Any article on procrastination that contains a to-do list is a procrastination-feeding item itself.
How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
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Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#32You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
If you're interested in something more scholarly, read John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#33You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
Well, if at all someone doesn't want to waste time ever, he/she won't be either on HN, or reading pg's endless writeups, or on that guy Babauta's pointless articles (I subscribed to his blog for some time). He is one the guys writing blog posts on minimalism made up of thousands of words and tens of glossy high resolution images.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#34You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
In my eyes there are two problems at work:
1. The people who become teachers really think this is how life is. How can they teach someone something about life that doesn't exist? It's like giving a painting class to a blind person.
2. Part of this misunderstanding between work and fun is really inherently in the children. I have a little half brother, about 5 years old. He always complains about cleaning up the Legos after we are finished building something as if it would be my way of doing something bad to him, not the normal end result of throwing Legos through the whole room. Children can not think logically to a certain degree. They can only follow the feeling of "exciting, happy, new" as good and "boring, repepetive" as bad. And bad, even between grown ups, is understood as something that comes from outside, not from ones self, at least in the first moment of experiencing bad feelings.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#35You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
I find there is a common theme in the ZenHabit's post we are all commenting on, PG's post that you have shared, and many other things I have read about procrastination. All these readings take me back to the fun and simplified explanation of procrastination posted here on quora - http://qr.ae/h6VWJ
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#36On a side note, I just listened to this audiobook "The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing" http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Procrastination-Lollygagging-P... A humorous take on working with procrastination, not against it. Short, but highly recommended.
In the same vein: structured procrastination.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#37I do empathize with the original article a lot. I used to have/still have a strong fear of failing, especially in intellectual tasks. According to my own introspection this is primary angst that caused/causes me to procrastinate. There are two major references I often go back when I find myself paralyzed.
One being an advise I got from one of my PhD advisors: All creative tasks might appear that it requires enormous amount of courage and effort. But usually it is more like a kitchen sink heaped with a lot of unwashed dishes. Chances are that once you wash one dish, you will end up cleaning the full lot; and you often get a strange form of pleasure while you are performing the task.
The other one is this essay http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~psargent/Mills_Intell_Craft.pdf on intellectual craftsmanship by Wright Mills. I do now a days actively collect memories of pure immersion and pleasure I experienced while my craft got exposed and exploited to its potential. The thought of me improving as a craftsman, coupled with these memories is a powerful self motivator to me. The shit feeling I gets when I waste my time is another reference. One of the potent lessons was also that craft can be improved only by dedicating time ( which is pleasurable); and by disassociating the end result and fears. The toughest part is to replay this logic while I find myself slipping into vortex of non productivity, but that is something I can work on and probably in my control.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#38You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
> Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something."
Nonsense. This in itself is a result of falling prey to what Leo Baubata (the author of the linked article) writes about: Inability to "let go".
There may certainly be things you'd find more fulfilling. But if you need to do stuff to be happy, you are letting yourself suffer from attachments to things that more the most part are relatively inconsequential.
PG's essay suffers from this assumption that happiness is tied to achievements.
I used to think that too. The problem with that line of thinking is that it often leads to putting the shutters on and focusing on getting stuff done to get your happiness from it eventually, while ignoring all the sources of happiness around you. Further, that makes procrastination worse, in my experience: It creates guilt that you're picking the short term pleasures instead of doing the stuff you're sure will make you fabulously happy later, once you've just achieved something.
These days, I still get stuff done - more than ever, in fact -, but I might suddenly stop during my commute and look up at the clouds and enjoy the sight, or just close my eyes for 10 seconds and enjoy the calm, and I'm happy whether or not I'm doing anything. The two are not related. If you can't be happy even while doing the dishes, or fighting your way onto a commuter train, or carrying out some mind-numbingly boring menial work, you're missing out.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
My son's got an ADHD diagnosis and he seems like you. Whatever is slightly uninteresting is terribly difficult for him to focus on but if there's something interesting, he can maintain perfect focus for hours. I imagine it might be days if he wasn't interrupted.
* Whatever is slightly uninteresting is terribly difficult for him to focus on but if there's something interesting, he can maintain perfect focus for hours. Aren't we all like that?
To some extent, it's about the severity of these reactions, I suppose.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#40Could you let go writing useless articles?