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For a counterintuitive remedy, I'd suggest this: get busier. Have more stuff going on in your life. Pick up a hobby or two. Take on more projects. Busy people d

For a counterintuitive remedy, I'd suggest this: get busier. Have more stuff going on in your life. Pick up a hobby or two. Take on more projects. Busy people don't have time to procrastinate. Your projects, like gasses, will expand to fill the free time allotted to getting them done. So give yourself less time to get them done. Structure your time. Have at least two or three things of significance to worry about each day. I'm not saying this will work for everyone. But if you're the kind of person who doesn't do well with unstructured time, you will want to acknowledge that and put some structure in place. I did my best academic work in high school, for instance, and that's largely because I was overloaded in high school. I'm not saying you want to overload yourself, as that's not emotionally sustainable. But if you really want to perform at your best, you need to be at least a little stressed every day. (See: the concept of "good stress" or "eustress" vs. "bad stress.") I struggled at first in college, and in my first year in the professional world, until I realized as much and added high school-like structure (of a sort) back into my life. I also find that productivity benefits from a sort of momentum. I'm never more productive than when I've just knocked one or two smaller tasks out of the way and build up an energy to keep clearing through the list. Atomize bigger projects, and also chain them together with smaller, easier projects in clustered to-do lists. To use another physics analogy, consider the inertia of productivity. The more time you spend idle, the harder it is to get started. The more time you spend working, the harder it is to slow down. (Lest someone read the above and think it's a recipe for burnout: I'm not saying to work yourself into a frenzy at all times. Schedule breaks. Hell, have entire days where you do absolutely nothing unless the spirit moves you. But have enough going on in your life that you never find your days totally bereft of structure or things to get done.)

thwoaway6470 10y ago
Note that if you already aren't sleeping enough or taking care of your body, this is a very very bad idea. I tried this in college and the result was that I spent even more time wandering on the internet, was miserable and sleep-deprived, had chalk thrown at me by a professor when I fell asleep in his class, and was a complete flake.
- jonnathanson 10y ago
  Taking care of yourself is definitely a must. Especially sleep and exercise and diet. No question, and sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I'm not an advocate for the coffee-and-pharmaceauticals grindcore crowd. I should probably clarify: I'm not saying people need to fill their days with random tasks or meaningless busywork. Nor am I saying that people need to overcommit themselves. Rather, I'm saying that, if you believe you're the kind of person who doesn't handle unstructured time very well, then some small amount of structure is your answer. Everyone procrastinates for his or her own reasons, and I can't claim to have a magic bullet for all types. But I know what my type used to look like, and when I turned the lens of objective introspection on myself, I realized that my issue was not dealing well with unstructured time. I am guessing there are quite a few of us out there, and those who grok what I'm putting down will probably self-identify as such. Note, too, that "finding more to do" should come from a goal-directed place. Make life goals, then atomize them into tangible steps, then atomize those steps into action items. Even hobbies and leisure have a place in the mix -- as things you'd like to get better at, or hell, just fun ways to kill time that refresh and reenergize you, or help you decompress. (The opposite of this, which is just randomly committing to a laundry list of things with no overarching purpose, is indeed a recipe for burnout and thinly spread attention.) My only real point is, procrastination is remarkably easy to do in a void. So next time you find yourself procrastinating constantly, look around the void. See how big and empty it is. (Or isn't.) Think about what that means in terms of how you're spending your time and planning your life.
daxfohl 10y ago
"If you want something done, ask a busy person" - Ben Franklin Or, have kids: http://todaymix.com/picture/1631-returning-to-work-after-a-long-weekend.html http://todaymix.com/picture/1631-returning-to-work-after-a-l...

thwoaway6470 10y ago

Note that if you already aren't sleeping enough or taking care of your body, this is a very very bad idea. I tried this in college and the result was that I spent even more time wandering on the internet, was miserable and sleep-deprived, had chalk thrown at me by a professor when I fell asleep in his class, and was a complete flake.

jonnathanson 10y ago
Taking care of yourself is definitely a must. Especially sleep and exercise and diet. No question, and sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I'm not an advocate for the coffee-and-pharmaceauticals grindcore crowd. I should probably clarify: I'm not saying people need to fill their days with random tasks or meaningless busywork. Nor am I saying that people need to overcommit themselves. Rather, I'm saying that, if you believe you're the kind of person who doesn't handle unstructured time very well, then some small amount of structure is your answer. Everyone procrastinates for his or her own reasons, and I can't claim to have a magic bullet for all types. But I know what my type used to look like, and when I turned the lens of objective introspection on myself, I realized that my issue was not dealing well with unstructured time. I am guessing there are quite a few of us out there, and those who grok what I'm putting down will probably self-identify as such. Note, too, that "finding more to do" should come from a goal-directed place. Make life goals, then atomize them into tangible steps, then atomize those steps into action items. Even hobbies and leisure have a place in the mix -- as things you'd like to get better at, or hell, just fun ways to kill time that refresh and reenergize you, or help you decompress. (The opposite of this, which is just randomly committing to a laundry list of things with no overarching purpose, is indeed a recipe for burnout and thinly spread attention.) My only real point is, procrastination is remarkably easy to do in a void. So next time you find yourself procrastinating constantly, look around the void. See how big and empty it is. (Or isn't.) Think about what that means in terms of how you're spending your time and planning your life.

daxfohl 10y ago

"If you want something done, ask a busy person" - Ben Franklin Or, have kids: http://todaymix.com/picture/1631-returning-to-work-after-a-long-weekend.html http://todaymix.com/picture/1631-returning-to-work-after-a-l...