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Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#51
> I know that I've been given a gift and that I'm a fucking idiot for wasting it, but I've just become a chronic procrastinator and it sucks.

As someone in a rather similar position (my life has been fucked up in so many ways from procrastination), one tip I can give you is to get rid of this mindset.

I feel horrible whenever I waste lots of time, looking back on how I spent my day, thinking "what the hell is wrong with me?" But the thing is, that attitude feeds much of the procrastination. I am an odd mix of being a total perfectionist, and really lazy, so it turns out that whenever I'm faced with a task that I don't really want to do, I'm quite adept at rationalizing ways to avoid doing the task. I think about possible roadblocks, or pretty much anything that would keep me from attaining my sought-ought perfection, and knowing that I'll have the same strong negative reaction later on that I always do, I just won't do it.

If you beat yourself up over procrastination, you're just subconsciously teaching yourself to not even think about whether you're procrastinating or not. Whenever you try and shift from unproductive tasks to work, it's much easier to just stay with the short-term dopamine kick of reading the internet or whatever, rather than dealing with harder decisions about what you need to do in the long term to be happy. Yes, this is backwards. Your subconscious is not very rational...

So, from my point of view, just do everything you can to recondition yourself to not hate working, and to not hate procrastination either. Just try to feel the bit of fulfillment you can get from writing code or whatever, basically just getting your shit done. Have patience with yourself, infinite patience, and know that it takes lots of work to get where you want to be, but it's worth it. You're the only one that can do this.

BTW, if you're like me, a perfectionist to the core, consider that this comes from a deep-seated insecurity, a part of your brain that tells you that you'll never be good enough. At least, that's the way it is for me, and it's been that way since my childhood, as far back as I can remember. On this front, I'd just try to evaluate your emotional well-being in the most balanced and unattached way possible. Get help if you feel like it. As others have mentioned, meditation can be amazingly helpful here, and exercise too. Unfortunately, they're both quite prone to being procrastinated on.

Good luck...

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#52
Your work seems to think that they're getting more than $130K of value for the $130K they pay you. Why does it matter if it takes you 3 hours to do that and not 8? Of course your employer would like you to believe you're defrauding them because they'd rather get $260K of value out of you instead of, say, $150K, but if you're not fired over it, the arrangement is working for them. Every employer in this country would like their employees to feel as guilty as you do, but you're not pulling a lever to make sprockets. The relationship between your time and your value to the company is not directly proportional to pressing keys in your editor. Our field is swamped with bad programmers that spend all day making codebases worse. Some days when I'm not productive, I have to remind myself that at least nothing got worse. The guy I replaced, most days when he did any work at all, things got worse as a result. So if I fail to accomplish anything, it's still better than an accomplishment from someone who shouldn't have been doing this job but inexplicably was (and got away with it for a year before being fired for reasons unrelated to performance!).

By the way, 8 + 3 = 11 hours of work a day. Is it possible you're simply burned out? I know you're 21 and probably don't feel like it can happen, but it can.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#53
post #3

What you're describing sounds like a highly intelligent person with ADHD-PI, aka ADD. There are lots of techniques out there that can help, and medication can sometimes be effective. Do some research online and talk to your doctor. There are also people who specialize in helping / coaching people with ADD and similar memory / attention deficits.

ADHD is NOT add .. big difference and distinction to be aware of.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#54

> I make $130k as a 21 year old and I probably put in 3 hours of real work a day. do you really think your subconscious is capable of changing when this is the scenario it is presented with? you say you're "pretty smart", i would say "you're just smart enough to get away with it." start a company. force yourself into uncomfortable situations.

start a company®. the solution to everything.

seriously? it's that simple? everything will come together, the hopelessly entangled knots will suddenly loosen and free themselves? start a company?? what?!

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#55
Are you sure you are a procrastinator? Chances are you are NOT.

I was also a long time procrastinator (at least I believed) till I came across this article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/opinion/sunday/why-smokers... which is changing me (its only a week now)

As I said, you might not be a procrastinator, you may very well be a victim of seeking short time pleasure at the cost of long term benefits.

Your impulse to read online, game for whatever time wasting activity might be giving you the short term kick/relief and keep doing them will cause the task (which you think you OUGHT to do) to postpone later (or better, you are not finding time to do them).

Read the article and think it through and reflect.

If you realize the actual problem, it is easy to break.

I'm doing it now. Its getting better, I can vouch.

Thanks A friend.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#57
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your mindset might be a bit different than mine. Or at least my current one. I have a ton of really challenging, awesome stuff to do. I just have been conditioned to hate "work". I feel insanely good when I'm procrastinating but get hit with an awful few hours later. Whenever I put a shit ton on my plate, I do 0 of it. I know I should be able to get it all done but the thought of "work" prevents me. I consume…

[deleted]

Feynman considered working out those equations for those complex physical things "fun". He must have been an extraordinarily talented thinker because that sounds like work to me. What's fun to me? Swimming. I enjoyed working on my last project at work, but it wasn't "fun"; I had to constantly force myself to get started and keep up the momentum each day. My mind is infested with so many little demons. For some reason, lately anything that requires effort shuts down the reward centers of my brain.

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#58
If you didn't have to worry about money, how close is what work pays you to do to what you actually would be doing? I find it's a lot easier to get work done on something I'm excited about, and a lot easier to keep working on something once the initial excitement is gone if it's something I give a damn about.

You say you could be changing the world. Is there a way you actually would LIKE to be changing the world? What can you do to actually work towards this change, in your day job or in your off hours?

Re: Ask HN: I'm a chronic procrastinator – how do I break it?

#60
post #3

What you're describing sounds like a highly intelligent person with ADHD-PI, aka ADD. There are lots of techniques out there that can help, and medication can sometimes be effective. Do some research online and talk to your doctor. There are also people who specialize in helping / coaching people with ADD and similar memory / attention deficits.

I don't know if I'm highly intelligent. I'd like to think so but I also feel like I'm really good at cheating the system. I can learn the basics of stuff really fast and then bullshit through while I slowly pick up more advanced things. I've tried adderall but it almost became a game to see if I could beat it. I would procrastinate even more than normal. Sometimes just stating at a wall for hours at a time

Hmm, try just an NRI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine_reuptake_inhibit...) - it may help you focus and give you energy without getting stuck or obsess over things (i.e. without the dopaminergic effect).
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