12 ms·

The cure for procrastination? Forgive yourself

184 points by AlexeyBrin 11y ago

Chlorus 11y ago
Eh, I'll get around to forgiving myself later...
skrebbel 11y ago
I like the idea, but is "forgiving yourself" even a thing you can consciously do? Probably, but I'm not sure. The study did not ask people to actively choose to forgive themselves, just whether they had forgiven themselves. That's a rather different thing. If I rationally decide to say "I forgive myself for having slacked off", I'm not sure I'll actually feel forgiven deep inside. I strongly suspect, however, that self-forgiveness can be difficult but can be practiced. Does anyone here have experience to share? Did anyone ever consciously practice self-forgiveness? It seems like an interesting approach to me.
- existencebox 11y ago
  I'm the exact opposite. I used to slack a LOT more, and have cut down on it heavily since my school days. Back then I would regularly last night assignments and pull multiple all nighters to do it, because I _knew I could_. As long as I subconsciously knew "I can get this down in the delta between now->due date" I would put it off, even if that delta involved not sleeping/eating/etc, and "Forgiving myself" only made it worse since I'd just keep doing it. It was when I got into industry, and instead was posed with the equation of "If I didn't rush, I would have done better work, and more effectively used the time of the people paying me", which had enough external variables that the need to change became pressing. I used (and still use) the feelings of guilt at wasting my bosses time, the feelings of falling behind in my skill/learnings, and dominatingly (as I get older) the feeling of "There just isn't enough time in the day" to force myself off of procrastination every time I notice myself doing it too much. Take this with the context that I've never been one for positive reinforcement. Seeing my own flaws and failings drives me far more than getting a pat on the back. I think you hit the nail on the head re: rationality, as that I don't think I _could_ forgive myself even if I tried, I wouldn't really internalize believing it in a way that would impact my behavior. (And aptly, I've now procrastinated enough in writing this, and need to be back to reading docs :) )
  - lifeisstillgood 11y ago
    Try not to go with the negative - and especially beware of using guilt over wasting company / bosses time. They have enough leverage over you already.
    - existencebox 11y ago
      A fair point; I try and take it a different way (as opposed to their having leverage over me), if my conscience is clear in terms of having done GOOD WORK and not wasted any time by procrastinating, they have _less_ leverage from my point of view, since I know I've been delivering 100% and can come from a position of strength. In terms of motivating myself by negatives instead of positives, that's something I've put literally decades in trying to adjust and something I'm not sure I'll ever break myself of. It's too useful in other areas (looking critically at my own code, looking critically at problem spaces, being unbiased in introspection) that as with the OPs point of not truly internalizing something despite agreeing logically that "X should be this way", I'm not sure I could truly internalize looking at things in a positive light.
      - lifeisstillgood 11y ago
        Well you seem to have made your peace with it - enjoy
- aantix 11y ago
  Take a look at the book "Learning to Love Yourself". There's even an accompanying workbook with exercises. http://digital.heartsintrueharmony.com/catalog/learningtoloveyourself.html http://digital.heartsintrueharmony.com/catalog/learningtolov... The exercises will either feel very cheesy or move you to tears.
- doppelganger27 11y ago
  "Forgiving yourself" may not be the best advice for all procrastinators, but I think the idea is that when many people procrastinate, it causes them extra stress when the decision comes back to bite them. A part of that stress is simply because they have less time to do what they need, but another component is that they are kicking themselves for being stupid in the past. Forgiving yourself lets you remove the stress from the latter part, and thus would reduce the total amount.
- oberstein 11y ago
  According to My Little Pony[0], just believe in the forgiveness of friends who believe in forgiving you... [0] https://youtu.be/9hpPOZGpHFk https://youtu.be/9hpPOZGpHFk
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- readymade 11y ago
  It's one of those things that's easier said than done, like "just letting go" (the word 'just' in that phrase is brutal). But I think it can be practiced. Imagine in an ideal sense the love a parent has for their child. It's an unconditional love, one that comes without strings attached or any expectation of greatness beyond the miracle of that child's very existence. Tough love, sometimes, but not necessarily contingent. The trick is to find a way to give that to yourself. It takes time. Procrastination, like other problems of self-improvement, is multilayered. Some of my friends who constantly agonize over their productivity levels confound me, because often from my vantage point they seem perfectly well adjusted, if not for the constant feeling like they should be doing more. Other times procrastination is a response to stress or trauma that needs to be addressed on its own. Some kinds of distraction are arguably more of a reflection of changes in our culture than individual pathologies. Sometimes you just need an egg timer. Sometimes human beings are just garden-variety imperfect. At the risk of venturing in cheesy territory, I'd recommend checking out Brene Brown's TED talks on vulnerability and shame, if you're not already familiar with them. http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame?lang...
- fatihpense 11y ago
  I think changing yourself goes like this: thoughts->emotions->habits. You need a clear victory(albeit a philosophical one) in neocortex so that you can start to train your limbic system.
zamalek 11y ago
Also, if you're not usually the procrastination type but find yourself in a procrastination hole: take leave. When you're hungry you eat, when you're thirsty you drink; unusual tendencies to procrastinate are simply another signal that your body is sending you. It's always good to take time off when you have earned it, you'll come back twice the hard worker than you were before.
- irremediable 11y ago
  This is very good advice. I am the procrastination type, but I have lots of friends who aren't, and I've watched too many of them burn themselves out. Some of them are miles smarter than me, and far more hard-working, but my innate laziness and procrastination have actually given me an edge.
  - zamalek 11y ago
    I became a bad procrastinator due to overworking myself and almost got a formal verbal warning for it (more of an informal fix your shit warning happened). At the time I had over 1 month [effective] leave "saved" up; I took it. I came back and became the exact opposite - by a very substantial degree. It felt like I was 20 again: I had all the brains, guts and dedication that got me hired in the first place. Burn out can really mess you up - far worse than being a plain-old incompetent bad hire.
- necessity 11y ago
  >take leave Sometimes you can't.
  - zamalek 11y ago
    You always can - even if it means time between jobs. If your employer won't let you they are doing both themselves and you a disservice and you'd be best be far away from a leader that unwise. Do floor managers in factories let their machines go to rack and ruin? No, they maintain them and leave is how you perform maintenance on humans.
pkrumins 11y ago
I recently realized that the cure for procrastination is to be on a mission. I'm on a mission to build my company, Browserling, to be an amazing company. As funny as it sounds I just don't have time to procrastinate.
- iraphael 11y ago
  Which is why great teams are formed by people who can see how their work will impact a greater goal, and can internalize that goal as being their own.
nicklaf 11y ago
What's to say that the students who forgave themselves didn't do so as a result of some other underlying reason that happens to be correlated with a propensity to forgive oneself? At the very least, one could argue that inability to forgive oneself could in some cases be indicative of, say, depression. Perhaps self-confidence is simply what helps one succeed?
arnorhs 11y ago
correlation != causation
- tgb 11y ago
  I know this is a trite, possibly overused saying, but in this case it is completely accurate. The study had no ability to draw the title as a conclusion, regardless of its results. (Not to mention that they appear to be treating number assignments for a "strong agree <-> strongly disagree" Likert scale as actual numbers and doing things like averaging them. Ick.)
Xcelerate 11y ago
As someone who procrastinates, I've yet to come across a true "cure" for the habit. "Forgive yourself" is such a vague and abstract mantra that I don't even know how to actualize the advice. I think the worst explanation for procrastination I've come across is that it's caused by not truly enjoying the activity that is being procrastinated upon. But if that were really the case, then the remainder of my life would be spent sitting in a chair reading useless articles online. Other questionable explanations I've stumbled across include: being unable to bond empathetically with your future self, that the procrastinator's brain has a [insert neurotransmitter of choice] deficit, that fear of failure keeps one from starting, that too much is tackled at once, and so on. When I try to recall what has given me the greatest sense of fulfillment in life, everything I can think of is something I worked really hard to achieve. That which contents me momentarily does not seem to coincide with that which provides overall life contentment. I don't necessarily seek happiness — I would rather have demanding work that positively impacts the world over some job that allows me to surf online all day. What's funny is that I procrastinate only with regard to intellectual activities — not physical ones. Getting myself to exercise is no trouble at all. But prodding myself to finish a VPTree implementation... that's much more difficult. My hypothesis is that I procrastinate on those things that I was naturally good at during childhood. Academically, I was decently above average (well, at least up until college), so I never had to study. I always completed homework at the last second before it was due, and I crammed most of my test studying into the night before the exam and then promptly forgot the material as soon as I walked out of the classroom (as I'm sure many of you have noticed, this "strategy" doesn't work nearly as well in college, and it fails dramatically in grad school). On the other hand, when it came to sports, it was pretty much a guarantee that (at least initially) I would naturally be the worst out of everyone participating. I was determined to improve though, so I developed training schedules and religiously followed them until I got the results I wanted. I think that habit has stuck with me, and I still have no trouble starting an exercise regimen.
- kendallpark 11y ago
  "cure" ^^^ my thoughts exactly.
- g0v 11y ago
ryanmk 11y ago
I've plugged this before, but this is something that has really, actually, worked for me: beeminder.com
nkozyra 11y ago
The best - and worst - thing I've done had cured my procrastination issues. It's essentially a personal moon shot system wherein I describe my perfect 5 years, 1 year, month, week and day. Like a pace car doppelganger. No human could do what I set out to do, but I work at it tirelessly. My productivity is gobs better than it was, I get more done on time than any other time in my life. The 'bad' part is it still feels like perpetual failure. Even if I do 10x more in a day than I did 5 years ago, I only did 40% of my perfect day. I never feel satisfied. It's depressing. So if you're willing to sacrifice mental health for productivity, try my system. Maybe it will work better for you. Maybe it's worthwhile in the short term.
- jstanley 11y ago
  It doesn't seem like you need to sacrifice mental health at all: your productivity is up 10x on 5 years ago, can't you be happy about that, while still acknowledging there is room for improvement?
  - nkozyra 11y ago
    Apparently, no. Like I said, it's a pace car, a lure. I'll never catch it. I can't complete 10 of 15 impossible daily tasks and be satiated. It may just be my personality.
gexla 11y ago
Procrastination. Get it done or get out of the way and someone else will get it done. If you look back and nobody else did it, congrats, it wasn't worth doing anyways (validation for your procrastination.) There is no cure for procrastination. However, I have a similar method to the article for dealing with "blocking" issues such as feeling overwhelmed or just don't want to pick up the phone to take an ass chewing. Sometimes you just have to let go. You screwed up. Live up to the mistake and move on rather than continue to let it eat you up and cause problems for everyone else involved. Be honest, work out a way to move forward and pass the torch to someone else if you have to.
DiThi 11y ago
The best articles I've read about this topic are the ones in waitbutwhy.com. There are three, this is the first one: http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastin...
- shellerik 11y ago
  Thanks for this link. Perhaps the most disturbingly accurate description of procrastination I have ever read.
mojuba 11y ago
I will procrastinate... later.
deleted 11y ago
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- deleted 11y ago
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eranation 11y ago
Correlation does not imply causation? Maybe I didn't read the research right, but what if people who have the ability to change themselves and stop / decrease procrastinating, because the mere fact that they managed to stopped procrastinating (e.g. stopped a negative behavior in their mind, and got good results out of it), they were able to forgive themselves for past procrastinations? E.g. if someone was addicted to drugs, and managed to go clean, they are more likely to forgive themselves (and others to forgive them) than those who just keep taking drugs, right?. Any 5 years old will tell you that if the bully started becoming nice, it will be easier to forgive them than if they stayed a bully. forgiving oneself is not that different than forgiving others, and if you correct your ways, it's easier to forgive yourself, just as much as it is easier for others to forgive you. no? what am I missing?
deleted 11y ago
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henpa 11y ago
I'm a huge procrastinator! On a previous and recent "procrastination" post here on HN, I read someone's post about his experience with mediation and how it helped him overcome this. Of course I heard about meditation before, but I wasn't sure what it meant exactly in practice. I found this video very informative, and I hope someone else will find it useful too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5Qv9tUObI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5Qv9tUObI
codezero 11y ago
Procrastination is a form of anxiety. There is no single thing you can do to will yourself away from procrastinating. If you can afford it or it's available to you, work with a mental health professional to figure out a program that works for you.
pla3rhat3r 11y ago
The irony is not lost on me that I'm reading this while I procrastinate on doing something I've needed to get to for some time. I forgive me.
visarga 11y ago
I have an unusual procrastination tackling method inspired from yoga. It involves stimulating the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain behind the forehead). The role of the PFC is to counter emotions and work out rational solutions to unusual (novel) situations. When it is stimulated I feel like all my work inhibitions are gone. The technique is simple: with my eyes close, I orient my inner sight (including my eyeballs) to look at the middle of my forehead and then just sense any sensation that appears in that spot. It feels like a kind of pressure or energy building up in the forehead. The eye trick is good for focusing my attention there. It takes 10 minutes to get my PFC into gear, then I can work like a robot for a whole day. This spot in the middle of the forehead is called Ajna Chakra and in yoga is considered the "command and control" center. When it is stimulated, it allows for better emotional control.
- audreyt 11y ago
  I use that technique too — inspired from Taoist meditation. The effect is rather like running /usr/bin/top on the mind.
- noir_lord 11y ago
  That sounds interesting, any idea where I could find out more?
chris_wot 11y ago
How do I know this study is accurate?
dasboth 11y ago
I tend to procrastinate on things that are only really important to me like side projects, job hunting etc. When someone else is expecting me to do something, I will just do it. I worked on a side project that my wife asked me for and did it in one sitting. My "fix" has been to create external pressure somehow. Want to learn something? Sign up to a course that has hard deadlines. Want to build something? Tell someone about it and offer to show them a draft by a certain date. It seems to work for me.
- camillomiller 11y ago
  This. Is there any study about this approach? That's exactly what I do, and it seems to work. Unfortunately it's har to apply for strictly personal projects
  - dasboth 11y ago
    It is hard, especially when it's a side project you're doing for yourself because it's not easy to get others excited about it.
geden 11y ago
I'be been struggling with procrastination for 25 years. It's quite miserable not least because it's clearly self perpetuated. I'm deep in a quest to slay the beast at the moment and just a few hours ago read this, which definitely tickled something deep in me, as procrastination and guilt seem to be close bedfellows. "By contrast, in guilt we’re not truly interested in healing. Most of our energy is committed to the internalized child-parent (or adolescent-parent) conflict that allows us to indulge in doing “it”—whatever we “shouldn’t” be doing—and to justify continuing to do “it,” we have to keep the threat of parental punishment (from ourselves or from others) hanging over our heads, so that we can, in a sense, “wipe the slate clean” after our misdeed. To work with your guilt, bring as much attention as possible to the shame that has become locked into guilt’s framework. Stay with that shame, exploring it and your history with it, approaching the shamed you with as much compassion as you can. Don’t let your inner critic trespass here. As you do this work, you will feel the childish side of guilt fleshing out more. Embrace that side and protect it, just as you would a shamed, frightened child." Robert Augustus Masters.
bcarlyle 11y ago
I'm a clinical psychologists who work with ADHD patients and others who procrastinate. Many believe their self-worth is tied to personal accomplishments. This trips you up because procrastination creates a negative feedback loop where the lack of action creates anxiety that increases inaction. If you can't follow the mantra that you should "forgive yourself" because it feels to corny it might be easier to think: The most effective thing for me to do right now is to forgive myself because the time I spend beating myself up is energy wasted. This might be less elegant then just simply forgiving yourself but it might work.
hippo8 11y ago
Ahh Im 16 hours late to the party, What's helped me deal with procrastination is, to keep a backwards list of things I have done. I used to make a timetable, plan my work ahead, and always end up not following it. I then did it the other way around, now I think about the work I have to do, just pick it up and start working, once I am done with my work, I write it on a notebook I carry around with me all day. Its now like a part of my life, I even write down things like, "had a shower", "bought bread". I have noticed I have become really productive compared to the person from around 7 months ago. I am really happy as a person, and when ever I have a doubt if I have done enough work, my note book is there to tell me how much I have done. I guess this is one of those carrot and stick things in this case, a self-governed carrot and stick I guess. I think most programmers can relate to this feeling when you consider that amazing feeling you get after a whole night of debugging and seeing it run beautifully. I feel like this backwards list is also something like that. Looking forward to seeing that book fill up is making me do the work, and seeing all the work I have done lets me feel accomplished. And I don’t get to be disappointed by plans that never worked out.
dboreham 11y ago
All the procrastinators are here so here's my most recent thinking on the subject: Procrastination is just an emergent behavior of the "human runtime executive". Consider first a cat: it sleeps (in the warmest place it can find, but not too hot) until it is either hungry or bored or someone shows up to amuse it. Then it hunts prey, plays with it, possibly eats it. Repeat. I believe the human (at least male human) version of this algorithm is roughly: sleep when tired, otherwise absent some imminent threat (see below) work on various plans directed toward having sex in the future, otherwise go figure out the world. Imminent threats (hunger, leaking roof, dangerous predators, "sprint" deadlines...) trigger immediate and focused activity. I think this explains procrastination and pretty much everything else: doing things like the VPTree implementation doesn't rise to the level of dealing with an imminent threat (unless someone needs to ship it in a product tomorrow), and it doesn't fall into the category of "figure out the world" because you already know how said trees work and are used well enough. And of course it isn't terribly sexy, most of the time.
stared 11y ago
I know this, both from my experience and this paper (2010); also, it was a part of the classics: "Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls". See: http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/18009/49 http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/18009/49 "Keep forgiving yourself and keep working.", "Guilt is rarely a constructive force, and it can lead you to make bad decisions to compensate.", "forgiving yourself only works if you trust yourself".
mizchief2 11y ago
I'll forgive myself tomorrow

184 points by AlexeyBrin 11y ago

Eh, I'll get around to forgiving myself later...

I like the idea, but is "forgiving yourself" even a thing you can consciously do? Probably, but I'm not sure. The study did not ask people to actively choose to forgive themselves, just whether they had forgiven themselves. That's a rather different thing. If I rationally decide to say "I forgive myself for having slacked off", I'm not sure I'll actually feel forgiven deep inside. I strongly suspect, however, that self-forgiveness can be difficult but can be practiced. Does anyone here have experience to share? Did anyone ever consciously practice self-forgiveness? It seems like an interesting approach to me.

existencebox 11y ago
I'm the exact opposite. I used to slack a LOT more, and have cut down on it heavily since my school days. Back then I would regularly last night assignments and pull multiple all nighters to do it, because I _knew I could_. As long as I subconsciously knew "I can get this down in the delta between now->due date" I would put it off, even if that delta involved not sleeping/eating/etc, and "Forgiving myself" only made it worse since I'd just keep doing it. It was when I got into industry, and instead was posed with the equation of "If I didn't rush, I would have done better work, and more effectively used the time of the people paying me", which had enough external variables that the need to change became pressing. I used (and still use) the feelings of guilt at wasting my bosses time, the feelings of falling behind in my skill/learnings, and dominatingly (as I get older) the feeling of "There just isn't enough time in the day" to force myself off of procrastination every time I notice myself doing it too much. Take this with the context that I've never been one for positive reinforcement. Seeing my own flaws and failings drives me far more than getting a pat on the back. I think you hit the nail on the head re: rationality, as that I don't think I _could_ forgive myself even if I tried, I wouldn't really internalize believing it in a way that would impact my behavior. (And aptly, I've now procrastinated enough in writing this, and need to be back to reading docs :) )
- lifeisstillgood 11y ago
  Try not to go with the negative - and especially beware of using guilt over wasting company / bosses time. They have enough leverage over you already.
  - existencebox 11y ago
    A fair point; I try and take it a different way (as opposed to their having leverage over me), if my conscience is clear in terms of having done GOOD WORK and not wasted any time by procrastinating, they have _less_ leverage from my point of view, since I know I've been delivering 100% and can come from a position of strength. In terms of motivating myself by negatives instead of positives, that's something I've put literally decades in trying to adjust and something I'm not sure I'll ever break myself of. It's too useful in other areas (looking critically at my own code, looking critically at problem spaces, being unbiased in introspection) that as with the OPs point of not truly internalizing something despite agreeing logically that "X should be this way", I'm not sure I could truly internalize looking at things in a positive light.
    - lifeisstillgood 11y ago
      Well you seem to have made your peace with it - enjoy
aantix 11y ago
Take a look at the book "Learning to Love Yourself". There's even an accompanying workbook with exercises. http://digital.heartsintrueharmony.com/catalog/learningtoloveyourself.html http://digital.heartsintrueharmony.com/catalog/learningtolov... The exercises will either feel very cheesy or move you to tears.
doppelganger27 11y ago
"Forgiving yourself" may not be the best advice for all procrastinators, but I think the idea is that when many people procrastinate, it causes them extra stress when the decision comes back to bite them. A part of that stress is simply because they have less time to do what they need, but another component is that they are kicking themselves for being stupid in the past. Forgiving yourself lets you remove the stress from the latter part, and thus would reduce the total amount.
oberstein 11y ago
According to My Little Pony[0], just believe in the forgiveness of friends who believe in forgiving you... [0] https://youtu.be/9hpPOZGpHFk https://youtu.be/9hpPOZGpHFk
deleted 11y ago
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readymade 11y ago
It's one of those things that's easier said than done, like "just letting go" (the word 'just' in that phrase is brutal). But I think it can be practiced. Imagine in an ideal sense the love a parent has for their child. It's an unconditional love, one that comes without strings attached or any expectation of greatness beyond the miracle of that child's very existence. Tough love, sometimes, but not necessarily contingent. The trick is to find a way to give that to yourself. It takes time. Procrastination, like other problems of self-improvement, is multilayered. Some of my friends who constantly agonize over their productivity levels confound me, because often from my vantage point they seem perfectly well adjusted, if not for the constant feeling like they should be doing more. Other times procrastination is a response to stress or trauma that needs to be addressed on its own. Some kinds of distraction are arguably more of a reflection of changes in our culture than individual pathologies. Sometimes you just need an egg timer. Sometimes human beings are just garden-variety imperfect. At the risk of venturing in cheesy territory, I'd recommend checking out Brene Brown's TED talks on vulnerability and shame, if you're not already familiar with them. http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame?lang...
fatihpense 11y ago
I think changing yourself goes like this: thoughts->emotions->habits. You need a clear victory(albeit a philosophical one) in neocortex so that you can start to train your limbic system.

zamalek 11y ago

Also, if you're not usually the procrastination type but find yourself in a procrastination hole: take leave. When you're hungry you eat, when you're thirsty you drink; unusual tendencies to procrastinate are simply another signal that your body is sending you. It's always good to take time off when you have earned it, you'll come back twice the hard worker than you were before.

irremediable 11y ago
This is very good advice. I am the procrastination type, but I have lots of friends who aren't, and I've watched too many of them burn themselves out. Some of them are miles smarter than me, and far more hard-working, but my innate laziness and procrastination have actually given me an edge.
- zamalek 11y ago
  I became a bad procrastinator due to overworking myself and almost got a formal verbal warning for it (more of an informal fix your shit warning happened). At the time I had over 1 month [effective] leave "saved" up; I took it. I came back and became the exact opposite - by a very substantial degree. It felt like I was 20 again: I had all the brains, guts and dedication that got me hired in the first place. Burn out can really mess you up - far worse than being a plain-old incompetent bad hire.
necessity 11y ago
>take leave Sometimes you can't.
- zamalek 11y ago
  You always can - even if it means time between jobs. If your employer won't let you they are doing both themselves and you a disservice and you'd be best be far away from a leader that unwise. Do floor managers in factories let their machines go to rack and ruin? No, they maintain them and leave is how you perform maintenance on humans.

pkrumins 11y ago

I recently realized that the cure for procrastination is to be on a mission. I'm on a mission to build my company, Browserling, to be an amazing company. As funny as it sounds I just don't have time to procrastinate.

iraphael 11y ago
Which is why great teams are formed by people who can see how their work will impact a greater goal, and can internalize that goal as being their own.

nicklaf 11y ago

What's to say that the students who forgave themselves didn't do so as a result of some other underlying reason that happens to be correlated with a propensity to forgive oneself? At the very least, one could argue that inability to forgive oneself could in some cases be indicative of, say, depression. Perhaps self-confidence is simply what helps one succeed?

arnorhs 11y ago

correlation != causation

tgb 11y ago
I know this is a trite, possibly overused saying, but in this case it is completely accurate. The study had no ability to draw the title as a conclusion, regardless of its results. (Not to mention that they appear to be treating number assignments for a "strong agree <-> strongly disagree" Likert scale as actual numbers and doing things like averaging them. Ick.)

Xcelerate 11y ago

As someone who procrastinates, I've yet to come across a true "cure" for the habit. "Forgive yourself" is such a vague and abstract mantra that I don't even know how to actualize the advice. I think the worst explanation for procrastination I've come across is that it's caused by not truly enjoying the activity that is being procrastinated upon. But if that were really the case, then the remainder of my life would be spent sitting in a chair reading useless articles online. Other questionable explanations I've stumbled across include: being unable to bond empathetically with your future self, that the procrastinator's brain has a [insert neurotransmitter of choice] deficit, that fear of failure keeps one from starting, that too much is tackled at once, and so on. When I try to recall what has given me the greatest sense of fulfillment in life, everything I can think of is something I worked really hard to achieve. That which contents me momentarily does not seem to coincide with that which provides overall life contentment. I don't necessarily seek happiness — I would rather have demanding work that positively impacts the world over some job that allows me to surf online all day. What's funny is that I procrastinate only with regard to intellectual activities — not physical ones. Getting myself to exercise is no trouble at all. But prodding myself to finish a VPTree implementation... that's much more difficult. My hypothesis is that I procrastinate on those things that I was naturally good at during childhood. Academically, I was decently above average (well, at least up until college), so I never had to study. I always completed homework at the last second before it was due, and I crammed most of my test studying into the night before the exam and then promptly forgot the material as soon as I walked out of the classroom (as I'm sure many of you have noticed, this "strategy" doesn't work nearly as well in college, and it fails dramatically in grad school). On the other hand, when it came to sports, it was pretty much a guarantee that (at least initially) I would naturally be the worst out of everyone participating. I was determined to improve though, so I developed training schedules and religiously followed them until I got the results I wanted. I think that habit has stuck with me, and I still have no trouble starting an exercise regimen.

kendallpark 11y ago
"cure" ^^^ my thoughts exactly.
g0v 11y ago

ryanmk 11y ago

I've plugged this before, but this is something that has really, actually, worked for me: beeminder.com

nkozyra 11y ago

The best - and worst - thing I've done had cured my procrastination issues. It's essentially a personal moon shot system wherein I describe my perfect 5 years, 1 year, month, week and day. Like a pace car doppelganger. No human could do what I set out to do, but I work at it tirelessly. My productivity is gobs better than it was, I get more done on time than any other time in my life. The 'bad' part is it still feels like perpetual failure. Even if I do 10x more in a day than I did 5 years ago, I only did 40% of my perfect day. I never feel satisfied. It's depressing. So if you're willing to sacrifice mental health for productivity, try my system. Maybe it will work better for you. Maybe it's worthwhile in the short term.

jstanley 11y ago
It doesn't seem like you need to sacrifice mental health at all: your productivity is up 10x on 5 years ago, can't you be happy about that, while still acknowledging there is room for improvement?
- nkozyra 11y ago
  Apparently, no. Like I said, it's a pace car, a lure. I'll never catch it. I can't complete 10 of 15 impossible daily tasks and be satiated. It may just be my personality.

gexla 11y ago

Procrastination. Get it done or get out of the way and someone else will get it done. If you look back and nobody else did it, congrats, it wasn't worth doing anyways (validation for your procrastination.) There is no cure for procrastination. However, I have a similar method to the article for dealing with "blocking" issues such as feeling overwhelmed or just don't want to pick up the phone to take an ass chewing. Sometimes you just have to let go. You screwed up. Live up to the mistake and move on rather than continue to let it eat you up and cause problems for everyone else involved. Be honest, work out a way to move forward and pass the torch to someone else if you have to.

DiThi 11y ago

The best articles I've read about this topic are the ones in waitbutwhy.com. There are three, this is the first one: http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastin...

shellerik 11y ago
Thanks for this link. Perhaps the most disturbingly accurate description of procrastination I have ever read.

mojuba 11y ago

I will procrastinate... later.

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eranation 11y ago

Correlation does not imply causation? Maybe I didn't read the research right, but what if people who have the ability to change themselves and stop / decrease procrastinating, because the mere fact that they managed to stopped procrastinating (e.g. stopped a negative behavior in their mind, and got good results out of it), they were able to forgive themselves for past procrastinations? E.g. if someone was addicted to drugs, and managed to go clean, they are more likely to forgive themselves (and others to forgive them) than those who just keep taking drugs, right?. Any 5 years old will tell you that if the bully started becoming nice, it will be easier to forgive them than if they stayed a bully. forgiving oneself is not that different than forgiving others, and if you correct your ways, it's easier to forgive yourself, just as much as it is easier for others to forgive you. no? what am I missing?

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henpa 11y ago

I'm a huge procrastinator! On a previous and recent "procrastination" post here on HN, I read someone's post about his experience with mediation and how it helped him overcome this. Of course I heard about meditation before, but I wasn't sure what it meant exactly in practice. I found this video very informative, and I hope someone else will find it useful too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5Qv9tUObI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt5Qv9tUObI

codezero 11y ago

Procrastination is a form of anxiety. There is no single thing you can do to will yourself away from procrastinating. If you can afford it or it's available to you, work with a mental health professional to figure out a program that works for you.

pla3rhat3r 11y ago

The irony is not lost on me that I'm reading this while I procrastinate on doing something I've needed to get to for some time. I forgive me.

visarga 11y ago

I have an unusual procrastination tackling method inspired from yoga. It involves stimulating the prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain behind the forehead). The role of the PFC is to counter emotions and work out rational solutions to unusual (novel) situations. When it is stimulated I feel like all my work inhibitions are gone. The technique is simple: with my eyes close, I orient my inner sight (including my eyeballs) to look at the middle of my forehead and then just sense any sensation that appears in that spot. It feels like a kind of pressure or energy building up in the forehead. The eye trick is good for focusing my attention there. It takes 10 minutes to get my PFC into gear, then I can work like a robot for a whole day. This spot in the middle of the forehead is called Ajna Chakra and in yoga is considered the "command and control" center. When it is stimulated, it allows for better emotional control.

audreyt 11y ago
I use that technique too — inspired from Taoist meditation. The effect is rather like running /usr/bin/top on the mind.
noir_lord 11y ago
That sounds interesting, any idea where I could find out more?

chris_wot 11y ago

How do I know this study is accurate?

dasboth 11y ago

I tend to procrastinate on things that are only really important to me like side projects, job hunting etc. When someone else is expecting me to do something, I will just do it. I worked on a side project that my wife asked me for and did it in one sitting. My "fix" has been to create external pressure somehow. Want to learn something? Sign up to a course that has hard deadlines. Want to build something? Tell someone about it and offer to show them a draft by a certain date. It seems to work for me.

camillomiller 11y ago
This. Is there any study about this approach? That's exactly what I do, and it seems to work. Unfortunately it's har to apply for strictly personal projects
- dasboth 11y ago
  It is hard, especially when it's a side project you're doing for yourself because it's not easy to get others excited about it.

geden 11y ago

I'be been struggling with procrastination for 25 years. It's quite miserable not least because it's clearly self perpetuated. I'm deep in a quest to slay the beast at the moment and just a few hours ago read this, which definitely tickled something deep in me, as procrastination and guilt seem to be close bedfellows. "By contrast, in guilt we’re not truly interested in healing. Most of our energy is committed to the internalized child-parent (or adolescent-parent) conflict that allows us to indulge in doing “it”—whatever we “shouldn’t” be doing—and to justify continuing to do “it,” we have to keep the threat of parental punishment (from ourselves or from others) hanging over our heads, so that we can, in a sense, “wipe the slate clean” after our misdeed. To work with your guilt, bring as much attention as possible to the shame that has become locked into guilt’s framework. Stay with that shame, exploring it and your history with it, approaching the shamed you with as much compassion as you can. Don’t let your inner critic trespass here. As you do this work, you will feel the childish side of guilt fleshing out more. Embrace that side and protect it, just as you would a shamed, frightened child." Robert Augustus Masters.

bcarlyle 11y ago

I'm a clinical psychologists who work with ADHD patients and others who procrastinate. Many believe their self-worth is tied to personal accomplishments. This trips you up because procrastination creates a negative feedback loop where the lack of action creates anxiety that increases inaction. If you can't follow the mantra that you should "forgive yourself" because it feels to corny it might be easier to think: The most effective thing for me to do right now is to forgive myself because the time I spend beating myself up is energy wasted. This might be less elegant then just simply forgiving yourself but it might work.

hippo8 11y ago

Ahh Im 16 hours late to the party, What's helped me deal with procrastination is, to keep a backwards list of things I have done. I used to make a timetable, plan my work ahead, and always end up not following it. I then did it the other way around, now I think about the work I have to do, just pick it up and start working, once I am done with my work, I write it on a notebook I carry around with me all day. Its now like a part of my life, I even write down things like, "had a shower", "bought bread". I have noticed I have become really productive compared to the person from around 7 months ago. I am really happy as a person, and when ever I have a doubt if I have done enough work, my note book is there to tell me how much I have done. I guess this is one of those carrot and stick things in this case, a self-governed carrot and stick I guess. I think most programmers can relate to this feeling when you consider that amazing feeling you get after a whole night of debugging and seeing it run beautifully. I feel like this backwards list is also something like that. Looking forward to seeing that book fill up is making me do the work, and seeing all the work I have done lets me feel accomplished. And I don’t get to be disappointed by plans that never worked out.

dboreham 11y ago

All the procrastinators are here so here's my most recent thinking on the subject: Procrastination is just an emergent behavior of the "human runtime executive". Consider first a cat: it sleeps (in the warmest place it can find, but not too hot) until it is either hungry or bored or someone shows up to amuse it. Then it hunts prey, plays with it, possibly eats it. Repeat. I believe the human (at least male human) version of this algorithm is roughly: sleep when tired, otherwise absent some imminent threat (see below) work on various plans directed toward having sex in the future, otherwise go figure out the world. Imminent threats (hunger, leaking roof, dangerous predators, "sprint" deadlines...) trigger immediate and focused activity. I think this explains procrastination and pretty much everything else: doing things like the VPTree implementation doesn't rise to the level of dealing with an imminent threat (unless someone needs to ship it in a product tomorrow), and it doesn't fall into the category of "figure out the world" because you already know how said trees work and are used well enough. And of course it isn't terribly sexy, most of the time.

stared 11y ago

I know this, both from my experience and this paper (2010); also, it was a part of the classics: "Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls". See: http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/18009/49 http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/18009/49 "Keep forgiving yourself and keep working.", "Guilt is rarely a constructive force, and it can lead you to make bad decisions to compensate.", "forgiving yourself only works if you trust yourself".

mizchief2 11y ago

I'll forgive myself tomorrow