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A receipt printer cured my procrastination

laurieherault.com

461–470 of 634 posts

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#461

I've never understood why people have "work procrastination" problems. I've never had to play games to get myself to do work. You're paid to do a job, so do the job. Is this a generational thing and is it really that big of a problem? I've worked remotely since 2016-ish and still can't comprehend why this is an issue.

Not everyone's wired the same. A close family member was diagnosed with ADHD and he describes his battles with procrastination as if there was a glass wall stopping him from doing whatever he was meant to be doing. So easy for someone else to say "what's the big deal? Just do it!".

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you do drugs? If not then you're already 'starving' yourself of the purest form of pleasure (which is a good thing, don't get me wrong). I don't think taking one step further is that sad.

I think this is more akin to literally starving yourself so that a single bit of spinach tastes great. It turns out you can in fact eat a candy bar and have pizza and not become obese or otherwise damage your health. It's not one or the other and OP might need some kind of professional help to mediate their moods... Like this is clearly not healthy.

It's quite difficult for some people to allow themselves a candy bar without sliding down a slippery slope. I'm formerly obese, I lost 100 lbs, and I know when I relax my standards even for a few days, it can spiral.

Self-discipline looks different for everyone. I don't think it's necessarily unhealthy.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#465
post #80

This reminds me somewhat of a system by David MacIver: https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/using-a-list-to-manage-exec... He builds his list from scratch every morning. The list is flat, so as you go about your day and subtasks occur to you, they are added to the list without explicit links to the main task. I thought it might be risky to start with a blank list, because something important might be forgotten. But it tu…

> If it is important, you will remember it at some point during the day. As someone with ADHD I’ve never found this to be true. I often forget to eat. I’d forget to file my taxes without reminders.

Serious question: in those scenarios, do you never have awareness about your need to eat? Or does it occur at some point, but then you decide not to eat at the moment, and after making that decision then you never revisit it?

I ask because I often realize I'm hungry or it's time to eat, but I'm too engaged in the task I'm doing and I think "I'll eat a bit later" and then once I've done that the first time I often never consider again, at least until the next meal time. I wonder if that's what people mean when they say it, or if the idea of stopping for a meal simply didn't even occur to them?

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#466

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

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Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#467

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

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Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#469
post #379

The "tasks on slips" remind me of the Cast Deployment System that was used at Walt Disney World 20 years ago (not sure when it started or how it evolved, but it was in use then). All cast members in every park and other location were dispatched by PCs with receipt printers. To begin a shift or return from a break, you typed in your number to a CDS PC (located basically behind any convenient backstage door). The PC wo…

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Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#470
post #80

This reminds me somewhat of a system by David MacIver: https://drmaciver.substack.com/p/using-a-list-to-manage-exec... He builds his list from scratch every morning. The list is flat, so as you go about your day and subtasks occur to you, they are added to the list without explicit links to the main task. I thought it might be risky to start with a blank list, because something important might be forgotten. But it tu…

[deleted]
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