If you are looking for more ways to read about procrastination instead of doing something useful, I also heartily recommend:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrasti...
How to get yourself to do things (2015)
41–50 of 86 posts
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I almost envy countries that focus on almost militaristic rote practice. For some of my foreign educated colleagues, there is little in the way between wanting to accomplish something and accomplishing it. It has its downsides. I had mostly bad experience working with software developers from rote learning cultures, because you may guess it, they tend to execute but not think about it. IMO the main worth of a softwa…
Do you personally feel that it would be valuable to have the high authority/rote people in place to execute and low authority/creative thinkers in place to plan?
The challenge of course is that detailed planning requires significant high authority work, hah.
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#43Not a bad piece, but for me it turns out almost all of my so-called procrastination and laziness is rooted in a congenital medical condition. When I can manage to take good care of myself, energy and mental focus lead to productivity. When I can't, then I look like some kind of loser to the outside world. I suspect that under recognized health issues are a common factor in such patterns. I knew a guy who swore he was…
This quote. From Doreen's long lost German book is pure genius. It is the first and best description of the reality I've been experiencing:
"The idea was that you have a certain budgeted ability to do a particular type of thing and if you aren't getting enough of that thing, you will do more of that type of thing voluntarily (as a hobby) and if you are being forced to do more of that type of thing than your internal budget supports, you will start experiencing burnout."
Everything else I've read has generally been about increasing capacity, and perhaps to some extent one can, but perhaps there is a sweet spot. For example, in lifting weights, you have your capacity for today and for this week, and you want to manage hitting your sweet spot for where you are at a given time so that you can grow without injuring yourself.
This shifts the conversation from trying to find and endless source of creation inside yourself (not realistic) to an awareness of and managing your current energy budget for a specific type such as creativity so that you tend to your self and optimize your choices so that energy is not wasted.
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#44At one point I spent a couple of days watching dozens of videos on procrastination, and this video [1] by Tim Pychyl was by far the best. I strongly recommend it. It's ostensibly focused on helping grad students with procrastination, but the tips and techniques he gives in the talk can be applied by anyone. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA
Agreed. His book is also highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Solving-Procrastination-Puzzle-Concis...
After reading the 1 and 2 star reviews, is there any one particular point that differentiates this book from the others? (Getting Things Done, Eat the Frog, The Now Habit, etc.)
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#45Looking back, it's very easy for me to blame the US education system, which seems to make it very easy for slightly intelligent people to avoid a lot of work. I feel like I learned really bad work habits early on and am cursed with a flawed brain now. I almost envy countries that focus on almost militaristic rote practice. For some of my foreign educated colleagues, there is little in the way between wanting to accom…
Do slightly less intelligent people have non flawed brains because they were forced to do more work in an allegedly poor education system? Your brain is not flawed, and certainly not cursed, except perhaps by its own silliness.
Agree with your comments on leadership!
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#46The 10 minute rule: if you want to do something, really force yourself to do it, but only for 10 minutes. If you want to build a daily habit, commit yourself every day no matter how you feel, but only for at least 10 minutes.
More generally, if you have a bunch of tasks, commit yourself to at least one. Don't necessarily push yourself to do everything but force yourself, no matter how hard, to do at least one. If it's a big task, break it up into smaller tasks.
This one rule is seriously like a magic bullet. 90% of the time you'll end up doing everything. Somehow you're brain just goes from thinking "I hate this, it's so hard" to "wow, this is easy, let's keep going". The other 10% of the time, you can keep your pride, because 1) you at least tried, and 2) it's sometimes a sign of an actual issue (e.g. you feel bad running because you're actually sick). I've heard this advice many times, and somehow I've never yet heard a single person say it didn't work for them.
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#47For those who resonate with this post, it might help to know that the author more recently announced he was diagnosed with ADHD and that he started receiving treatment (including medication) for it.
https://www.raptitude.com/2021/03/what-raptitude-has-always-...
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#48This article just described my year.
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#49What about partial procrastination: doing something but only halfway
Similar to "anything worth doing is worth doing poorly"?
The key is to lower the psychological hurdles / consequentiality burden of doing things. Simone Giertz's philosophy in making shitty robots that do stupid things poorly is an exemplar of this. There's no fear of failure *because the whole idea is not worthwhile" ... which makes the process an excellent learning tool.
Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. His book is also highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Solving-Procrastination-Puzzle-Concis...
Eyeroll . Read it. I read everything. Look, my brain is broken. It would literally be easier for me to off myself than do everything I need to do every single day. It's simply hell. A mediocre life is the best I can hope for without modern medicine. When I had access to it, I felt normal for the short but brilliant time it lasted.
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