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Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#31

Post by freshhawk »

gbog wrote: post #19
dm2 wrote: post #3

I am constantly struggling with procrastination even though I love my job and what I do. It seems like sometimes I'd rather do anything other than what I'm actually suppose to do and what pays the bills, almost like a mental disorder. I've tried setting goals, blocking websites, uninstalling games, creating logs and even creating rewards for doing X amount of work, none of those seem to really help so far. The procra…

Hi. Can I be frank? I find it a bit hard to believe that your "real work" is "fun, time critical, and offers REAL rewards". Are you maybe trying to convince yourself here? It happened to me to believe wrongly that I had fun and rewarding tasks at hand. But when I really have such tasks, procrastination is completely out of the way, and I am certainly not on HN to discuss about it. When I have a task that is really in…

"But when I really have such tasks, procrastination is completely out of the way"

I know for me it doesn't work that way. I assume "REAL rewards" means long lasting meaningful rewards rather than a quick dopamine hit. But hyperbolic discounting [1] is a bitch, so even if I know that once I start some real work it will be engaging and interesting, and tomorrow or next week my happiness will be partly determined by how much of it I got done ... maybe I'll do just one more HN story / Watch Dogs online hacking mission / etc.

It's a pattern I recognize and no longer really adversely affects my life like it did when I was younger but I definitely still feel that pull that makes starting things more difficult than it would otherwise be.

[1] http://www.damninteresting.com/hyperbolic-discounting/

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#32

Post by psychometry »

dm2 wrote: post #3

I am constantly struggling with procrastination even though I love my job and what I do. It seems like sometimes I'd rather do anything other than what I'm actually suppose to do and what pays the bills, almost like a mental disorder. I've tried setting goals, blocking websites, uninstalling games, creating logs and even creating rewards for doing X amount of work, none of those seem to really help so far. The procra…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD-PI

Would you say this describes you?

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#33

Post by higherpurpose »

lubos wrote: post #27

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…

I was reading before about a solution to procrastination that said you should have 2-3 different tasks. And when you aren't in the mood to do one, do the other. Could work for some, but maybe not everyone. Procrastination is usually not "not doing anything", but doing something else instead of what you should be doing. So try to make that "something else" a task that you need finished anyway.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#34

Post by Oculus »

charlieirish wrote: post #29

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…

With 'dull Monday' approach my biggest worry would be if I'm having a weak day, I might not have the will power to overcome the "I hate the work I have to do today". I'd argue it requires a lot more will power to convince yourself to start work on something you detest & which you know will last the whole day.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#35

Post by nazgulnarsil »

This is why I think it's so silly for people to be such strong detractors of meal replacement products (like mealsquares, ambronite, and soylent), not wanting to eliminate EVERY meal from your life is quite understandable, but wasting hours of your day when you're deep in flow state on food is a terrible tradeoff in much the same way laundry is.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#36

Post by Oculus »

I've slowly found that by focusing on interesting things (and sometimes productive) instead of dedicating time to school projects that are merely time wasters, I can complete projects I want whilst doing satisfactory in school with minimal effort.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#37

Post by emerongi »

psychometry wrote: post #32
dm2 wrote: post #3

I am constantly struggling with procrastination even though I love my job and what I do. It seems like sometimes I'd rather do anything other than what I'm actually suppose to do and what pays the bills, almost like a mental disorder. I've tried setting goals, blocking websites, uninstalling games, creating logs and even creating rewards for doing X amount of work, none of those seem to really help so far. The procra…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD-PI Would you say this describes you?

I have always found self-diagnosing as idiotic, but honestly, this is 100% me. Can't concentrate on anything, hesitate and procrastinate a lot, also am forgetful. Never had major problems though, always have had good grades for whatever reason. Should I seek help or try to keep it under control myself? I am almost out of school and I feel relieved; so much pressure when you try to concentrate on the topic, but just physically can't. I feel much more comfortable learning the topics I personally like.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#38

Post by gregpilling »

My wife is an absent minded professor. This part "The mildest seeming people, if they want to do real work, all have a certain degree of ruthlessness when it comes to avoiding errands" describes her perfectly.

God forbid if you disturb her while she is working, you will get an earful. She is very determined to get her work done, regardless (at times) of what her husband and kids want out of her.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#39

Post by beambot »

No conversation about procrastination is complete without mentioning John Perry's (Stanford Prof) essay on "structured procrastination": http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

Basically... "the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important." Like John, I've accomplished a quite a bit by procrastinating like crazy.

Re: Good and Bad Procrastination (2005)

#40

Post by pajtai »

I like this definition of unimportant stuff, "What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary."

If you you have children, hopefully they will write your obituary, so putting of cleaning the house to go camping with the kids might result in a, "loving dad" on your obituary.

This is in addition to all the obvious big career stuff I thought of initially after reading that definition.

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