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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

#31
My solution is similar (breaking down the problem), the cause is - at least partially - different.

If I am procrastinating in software development or research it is

(1) for complexity reasons, (2) for foreseeable vast grunt work I have already done and solved in the past.

Example (1): I have to choose between at least two fundamental different ways to get ahead in writing software. I know that implications come late, wasted time can be a lot. I will often pause until it comes to me.

Example (2): Writing a new library in Julia, when I covered the topic in Python or C++ years ago, but cannot directly reuse it, the whole thing intensifies when it has already been done in several incarnations. Becomes more and more difficult ("been there, done that") with age, especially if the occasion is determined from outside. The same applies to research which requires a larger amount of knowledge from the past that needs to be reactivated.

(2) could be attributed to negative emotions (boredom, and yes, even laziness), but (1) is different, more a search for an optimal strategy prior to the start, because the cost for doing otherwise could be prohibitive. It is simply unwillingness in decision-making (too early).

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

#32
post #27

> 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…

“ > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert” That makes sense for some procrastination, but other procrastination is laziness. Mopping the floor, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn types of procrastination... those are under your own purview and don’t involve big emotions or decisions... So I think it explains some kinds of procrastination but not all.

I will let the dishes sit because the thought of doing them feels overwhelming.

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

#33
post #29

For me the biggest help has been David D. Burns (the author of feeling good) technique called the TIC-TOC technique(1). It's basically like a Pros and Cons list but targeted to cure procrastination but identifying the cognitive distortions in the TICs (or task-interfering cognitions). It has been so helpful for me that I ended up writing a small web-app for myself to do this whenever I don't feel like doing anything!…

Mind sharing a link to your web-app? I ask this while actively procrastinating from work.

Sure, it's here: https://www.feelhappy.win/app.html#/dashboard

It's not just this TIC-TOC thing but I've kinda converted all his CBT exercises like Cost Benefit Analysis, Daily mood log, Acceptance paradox, tec into my web app.

Small disclaimer: I made this site only for myself so it is buggy and unpolished as hell. Get's the work done for me though, but ymmv.

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

#34
post #27

> 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…

“ > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert” That makes sense for some procrastination, but other procrastination is laziness. Mopping the floor, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn types of procrastination... those are under your own purview and don’t involve big emotions or decisions... So I think it explains some kinds of procrastination but not all.

One of the best things I've ever learned was to recognize that voice when it says "I can do that later" and instead decide to do it right now. The payoff is huge!

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

#35
post #32
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert” That makes sense for some procrastination, but other procrastination is laziness. Mopping the floor, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn types of procrastination... those are under your own purview and don’t involve big emotions or decisions... So I think it explains some kinds of procrastination but not all.

I will let the dishes sit because the thought of doing them feels overwhelming.

I have no desire to perform any manual labor task that can easily be automated, it seems such a pointless waste of time. Time better spent procrastinating.

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

#36
Well, the difficult emotion is often some form of fear. Fear of failing, of making a mistake, in some cases, of making the problem worse. All of these fears are in a fundamental sense legitimate, but the direct solution is, insofar as it is possible, to prepare and practice.

The alternative is to tackle something even harder that includes the thing you want to make as a special case. This is a recent discovery of mine. The pressure of accomplishing the bigger, harder thing can often drive you to simply knock out the smaller thing to get it out of the way, and that's often good enough.

There's an apocryphal story in rabbinical lore about a farmer who's frustrated that his home is so noisy that he can't sleep. The Rabbi sympathizes and tells the farmer to invite another animal into his home night after night. The farmer gets more frantic, angry even that this "solution" isn't working. Then the rabbi tells the farmer to remove all the animals, and the farmer, now in peace and quiet, could fall soundly asleep. The solution above is the same: you don't eliminate the fear, you replace it with a greater fear such that the original fear doesn't seem to matter!

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

#37
>'Just get started'? If I could just get started then I wouldn't have a procrastination problem." I thought: fair enough.

This never worked for me. I write one sentence or do the small task and then I go off and do something else. Perhaps it's due to my (bad) habit of context-switching but either way I've never benefited much from this approach despite often trying it.

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

#38

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 ove…

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

That's probably not a reasonable assumption. Evolution doesn't work so fast. Procrastination might simply be an indication that we're not living under liveable conditions. Why do octopuses eat their own limbs under some conditions? Does it give them an evolutionary advantage?

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

#39
I’ve found that if it feels like crap, so to speak, you’re doing it right! We’re not SUPPOSED to be content all the time, and that’s okay. Next time you feel bad emotions when you’re starting something, think, this is an indicator that I’m doing it right. After a while, the feeling is not as intense, it becomes a habit, then after you have had it as a habit you should use that uncomfortable feeling to guide your next move. Usually the thing you don’t want to do (the thing you are lazy about) is the right thing to do! Wishing everyone an awesome day :)

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

#40

> 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…

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