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Getting Past Procrastination

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31–40 of 185 posts

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#31

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.

Regarding the family part. Don’t feel terribly bas about not having a family. There is the possibility of a divorce and the resulting court ordered payments that can be far more devastating. It’s simply too hard to keep someone else happy all the time. Frustrations add up, more fights, more insults, more angry words. As humans I don’t think we can ever be happy.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#32
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#33

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…

Oh yeah! There are things that you "have" to do to fit a monoculture that are not fun.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#38
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, its the same concept. what are you procrastinating on?

Sometimes on house chores or small repairs to do.

I do not know much or anything about your situation, but here is one thing that might work.

I would suggest picking a fixed point in time every week. At this point in time you will finish (if they are small enough, otherwise split in multiple steps) on of these chores/repairs. E.g., every Saturday afternoon from 1 am you will finish one of these. The rest of the time you then do not need to think about these which is your reward for doing one chore/repair.

Re: Getting Past Procrastination

#40
The "action precedes motivation" idea is underrated. I've definitely found that once I take that first tiny step (open the file, write the first test, whatever), things start to flow. It's weirdly easy to forget that when you're stuck in that doom-scroll-procrastinate spiral.
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