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At the End of a Procrastinated Day

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Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#51

Post by static_cast »

tomjen3 wrote: post #40
kapitalx wrote: post #6

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…

Since monday my home internet hasn't been working. Was told by tech support to call them if it didn't work two hours after rebooting it. My internet is important to me (and using an iPad with 3g wasn't a great solution). The tech call wouldn't have taken more than 15 minutes. I had the time. Yet I procrastinated making the call. I might have made it, but the connection started working today so I didn't. The plan was…

I know exactly what you are talking about. Following a plan can be hard. If you don't have clean socks anymore try to include that into your plan. Say 30min household stuff... nobody will ever see my plan. It is personal, full of probably questionable content for other people, but it is realistic and only when it is realistic you even have a chance to fullfill it.

Also: Iterate. Make a plan for tomorrow, realize tomorrow you are 50% off, ask yourself why...iterate till you can fullfill the plan. Include the stuff that stopped you from fullfilling your original plan, spot problems, experiment with solutions. Beeing honest with yourself can be hard.

And: Only do this for 50-70% of your time. If you plan everything you'll go nuts very soon (At least I do) but don't omit personal goals or problems.

As for the problem of acting on the plan: Think about binary sort... split the problem till you can handle it, then merge the parts. If you don't know how to handle it you can always think about splitting it up.

good luck!

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#52

Post by sheldor »

rane wrote: post #50
sheldor wrote: post #37

I don't get why stories like this make it to the first page of HN. Seriously.

I have a problem with procrastination. Seeing this post has led me to possible solutions to the problem.

There are a million sites on the Internet about procrastination and you found your solution in a mediocre (at best) 15 line blog post? Google. Seriously.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#53

Post by jarin »

daenz wrote: post #15

I'm with the "it's ok to procrastinate sometimes" camp. Lot's of exercise plans include a "junk day" where you're allowing yourself to eat whatever you want without guilt. The reason is because it's good to reward yourself with something you like, and because it's near impossible to continue at something forever without little breaks. From the sounds of it, maybe your "junk day" breaks aren't regular enough to keep y…

Here's something I noticed:

If I spend all day browsing around the web unproductively, I don't feel motivated at all.

If I say "You know what, I'm not getting anything done. I'm going to play video games for a few hours.", I feel energized to get work done afterward.

I think it's the fact that browsing aimlessly is like knowing you need to run an errand and then sitting in the car with your hands on the wheel, but not turning the key. It's close enough to what you SHOULD be doing that you feel even worse that you're not getting things done. If I take a break to play a game or read a book or something, it's an explicit transition between activities.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#54

Post by jarin »

daenz wrote: post #15

I'm with the "it's ok to procrastinate sometimes" camp. Lot's of exercise plans include a "junk day" where you're allowing yourself to eat whatever you want without guilt. The reason is because it's good to reward yourself with something you like, and because it's near impossible to continue at something forever without little breaks. From the sounds of it, maybe your "junk day" breaks aren't regular enough to keep y…

Here's something I noticed:

If I spend all day browsing around the web unproductively, I don't feel motivated at all.

If I say "You know what, I'm not getting anything done. I'm going to play video games for a few hours.", I feel energized to get work done afterward.

I think it's the fact that browsing aimlessly is like knowing you need to run an errand and then sitting in the car with your hands on the wheel, but not turning the key. It's close enough to what you SHOULD be doing that you feel even worse that you're not getting things done. If I take a break to play a game or read a book or something, it's an explicit transition between activities.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#55

Post by dudurocha »

sheldor wrote: post #52
rane wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a problem with procrastination. Seeing this post has led me to possible solutions to the problem.

There are a million sites on the Internet about procrastination and you found your solution in a mediocre (at best) 15 line blog post? Google. Seriously.

The solution is not on the post, is in the comments.

So you think that the solution for procrastination is google for it? I see this approach going all way around, and making people procrastinate more. Here in hn we can listen to other peers, that have the same problem and have good solutions.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#56

Post by peterjs »

alf wrote: post #44

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…

Thanks for sharing this insight. It really struck me with its simplicity. It happens all the time. When I have a clear notion of how to continue, I can't wait to start coding the next day. Just the opposite happens when I am left with a "blank page", and I have to force myself to start working.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#57

Post by ugh »

alf wrote: post #44

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…

Finding a way to start work without immediately hitting barriers was so important while writing my bachelor thesis. I now sort of whish I had known about your tip earlier, that seems easier than having to actively search for a simple way to start while procrastinating.

That said, sometimes it seems it was necessary for me to stop work and just do nothing for a while in order to find that important insight.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#58

Post by eps »

You know how sometimes you are reading a book and then at some point you realize that you have no idea what the last few paragraphs were about. There was a study that traced this sudden loss of comprehension to the first word that didn't make sense. Anything between that word and the current position was read, but not understood.

I am guessing the procrastination is similar. I would be working and it all would be flowing along, but then I would hit a problem. Something stupid, like having several variable names 5 characters each, and needing another variable, but not being able to find a 5 char name for it. And that's it. I will just keep idling here.

The remedy in both cases is to realize there was an unknown word or a stumbling block, explicitly identify it and work around it. This really works, though YMMV.

Re: At the End of a Procrastinated Day

#59

Post by Sukotto »

rane wrote: post #48
danso wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sometimes you just have to work on less interesting things, there's no way around it.

There's a difference between dealing with a little boredom or muckwork in a project (there's always some of that) and the sort of relentless, day-long, can't do anything procrastination the OP describes.

Sure, we all have those little jobs we don't want to do... But if you find you just can't get anything done for days at a time, it means your subconscious is trying to tell you something. You'd be wise to try and figure out what, and take steps to address the underlying problem.

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