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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?

#211

Post by procastatron »

jeandlr wrote: post #171

Find something you're passionate about in which you'll put all your energy and talent! Start you own venture. And when it starts being difficult or boring, remember you can't fake it then, because it will drive you to either success or failure. And find damn good mentors ASAP. I assume you don't have any valuable ones otherwise you wont be asking HN.

Truth. I find myself doing a lot more mentoring than menteeing. I haven't found very many older smarter people in my community. That said, I'm way behind a lot of you guys on HN in terms of knowledge. I wish more of you super smart programmer guys lived in my immediate community

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

#212

Post by Oculus »

netcan wrote: post #170

Me too. Paraphrasing pg, going in to work and wasting 90% of your time is like getting uncontrollably drunk at lunch. It's very bad habit/behavior/addiction. So first of all, take it seriously. Here's some things that work/have worked for me, in no particular order. They all interact and work best in bunches. None have cured me. All have helped. 1. meditation - many meditation practices develop your ability to preven…

+1 For being able to admit the 'hippy dippy bullshit'. Sometimes that stuff works best, even thought we hate to say so.

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

#213

Post by procastatron »

mozboz wrote: post #153
artagnon wrote: post #134

I'll give you a no BS version. Don't delude yourself into thinking that you're "talented" or "gifted". You're a product of your history: if you spent a significant portion of your life playing DOTA, you're a DOTA-head. In your case, you seem to have spent it trying to get people to view you in favorable light. It's as simple as that. You're missing the big picture: if you spend 3 hours writing code, and 8 hours playi…

Absolutely agree with this. You're exhibiting the behaviour of someone in a deep conflict because you're not doing what you really want to do, but cultural and societal norms are forcing you to play out this role, and you're getting enough rewards from it (monetary and psychological) to keep you in this stasis of inaction. There is no quick solution, as you can see from your father who has probably battled with the s…

I think I've had this with everything though. Even things I really enjoy I find myself procrastinating about

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

#215

Post by devalhubert »

This helped me hugely - procrastination is a symptom of an over-achiever who is afraid to fail, because they rarely have.

Start from halfway down on 'The Real Causes of Procrastination'.

Welcome to the club: http://www.raptitude.com/2011/05/procrastination-is-not-lazi...

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

#216

Post by procastatron »

danenania wrote: post #214

My suggestion is to shift as soon as you can into freelancing and consulting, find interesting projects, work when you feel like working, and stop feeling guilty.

I ran a freelancing company for about 2 years. I did a really shitty job managing clients and would often just ignore their calls. In fact, I'd feel better right away when I ignored them completely. It would just bite my ass in the long run.

I ended up being fairly successful from it as even though I was horrible at communication, I worked on an hourly basis instead of milestones and was able to at least deliver something substantial to the client.

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

#217

Post by procastatron »

danenania wrote: post #202
Millennium wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another thing to consider: if he's putting so little time at work actually doing work, odds are his employers will not be so keen on continuing to pay him that much money. "Just being who he is" is not an excuse they will accept, nor, really, should they. That's the ruthlessly-pragmatic reason to not "accept this side of who he is": nobody else is going to, especially not the people who pay him.

It depends. A gifted and creative programmer may be able to accomplish in 3 hours what takes an average programmer 10, or by coming up with a creative approach to a problem, may be able to accomplish in 3 hours what an average programmer simply cannot do at all. So while a manager may dislike that they perceive someone to be slacking off, it doesn't necessarily mean the person isn't providing a lot of value to the co…

But at the same time, it seems unless there's a physiological difference in people like me, we should be able to condition ourselves into working more.

What I'm doing with my extra time is not productive by any measure and although it makes me really good at producing random facts at dinner parties....I can't see much else gained by the time I waste.

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

#218

Post by TheZenPsycho »

procastatron wrote: post #196
danso wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're projecting. The OP does not merely desire to work harder at his job, but at better using his gifts to help change the world and better himself in non-professional ways. I agree he's too young to be fretting about this like a mid-life crisis...but nothing wrong with desiring to move faster while young. It takes some foresight to realize that it's easier to change bad habits (and learn new good ones) at a young…

This is my biggest fear. Having the same problems now at 40. I look at my dad and as much as I swore I'd never let myself have his same work ethic (push hard, than go at 1/4 pace for 90% of the time). Reality is that I'm worse than I've ever seen him right now. I can go for a few days without doing a single git commit. I have a team under me that makes it look to my superiors as if shit is getting done. And when I ne…

ALSO, stop worrying so much about code and have more sex.

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

#219

Post by procastatron »

fusiongyro wrote: post #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…

I usually am at the office for 80+ hours a week. It could be burn out, but even when I reduce down to 40 hours I basically cut everything I accomplish in half. Somehow my brain realizes what I'm doing and I procrastinate just as much.

I have realized some other effects from burnout, but I think this procrastination issue is something different entirely

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

#220

Post by procastatron »

ww520 wrote: post #24
kstenerud wrote: post #7

I had the same problem. The standard school program was easy enough to just coast through, as were my first few jobs. At one point I was working on Monday and goofing off the rest of the week. What changed it? Probably some of it was age. Your outlook on life and what's important changes as you get older. I spent a fair bit of time talking to people 10, 20, 30, and 40 years older than me, and while I usually didn't a…

What were some of the stuff people 10, 20, 30, and 40 years older said? It would be really interesting to see what the elder wisdom are.

Yes, I'm curious too
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