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

Getting Past Procrastination

spectrum.ieee.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 185 posts

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#21

Post by unkulunkulu »

JustinCS wrote: post #13

Related to taking tiny steps, I've set up a daily habit checklist with the lowest bar possible, even lower than the author's suggested log statement. When it comes to software dev, it's just "open my IDE and look at my notes for what to do next". This usually just takes 10 seconds, but it's the first step in starting and usually leads to me doing at least a bit more, so it's helpful when I'm at my lowest in terms of…

++ for the “lowest bar” and constantly negotiate with oneself on if every line is still valuable and brings profit and not despair.

Like “brush teeth”, “do nothing at all for half an hour after work” “remove trash photos for the day in the phone”, “finish working” (here I have a detailed sublist ending with “close computer lid”) “move todos I did not have time for today to tomorrow”

another cool habit is “I did list”: add items that you did that were not planned, because we sometimes forget why we did not do something “planned”, because we actually did something else important that we are just blind to when “planning”. for example, “meal”, “took some rest that I actually need”, “took out trash”, “told someone irritating to fuck off” etc etc

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#22

Post by nasretdinov »

anal_reactor wrote: post #20

The older I get, the more I realize there's no point. I'll never be rich. I'll never have a family. I'll never go to space. I'll never take part in Olympics. Best I can do is beating a video game on medium. So I try to focus on that, instead of spending 80% of my life trying to make myself 20% more productive.

This vibe matches perfectly with your nick name :)

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#23

Post by unkulunkulu »

verisimi wrote: post #15

In defence of procrastination, perhaps there are good reasons for failing to have enthusiasm for whatever-it-is. Perhaps trying to do something but being unable to muster the energy is an indication that this is not the thing you really ought to be doing. That the thing you believe to be a worthy goal is itself a false goal, and not where your heart is at, and that you need to take a second, deeper look. Or maybe tha…

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 bare minimum productive” and not demand more from myself. If I demand more, the “procrastination” kicks in, because my body knows that it needs rest and relaxation.

we are not robots: work for us and not we for work.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#24

Post by jraph »

rented_mule wrote: post #6

> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around. I've found this to be very true. A trick I found that made this easier for me is to leave a trivial task to start tomorrow with, often with notes to remind myself what to do. Ideally the trivial task is on the way to something bigger, not finishing something. That gets me into my editor, gets me running the code / tests / etc., and gives me a trivially easy way…

Yep.

When there are no clear tasks, I sometime leave a syntax error at the place work should continue tomorrow. This is quite effective. It can make the answer to the "Where was I?" question immediate instead of taking a few seconds and this is one fewer barrier.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#25

Post by imjonse »

"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.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#26

Post by verisimi »

unkulunkulu wrote: post #23
verisimi wrote: post #15

In defence of procrastination, perhaps there are good reasons for failing to have enthusiasm for whatever-it-is. Perhaps trying to do something but being unable to muster the energy is an indication that this is not the thing you really ought to be doing. That the thing you believe to be a worthy goal is itself a false goal, and not where your heart is at, and that you need to take a second, deeper look. Or maybe tha…

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 winter is perfectly acceptable, and not a problem.

You can characterise this real factor (quality of time over the year) as 'procrastination' but I think this is unfair. Other factors such as joy/depression, meaning in work, personal circumstances, etc also come in to play. But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#27

Post by euroderf »

jraph wrote: post #24
rented_mule wrote: post #6

> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around. I've found this to be very true. A trick I found that made this easier for me is to leave a trivial task to start tomorrow with, often with notes to remind myself what to do. Ideally the trivial task is on the way to something bigger, not finishing something. That gets me into my editor, gets me running the code / tests / etc., and gives me a trivially easy way…

Yep. When there are no clear tasks, I sometime leave a syntax error at the place work should continue tomorrow. This is quite effective. It can make the answer to the "Where was I?" question immediate instead of taking a few seconds and this is one fewer barrier.

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.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#29

Post by nilirl »

The warrant for this claim: The smaller the action you ask from yourself, the easier it is to choose it over inaction.

But sometimes it's not inaction we're choosing against; it's discomfort.

In that case, this becomes simplistic.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#30

Post by tmoertel »

rented_mule wrote: post #6

> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around. I've found this to be very true. A trick I found that made this easier for me is to leave a trivial task to start tomorrow with, often with notes to remind myself what to do. Ideally the trivial task is on the way to something bigger, not finishing something. That gets me into my editor, gets me running the code / tests / etc., and gives me a trivially easy way…

That's Hemingway’s trick: “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.”

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fi...

Post reply on HN