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Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even click the article (the pain of reading it seemed too large) so I came directly to the comments. Awesome tips! "Our instincts know what they're doing" is very true. I tend to procrastinate when two conditions are fulfilled 1) the task is boring/painful, and 2) in the back of my mind, I've already calculated out the time and I can afford to push it until later. Trying to force myself just increases my exp…

Isn't procrastination a way of converting painfully boring tasks into fun adrenaline rushes? It seems like a pretty good evolutionary adaption: I perform better when all my senses are elevated, so why not? Problem arises when you don't have a hard deadline (I.e., you are only accountable to yourself).

Which is why on the worst of days I set up timers. "Ok, I'm going to work for 15/20/30 minutes straight and then I'm kicking up my feet". I always keep going after the timer goes off.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#52
post #47

The real reason you procrastinate: You fundamentally don't want to be doing whatever task it is that you're avoiding, and while it might be the logically "correct" thing to do, that doesn't mean you want to do it. What we want and what we are pushed into doing are not always aligned. News at ten.

But when you do it (or start doing it), you actually feel good/better.

I procrastinate a lot and will never stop because in so many cases it makes perfect sense and works out well. I can't tell you how many times it turned out I didn't even need to do something I was procrastinating on, or a far easier way to proceed came up.

It's so easy to wind up with an infinite list of chores. Continually pushing a lot of them off as late as possible works rather well, in my experience.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even click the article (the pain of reading it seemed too large) so I came directly to the comments. Awesome tips! "Our instincts know what they're doing" is very true. I tend to procrastinate when two conditions are fulfilled 1) the task is boring/painful, and 2) in the back of my mind, I've already calculated out the time and I can afford to push it until later. Trying to force myself just increases my exp…

Isn't procrastination a way of converting painfully boring tasks into fun adrenaline rushes? It seems like a pretty good evolutionary adaption: I perform better when all my senses are elevated, so why not? Problem arises when you don't have a hard deadline (I.e., you are only accountable to yourself).

>Isn't procrastination a way of converting painfully boring tasks into fun adrenaline rushes?

must be one of my new favourite quotes. Thanks for this gem

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#55

This is more or less a copy of http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/03/procrastination-matrix.html . I recommend reading that instead.

It does copy a great deal of that, but there's also quite a bit of material from other sources, so I guess we'll leave the WaPo article up.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#57
post #9

This may may have been just the article I needed, but I will never know because I realised it must be a good three or four months since I last refreshed my memory about the events leading up to the Chernobyl disaster.

It's been mentioned elsewhere in the comments here, but this is directly relevant to your comment.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastin...

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#58
I have to laugh whenever "hedonic pleasure" is brought into the discussion.

If avoiding your thesis by emptying the dishwasher is "giving into pleasure," why is there so little pleasure involved, and is it hedonism again when the next day you feel inspired and give into the pleasure of writing your thesis? At the same time, the very fact that your levels of motivation, courage, and anxiety fluctuate all the time invalidates the advice, "You're never going to feel like doing it (so just do it)." This is a form of motivational advice where you take a truth and wrap it in a lie. Another example is, "Nobody enjoys their job." Plenty of people enjoy their jobs, so what is really being said? Basically that the current discomforts are to be expected and should not cause distress. It's emotional invalidation in a digestible pill, though it may trigger an adverse reaction.

We are emotional animals with many emotional needs and colorful emotional states. We should learn to be aware of our own needs, and practice recognizing and tolerating our emotional states. For example, acting with courage involves being able to tolerate the fear state, which is a skill that takes practice. With awareness of your emotions, you can absolutely increase happiness and pleasure in your life, by doing activities you enjoy and hopefully going into a line of work you take some pleasure in. Arrange your life to make your inner animal happy. Acknowledge when your needs are not being met.

Whenever I see the term "hedonic pleasure" used, it is surrounded by a useless caricature of the human emotional life. In this caricature, all positive emotions are equivalent; all negative emotions are equivalent; and avoiding a negative emotion is equivalent to seeking a positive emotion. Never mind what's causing the emotions in the first place!

Hedonism is about the morality of sensual pleasure. Imagine you have enough money in the bank that you never have to work again, and in fact you can live a life of some luxury. What should you devote your life to now? Maximizing your personal pleasure? Or should you invest in your personal relationships, or try to make the world a better place? What's the most good or "moral" path? Obviously, the society we live in frowns on the hedonistic choice. All of this has nothing to do with procrastination, except by a very strained analogy. If in procrastination, we feel that our "voice of reason" is being drowned out by other voices representing baser drives, we can smear these other voices by portraying them as mindless pleasure-seekers — supporters of the Pleasure Party — and make our opposition to this party into a moral or philosophical issue. Meanwhile, the truth could be that the "voice of reason" is an echo of your parents insisting you need a PhD using tactics of shame and fear, while among your "baser drives" is the desire to feel a sense of your own worth as a person.

Humans don't "seek" emotions, anyway, we feel them. When you think about your homework, that thought triggers an emotional cascade. The trick is altering that emotional response over time. When you play a video game level, you aren't "seeking" the hit of completing the level; you are actually feeling a positive emotion throughout the whole level of being engaged with making progress towards a goal. When you even think about going to play video games, you get some of that feeling. This feeling is a hugely positive thing, but like all emotions, you need to be on decent terms with it so you can reason with it, so hear it out; feel it; and then recruit some other voices to the conversation.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#59

Oh the irony. I came across this here, while procrastinating, and decided this was too long so I sent it to Instapaper, where I will probably never read it...

Somewhat off topic but I hadn't heard of Instapaper before, have you used Pocket and if so what do you like better about Instapaper? Looks like they have a speed reading and kindle sync option which is pretty cool.

I use Instapaper. I haven't heard of Pocket. I like Instapaper's really minimal design, their "Instapaper Text" extension, and the ability to save and sort articles for later.

Re: Research into the reasons for procrastination and how to stop

#60

The real reason I procrastinate is because I hate my life, and I'd be better off dead.

Depression is a know cause of adhd type symptoms, which include procrastination. Find a good shrink (I know it's hard and you probably won't listen to me, but on the off chance you are looking for advice just try)
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