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

Frame control; e.g., using and abusing language to empower oneself (or one's group or communities) and disempower outsiders in the pretext of giving advice.

Well, although that rule could be useful, it is not part of the technique.

For proof, read the official description on Pomodoro, e.g. on http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/download/pdf/ThePomodoroTec.... You'll see (page 6-7) that after a first 'Pomodoro' (unit of time) work on the same task can continue into a second or third pomodoro.

One thing that worked for me was to give up illusions about the quick fix. You won't kill procrastination tomorrow or anytime in the future, you can only develop habits that will be harder to break after some time. I like to see myself as an abstinent - it can come back anytime and therefore I stick to my routines and avoid any situations leading to procrastination. It's a life long process in my eyes and only consistence leads to change.

What helped me was to develop a morning routine - I started with making my bed. Every day. I know myself - if I leave out one day I will leave out second day too and eventually fail. After a while I added cold shower, 2 glasses of water, workout, 5 min meditation and a healthy breakfast - to cut it short I have been working out every morning for last 6 months, not missing a single day.

I created an excel sheet where I track if I miss the routine or not, the time I spend working and the time I spend studying something. I have it done for 9 weeks all on one paper - it works better that having a daily to do list because you can see your progress and how you've been doing so far, unlike with daily to-do where you can quickly forget you wasted last monday. ( I have it printed out - and I put it on a visible place. It works better, because once I turn on the notebook I get distracted about wanting to check my email and what to do next. I keep this stuff strictly offline )

After 9 weeks I sum it up and take a week off. Over the last year my net working hours have increased 500% and so has my income.

Another thing that helped was to change environment, clean up stuff, email, desktop the room, throw things out. I have put a K9 on my pc blocking porn, youtube, facebook, quora and every medium where I can read something about politics. I threw out the password and blocked even the email provider I have my backup email on. Sounds ridiculous right. Well I feel liberated, I just don't have to fight with the temptation anymore and it saves a lot of energy. And most importantly I actually do what I love doing every day. My life is much better since then. It also forced me to spend my time more meaningfully.

Also note that I tried many things before and most have failed. This is what eventually worked for me as an individual ( yes my procrastination was that bad, I had to get that radical ) I remember feeling so hopeless I actually thought I won't change ever in my life, that I am doomed to be lazy. Well anyway I still have to remind myself I am a step from falling back and I still work on the improvement.

Sounds very familiar. You've trained your whole life for working slightly hard for short periods of time and getting enough done to keep up. The only way I've seen to fight that is to do things that can't be mastered quickly: chess, playing music, sports, etc.

There are also certain lines of work that would work better. You're probably never going to fit into a software developer role if you're expected to spend 1-3 week sprints delivering chunks of functioning code. You would probably excel at a top-tier customer support role where you dug into hard problems and diagnosed other people's code.

One thing that's helped me is to keep a very visual record of progress and become a widget-cranking machine. Break everything into discrete tasks that are either done or not done and put them on PostIts or index cards and plaster them all over the wall where you can see them. Mark up the completed ones and keep them around and visible.

Another thing that helps me a lot is to get away from electronics. When I have a document I need to review, I print it and go somewhere without my laptop or even my phone. I'll also pull out a Moleskine or even some printer paper and go somewhere electronic-free to try to dump all of the things I'm thinking about. Sometimes I'll even write out a bit of a journal entry just to clear the junk from my head.

You could listen to Merlin Mann's podcasts and read his writings, but he's got the same problem with no real solution. Some of his talks with David Allen (Getting Things Done) and his 'To Have Done' talk helped me a bit: http://www.43folders.com/2005/10/16/43f-podcast-the-to-have-...

You could find a way to move into working for yourself and build product, not service, business. Then nobody except you will notice or care if you work 3 days a month.