Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

shyal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

#11

Post by colmvp »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #7

I've read that you should break up large tasks into their most atomic parts which are psychologically less overwhelming. So rather than write article, you might have, research subject (2 hours), brains storm bullet points of questions, write outline, ... At our company I constantly worry about us being over ambitious because when we are we don't get things done. Better to start with a small milestone where everyone c…

That's one of the reasons why I like the pomodoro technique. You can always narrow even the most complex issues into smaller pieces that can be accomplished in a short sprint.

Re: Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

#12

Post by bufordsharkley »

colmvp wrote: post #11
rdlecler1 wrote: post #7

I've read that you should break up large tasks into their most atomic parts which are psychologically less overwhelming. So rather than write article, you might have, research subject (2 hours), brains storm bullet points of questions, write outline, ... At our company I constantly worry about us being over ambitious because when we are we don't get things done. Better to start with a small milestone where everyone c…

That's one of the reasons why I like the pomodoro technique. You can always narrow even the most complex issues into smaller pieces that can be accomplished in a short sprint.

Agreed. The pomodoro technique asks that no task is more than 7 pomodoros (sets of 25 minutes of focused work).

With this constraint, what once looked like an overwhelming and nebulous task now seems manageable and concrete.

Re: Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

#16

Post by darawk »

I use this trick all the time and it works great for me. Another one that I like to use is to think about my retrospective feeling about the thing after having done it. So, in the case of going to the gym, I think about the fact that after having gone to the gym, i've never regretted going. I've never come back from the gym and thought "man I wish I didn't just do that".

Re: Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

#17

Post by drawkbox »

Similar to the 15 minutes starting trick. If you don't feel like doing it, just do 15 minutes of it and you can stop. Typically you keep on going and it starts it up.

Another trick is leave a simple tasks or error (syntax error) in the last place you were working the previous day/night. You'll jump right back in and get up and in production mode the next day, easy task to knock out and get coding.

Sometimes having another fun project that you can work on while procrastinating or thinking about your main project is helpful to keep in production mode. Procrastination sometimes is a battle of how to implement something and you should switch to a prototype mode and try them rather than overthinking the possible solutions.

Sometimes all those fail and you need something like Rescuetime but that also makes the blocked sites more desirable.

Re: Imagine yourself starting, not finishing

#19

Post by codezero »

I say this on most threads about procrastination, but it's important to remember that chronic procrastination can be an indication of anxiety, not just a temporary state of mind. If you suffer from this kind of anxiety and not just a moment of distraction, you should see a professional, they really can help fix things long term and improve your quality of life.
Post reply on HN