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Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

deprocrastination.co

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Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#61

Post by adadadadadad »

LoganDark wrote: post #43
sanderjd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I really don't relate to this. I don't have tasks I can do in 25 or 30 minutes, except for the exact kind of "marking messages read" tasks that leave me feeling empty at the end of the day. > Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot. For me, these notes would mostly be "spent 25 minutes rebuilding context, got pulled away" over and over again. I think…

This is part of my issue, too. Not having no things to do in a short amount of time, but knowing that I don't have time, preventing me from starting . A lot of people have the ability to just dive in regardless of how much time they foresee having. I don't. I need to have time in order to feel safe starting anything. In the hours preceding something like a doctor's appointment, I can't do anything. Anything I start w…

Having endless uninterrupted time surprisingly doesn’t help either. “I cant start because the weekend is in 4 days”.

Some of my most productive times have actually been sporadic bursts before appointments mainly for annoying tasks. The fact that you don’t have enough time seems to break the perfectionism blocker “I don’t have enough time so I’ll do a rush job of whatever I can knowing it will not be completed” and also avoids the self-disappointment pressure that would come from “I have plenty of time now but I still can’t work so I will never get it done”. It’s a time for building momentum. And it’s not like you are running away from the task purposely to procrastinate…it’s that you have no choice.

It’s like how some people are calm and productive when everything is in chaos, because the chaos makes it obvious exactly what needs to be done and no one is judging how it’s done they just need it resolved and you will be a hero.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#62

Post by helboi4 »

snazz wrote: post #33
darkwater wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a medical expert or anything but I guess there is a good chunk of population who just procrastinates or can struggle with focus without having ADHD? Or is there always a 1:1 relationship?

A lot of people (myself included) procrastinate on something because it's emotionally uncomfortable, without necessarily having ADHD. For example, when I was much younger, I'd procrastinate on math homework specifically, not because I struggled with focus, but because it was difficult to admit to myself that I didn't know how to do it and would need to practice. Subjects that came more naturally to me (English, scien…

How do you overcome this? I've avoided things due to emotional discomfort my whole life and I don't think I can ever do better at this point. I find that it requires conscious effort to learn to do things that are required as standard for most adults.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#64

Post by adadadadadad »

corobo wrote: post #56
adadadadadad wrote: post #39

I wonder if anyone had success by handing control of their life to a higher power…like ChatGPT. I wonder if you could prompt it to be a vicious task master boss who demands regular status updates and can adequately shame you.

Tiny successes in something like this - I've got a whole system of timers that are either tracking what I'm doing or tracking the time when I'm not doing something during work time. From there I've got an automation that will send me a notification warning me the timewaster timer is about to start and that I should start working on something. There's a tiny slither of shame in there that seems to be helping! :) I am…

> tracking what I'm doing or tracking the time when I'm not doing something during work time.

Made me think of a chess timer. Maybe I will buy one now haha.

—

I’ve found that any ideas I have for projects to help with procrastination never get done. It’s the ultimate procrastination and there is no end to it. It doubly kills my motivation because now I have to be thinking how much more efficient I would be if I had my tools which I currently don’t have. So even if I eventually start working, now it feels even harder :D

I think there are a lot of rabbit holes like this in programming in general.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#65

Post by strongpigeon »

moritzwarhier wrote: post #37
codetrotter wrote: post #14

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=deprocrastination.co Interesting that pretty much all submissions on the first page of results from this domain is both by the same user and broadly seems to be about the same overarching theme of procrastination. Is OP the author of the site? (OP also posts links to other sites, so not saying OP is doing anything wrong though.)

Since 7 of the last 30 submissions by OP are that site and the pattern continues, I find it absolutely understandable and good-faith to become suspicious. Other users have been accusing the same https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28894120 I don't want to participate in a witch hunt here, but HN needs to stay vigilant against spam and self-promotion that exceeds the reasonable intersection with honestly showing pers…

Which rule is it breaking? From the guidelines:

> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#66

Post by pc86 »

criddell wrote: post #50
dartos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be a little weird, but the from us music from brain.fm really helps me. I’ve measured the work I get done over sprints where I listen to brain.fm and where I don’t, and I usually get 2-3 more cards done of weeks that I do. Not a scientific measurement, but it is what it is.

I'm intrigued, but brain.fm requires a credit card for a free trial. Bummer. Edit: I just checked my email and (in the spam folder) was an email from them with a link that works for 3 days. I'm trying it now.

Not to excuse these dark patterns from shitty products that can't get revenue without tricking people, but privacy.com lets you set up single-use credit cards with e.g. a $1 lifetime limit. This is my go-to for places like this if I really, really want to try it.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#67

Post by verisimi »

bookofjoe wrote: post #27
prometheus76 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the classic situation of someone without ADHD telling us "just focus!" or "you just need to write things down!" or "you're just lazy". I have ADHD, and I also do not have a sense of smell (lost it in a TBI when I was a teenager). I tell people, "you take for granted what it's like to have a sense of smell. It affects every moment of your day, catching your interest and directing your attention all the time. Imag…

Memories of my ex-wife admonishing me, while in the throes of a deep, disabling episode of clinical depression, to "Snap out of it!"

"Snap out of it!"

lol

Sorry. I actually relate to this!

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#68

Post by hindsightbias »

adadadadadad wrote: post #39

I wonder if anyone had success by handing control of their life to a higher power…like ChatGPT. I wonder if you could prompt it to be a vicious task master boss who demands regular status updates and can adequately shame you.

What if we built procrastination into LLMs?

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#69

Post by SleepilyLimping »

helboi4 wrote: post #58
prometheus76 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the classic situation of someone without ADHD telling us "just focus!" or "you just need to write things down!" or "you're just lazy". I have ADHD, and I also do not have a sense of smell (lost it in a TBI when I was a teenager). I tell people, "you take for granted what it's like to have a sense of smell. It affects every moment of your day, catching your interest and directing your attention all the time. Imag…

I just had my new therapist yesterday telling me "doesn't it feel good to be consistent and achieve things" and I'm like yeah no shit. "so you need to be consistent with something" yeah that's my problem dawg. "what's the feeling you get when you want to quit?" it just happens that my life falls apart or I get really into sth else. does nobody else just lose track of all the bricks required to do things sometimes? "i…

It's always uncomfortable with a new therapist because they lack the context to know what you're going through, for how long, and the factors that are affecting it. I've seen mine for over a decade at this point, and when I talk to people about their potential growing pains when they're seeking out help, a lot of it is a reminder that you have to create that context/history with them over time.

It seems like yours is more comfortable making suppositions without the historical context, which sucks to hear and is pretty exhausting.

Re: Stop postponing things by embracing the mess

#70

Post by adadadadadad »

aaron695 wrote: post #6

This site is bizarre. If you look at their stuff on addiction, they have no grounding in current theory. And by current theory, that's from science to religious ideas like prayer, nothing they talk about matches anything in the world from hard numbers to mysticism. They also have no explanation why they break with all the current theories or where their theories come from. By now they are a HN institution, but I'd be…

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