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Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

solvingprocrastination.com

221–230 of 232 posts

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#221

I developed a bad case of perfectionism-procrastination after working for a toxic boss. It didn't matter how polished our product was, he'd find a way to tear it apart. When he'd have a bad day, he'd start picking apart a random team's product. "Unbelievable!" he'd say in Slack, dropping a screen recording of the app that showed something we were supposed to be embarrassed about. It could be that the app took 3 secon…

This is psychological abuse. Let’s start calling it what it is. Corporations should start screening for personalities like this. They’re sick, and often seek out positions of power.

These stories are almost certainly describing leadership, possibly a Founder or a VP.

(Doesn't sound like a bad middle-manager that snuck in through the cat door. But I could be wrong!)

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#222

„ We need to think about failure differently. I’m not the first to say that failure, when approached properly, can be an opportunity for growth. But the way most people interpret this assertion is that mistakes are a necessary evil. Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we’d have no…

Failure is just feedback valued as bad. Who we dare to be to value a reaction (inner or extern)?

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#223

I developed a bad case of perfectionism-procrastination after working for a toxic boss. It didn't matter how polished our product was, he'd find a way to tear it apart. When he'd have a bad day, he'd start picking apart a random team's product. "Unbelievable!" he'd say in Slack, dropping a screen recording of the app that showed something we were supposed to be embarrassed about. It could be that the app took 3 secon…

You should write something in-depth about this. This is a really interesting take, and you seem like a great writer.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#225

The easiest antidote for procrastination is boredom. This may not work for everyone but for me it works exceptionally. Most often the reason why you don't want to work on something is because you find it too hard, too boring, or too irrelevant. But if you force yourself to be bored for a while, you will eventually crave some mental stimulation. And that's when you can pick up the task you have been avoiding and work…

There are well known psychology experimental results to support your hunch. When the alternative is total lack of mental stimulation, people will perform all kinds of otherwise unattractive activities.

interesting! Can you recall a source for that?

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your input. Being honest, my situation has been like this for so long now I’ve given up hope and lost interest in it ever changing. Used to my own loneliness nowadays so it doesn’t really matter. Fine with being someone who is only ever in the background of other people’s day.

I'll be your friend. What's up?

For the past eight years I’ve been telling myself that I was going to end my life if things didn’t improve by this year, and they only ever get worse and worse, so 2024 is my final one on earth. Currently in the process of wrapping up all my business and getting rid of all my stuff so there’s nothing left behind for anyone to deal with. Really not going to miss living or living the life I’ve lived. Eight billion other people on the planet who will get on fine without me.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are well known psychology experimental results to support your hunch. When the alternative is total lack of mental stimulation, people will perform all kinds of otherwise unattractive activities.

interesting! Can you recall a source for that?

There is this study where they let people sit alone in a room with the option to shock themselves. Many shocked themselves. I thinks it’s this one [0].

[0]: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#228
post #46
post #45

The reason we fear shipping is that we know there is an absolute truth out there that nobody made any effort to find. ONLY if you ship that eternal fundamental solution have you made anything interesting. Everything is shit, think before you act! It's better to do nothing, than to deliver more shit.

> It's better to do nothing, than to deliver more shit. How are you supposed to get better at delivering anything if you won't deliver until you have something "perfect"? Part of the process of getting better is to be shit for a while, while you figuring things out. Common saying when making music is that probably your first 100 songs will be absolutely trash, so better get those out of the door ASAP, so you can get…

I meant do mistakes that you don't ship. And think before you make mistakes you don't plan to ship...

I know that it's hard to build the intuition and sharp judgment without failing, but with time anyone can dismiss mistakes in their head. Only money makes you make mistakes because you are 1) pressed for time 2) greedy.

Money IS the problem, soon money will be the problem of the past though (energy is the final problem), so that wasted time (most of 4 billion man centuries) is lost forever in a puff of smoke.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#229

> For example, perfectionistic students might be so critical of themselves for making mistakes in school assignments, that they will postpone doing homework to avoid dealing with the associated negative emotions. From the very beginning, I skimmed the rest. Surely, this can be reduced to > Avoid dealing with the associated negative emotions. Start there, and work through those emotions.

> Start there, and work through those emotions.

Do have any advice for how to deal with the associated negative emotions?

They seem kind of endless, and I'm not really sure what to do with them. I've tried things like mindfulness, meditation, journaling, talking about them and so on. But they just keep coming back, it's like they can't be resolved. It's quite painful, and I'm at a loss.

Re: Procrastination is connected to perfectionism

#230

Uhm... I didn't read. And, I'll comment anyway. Sorry if I miss a point or two. I did read the whole thread, though (116 comments as per now). Reason was not "Too long" as I never even clicked the link. It was due to the link title "solvingprocrastination", as that name framed procrastination as a thing that needed to be "solved" somehow. I'm sure that for some, sometimes that is the case. For me, not much so. See, p…

You have no idea what procrastination is.
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