41–50 of 113 posts
Getting myself out of the present, in a nutshell.
Close everything! Ask yourself why you're not enjoying your work today. If you're not enjoying what you're doing, do something about it. Either finish it, so you can move on to something you enjoy. If that's not the case, talk to someone about how boring your stuff is and fix this problem.
DON'T ACCEPT PROCRASTINATION!
I feel you. I've been procrastinating a project for 3 years already (yes 3 years). I write code maybe half of one day each week. The rest of the time I do as you describe. I'm so ashamed of it I tell no one. Glad to have quite a bit of savings.
I don't mean to come off as a dick, but switch projects. I procrastinated for a month straight on something, as soon as I dropped the project the code flowed.
Nearing the end of a unproductive day, accept that the day was not productive, start on what you will work on tomorrow, do a little, and stop in the middle.
my tactic: if you are burned out on coding, stop and do something else positive: * go for a run * do an errand that has to be done anyway * balance your checkbook This gets your mind on something else which is probably the problem - we aren't meant to stare at a screen doing exactly the same things over and over for 8 hours. And remember, you are not alone in this. No depression allowed - you are not weak, you are hu…
The Hemingway Trick: Stop in the middle. Never stop working at the natural barriers. They next time you start working, the barrier will be the first thing you encounter, and you won't have the momentum to overcome it. Try to stop writing mid-chapter, or mid-sentence (or mid function). Know how to finish, but stop working. The next time you start, you know exactly what needs to be done. There will even be the urge to…
For me, procrastination always come from a lack of having a digestible plan of attack. When you find yourself procrastinating, figure out a single next step for your project, one single feature, or one single task in that feature that needs to be done. If you know what your next step in the project is, you'll have this urge to jump back in and do that task. If you can't find that task, then you need to step back and…
This advice of breaking down the problem to its smallest domain of attack has been around for a long time.
I find procrastination is a symptom, not the actual problem. The very root of the problem is that I'm either faced with something I just don't want to do or can see that the NEXT thing is something I really don't want to face. It usually means I need to do some introspection.
Yes, this. I have no problem working when I'm excited about the work. If I'm not excited, then it's usually some extra-curricular problem or the work is not the kind of work that inspires me.
Emotions do not care about what you will feel in the future, they just care about what you feel right now. Procrastinating makes people happy. It is some type of addiction. You just can not ignore your emotions, and you do what makes you happy right now which is procrastinating.
I don't get why stories like this make it to the first page of HN. Seriously.
Seeing this post has led me to possible solutions to the problem.