I wonder how much procrastination is due to people doing things they dont really want to do. Ie people doing a course and University not because its their dream its because everyone expects then to go there and that course is a route to a good career. Combined with hot housed kids that were given lots of homework but no time to play. Its a recipe for office blocks full of people doing respectable jobs they don't really want to do and procrastinating all day.
Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
231–240 of 368 posts
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you even add them.. it's like asking what is the utility of the statue of liberty plus the utility of NAFTA? Just because it's a mathematicians/economists wish doesn't mean it's correct. Why did the drunken man look under the streetlight for his keys? "Didn't loose them here, but that's where the light is"
> How do you even add them.. In dollars. It's literally what currency is for. Of course there's no one set of dollar values for most items. They very much depend on a context. But in a particular, well-defined context, you can very much convert both Statue of Liberty and NAFTA to dollars and sum them up to something that makes sense in that context. > Why did the drunken man look under the streetlight for his keys? "…
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#233Yesterday I had a bit of a talk with myself about my behavior pertaining to procrastination. I am addicted to: - YouTube - Gaming Worse, I have quite a runway due to low living expenses. I came with a new idea today, I hope it helps anyone else. I need to get good at generating my own feelings. This is why I play games and watch videos. I do it to feel something. In order to do that I need to stay as close as to the…
What helped for the gaming part for me is that I went 100% linux on all my machines. Since very few games work great under linux it solved my issue with gaming too much. I'm still addicted to youtube tho. Haven't really solved that part yet.
> Since very few games work great under linux it solved my issue with gaming too much.
A noble approach, but not true: (native Linux) Steam works great -- I've run it on Fedora and Linux Mint -- and plenty of games run flawlessly via WINE or Proton. Brand-spankin-new AAA games sometimes have problems, but the vast majority of gaming works well.
For example, my latest addiction is Rimworld, which runs natively on Linux via the native Linux Steam client.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#234As the society advances and problems are solved for us, we are left with the most central core problem, ourselves. Related to concepts like 'agency', 'impulse control', 'willpower', 'restraint', 'free will', 'delayed gratification' are connected to our status and self image. If you think humans as AI systems, we are facing issues with our reward function. Short term reward seems to overrule long term planning and goa…
“The ideal timeframe to use for the reward function” is an instance of an age old question about what’s really important in life. Most people agree that taking lots of heroin and dying in a matter of months is suboptimal. Most people also agree that living a life of utter sacrifice in pursuit of some higher goal might not be good either. You might be working on something pointless. Some self interest is actually bene…
In addition to everything you said, there is also optimization issues of your goals. Eg, I like to think of myself as a very long term focused person (over the last 10 years, at least), but my ambitions outweigh my energy. So I have to balance in short term "play" as a way to destress and enable long term progress.
The fact that we're not robots in that sense makes this even more complicated as we can't just choose our long/short goals and stick to them, we often have to set them up within the context of what we can actually achieve.. which I think is often less than people think.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, IMO that sounds sexist. I think especially the second thing is sexist (dependent on a man). I can point to counter examples. There might be a trend in some locales? I wouldn't know. But the way it's written it sounds a bit like it's inherent to the woman (being dependent on the man for purpose), that's why it sounds sexist. Just pointing it out how it sounds and why it sounds to me that way (I didn't downvote).…
Two assertions: One. Men can have kids up to high age, yes, but after 35, quality declines and the probability that their children will have face disorders and disabilities increases. Two. Having children to leave a happy life isn't an obligation. It's an option. Most parents love their kids to bits, but will also grudgingly admit that the drudgery of parenthood is probably the most grueling thing you can do with lif…
Thanks CaptArmchair!
(seriously though, thanks :) )
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
The human "reward function" is likely more complex than current AI - and not always particularly logical (though vaguely correlated to survival of your own genes!) - but it's probably naïve to assume that we're anything more complicated than a very advanced automaton trying to optimise a reward function...
I think it's MUCH more naive to assume we are just a very advanced automaton trying to optimise a reward function. What we don't know is infinitely larger than what we do know.
The required knowledge to fully understand how our brains work is very obviously not infinite.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#237Probably this is the best explanation by Oliver Emberton on how to beat procrastination. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/01/15/how-do-i-get-o...
Thank you for the mental image of an impulsive baby reptile in my brain.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#238I struggled with procrastination through much of my childhood and young adult life. Like most real-life problems, there is no magic solution, but I've found the most impactful helpers to be:
1. Having others depending on me. Since I've been married and had children, I'm the one who has to support them. This adds a little anxiety to the mix, of course, but it's a net positive for me.
2. Removing things from my life that I do not need. Facebook, non-casual video games, unhealthy relationships, excessive . I find that this is not a one-time decision but rather a continual pruning of "bad branches" from my life.
3. Regular exercise. If I feel good about my activity level and my own body, I begin to find work and other responsibilities to be less of a drain.
4. Caffeine, but without overdoing it. If I drink a cup or two of coffee throughout the day, it allows me to focus in ways that are otherwise beyond my ability. Too much caffeine actually produces the opposite effect, and I'll get nothing done.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#239I'm just starting to get a handle on this now that I hit 30. We look to successful people to see how they manage their time, thinking that by copying their routines and habits as inputs, we will be also be able to yield some of their success as outputs; however, we will never be able to copy the procedure that returns that output (consciousness, mindset, motivations, neurology, purpose, talents, traumas, upbringing, values).
Ultimately, I think the answer comes from ridding yourself of distractions, and asking yourself the question - "What do I want out of life?"
If you can answer that question, you will also be able to manage your time efficiently, because you will always be directed toward that purpose.
Without knowing your individual purpose in life, you will go through life checking the boxes that biology and society put before you.
With that said, it can be hard to settle with realization that you aren't personally driven to do anything that will make you an idol among your peers; you can finally stop trivializing everything in your life and just enjoy it, enjoy the process, enjoy the journey.
Re: Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time
#240Ironically, procrastination is often tied to boredom (just because we have something to do doesn't mean we aren't bored). Boredom is no small thing:
http://www.toolsforhealthandwellness.com/negative-effects-of...