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I'm very passionate about the problem of procrastination, having suffered terribly from it all my life. For some people it's a relatively minor thing, but for o

I'm very passionate about the problem of procrastination, having suffered terribly from it all my life. For some people it's a relatively minor thing, but for others it's debilitating– ruining educations, careers, relationships. What has been blowing my mind lately– and I'm always doing all the reading and experimentation I can about this– is how much of this is PHYSICAL. Hanks talks about headaches and stomach disorders– for me, it's always been anxiety and loss of appetite. Which leads to low/volatile blood sugar, which leads to mental fogginess, inaction, and worsens the cycle of procrastination. If I could go back in time to my teenage days and change one thing, it wouldn't be scheduling, prioritization, visualization, environment-management, monotasking, and breaking down tasks into little chunks. (Though all of those things are very helpful.) It would be to eat a hearty breakfast every morning. I'm thoroughly convinced on hindsight that it makes the biggest difference. You need a clear mind to do all of the hard, messy work of dealing with reality, and to have a clear mind you need to eat, hydrate, sleep and exercise.

afarrell 11y ago
If I could tell my freshman year self one thing it would be that the folks who say "sleep is for the weak" are full of shit.
- nextos 11y ago
  I attribute my success as a CS undergrad to this, and to not having Internet connection at home. A fresh mind and not having the whole world a click away makes wonders. My home kind of promoted long sleeping hours, no late computing and always refused to give me access to Internet. I studied with books and did programming assignments offline. Virtually everyone else was online already at the time (mid 00s). Even my 80 year old neighbour. I missed one discrete math deadline that got changed because I did not check my email. The prof. couldn't believe my excuse, no Internet at home. I ranked top 1 of my country. Now I'm happily surfing the web, and being a lot less productive.
throwaway12309 11y ago
Just as a counter point, for me was the opposite. Skipping breakfast was what made me be more focused. I remember since I was a kid, I hated eating breakfast (no matter which type: eggs or sugar ridden cereals, it was the same) and growing up, I always had trouble focusing in the morning. It was only when I started to skip breakfast and have lunch at around 1-2pm did my focus and attention improved. Long story short, different strokes for different folks ;)

afarrell 11y ago

If I could tell my freshman year self one thing it would be that the folks who say "sleep is for the weak" are full of shit.

nextos 11y ago
I attribute my success as a CS undergrad to this, and to not having Internet connection at home. A fresh mind and not having the whole world a click away makes wonders. My home kind of promoted long sleeping hours, no late computing and always refused to give me access to Internet. I studied with books and did programming assignments offline. Virtually everyone else was online already at the time (mid 00s). Even my 80 year old neighbour. I missed one discrete math deadline that got changed because I did not check my email. The prof. couldn't believe my excuse, no Internet at home. I ranked top 1 of my country. Now I'm happily surfing the web, and being a lot less productive.

throwaway12309 11y ago

Just as a counter point, for me was the opposite. Skipping breakfast was what made me be more focused. I remember since I was a kid, I hated eating breakfast (no matter which type: eggs or sugar ridden cereals, it was the same) and growing up, I always had trouble focusing in the morning. It was only when I started to skip breakfast and have lunch at around 1-2pm did my focus and attention improved. Long story short, different strokes for different folks ;)