Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
1–10 of 115 posts
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#2Interesting concept. Once I worked with a really talented/accomplished designer and he said something that's stuck, with me while we were working at something that felt like it could go on interminably: "What would I do if I had to finish this today?"
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#3Recommending some resource on procrastination usually leads to more procrastination (reading said resource but doing nothing :P) but at the risk of causing that I can highly recommend the book "Switch!"
The authors use the metaphor of an elephant and a rider and at least for me I usually motivated the rider but the elephant wasn't trotting along. I suspect the OP is not looking for "constant reminders" etc. but rather for some peanuts to feed his inner elephant :)
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#4I think such prompts would only work for a short while and thereafter they'd just serve the purpose of making me feel miserable.
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#5Interesting concept. Once I worked with a really talented/accomplished designer and he said something that's stuck, with me while we were working at something that felt like it could go on interminably: "What would I do if I had to finish this today?"
[deleted]
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#6I have found all of my procrastination to stem from lacking a certain degree of knowledge of how to perform the task that I'm procrastinating. When I don't know how to do something or I don't know how long it will take, then I don't know where it fits into my schedule, so I never fit it into my schedule. Most of the time, I grossly over estimate how long something will take, i.e. "all day" when it's probably only a 15 minute issue.
Of course, there is the opposite issue of grossly underestimating the problem. I've had "close old checking account" on my todo list for well over a two months now. I thought it would take 15 minutes to just call them, maybe scan a signature or something, and be done. They actually want me to come into the office, which is over 3 hours away (hence this issue of wanting to close the account). It is experiences like that that help to keep the gross-overestimation/procrastination game in business.
How do I fix it? I choose a day where I decide I will be fine if the only thing I get done is I find out how long it will take to get one thing done. Usually it's not that bad, though. I usually end up getting a whole slew of things done. But being OK with not getting anything officially done for a day helps me to kill the procrastination cycle.
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#7Yesterday, I happened to come across a particularly inspiring reddit post about about determination and drive. Objectively it's rather silly, but I left that window open anfd got to work.
No less than five times that day, I switched over to my time-wasting site 'work'space to procrastinate, saw the post, and decided to keep working instead.
I got a lot more done yesterday than I had planned on. I think that there's definitely something real here.
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#8Yesterday, I happened to come across a particularly inspiring reddit post about about determination and drive. Objectively it's rather silly, but I left that window open anfd got to work. No less than five times that day, I switched over to my time-wasting site 'work'space to procrastinate, saw the post, and decided to keep working instead. I got a lot more done yesterday than I had planned on. I think that there's d…
You got me curious. Could you please post the link?
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#9I have found all of my procrastination to stem from lacking a certain degree of knowledge of how to perform the task that I'm procrastinating. When I don't know how to do something or I don't know how long it will take, then I don't know where it fits into my schedule, so I never fit it into my schedule. Most of the time, I grossly over estimate how long something will take, i.e. "all day" when it's probably only a 1…
This. I also have trouble breaking large tasks into smaller tasks -- a project planning skill that some people seem to have naturally.
Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets
#10I think such prompts would only work for a short while and thereafter they'd just serve the purpose of making me feel miserable.
I think prompts with "hey, don't forget your dreams!" won't work long, but I think prompts like "Why are you doing this? What is your goal?" etc that force you to respond (and it should track your responses, so you can read your older responses) will quickly force you to come clean with what your real goals are. well- that's my hypothesis.
Won't know until I get to try it out myself. It's kind of like having a commitment buddy, only you don't feel like you're imposing on someone as much