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Procrastination Has Nothing to Do with Self-Control

372 points by noego 8y ago

paulsutter 8y ago
> Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time, but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks — boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  Yikes. That's a lot of negative emotions. But don't we judge our characters and other's by how we manage despite that ? So it's back to square one and procrastination is a character flaw ?
  - qntty 8y ago
    Keyword being unique. Our tendency to procrastinate is explained by our sensitivity to, or ability to cope with, negative emotions. It's not something separate, like our ability to ride a bike (or lack thereof).
  - pmoriarty 8y ago
    "But don't we judge our characters and other's by how we manage despite that ?" Some people do judge, but maybe they shouldn't be so judgmental, as it's not clear how much control people have over their own behavior, and without such control one can't be blameworthy.
    - johnchristopher 8y ago
      Why can't they be judgemental ? I mean, it's not clear how much control they have over being judgmental.
  - jrochkind1 8y ago
    Hmm, what makes you think that line of thinking takes you "back to square one and procrastination is a character flaw"? I'm not following.
    - johnchristopher 8y ago
      Because it gets the definition back to procrastination being a consequence of other traits and the sum of these negative traits. If cowardice is character flaw then it follows than cowardice in fighting over the tendency to run from things we are scared to do (aka procrastination) is a character flaw. Is there more to it than a definition ? I believe the outlook matters more to deal with it though.
cableshaft 8y ago
> The particular nature of our aversion depends on the given task or situation. It may be due to something inherently unpleasant about the task itself...but it might also result from deeper feelings related to the task, such as self-doubt, low self-esteem, anxiety or insecurity. That may be what I'm doing with something right now. I have a couple of publishers interested in something I've designed, but I need to update a couple of things first before I submit it, and I keep putting it off, saying I'm too tired, not in the right mindset, I have too much other things going on. Might be because I'm worried they're going to reject me, though, and as long as I haven't submitted it yet they can't reject me. I do have a lot going on though and it does seem like it's getting in the way. Work is being stupidly demanding of my time, and I had a job interview pop up last week that superceded all other tasks, and I was out of town for half the weekend and needed to pull my weight around the house and bring it back from the sty it got into from the past week of preparing for the interview the other day.
- jules 8y ago
  What helps me in those situations is to make a list of arguments for and against doing it now. This seems silly, but view it as communication between your subconscious and your rational self. Your subconscious self feels that its obviously not a good idea to do it now, and your rational self feels that it obviously is a good idea. The arguments against doing it now are actually the most important part. Try to articulate why your subconscious feels that way, even if those arguments are silly. Recognising that they are silly is the point.
juandazapata 8y ago
Sleeping has a huge impact in procrastination. The lack of sleep translates into an hyperactive amygdala (which has a big influence in processing emotions and impulses) and an under-active frontal cortex (which influences our rational thinking, etc) [1] According to my experience, a good night of sleep is the best cure for procrastination, sadly, our current society don't optimize for sleeping well. --- 1: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501144316 https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...
- dawhizkid 8y ago
  Hm. Not convinced of the link between the two. The article is arguing that procrastination is the proactive delay of making a hard decision to the detriment of our mental wellbeing. A good night's sleep isn't necessarily going to make you want to confront that decision.
  - EndXA 8y ago
    Research has shown that there is absolutely a connection between sleep and procrastination, with low-quality sleep increasing the likelihood that people will procrastinate, particularly among people who are naturally prone to procrastination. This is attributed to the fact that sleep is crucial when it comes to replenishing the mental resources that you need in order to self-regulate your behavior effectively. This article contains a summary of research on the topic which came out recently: https://solvingprocrastination.com/study-procrastination-sleep-quality-self-control/ https://solvingprocrastination.com/study-procrastination-sle...
- matwood 8y ago
  A person should go to bed earlier then. Can't sleep? Then get some exercise and clean up their diet. At some point a person has to take control of their impulses.
  - adamnemecek 8y ago
    This is such a simplistic view. Tell that to the doctor in residency. The US work culture sure doesn’t care about you getting rest.
EndXA 8y ago
I find the article to be a bit misleading. The title says that procrastination has "nothing to do with self-control", which is obviously an appealing sentiment. However, the first paper that they reference says that "...if we have a great deal of self-discipline and dutifulness... we may exert the self-control necessary to engage in the task in a timely manner despite the lack of immediate reward or the negative mood that the task elicits. Procrastination, however, is the lack of this self-control, whether as a state or trait. Procrastination is the self-regulatory failure of not exerting the self-control necessary for task engagement... this failure at self-control may be the direct result of a focus on regulating moods and feeling states in the short term." Overall, a better argument would be that a lack of self-control isn't the driving force behind our decision to procrastinate. Rather, what causes us to procrastinate are things such as anxiety or fear of failure, and a high degree of self-control is what allows us to overcome these issues. If anyone is interested in learning more about the factors that can cause us to procrastinate, such as anxiety, perfectionism, and reliance on abstract goals, check out this article: https://solvingprocrastination.com/why-people-procrastinate/ https://solvingprocrastination.com/why-people-procrastinate/
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "what causes us to procrastinate are things such as anxiety or fear of failure, and a high degree of self-control is what allows us to overcome these issues" Self-control seems to be a behavior rather than a characteristic, quality, or a skill. When one has controlled oneself, one has exhibited self-controlling behavior by definition. But what causes someone to exert that self-control?
  - ohyes 8y ago
    Right, and also... What causes one to need to exert self control? Am I exerting self control if I want to do the things that I need to do? Or have I just stumbled into a sort of happy accident?
  - beat 8y ago
    Right. "Self-control" is a process, a system of habits and procedures for handling various situations. But our language of self-control is about morality, and "lack of self-control" is seen as a character flaw, not a problem that can be solved with repeatable processes. In other words, "lack of self control" is a failing of society, not a failing of individuals.
IBCNU 8y ago
I know he's not for everyone but Nassim Taleb's quote is salient - “Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad -- at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity.”
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect that humans were procrastinating well before the first nail was hammered into the first plank of the Procrustean bed of modernity.
  - WalterSear 8y ago
    The were fighting their Procrustean beds of modernity.
  - debacle 8y ago
    Procrastination was much more difficult before the modern age (1960+)
    - beat 8y ago
      Why do you think that?
- ghaff 8y ago
  There are probably more or less two classes of procrastination. There are tasks that really do need to be done. No magical fairy is going to come along and do your taxes for you or some household task that someone really does need to do. On the other hand, there are projects that aren't time-critical and that, if you hold off doing them, the need for them may really go away or you may otherwise decide that task isn't actually necessary.
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  Almost nothing is _always_ bad. But I guess the question, as with everything, is if you believe it is interfering with your ability to do accomplish what is important to you in your life. And of course, there are always at least two possible paths there -- you can try to change it, or you can decide that you're actually okay with your life-under-procrastination after all. But sometimes some people are going to find their severe procrasnation is interfering with their ability to do what is important to them, and they want to do something about it. This decision alone does not make it _easy_ though. My observation and experience have matched the articles, that self-blame doesn't help, but that recognizing the relation it has to your anxiety and finding other ways to relate to your anxiety can.
placebo 8y ago
This whole thing about character flaws and self control reminded me of the following passage from Raymond Smullyan's "This Book Needs No Title": I know one woman who smokes. She says: “It’s not that I have to smoke; I choose to. I could easily give it up any time I wish to, but I see no reason why I should. But I can assure you, I could if I wanted to.” Her husband says to her: “That's only a rationalization! You couldn’t give up smoking even if you wanted to. You are not strong enough to give it up; you have to smoke. So to make yourself feel better, and to avoid having to confess your own weakness of character, you fool yourself into believing that you choose to. But it’s only a rationalization!” I know another woman who smokes. She says: “It’s not that I want to smoke; I can’t help myself! I have tried several times giving it up, but I have failed! I'm afraid I just don’t have a very strong character. I would love to stop, but I simply can’t.” Her husband says to her: “That's only a rationalization! You certainly could stop immediately, if you really wanted to. No, you choose to smoke (after all, nobody is making you) and you feel ashamed and guilty for doing that which you know to be harmful. So to avoid any moral responsibility for your acts, you fool yourself into believing that you ‘can’t help it. But this is only a rationalization.” My only question about all this is: “Why are people so incredibly stupid?” Pity he didn't expand on the last line, but I think deep introspection is required to understand what is really under our control
- macromaniac 8y ago
  Too theoretical imo, to see if something is within your locus of control try to stop doing it for a month - you'll see whether you are smoking cigarettes or if the cigarettes are smoking you.
  - hyperpape 8y ago
    That only tells you if you can quit for a month. What you need to do is quit forever.
    - jcutrell 8y ago
      Smoking long enough ensures that you will quit forever, you just won’t be alive to know it.
pmoriarty 8y ago
"Cultivate curiosity: If you're feeling tempted to procrastinate, bring your attention to the sensations arising in your mind and body. What feelings are eliciting your temptation? Where do you feel them in your body? What do they remind you of? What happens to the thought of procrastinating as you observe it? Does it intensify? Dissipate? Cause other emotions to arise? How are the sensations in your body shifting as you continue to rest your awareness on them?" This sounds very much like meditation, and while it may well be beneficial, someone with a serious procrastination problem may have problems following through with their intention to meditate like this as well, and instead just compulsively do whatever makes them feel better.
- beat 8y ago
  The thing is, what we compulsively do doesn't necessarily make us feel better. We do it because we have a habit, or an instinct.
- WalterSear 8y ago
  Moreover, if anhedonic depression is involved, it can exacerbate that - serious anhedonia is a sensation that shares a lot with mindfulness meditation.
tonystubblebine 8y ago
Tim Pychyl, one of the quoted researchers, is fantastic. If you want to hear more from him, this is a great article by him (I was the editor for it): https://medium.com/s/the-complete-guide-to-beating-procrastination/how-to-use-psychology-to-solve-the-procrastination-puzzle-6e6a56cdd535 https://medium.com/s/the-complete-guide-to-beating-procrasti...
- OscarTheGrinch 8y ago
  Seconded, Tim is both wise and kind. His podcast is also well worth checking out for anyone currently stuck on the horns of the procrastination bull: http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/webpage/category/general http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/webpage/category/general
CompelTechnic 8y ago
The way I usually formulate these lines of thought is as follows: I have the desire to play video games (a waste of time), but I wish that I did not have this desire. I want it, but I do not want to want it. If we do not have strong enough character to regulate our short term desires, our long term goals suffer. This tradeoff is implicit in how we spend every second of our day. Ultimately, actions reveal preferences. If your long-term goals are unclear, or if your working conditions/ social circle are not congruent to your long-term goals, you will remain anxious over failing to progress towards these goals.
- kryogen1c 8y ago
  This rings true for me, and is how I quit cold turkey and never looked back. You need to realize that you want or need is not wrong - embrace it. Embrace it and realize there is something you want more; a larger need that subsumes the lesser habit. No one hates eating cookies and watching tv all day, but there are conflicting desires that lead you to change your behavior - sense of accomplishment, physical health, making money to live, etc.
- kmote00 8y ago
  Apparently this phenomenon predates video games: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Paul of Tarsus, circa 57 a.d.)
  - bdefore 8y ago
    Reads like a prologue to the new offering in town around then (Jesus Christ)
beat 8y ago
This makes me think of the book Atomic Habits, which is all about how to form good habits and break bad ones. Procrastination can be seen in many cases as a lack of habit triggers to start down the path to work. Keeping a daily to-do list (I use bullet journaling, but other processes can work) has done wonders for my procrastination. I have a habit of writing down everything I need to do that day - even if I've already done it. I have a habit to check at the end of the day to complete what isn't yet done. I have a habit of marking things completed. So my to-do list habit leads to not procrastinating. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than where I was. I also have a habit of taking my journal and a pen with me everywhere. I'd rather be without my phone than without my journal. I don't use a phone for my reference calendar or (especially) to-do lists, because a cell phone is full of all sorts of nasty bad-habit triggers, many designed by giant corporations that prey on my attention for money. It's basically a digital crack pipe I carry everywhere. So marking my tasks for the day without also checking email, weather, facebook (removed that app entirely and went cold turkey), etc... it's very difficult. Paper is how I manage my time. It gives me positive habits and positive reinforcement.
rb808 8y ago
I've often found myself procrastinating when working on a project where I've been thrown in not knowing enough and thought I could figure it all out. Often the solution is to step back and learn the technology/library/tool first, then I dont procrastinate any more and get the job done. I haven't seen this explanation, but I suspect it occurs often.
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  I think this is definitely valid and real, but there also is a danger of pretending you're in this situation when you're not. For example, suppose you have some electronic item you want to repair but you're horrible at soldering, so you put it off because you don't want to face the negative feelings of failing at soldering again or the negative feelings of destroying that item you think you should have been able to repair. You could get past this by watching some videos on soldering, getting some better equipment, or practicing with a friend who's actually good at soldering. Once you don't suck at soldering, the negative feelings around fixing your electronic item are gone, and you can stop procrastinating. (And you can do it faster and better.) On the other hand, maybe you need to write a complicated and annoying SQL query that is going to be tricky to get right, and you already know SQL, but you go off on a huge tangent reading SQL documentation looking for a function or trick that will make it easier when there really isn't one. Pretty soon you're just learning about esoteric SQL functions that don't have anything to do with your problem. But maybe one of them could if you read long enough, so you keep reading and reading.
adrianmonk 8y ago
> “It’s self-harm,” said Dr. Piers Steel, a professor of motivational psychology I'm in the unfortunate position of being a layman who disagrees with an expert, but isn't it a bit inaccurate and confusing to call it "self-harm"? Doesn't that term already have a specific meaning? As I understand it, self-harm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm) is a behavior where someone seeks out pain (such as by cutting themselves). It can be because focusing on pain allows temporary escape from other thoughts, or maybe for other reasons, but in any case the pain is something the person seeks out and is an essential part of the process. It seems like "self-destructive" might be a better term to use when talking about procrastination. If I put off cleaning my bathroom, I'm avoiding something I can't/won't face, and that is going to come with feelings of guilt or shame, but I'm not seeking out that suffering as a tool for dealing with something else. It's just a side-effect of the choice to avoid something. Or, if it really is (a non-physical form of) self-harm, can someone explain how? Are they saying the feeling of guilt over not cleaning my bathroom alleviates the feelings of unpleasantness associated with having to scrub the shower? That doesn't seem right, but maybe there are two types of procrastination, a "light" one where the task is just unpleasant and says nothing about you (cleaning the shower) and a "serious" one where the task might reflect on you (learning to do something you don't think you're capable of)? I could imagine how self-harm might fit in with the "serious" form because maybe guilt over not trying could serve a purpose distracting you from the more-unpleasant feeling of doubt over whether you actually can do it.
- ComputerGuru 8y ago
  The presumption here is that the task you are avoiding is - somehow - in your best interests (directly or indirectly, e.g. going to the gym directly makes you healthier while completing that report for your boss might not directly help you but it is certainly in your best interest to have a job and not be fired) or otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. Not doing something that is good for yourself is doing something bad to yourself, i.e. self harm. If it were phrased as "someone throwing a fit at work and insulting everyone with the intention of getting themselves fired so that they would no longer have a means of income," I think we can both agree that going out of your way to not have a job (not just this job) is definitely self-harm. It's in the same vein.
mitko 8y ago
I wrote something on a related topic recently: https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their-life-around https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their... """ We like to refer to that effort as willpower. But, from the point of view of looking at emotions fighting for dominance inside our brains, willpower is simply the strength and effort of the constructive emotions. The emotions which lead to long term happiness and comfort, even at the expense of short term pleasure. Logical, sober thought is one such constructive emotion, and we call it willpower whenever we are able to make our actions agree with the constructive emotions. Yet… there is such a thing as “destructive” willpower. You might have seen it under the name of “rationalization”. It is what destructive emotions use to take over our action. If people say and think “I’m gonna be OK to drive with one drink,” that’s their drink addiction emotion convincing them to drink. That’s destructive willpower. It’s not the absence of willpower, but the redirection of willpower towards a destructive emotion. """
nickjj 8y ago
I normally don't read NYTimes articles but this one was pretty good with a couple of useful external links. But then they dropped this line: "On the other side of the coin, Ms. Rubin also suggested that we make the things we want to do as easy as possible for ourselves." So what you're saying is I should tweak my vimrc file to make it easier to write code instead of working on my next project, got it! Jokes aside though, it's worth a read if you're afflicted by procrastination and its related friends.
hashberry 8y ago
Chronic procrastinator here. Procrastinating feels like an addiction for me because it offers instant pleasure. Right now I am procrastinating instead of trying to fix a dumb JavaScript bug. When it comes to "bad mood," I've noticed a pattern from my self-centered ego: 1). The work is "beneath" me, and/or 2). The work threatens my ego.
zemnmez 8y ago
rather unsurprising that a psychologist describes procrastination as a mismanagement of 'emotion' rather than a dysfunction of the dopaminergic reward systems. as someone taking ADHD medication, i can tell you that procrastination is fundamentally just a failure of dopamine management. For some unlike me perhaps it is true that there is a 'one little trick' to make your brain act rationally. I don't know, maybe it's possible via the brain's sheer neuroplasticity to evolve a dopaminergic flaw from a psychological failure or trauma. But at the end of the day, procrastination is very much neurological, with a fairly clear pathway and a chemical which is objectively known to drive it. More people absolutely need to know procrastination has nothing to do with self control, but psychological research like this will always appear to show the issue stemming from a psychological issue when this is known to be virtually always untrue. Treatment of ADHD with psychological approaches like CBT have a nearly non statistically significant effect, but ADHD medication has a 70%+ success rate.
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  Is "treatment of ADHD" the same thing as "treatment of procrastination"? Are you suggesting anyone who is displeased with a regular procrastination habit has ADHD? Are you recommending medication for anyone who is displeased with their procrastination? I don't think the OP is suggesting there is "one little trick", but if, alternately, medication is in fact "one little trick" that worked for everyone, that would probably be welcome news to everyone!
  - Mirioron 8y ago
    >Is "treatment of ADHD" the same thing as "treatment of procrastination"? Not exactly, but excessive procrastination is a symptom of ADHD. Managing ADHD requires managing excessive procrastination and medication, so far, is the most effective treatment for ADHD.
  - zemnmez 8y ago
    ADHD is a diagnosis based on a group of issues primarily owing to dopamine management. ADHD at the end of the day, is just a word. The way I see it, there's a spectrum of procrastination issues and those that are explosive enough to be diagnosable get the ADHD label and medication. If you have ADHD symptoms but they're not bad enough to warrant a diagnosis you get nothing. It's well known that ADHD medication is incredible for procrastination -- statistically speaking any student should be able to tell you that.
forgotAgain 8y ago
So say you're a procrastinator. Do you? a)read the article so you don't have to do xyz b)not read the article because learning how to stop procrastinating feels like self sabotage c)start the article but don't finish it because you have ADD from surfing the internet as a means of procrastinating d)something else. edit: e)skim the article and write an HN comment about it.
- sudosteph 8y ago
  d.) something else - I didn't read the article because I've wasted enough time in my life figuring out why I procrastinate and it doesn't bother me any more. But I still read most of the comments because I enjoy learning about the range of human experience around procrastination, because I do acknowledge it's something I cared about in the past. edit) also lurking in comments is my preferred method of wasting time. Though I'm not wasting time to procrastinate at the moment. I'm just waiting for a scheduled event to start which I prepared for already. I think that's different.
mbrock 8y ago
I mostly associate procrastination with the inability to make myself want to deal with chores that seem alienating and dumb and like impositions from a boring bureaucratic external system that makes fundamental demands on me as a person with no personal connection—bookkeeping, entering long numbers into bank web apps, registering my residential address by filling out a form, going through KYC questionnaires over the phone, writing a report I know nobody will read, etc. And it’s worse the more the task is imbued with some kind of fake urgency by prudish pedantic adults while I also know that the negative consequences of not doing the thing on time are likely to be rather tame like a small fine or just a little bureaucratic slap on the wrist. I procrastinate with the same chores that might make me imagine dropping out of society to live on a homestead or as a monk. Probably I would get through these things easier if I had some “ADHD medicine” as the kids call it these days.
deadalus 8y ago
It has everything to do with genes.
adolph 8y ago
Recommended related: If Self-discipline Feels Difficult, Then You’re Doing It Wrong [1] by author of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life" 1. https://markmanson.net/self-discipline-youre-doing-it-wrong?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-posts&utm_content=2019-02-08 https://markmanson.net/self-discipline-youre-doing-it-wrong?... 2. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8529755.Mark_Manson https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8529755.Mark_Manson
curtis 8y ago
I am a terrible procrastinator, and for me procrastination seems to be very much like writer's block. The problem isn't doing something so much as it is starting something. In the case of writer's block, I try to start by free-writing. I start writing with the intention that it's going to be crap and I'm going to throw it away. In fact, I might even start with complete gibberish. Along with general procrastination and writer's block I also suffer from the closely related coder's block. I address this the same way: instead of free-writing I start "free-coding", where I write code with the intention that it's going to be crap, and I might even start writing gibberish, before I move on to writing code that compiles and maybe runs, but does nothing useful. The goal is just to get started. In the case of both free writing and free coding, once I start I pretty quickly move on to writing stuff that's decent even if it's not great. That's something I can work with, and once I get in that mode I have much greater resistance to distractions. To circle back to procrastination, I might use a similar approach. Say I need to clean up my work area, and I just don't want to (even though I also do want to). I need to reduce the scope of the problem to something absurdly simple, or maybe even just absurd. So I decide I'm just going to move all the loose items on my desk to another table so I can dust the desk. But I'm not even going to dust the desk, I'm just going to move the stuff off of it. For the immediate moment that's all I've got to care about it. Just moving stuff around. But once the desk is cleared, dusting it and wiping it down is easy. It's so easy in that moment that that's all I care about. Then once that's done, I move the stuff back. But as I'm moving the stuff back it's easy to address each item one-by-one. Old papers can go in the trash or recycling, the books can go back to their regular place on the book shelf, the stapler can go back in the desk drawer where it regularly resides, etc. Then I realize now would be a good time to wipe the dust off my monitor, sort through the nearby stack of mail, etc. Now mind you, I still procrastinate way more than I should, but these techniques work for me and I procrastinate a lot less than I used to.
- Inu 8y ago
  Reminds me of Raymond Chandler's technique: "Raymond Chandler and I discussed this once, and he admitted to the most bitter reluctance to commit anything to paper. He evolved the following scheme: he had a tape recorder into which he spoke the utmost nonsense – a stream of consciousness which was then transcribed by a secretary and which he then used as a basis for his first rough draft. Very laborious. He strongly advised me to do the same … in fact became so excited that he kept plying me with information for months about the machine that helped him." (from an interview with S. J. Perelman)
Data_Junkie 8y ago
Self-harm in the sense that is causes you pain, but it is really just not doing what others want even though you know that they will hurt you. It is intellectually dishonest to to portray people not doing something that they don't REALLY want to do as an issue with their brains and leave out the brains causing the harm. Not self-harm, just not protecting the self.
csomar 8y ago
I have two objections: 1- It says we procrastinate against our better judgement. But isn't the science gearing toward the fact that it is not the conscious brain that is controlling our behavior and actions? In that case, you can't solve procrastination by simply being aware of it. 2- Quoting from the article > We really weren’t designed to think ahead into the further future because we needed to focus on providing for ourselves in the here and now. Yet, every night I go to bed and I'm dreaming about a better future. Obviously the scenarios I'm dreaming about can't be for tomorrow and are quite distant in the future (better country, top job/career, traveling but mostly a hotter girl with big/nice house).
- moate 8y ago
  To point one: What's the objection here? You do something (like say, posting on HN instead of driving home from work) instead of doing the thing that you feel would be better for you. If you hadn't felt the 2nd option was better, either in the moment or in retrospect, then you wouldn't feel you procrastinated. You just did something. And the article isn't suggesting that being aware of it fixes it, it's saying that it has more to do with anxiety or other causes than simply not wanting to do something. It's trying to say WHY you're on HN instead of driving home. 2- What does your example prove here? The human mind almost always prioritizes immediate needs over future needs and has poor understanding of how to achieve long term goals. This is very well understood by psychologists and sociologists. It's part of why people find game theory so interesting. It's why people act against their own self interests. Saying "I want things in the future" doesn't GET you those things, so you haven't really proven that you're great at planning a future.
User23 8y ago
Is this why amphetamines make avoiding procrastination so much easier?
tombert 8y ago
I noticed that my tendencies to procrastinate greatly reduced (though never completely vanished) upon me taking antidepressants, after a very unpleasant conversation with my boss (at the time) telling me that I was underperforming, and it could lead to me being fired. I remember the feelings I had then; there was this feeling of "I'm not stupid, why am I constantly pushing things off to make it seem like I am?", and it became this vicious cycle of "I do poorly because I'm depressed, and I'm depressed because I do poorly". I could definitely see it as an act of "self-harm", as this article describes.
0xCMP 8y ago
How many visitors to HN or Twitter are often here because they reached a hard or tedious part of their task and you rationalized "giving yourself a break"? I know I have. I added the noprocrast setting to HN to interrupt this habit and I often try logging out of Twitter so I would actually need to login to use it. But this article rings true that often I'm using that "break" as a coping mechanism to avoid doing something I assume will be hard.
agumonkey 8y ago
meditation to slow down turmoil, and be able to reflect on your thoughts sports to revive mental strength and thoroughness life rhythm for efficiency on a higher level: desire to deflect procrastination as a metalevel trick to find pleasure in doing something depth first
tylerjwilk00 8y ago
I wonder if procrastinating may be a healthy response to having too little leisure time and being over committed to too many things. We are evolved for more immediate concerns. The TPS report lacks the same importance as catching dinner. Unfortunately in the modern era the TPS report is what you catch dinner with. What to do.
- manicdee 8y ago
  Eat the rich. Admit that our lifestyles are designed to drive the consumption based economy, rather than to actually make life more enjoyable. The Australian Aborigines has a stable, sustainable civilisation for tens of thousands of years. European “civilisation” is set to make the world uninhabitable within two thousand years of inventing the steam engine.

372 points by noego 8y ago

> Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time, but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks — boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond.

johnchristopher 8y ago
Yikes. That's a lot of negative emotions. But don't we judge our characters and other's by how we manage despite that ? So it's back to square one and procrastination is a character flaw ?
- qntty 8y ago
  Keyword being unique. Our tendency to procrastinate is explained by our sensitivity to, or ability to cope with, negative emotions. It's not something separate, like our ability to ride a bike (or lack thereof).
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "But don't we judge our characters and other's by how we manage despite that ?" Some people do judge, but maybe they shouldn't be so judgmental, as it's not clear how much control people have over their own behavior, and without such control one can't be blameworthy.
  - johnchristopher 8y ago
    Why can't they be judgemental ? I mean, it's not clear how much control they have over being judgmental.
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  Hmm, what makes you think that line of thinking takes you "back to square one and procrastination is a character flaw"? I'm not following.
  - johnchristopher 8y ago
    Because it gets the definition back to procrastination being a consequence of other traits and the sum of these negative traits. If cowardice is character flaw then it follows than cowardice in fighting over the tendency to run from things we are scared to do (aka procrastination) is a character flaw. Is there more to it than a definition ? I believe the outlook matters more to deal with it though.

cableshaft 8y ago

> The particular nature of our aversion depends on the given task or situation. It may be due to something inherently unpleasant about the task itself...but it might also result from deeper feelings related to the task, such as self-doubt, low self-esteem, anxiety or insecurity. That may be what I'm doing with something right now. I have a couple of publishers interested in something I've designed, but I need to update a couple of things first before I submit it, and I keep putting it off, saying I'm too tired, not in the right mindset, I have too much other things going on. Might be because I'm worried they're going to reject me, though, and as long as I haven't submitted it yet they can't reject me. I do have a lot going on though and it does seem like it's getting in the way. Work is being stupidly demanding of my time, and I had a job interview pop up last week that superceded all other tasks, and I was out of town for half the weekend and needed to pull my weight around the house and bring it back from the sty it got into from the past week of preparing for the interview the other day.

jules 8y ago
What helps me in those situations is to make a list of arguments for and against doing it now. This seems silly, but view it as communication between your subconscious and your rational self. Your subconscious self feels that its obviously not a good idea to do it now, and your rational self feels that it obviously is a good idea. The arguments against doing it now are actually the most important part. Try to articulate why your subconscious feels that way, even if those arguments are silly. Recognising that they are silly is the point.

juandazapata 8y ago

Sleeping has a huge impact in procrastination. The lack of sleep translates into an hyperactive amygdala (which has a big influence in processing emotions and impulses) and an under-active frontal cortex (which influences our rational thinking, etc) [1] According to my experience, a good night of sleep is the best cure for procrastination, sadly, our current society don't optimize for sleeping well. --- 1: https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501144316 https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

dawhizkid 8y ago
Hm. Not convinced of the link between the two. The article is arguing that procrastination is the proactive delay of making a hard decision to the detriment of our mental wellbeing. A good night's sleep isn't necessarily going to make you want to confront that decision.
- EndXA 8y ago
  Research has shown that there is absolutely a connection between sleep and procrastination, with low-quality sleep increasing the likelihood that people will procrastinate, particularly among people who are naturally prone to procrastination. This is attributed to the fact that sleep is crucial when it comes to replenishing the mental resources that you need in order to self-regulate your behavior effectively. This article contains a summary of research on the topic which came out recently: https://solvingprocrastination.com/study-procrastination-sleep-quality-self-control/ https://solvingprocrastination.com/study-procrastination-sle...
matwood 8y ago
A person should go to bed earlier then. Can't sleep? Then get some exercise and clean up their diet. At some point a person has to take control of their impulses.
- adamnemecek 8y ago
  This is such a simplistic view. Tell that to the doctor in residency. The US work culture sure doesn’t care about you getting rest.

EndXA 8y ago

I find the article to be a bit misleading. The title says that procrastination has "nothing to do with self-control", which is obviously an appealing sentiment. However, the first paper that they reference says that "...if we have a great deal of self-discipline and dutifulness... we may exert the self-control necessary to engage in the task in a timely manner despite the lack of immediate reward or the negative mood that the task elicits. Procrastination, however, is the lack of this self-control, whether as a state or trait. Procrastination is the self-regulatory failure of not exerting the self-control necessary for task engagement... this failure at self-control may be the direct result of a focus on regulating moods and feeling states in the short term." Overall, a better argument would be that a lack of self-control isn't the driving force behind our decision to procrastinate. Rather, what causes us to procrastinate are things such as anxiety or fear of failure, and a high degree of self-control is what allows us to overcome these issues. If anyone is interested in learning more about the factors that can cause us to procrastinate, such as anxiety, perfectionism, and reliance on abstract goals, check out this article: https://solvingprocrastination.com/why-people-procrastinate/ https://solvingprocrastination.com/why-people-procrastinate/

pmoriarty 8y ago
"what causes us to procrastinate are things such as anxiety or fear of failure, and a high degree of self-control is what allows us to overcome these issues" Self-control seems to be a behavior rather than a characteristic, quality, or a skill. When one has controlled oneself, one has exhibited self-controlling behavior by definition. But what causes someone to exert that self-control?
- ohyes 8y ago
  Right, and also... What causes one to need to exert self control? Am I exerting self control if I want to do the things that I need to do? Or have I just stumbled into a sort of happy accident?
- beat 8y ago
  Right. "Self-control" is a process, a system of habits and procedures for handling various situations. But our language of self-control is about morality, and "lack of self-control" is seen as a character flaw, not a problem that can be solved with repeatable processes. In other words, "lack of self control" is a failing of society, not a failing of individuals.

IBCNU 8y ago

I know he's not for everyone but Nassim Taleb's quote is salient - “Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad -- at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity.”

TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect that humans were procrastinating well before the first nail was hammered into the first plank of the Procrustean bed of modernity.
- WalterSear 8y ago
  The were fighting their Procrustean beds of modernity.
- debacle 8y ago
  Procrastination was much more difficult before the modern age (1960+)
  - beat 8y ago
    Why do you think that?
ghaff 8y ago
There are probably more or less two classes of procrastination. There are tasks that really do need to be done. No magical fairy is going to come along and do your taxes for you or some household task that someone really does need to do. On the other hand, there are projects that aren't time-critical and that, if you hold off doing them, the need for them may really go away or you may otherwise decide that task isn't actually necessary.
jrochkind1 8y ago
Almost nothing is _always_ bad. But I guess the question, as with everything, is if you believe it is interfering with your ability to do accomplish what is important to you in your life. And of course, there are always at least two possible paths there -- you can try to change it, or you can decide that you're actually okay with your life-under-procrastination after all. But sometimes some people are going to find their severe procrasnation is interfering with their ability to do what is important to them, and they want to do something about it. This decision alone does not make it _easy_ though. My observation and experience have matched the articles, that self-blame doesn't help, but that recognizing the relation it has to your anxiety and finding other ways to relate to your anxiety can.

placebo 8y ago

This whole thing about character flaws and self control reminded me of the following passage from Raymond Smullyan's "This Book Needs No Title": I know one woman who smokes. She says: “It’s not that I have to smoke; I choose to. I could easily give it up any time I wish to, but I see no reason why I should. But I can assure you, I could if I wanted to.” Her husband says to her: “That's only a rationalization! You couldn’t give up smoking even if you wanted to. You are not strong enough to give it up; you have to smoke. So to make yourself feel better, and to avoid having to confess your own weakness of character, you fool yourself into believing that you choose to. But it’s only a rationalization!” I know another woman who smokes. She says: “It’s not that I want to smoke; I can’t help myself! I have tried several times giving it up, but I have failed! I'm afraid I just don’t have a very strong character. I would love to stop, but I simply can’t.” Her husband says to her: “That's only a rationalization! You certainly could stop immediately, if you really wanted to. No, you choose to smoke (after all, nobody is making you) and you feel ashamed and guilty for doing that which you know to be harmful. So to avoid any moral responsibility for your acts, you fool yourself into believing that you ‘can’t help it. But this is only a rationalization.” My only question about all this is: “Why are people so incredibly stupid?” Pity he didn't expand on the last line, but I think deep introspection is required to understand what is really under our control

macromaniac 8y ago
Too theoretical imo, to see if something is within your locus of control try to stop doing it for a month - you'll see whether you are smoking cigarettes or if the cigarettes are smoking you.
- hyperpape 8y ago
  That only tells you if you can quit for a month. What you need to do is quit forever.
  - jcutrell 8y ago
    Smoking long enough ensures that you will quit forever, you just won’t be alive to know it.

pmoriarty 8y ago

"Cultivate curiosity: If you're feeling tempted to procrastinate, bring your attention to the sensations arising in your mind and body. What feelings are eliciting your temptation? Where do you feel them in your body? What do they remind you of? What happens to the thought of procrastinating as you observe it? Does it intensify? Dissipate? Cause other emotions to arise? How are the sensations in your body shifting as you continue to rest your awareness on them?" This sounds very much like meditation, and while it may well be beneficial, someone with a serious procrastination problem may have problems following through with their intention to meditate like this as well, and instead just compulsively do whatever makes them feel better.

beat 8y ago
The thing is, what we compulsively do doesn't necessarily make us feel better. We do it because we have a habit, or an instinct.
WalterSear 8y ago
Moreover, if anhedonic depression is involved, it can exacerbate that - serious anhedonia is a sensation that shares a lot with mindfulness meditation.

tonystubblebine 8y ago

Tim Pychyl, one of the quoted researchers, is fantastic. If you want to hear more from him, this is a great article by him (I was the editor for it): https://medium.com/s/the-complete-guide-to-beating-procrastination/how-to-use-psychology-to-solve-the-procrastination-puzzle-6e6a56cdd535 https://medium.com/s/the-complete-guide-to-beating-procrasti...

OscarTheGrinch 8y ago
Seconded, Tim is both wise and kind. His podcast is also well worth checking out for anyone currently stuck on the horns of the procrastination bull: http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/webpage/category/general http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/webpage/category/general

CompelTechnic 8y ago

The way I usually formulate these lines of thought is as follows: I have the desire to play video games (a waste of time), but I wish that I did not have this desire. I want it, but I do not want to want it. If we do not have strong enough character to regulate our short term desires, our long term goals suffer. This tradeoff is implicit in how we spend every second of our day. Ultimately, actions reveal preferences. If your long-term goals are unclear, or if your working conditions/ social circle are not congruent to your long-term goals, you will remain anxious over failing to progress towards these goals.

kryogen1c 8y ago
This rings true for me, and is how I quit cold turkey and never looked back. You need to realize that you want or need is not wrong - embrace it. Embrace it and realize there is something you want more; a larger need that subsumes the lesser habit. No one hates eating cookies and watching tv all day, but there are conflicting desires that lead you to change your behavior - sense of accomplishment, physical health, making money to live, etc.
kmote00 8y ago
Apparently this phenomenon predates video games: "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Paul of Tarsus, circa 57 a.d.)
- bdefore 8y ago
  Reads like a prologue to the new offering in town around then (Jesus Christ)

beat 8y ago

This makes me think of the book Atomic Habits, which is all about how to form good habits and break bad ones. Procrastination can be seen in many cases as a lack of habit triggers to start down the path to work. Keeping a daily to-do list (I use bullet journaling, but other processes can work) has done wonders for my procrastination. I have a habit of writing down everything I need to do that day - even if I've already done it. I have a habit to check at the end of the day to complete what isn't yet done. I have a habit of marking things completed. So my to-do list habit leads to not procrastinating. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than where I was. I also have a habit of taking my journal and a pen with me everywhere. I'd rather be without my phone than without my journal. I don't use a phone for my reference calendar or (especially) to-do lists, because a cell phone is full of all sorts of nasty bad-habit triggers, many designed by giant corporations that prey on my attention for money. It's basically a digital crack pipe I carry everywhere. So marking my tasks for the day without also checking email, weather, facebook (removed that app entirely and went cold turkey), etc... it's very difficult. Paper is how I manage my time. It gives me positive habits and positive reinforcement.

rb808 8y ago

I've often found myself procrastinating when working on a project where I've been thrown in not knowing enough and thought I could figure it all out. Often the solution is to step back and learn the technology/library/tool first, then I dont procrastinate any more and get the job done. I haven't seen this explanation, but I suspect it occurs often.

adrianmonk 8y ago
I think this is definitely valid and real, but there also is a danger of pretending you're in this situation when you're not. For example, suppose you have some electronic item you want to repair but you're horrible at soldering, so you put it off because you don't want to face the negative feelings of failing at soldering again or the negative feelings of destroying that item you think you should have been able to repair. You could get past this by watching some videos on soldering, getting some better equipment, or practicing with a friend who's actually good at soldering. Once you don't suck at soldering, the negative feelings around fixing your electronic item are gone, and you can stop procrastinating. (And you can do it faster and better.) On the other hand, maybe you need to write a complicated and annoying SQL query that is going to be tricky to get right, and you already know SQL, but you go off on a huge tangent reading SQL documentation looking for a function or trick that will make it easier when there really isn't one. Pretty soon you're just learning about esoteric SQL functions that don't have anything to do with your problem. But maybe one of them could if you read long enough, so you keep reading and reading.

adrianmonk 8y ago

> “It’s self-harm,” said Dr. Piers Steel, a professor of motivational psychology I'm in the unfortunate position of being a layman who disagrees with an expert, but isn't it a bit inaccurate and confusing to call it "self-harm"? Doesn't that term already have a specific meaning? As I understand it, self-harm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm) is a behavior where someone seeks out pain (such as by cutting themselves). It can be because focusing on pain allows temporary escape from other thoughts, or maybe for other reasons, but in any case the pain is something the person seeks out and is an essential part of the process. It seems like "self-destructive" might be a better term to use when talking about procrastination. If I put off cleaning my bathroom, I'm avoiding something I can't/won't face, and that is going to come with feelings of guilt or shame, but I'm not seeking out that suffering as a tool for dealing with something else. It's just a side-effect of the choice to avoid something. Or, if it really is (a non-physical form of) self-harm, can someone explain how? Are they saying the feeling of guilt over not cleaning my bathroom alleviates the feelings of unpleasantness associated with having to scrub the shower? That doesn't seem right, but maybe there are two types of procrastination, a "light" one where the task is just unpleasant and says nothing about you (cleaning the shower) and a "serious" one where the task might reflect on you (learning to do something you don't think you're capable of)? I could imagine how self-harm might fit in with the "serious" form because maybe guilt over not trying could serve a purpose distracting you from the more-unpleasant feeling of doubt over whether you actually can do it.

ComputerGuru 8y ago
The presumption here is that the task you are avoiding is - somehow - in your best interests (directly or indirectly, e.g. going to the gym directly makes you healthier while completing that report for your boss might not directly help you but it is certainly in your best interest to have a job and not be fired) or otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. Not doing something that is good for yourself is doing something bad to yourself, i.e. self harm. If it were phrased as "someone throwing a fit at work and insulting everyone with the intention of getting themselves fired so that they would no longer have a means of income," I think we can both agree that going out of your way to not have a job (not just this job) is definitely self-harm. It's in the same vein.

mitko 8y ago

I wrote something on a related topic recently: https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their-life-around https://dimitarsimeonov.com/2019/02/13/how-people-turn-their... """ We like to refer to that effort as willpower. But, from the point of view of looking at emotions fighting for dominance inside our brains, willpower is simply the strength and effort of the constructive emotions. The emotions which lead to long term happiness and comfort, even at the expense of short term pleasure. Logical, sober thought is one such constructive emotion, and we call it willpower whenever we are able to make our actions agree with the constructive emotions. Yet… there is such a thing as “destructive” willpower. You might have seen it under the name of “rationalization”. It is what destructive emotions use to take over our action. If people say and think “I’m gonna be OK to drive with one drink,” that’s their drink addiction emotion convincing them to drink. That’s destructive willpower. It’s not the absence of willpower, but the redirection of willpower towards a destructive emotion. """

nickjj 8y ago

I normally don't read NYTimes articles but this one was pretty good with a couple of useful external links. But then they dropped this line: "On the other side of the coin, Ms. Rubin also suggested that we make the things we want to do as easy as possible for ourselves." So what you're saying is I should tweak my vimrc file to make it easier to write code instead of working on my next project, got it! Jokes aside though, it's worth a read if you're afflicted by procrastination and its related friends.

hashberry 8y ago

Chronic procrastinator here. Procrastinating feels like an addiction for me because it offers instant pleasure. Right now I am procrastinating instead of trying to fix a dumb JavaScript bug. When it comes to "bad mood," I've noticed a pattern from my self-centered ego: 1). The work is "beneath" me, and/or 2). The work threatens my ego.

zemnmez 8y ago

rather unsurprising that a psychologist describes procrastination as a mismanagement of 'emotion' rather than a dysfunction of the dopaminergic reward systems. as someone taking ADHD medication, i can tell you that procrastination is fundamentally just a failure of dopamine management. For some unlike me perhaps it is true that there is a 'one little trick' to make your brain act rationally. I don't know, maybe it's possible via the brain's sheer neuroplasticity to evolve a dopaminergic flaw from a psychological failure or trauma. But at the end of the day, procrastination is very much neurological, with a fairly clear pathway and a chemical which is objectively known to drive it. More people absolutely need to know procrastination has nothing to do with self control, but psychological research like this will always appear to show the issue stemming from a psychological issue when this is known to be virtually always untrue. Treatment of ADHD with psychological approaches like CBT have a nearly non statistically significant effect, but ADHD medication has a 70%+ success rate.

jrochkind1 8y ago
Is "treatment of ADHD" the same thing as "treatment of procrastination"? Are you suggesting anyone who is displeased with a regular procrastination habit has ADHD? Are you recommending medication for anyone who is displeased with their procrastination? I don't think the OP is suggesting there is "one little trick", but if, alternately, medication is in fact "one little trick" that worked for everyone, that would probably be welcome news to everyone!
- Mirioron 8y ago
  >Is "treatment of ADHD" the same thing as "treatment of procrastination"? Not exactly, but excessive procrastination is a symptom of ADHD. Managing ADHD requires managing excessive procrastination and medication, so far, is the most effective treatment for ADHD.
- zemnmez 8y ago
  ADHD is a diagnosis based on a group of issues primarily owing to dopamine management. ADHD at the end of the day, is just a word. The way I see it, there's a spectrum of procrastination issues and those that are explosive enough to be diagnosable get the ADHD label and medication. If you have ADHD symptoms but they're not bad enough to warrant a diagnosis you get nothing. It's well known that ADHD medication is incredible for procrastination -- statistically speaking any student should be able to tell you that.

forgotAgain 8y ago

So say you're a procrastinator. Do you? a)read the article so you don't have to do xyz b)not read the article because learning how to stop procrastinating feels like self sabotage c)start the article but don't finish it because you have ADD from surfing the internet as a means of procrastinating d)something else. edit: e)skim the article and write an HN comment about it.

sudosteph 8y ago
d.) something else - I didn't read the article because I've wasted enough time in my life figuring out why I procrastinate and it doesn't bother me any more. But I still read most of the comments because I enjoy learning about the range of human experience around procrastination, because I do acknowledge it's something I cared about in the past. edit) also lurking in comments is my preferred method of wasting time. Though I'm not wasting time to procrastinate at the moment. I'm just waiting for a scheduled event to start which I prepared for already. I think that's different.

mbrock 8y ago

I mostly associate procrastination with the inability to make myself want to deal with chores that seem alienating and dumb and like impositions from a boring bureaucratic external system that makes fundamental demands on me as a person with no personal connection—bookkeeping, entering long numbers into bank web apps, registering my residential address by filling out a form, going through KYC questionnaires over the phone, writing a report I know nobody will read, etc. And it’s worse the more the task is imbued with some kind of fake urgency by prudish pedantic adults while I also know that the negative consequences of not doing the thing on time are likely to be rather tame like a small fine or just a little bureaucratic slap on the wrist. I procrastinate with the same chores that might make me imagine dropping out of society to live on a homestead or as a monk. Probably I would get through these things easier if I had some “ADHD medicine” as the kids call it these days.

deadalus 8y ago

It has everything to do with genes.

adolph 8y ago

Recommended related: If Self-discipline Feels Difficult, Then You’re Doing It Wrong [1] by author of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life" 1. https://markmanson.net/self-discipline-youre-doing-it-wrong?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-posts&utm_content=2019-02-08 https://markmanson.net/self-discipline-youre-doing-it-wrong?... 2. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8529755.Mark_Manson https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8529755.Mark_Manson

curtis 8y ago

I am a terrible procrastinator, and for me procrastination seems to be very much like writer's block. The problem isn't doing something so much as it is starting something. In the case of writer's block, I try to start by free-writing. I start writing with the intention that it's going to be crap and I'm going to throw it away. In fact, I might even start with complete gibberish. Along with general procrastination and writer's block I also suffer from the closely related coder's block. I address this the same way: instead of free-writing I start "free-coding", where I write code with the intention that it's going to be crap, and I might even start writing gibberish, before I move on to writing code that compiles and maybe runs, but does nothing useful. The goal is just to get started. In the case of both free writing and free coding, once I start I pretty quickly move on to writing stuff that's decent even if it's not great. That's something I can work with, and once I get in that mode I have much greater resistance to distractions. To circle back to procrastination, I might use a similar approach. Say I need to clean up my work area, and I just don't want to (even though I also do want to). I need to reduce the scope of the problem to something absurdly simple, or maybe even just absurd. So I decide I'm just going to move all the loose items on my desk to another table so I can dust the desk. But I'm not even going to dust the desk, I'm just going to move the stuff off of it. For the immediate moment that's all I've got to care about it. Just moving stuff around. But once the desk is cleared, dusting it and wiping it down is easy. It's so easy in that moment that that's all I care about. Then once that's done, I move the stuff back. But as I'm moving the stuff back it's easy to address each item one-by-one. Old papers can go in the trash or recycling, the books can go back to their regular place on the book shelf, the stapler can go back in the desk drawer where it regularly resides, etc. Then I realize now would be a good time to wipe the dust off my monitor, sort through the nearby stack of mail, etc. Now mind you, I still procrastinate way more than I should, but these techniques work for me and I procrastinate a lot less than I used to.

Inu 8y ago
Reminds me of Raymond Chandler's technique: "Raymond Chandler and I discussed this once, and he admitted to the most bitter reluctance to commit anything to paper. He evolved the following scheme: he had a tape recorder into which he spoke the utmost nonsense – a stream of consciousness which was then transcribed by a secretary and which he then used as a basis for his first rough draft. Very laborious. He strongly advised me to do the same … in fact became so excited that he kept plying me with information for months about the machine that helped him." (from an interview with S. J. Perelman)

Data_Junkie 8y ago

Self-harm in the sense that is causes you pain, but it is really just not doing what others want even though you know that they will hurt you. It is intellectually dishonest to to portray people not doing something that they don't REALLY want to do as an issue with their brains and leave out the brains causing the harm. Not self-harm, just not protecting the self.

csomar 8y ago

I have two objections: 1- It says we procrastinate against our better judgement. But isn't the science gearing toward the fact that it is not the conscious brain that is controlling our behavior and actions? In that case, you can't solve procrastination by simply being aware of it. 2- Quoting from the article > We really weren’t designed to think ahead into the further future because we needed to focus on providing for ourselves in the here and now. Yet, every night I go to bed and I'm dreaming about a better future. Obviously the scenarios I'm dreaming about can't be for tomorrow and are quite distant in the future (better country, top job/career, traveling but mostly a hotter girl with big/nice house).

moate 8y ago
To point one: What's the objection here? You do something (like say, posting on HN instead of driving home from work) instead of doing the thing that you feel would be better for you. If you hadn't felt the 2nd option was better, either in the moment or in retrospect, then you wouldn't feel you procrastinated. You just did something. And the article isn't suggesting that being aware of it fixes it, it's saying that it has more to do with anxiety or other causes than simply not wanting to do something. It's trying to say WHY you're on HN instead of driving home. 2- What does your example prove here? The human mind almost always prioritizes immediate needs over future needs and has poor understanding of how to achieve long term goals. This is very well understood by psychologists and sociologists. It's part of why people find game theory so interesting. It's why people act against their own self interests. Saying "I want things in the future" doesn't GET you those things, so you haven't really proven that you're great at planning a future.

User23 8y ago

Is this why amphetamines make avoiding procrastination so much easier?

tombert 8y ago

I noticed that my tendencies to procrastinate greatly reduced (though never completely vanished) upon me taking antidepressants, after a very unpleasant conversation with my boss (at the time) telling me that I was underperforming, and it could lead to me being fired. I remember the feelings I had then; there was this feeling of "I'm not stupid, why am I constantly pushing things off to make it seem like I am?", and it became this vicious cycle of "I do poorly because I'm depressed, and I'm depressed because I do poorly". I could definitely see it as an act of "self-harm", as this article describes.

0xCMP 8y ago

How many visitors to HN or Twitter are often here because they reached a hard or tedious part of their task and you rationalized "giving yourself a break"? I know I have. I added the noprocrast setting to HN to interrupt this habit and I often try logging out of Twitter so I would actually need to login to use it. But this article rings true that often I'm using that "break" as a coping mechanism to avoid doing something I assume will be hard.

agumonkey 8y ago

meditation to slow down turmoil, and be able to reflect on your thoughts sports to revive mental strength and thoroughness life rhythm for efficiency on a higher level: desire to deflect procrastination as a metalevel trick to find pleasure in doing something depth first

tylerjwilk00 8y ago

I wonder if procrastinating may be a healthy response to having too little leisure time and being over committed to too many things. We are evolved for more immediate concerns. The TPS report lacks the same importance as catching dinner. Unfortunately in the modern era the TPS report is what you catch dinner with. What to do.

manicdee 8y ago
Eat the rich. Admit that our lifestyles are designed to drive the consumption based economy, rather than to actually make life more enjoyable. The Australian Aborigines has a stable, sustainable civilisation for tens of thousands of years. European “civilisation” is set to make the world uninhabitable within two thousand years of inventing the steam engine.