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Procrastination is Not Laziness

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Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#51

Post by downandout »

It's rather telling that many of the comments disputing the author's thesis about the root cause of procrastination read like the Top 10 Things Procrastinators Tell Themselves. Almost all of the alternative causes mentioned have nothing to do with them, because that would mean admitting a flaw, but have to do with the situation, which of course is beyond their control and therefore not their fault.

Anyway, this article really hit home for me. I will definitely be picking up a copy of "The Now Habit".

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#52

Post by ndonnellan »

nikatwork wrote: post #11

Interesting theory but I'm not sure it's the whole picture. Personally, while I definitely identify with the "fear of failure" personality trait, I find my procrastination is down to two things: depleted willpower and inertia. To help with willpower, I try to keep my home environment as tidy and organized as possible (which doesn't come naturally). There's not too much I can do about my dayjob other than minimize my…

I would add indecision to the list of sources. I can't pinpoint where I first heard this, but it rings true to me. If can break down a large todo into its constituent pieces, each of which either has a trivial answer or has a clear path to finding the answer, I can mow all of them down. Bam bam bam.

My downfall is when I forget that specificity works (when I get lazy). Exactly like me and TDD. You will eventually check all the boxes; enumerating them beforehand removes the crap.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#53

Post by lukevdp »

nikatwork wrote: post #11

Interesting theory but I'm not sure it's the whole picture. Personally, while I definitely identify with the "fear of failure" personality trait, I find my procrastination is down to two things: depleted willpower and inertia. To help with willpower, I try to keep my home environment as tidy and organized as possible (which doesn't come naturally). There's not too much I can do about my dayjob other than minimize my…

I agree.

I find for me I don't really identify with the "fear of failure", yet I do have a problem with procrastination.

I find tasks that I enjoy, or tasks where I am working towards a goal, easy to start and do. I find it hard to work on tasks where the task leads nowhere (the example of doing taxes is the perfect example)

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#54

Post by greendestiny »

downandout wrote: post #51

It's rather telling that many of the comments disputing the author's thesis about the root cause of procrastination read like the Top 10 Things Procrastinators Tell Themselves. Almost all of the alternative causes mentioned have nothing to do with them , because that would mean admitting a flaw, but have to do with the situation, which of course is beyond their control and therefore not their fault. Anyway, this arti…

I came here to make nearly that exact comment - but about the article rather than the comments. A friend who is a psychologist recommended these resources on the topic: http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_I...

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#56

Post by duck »

anthonyb wrote: post #12
johnsoft wrote: post #5

Here's a link to the "Experiment No. 11" he mentioned: http://www.raptitude.com/experiment-log-no-11-an-attack-on-p...

Interesting that that's from 2011, whereas this post is 2013. A rehash/rebooted blog, perhaps?

Actually, this post is from 2011 as well: http://www.raptitude.com/2011/05/procrastination-is-not-lazi...

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#58

Post by tptacek »

elptacek wrote: post #34

This is perfectly timed for me, having spent the last two days procrastinating (yesterday, by staring at someone else's code but not really reading it and today by running errands). It feels like the opportunity to be brilliant can so easily slip away until my deadlines have passed and I'm out of time. The last 2.5 months for me have been nothing but struggling to figure out something that I barely understand. Someth…

She clearly means Paul Graham, who can come over and take the garbage out ANY TIME HE'S READY THANK YOU.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#59

Post by jlees »

Swizec wrote: post #8

"You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything." I disagree. My reasons for pr…

Completely agree on point 3; fear of success is a big issue when it comes to side projects and the like, or in another form, fear of what the future/task looks like once the project is underway. There's also an aspect of enjoying the planning stage more than the execution stage, which is common in "analysis paralysis" type procrastination situations.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned ADD/ADHD yet; continually starting and not following through is a classic behaviour, though procrastination is a slightly different beastie, I can see a relationship here. In that case I would characterise it less as procrastination for your, or the OP's, reasons; and more procrastination because the brain cannot grab on and commit to the task, so it goes and does something (ten things) different instead.

Re: Procrastination is Not Laziness

#60

Post by Xcelerate »

> I want to write down what I’m going to do the next day, and actually do it. [...] I will do anything but the 5 to 10 items I thought would be smart ones to do.

This fits me like a suit. I have actively begun not making lists because it is a guaranteed way to prevent the listed items from being completed.

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