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> The researchers, who have continued following up with the participants, will look at one-year outcomes later this year to see if the results were maintained.
by luxpir 11y ago
> The researchers, who have continued following up with the participants, will look at one-year outcomes later this year to see if the results were maintained.
This is quite important. Let us know how they've done in a year. I have been through times of extreme productivity and, well, the opposite in much shorter time spans. The difference being partially down to self-confidence, being aware of the reality of the results of the work and a mastery of stress levels. 'The opposite' happens when stress and the resultant bad decision making creeps in. To me it's the external factors in one's life that mean that any single person can be both a procrastinator and an extremely productive '100x' person in the same year, month, week. When stressed or 'temporally myopic' (as per the article) no amount of tools, widgets, hosts files or GTD schemes will work. They are all too easy to disable, workaround and ignore. The solution can not be quick-fixed, imho.
I've tried a lot of things myself over the decade-plus of working from home, currently even having my machine announce new Pomodoro sprints every 25 minutes (+5 minutes for break) to try to enforce a working atmosphere. It has an effect in that it at least generates the atmosphere, but it can have the opposite effect if external factors have already primed me for procrastination. Those factors can be tiredness, everyday life issues, being overworked, underworked, distracted etc. Any of which cause me to frequently ignore the espeak announcements. The cronjob that launches Anki every day gets equally ignored during these periods and they tend to start to bake in a habit of ignoring the automated reminders and thus the good habits for longer than I might have done without them.
All of which leads me to believe that self-motivation and constant reflective thought of one's current and future situation (all with a confident and optimistic outlook) are the only ways to maintain a level of productivity approaching constant. Understanding that there isn't a quick-fix, that effort must be exerted, anxieties must be overcome. Learning to cope with life's external factors so that they don't push your work off course. Those kinds of things seem like the real solutions to procrastination. And they are great personal challenges for many, myself included.
The irony of the length of my post on this subject is not lost on me, but then I have had a productive morning and this is my lunch break (sweet, sweet excuses...).