They say we procrastinate when we feel anxious about the task we are supposed to be doing.
Getting Past Procrastination
111–120 of 185 posts
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
>What’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work? For some people struggling with chronic lifelong procrastination, the oft-repeated advice from the author such as "Action leads to motivation, not the other way around." ... and similar variants such as, "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline!" ... and other related big picture ideas such as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams' "Systems instead of Goals"…
If somebody had “lifelong procrastination” and was routinely overwhelmed by simple tasks, my first thought would be to see if they are actually dealing with depression because it sounds like something bigger.
Yes, when I struggled with motivation, procrastination, whatever you want to call it, I was diagnosed as depressed for years
Turns out, unmedicated ADHD, procrastination, and depression are all comorbid
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#113I disagree with the idea that getting past procrastination should (always) be the target. Mostly because I don't think procrastination is inherently bad. There's a lot of stigma attached to procrastination as it's seen as being "unproductive". But I think procrastination can lead to great insights. Your brain is telling you that it is not interested in the current task. The question is: Why? Overworked and needs a br…
> Your brain is telling you that it is not interested in the current task. The question is: Why?
I think for a lot of us it's something like: Because it's nonsense busywork that I don't care about. Procrastinating isn't going to help, and it is absolutely bad because it leads to uncompleted tasks and that leads to financial distress. I need to get it done regardless of whether it's going to provide a dopamine hit or not. Best thing to do is to stop thinking about it and get it out of the way so that I can focus on the things I want to do. I'm not overworked, I just don't want to do this task. I am interested in exploring something else but that's not a choice that I have right now. I don't have the privilege of doing whatever I feel like doing. Pain of failure? No, it's not at all something that I'll fail at. It's drudgery avoidance. Unfortunately there's plenty of drudgery that has to be completed.
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#114"Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination [...] I was not making progress on the things that mattered." Maybe unless one can really convince themselves that their daily work matters (really matters and not just for their team/company metrics) one is bound to procrastinate as a symptom of some subconscious sense of pointlessness.
When I see stories like this I always wonder "How did you get and keep jobs at meta and Pinterest if you have a procrastination problem?" I procrastinated so badly I could never apply for jobs. And the jobs I did get I lost quickly due to the same procrastination.
I was thinking about it a lot.
I think the programmers in most environments aren't judged based on some hard metrics that could say someone procrastinated half of the time and could have done twice as much.
Most judgement comes from remembering whether anything has been done at all, and if yes then whether it was sunbathing of quality. People (I at least) will rate higher someone who worked less but contributed higher quality code. Also good contributions to discussion, mentoring juniors is something a procrastinator might not even think is work but is valued highly.
And even while procrastinating some part of your brain often thinks about problem so the time isn't completely lost.
All in all procrastinators aren't as bad as it sounds unless we get into some deep pathology.
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#115"Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination [...] I was not making progress on the things that mattered." Maybe unless one can really convince themselves that their daily work matters (really matters and not just for their team/company metrics) one is bound to procrastinate as a symptom of some subconscious sense of pointlessness.
My boss met with me this week to have me finish something important to get done by Friday. That really kicked me into gear this week and I was very motivated and productive. Come Friday, no message, no more push from him, no mention of how he needs my work or asking how it's going. That instantly tanked my motivation to continue
> Come Friday, no message [...] tanked my motivation to continue
I see the bookends, but notice the root cause
> That really kicked me into gear [...] I was very motivated and productive
You don't have intrinsic motivation for these tasks and the job. This is the thread to pull on. Keep asking "why?"
In the least, I recommend a pro-active note, letting him know you're done and ready for his feedback on the assignment or new priorities. Figure out why he didn't (or persistently doesn't) follow-up.
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#116I disagree with the idea that getting past procrastination should (always) be the target. Mostly because I don't think procrastination is inherently bad. There's a lot of stigma attached to procrastination as it's seen as being "unproductive". But I think procrastination can lead to great insights. Your brain is telling you that it is not interested in the current task. The question is: Why? Overworked and needs a br…
That's nice and all but when your procrastination prevents you from doing anything at all for months it doesn't really feel like it's a good thing.
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a lot of truth in what you’re saying I believe. At least, in the “cadence of work”. They say in the article about consistent productivity for example. But lets think about consistency and quantitative productivity (ie amount of work per day). of course we are pressured to be “consistently highly productive”. But is it healthy and sustainable for everyone? Probably not. So I would start with “consistently bar…
I agree. I even see support of this in the seasons. If you think about the difference in light between summer and winter, it is far more natural to be up and about when there is more light, and far more likely to be 'lazy' in the winter. The workweek however is constant, even though the quality of time is entirely different. So, in this example 'time' throughout the year is not the same - feeling less energetic in wi…
Wow! You probably just opened my eyes to the “spring productivity boost” pattern clearly observed in my life :)
> But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
exactly! And even rhyming some other thread here, this might happen if “work” is procrastination for the life itself. I honestly feel myself here now: work figured out as process, but life… oh my I better go write some code.
It’s like you’re cornered: you’re like deer in the headlights concerned with “work”, if you’re not “productive”, you devalue yourself completely. It could happen if you chose work as your primary value long before you realized that the same patterns will lead you into the corner inside work itself.
It’s like running away from one world to another to another until there is no further escape. Then hopefully, you start to find the way back, because you have the Ariadne’s thread in your hands.
Good luck to us all :)
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#118> Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination I used to procrastinate a lot when I was a PhD student and later in academia. Sometimes, it was literally weeks of doing nothing and stressing out. I eventually migrated to big tech and I now rarely procrastinate. We have pretty tangible goals, good results are rewarded and lack of results woul…
> lack of results would raise concerns pretty quickly.
In my case, working in the right environment helped a lot with procrastination.
Sounds more like fear than “not” procrastinating.
But on the other hand fear is a good motivator
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. It's funny how this kind of trick can instantly snap the entire working context back into your mind. Essentially leaving you free to forget about the context during your free time and overnight. Truly a useful "hack". It's also useful to jot down a quick list of (say) three items that are at the top of your mind when you leave work for the day, and they too will help with a context restore.
Also just chuck Todo comments in the code The magic of Git means you can immediately find them in the working index and get back on to it. Just remember to remove them before the commit.
If you do this often enough you can create a simple commit hook that searches for these markers and will fail to commit if it finds them.
Re: Getting Past Procrastination
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work? (I’m always curious to learn other potential diagnostic markers for adhd)
>What’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work? For some people struggling with chronic lifelong procrastination, the oft-repeated advice from the author such as "Action leads to motivation, not the other way around." ... and similar variants such as, "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline!" ... and other related big picture ideas such as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams' "Systems instead of Goals"…
Your points are well taken, though I want to nuance them a bit. My experience(with severe ADHD-C) is that this type of advice can work. It's just that it's not something you can just decide to start doing and immediately find success at. It's just a lot more complicated to get this off the ground, but it's possible. For some complex organisational system, you need to compile that system into "ADHD byte code" and for that, you need to bootstrap a compiler. Create an incredibly simple, extensible system which can do things your ADHD brain can't on its own. Then you need to find ways to force yourself to follow that system using various hacks like alarms tied to QR codes, body doubling, regular therapy or home visits, etc. then you can start implementing more complex structure in that system. And even the simple system is not gonna be easy. It's gonna take months of trying, failing, starting over. The ADHD brain is absolutely capable of developing habits(just look at the comorbidity rates between ADHD and various types of addiction), it's just a lot of work.
I'm in the process of doing this myself, and after 8 months, with many setbacks, I kinda have a base system I'm following that's significantly improving my quality of life and ability to keep up with everyday tasks. And it's still a struggle, but it's getting easier.
I'm writing a blog post about it currently, which will be more structured. It's about how I used my software dev skills to think about and tackle my ADHD(and other issues). Not about writing actual software(although software is involved), but imagining the brain exhibiting ADHD is a software system , identifying the "bugs", and combining concepts from software dev and behavioral/cognitive psychology to fix, or at least mitigate them.
This blog post could be finished two days from now, two years from now, or never. ADHD is still hard to live with, and I'm still quite dysfunctional. I guess if I do finish it, it'll be worth reading since I'll be on to something...