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Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

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Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#11

Post by grasshopperpurp »

melvinroest wrote: post #2

> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence. --- > What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation. So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that. Hypothesis: emotion regulation…

>That's a very playful way to phrase a characterization: what's the song of. I'm stealing it ;-)

Reminds me of one of my favorite books from childhood, Goose Goofs Off.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/967059.Goose_Goofs_Of...

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#12

Post by londons_explore »

People wouldnt procrastinate if there wasn't some evolutionary advantage...

Personally, I have found that if I get on with certain tasks in a team environment with too much vigor, I start to get other team members feeling left out or feeling their input isn't adding value. Keep doing it and the team will fall apart. Sitting around and being lazy for a bit helps keep the team together and has more forward progress overall.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#13

Post by Tade0 »

This article gives great advice, but there's also the other end that I personally struggle with, namely: where's the reward?

I noticed that it's especially hard for me to bring things to the state of "100% done", because the emotional reward for that is so much smaller than getting to the first 70%.

I tried shifting my thinking about this by treating that 70% as an actual 50% (given the time spent), but it feels like a half-measure.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#14

Post by mrspeaker »

juskrey wrote: post #7

I'll say it again: procrastination is a bullshit detector of the free and cry for the help of non-free.

Can you say it again, but with some more context? I have no idea what that sentence could possibly mean!

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#15

Post by cryptica »

Whenever I do something. I assume that it's going to be a business failure. That helps me to avoid procrastination which could otherwise arise out of a fear of failure. Business success is not within my own control so everything I do needs to have a "fallback purpose".

Everything I do is at once a business opportunity, a learning experience and a technical stepping stone which I can re-use for future projects. All of my work builds on top of my previous work and I constantly combine it with other people's work. This strategy is failure-proof and it stops procrastination. I've been doing it for almost 10 years. It does get a bit closer to business success every time. You have to set yourself up for success and sometimes that requires redefining success.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#16

Post by dividedbyzero »

melvinroest wrote: post #2

> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence. --- > What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation. So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that. Hypothesis: emotion regulation…

What is CBT?

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#17

Post by laurentdc »

juskrey wrote: post #7

I'll say it again: procrastination is a bullshit detector of the free and cry for the help of non-free.

Agreed. External factors aside (e.g. ADHD) to me procrastination is a good indicator of whether what I'm working on is meaningful or not.

Quoting some other post I've read on HN:

> Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy?

> There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be?

> Remember the last time you felt glad to be alive? Was it related to being productive?

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#18

Post by dijksterhuis »

Tade0 wrote: post #13

This article gives great advice, but there's also the other end that I personally struggle with, namely: where's the reward? I noticed that it's especially hard for me to bring things to the state of "100% done", because the emotional reward for that is so much smaller than getting to the first 70%. I tried shifting my thinking about this by treating that 70% as an actual 50% (given the time spent), but it feels like…

Theres this thing called "the 80/20 rule".

Story time:

My dad used to work at Sainsbury's (big UK supermarket chain). One day the CEO (Lord Sainsbury I think he said it was) popped over to his desk.

", you do great work. I know I can always count on you."

"But... You spend so much effort on details that don't end up being important. The first 80% of your work takes as long as the last 20%."

"The thing is, that first 80% is more usually good enough for what we need. Why don't you try and hit 80% and then wait and see if we need that last 20% next time? It might save you some time."

Caveat - I may have made the name up. But it quite often works in practice.

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#19

Post by tomrod »

dividedbyzero wrote: post #16
melvinroest wrote: post #2

> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence. --- > What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation. So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that. Hypothesis: emotion regulation…

What is CBT?

Typically in this context "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy"

Re: Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert

#20

Post by damontal »

dividedbyzero wrote: post #16
melvinroest wrote: post #2

> Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence. --- > What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is an emotion regulation situation. So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that. Hypothesis: emotion regulation…

What is CBT?

Cognitive behavioral therapy
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