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addicted to procrastination. Close. We're addicted to all manner of other things that give us that instant dopamine hit. When you ask somebody what do they do

addicted to procrastination. Close. We're addicted to all manner of other things that give us that instant dopamine hit. When you ask somebody what do they do when they procrastinate, they rarely say they do something productive[0]. Instead, it's an activity that's designed to trigger that instant high: browsing the web, playing video games, eating, smoking. My reward system is completely divorced from reality. I get rewards all the time for doing absolutely nothing. It's supposed to be, you do some work, you get a reward. You go fishing, dinner is your reward. You build a treehouse, the satisfaction of a job well done is your reward. But what do you do when you can get 100x the reward just clicking through hacker news? I'm currently working on resetting my dopamine threshold by limiting my web browsing to 1 hour a day and meditating more. I'll be honest, it's not going well so far. [0]: some do, but they don't consider their procrastination as a problem.

Joeri 11y ago
Instead of limiting your web browsing, I've found it to be more useful to eliminate certain sites. When things start going overboard for me I will stop visiting the web sites which are the biggest time wasters. The rest of the internet quickly loses its appeal, and though it is hard at first it is relatively easy to go cold turkey instead of trying to ration exposure.
- PopeOfNope 11y ago
  Eliminating certain sites and eliminating the internet is basically the same thing for me. As a programmer, I'm always on the internet researching problems and solutions. I don't count that because it's not an instant fix, it's the work I put into getting the fix, which is solving my problem and seeing my program work. I'm tempted to start consuming the internet solely through my kindle (again, just the instant fix sites: hn, reddit, facebook). It would slow my consumption way down and I'd only be able to use it when I'm not working. But, I need to find a way to stick to that and not also read HN and Reddit while I'm at the work computer. The only tried and true solution I've found for that is to get an accountability buddy. I tried to do that once in person with co-workers (I offered to give them $20 if they can catch me consuming caffeine), but in the end they were uncomfortable taking my money. The next step is researching those accountability buddy startups, where you give money to an organization you hate if you fail.
  - Joeri 11y ago
    For me there are the sites I visit to solve programming problems, google, stackoverflow, etc... And then there are the sites where I waste time pretending I'm just indirectly improving my skillset, HN, slashdot (back in the day), reddit, etc... There is almost no overlap. I find eliminating the time wasters while keeping the professionally useful sites is not that much of a problem.
dasboth 11y ago
I'm trying the whole "surf less, meditate more" thing but I find motivation to meditate quite low on "good" days. When I feel like crap for having procrastinated, sure, give me some of that meditation, but on a day where I feel fine, I easily persuade myself I don't need it. One thing I've tried to do is do household chores when I feel the procrastination urge. It's still procrastination but at least it's a bit more useful than playing video games.
- Dinoso 11y ago
  I tried a lot of things and the only thing that seem to be working is putting all websites on HOST file (Win/Sys32/Driver/etc) and blocking them there. I block all addictive sites all week except Friday Night and weekend. It worked for 2 consecutive weeks. Today I got another laptop and can't do the blocking (don't have admin rights), so I'm back to surfing again.
flycaliguy 11y ago
This isn't directed at you specifically, more so people reading your post and relating: Stop masterbating. It's creating a mess of your dopamine reward system and has left you unable to get anything done.

Joeri 11y ago

Instead of limiting your web browsing, I've found it to be more useful to eliminate certain sites. When things start going overboard for me I will stop visiting the web sites which are the biggest time wasters. The rest of the internet quickly loses its appeal, and though it is hard at first it is relatively easy to go cold turkey instead of trying to ration exposure.

PopeOfNope 11y ago
Eliminating certain sites and eliminating the internet is basically the same thing for me. As a programmer, I'm always on the internet researching problems and solutions. I don't count that because it's not an instant fix, it's the work I put into getting the fix, which is solving my problem and seeing my program work. I'm tempted to start consuming the internet solely through my kindle (again, just the instant fix sites: hn, reddit, facebook). It would slow my consumption way down and I'd only be able to use it when I'm not working. But, I need to find a way to stick to that and not also read HN and Reddit while I'm at the work computer. The only tried and true solution I've found for that is to get an accountability buddy. I tried to do that once in person with co-workers (I offered to give them $20 if they can catch me consuming caffeine), but in the end they were uncomfortable taking my money. The next step is researching those accountability buddy startups, where you give money to an organization you hate if you fail.
- Joeri 11y ago
  For me there are the sites I visit to solve programming problems, google, stackoverflow, etc... And then there are the sites where I waste time pretending I'm just indirectly improving my skillset, HN, slashdot (back in the day), reddit, etc... There is almost no overlap. I find eliminating the time wasters while keeping the professionally useful sites is not that much of a problem.

dasboth 11y ago

I'm trying the whole "surf less, meditate more" thing but I find motivation to meditate quite low on "good" days. When I feel like crap for having procrastinated, sure, give me some of that meditation, but on a day where I feel fine, I easily persuade myself I don't need it. One thing I've tried to do is do household chores when I feel the procrastination urge. It's still procrastination but at least it's a bit more useful than playing video games.

Dinoso 11y ago
I tried a lot of things and the only thing that seem to be working is putting all websites on HOST file (Win/Sys32/Driver/etc) and blocking them there. I block all addictive sites all week except Friday Night and weekend. It worked for 2 consecutive weeks. Today I got another laptop and can't do the blocking (don't have admin rights), so I'm back to surfing again.

flycaliguy 11y ago

This isn't directed at you specifically, more so people reading your post and relating: Stop masterbating. It's creating a mess of your dopamine reward system and has left you unable to get anything done.