Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

Try doing nothing.

You wouldn't be able to even if you tried. Your mind would start wandering to topics you haven't let it.

Set as a goal that you'll accomplish less every day, and with zero expectation about what to do with the free hours that open up. Just as you pressure yourself to do more, pressure yourself to do less.

Try doing nothing and suddenly your subconscious takes over. You discover thoughts you didn't even know were brewing. The fundamental principle underneath is one of balance, and you can trigger it with constraint. Constrain yourself to do nothing and your subconscious will find a way to pull you to something you like. Limit yourself to less, and you start overflowing to a new direction.

Like other people said, you look like you are trying to suppress the fact that you don't like what you are doing. The power of a drifting mind can be used positively just as much as it can be used negatively.

  A writer told me "I didn't get anything done today".
  Answer: try to do nothing. The best way to have only good
  days is to not aim at getting anything done.

  Actually almost everything I've written that has survived
  was written when I didn't try to get anything done.

  - Nassim Taleb

Make sure you give it enough time. You need at least 1.5-2hr blocks of time where you can shut off the world and play uninterrupted, and you also need to schedule such unstructured play lots of times. Don't worry about feeling unproductive in the meantime. Worry more about noticing the pattern to your thoughts, and do that at the end of each block of time so you don't feel pressured to be noticing.

I'd love to hear what you discover.

I agree with the article's opinion about errands, and believe it's true these small boring tasks end up killing inspiration for the more interesting stuff we'd rather be working on.

HOWEVER, am I the only one who thinks Paul's redefinition of procrastination is nonstandard? When people advise you not to procrastinate, they are usually telling you to do your damn job (or to study for an exam, you get the idea) instead of doing something else that could clearly wait. Most people understand that procrastination means doing anything -- no matter what -- instead of a mandatory task that is boring or too hard. Nobody will ever tell you to do your taxes instead of working on that rocket science project, which is what Paul seems to be implying...

Graham hits the nail on the head again. I don't beat myself up about procrastinating too much -- as long as the procrastinating includes reading Hacker News, iOS Dev News, Good Stack Overflow comments and conversations, basically anything that will make me broadly a better and happier programmer.

For long time I was trying to beat procrastination. Guess what, I'm still procrastinating more than 50% of time and for last 2-3 years it's no longer a problem.

The breaking point for me was another essay by PG called "The Top Idea in Your Mind" (http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html)

The concept is that if you get stuck on some problem, even if you procrastinate, you are still unconsciously thinking about the problem and will come up with solutions while doing something completely unrelated (paying games, watching videos etc.) - so this would be another example of good procrastination that you don't have to feel guilty about. For me, procrastination is now part of the process.

I was talking to my father about this topic last week. We talked about the best strategies for combating procrastination. He used to be in the British Army and suggested that a militaristic approach has always worked for him. He talked about the button polishing, the bed sheet folding and the shirt starching. These were tasks that were set by the commanding officers and needed to be performed flawlessly. They weren't pleasurable, they were boring and often felt unnecessary. Failing these tasks meant severe punishment and potentially being kicked out of the army.

This gave him a framework for success. The knowledge that however boring something is, it needs to be done. A combination of a carrot and a stick can help this process.

Another approach, from a member of a mastermind group that I attend, has a 'dull day'. On Monday of every week he does all the administrative work that he hates. This includes dealing with expenses, filing, bug fixing, documenting etc. He has been doing it for months and loves the fact that he can start the day on Tuesday with a clear head and clear conscience.

So, breaking this down (from my admittedly small sample set):

- Be Strict -

Be strict with yourself and use incentives or disincentives. There are plenty of ways to provide a disincentive for failure. This startup has just launched and asks you to pay if you fail to hit your goals: https://gofuckingdoit.com/ [0]

- Have a Routine -

Habits are formed using triggers, routines and rewards. Try to set a good habit by working on your project using a trigger, a routine and a reward. You could try the Tiny Habits Method: http://tinyhabits.com/ [1]

- Make Time -

Make time for your project (rather than finding the time)Be honest with yourself and know that procrastination will happen. But, you can make time to get stuff done: http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-project/ [2]

[0] https://gofuckingdoit.com/

[1] http://tinyhabits.com/

[2] http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-project/