't play golf. I've found that sheer confidence can usually make up for nearly all lacking. So to anyone with a fear of failure, I'd say fail on purpose because after that it can only get better.