22 ms·

Kick the Shit Out of Procrastination

448 points by davzie 6y ago

luord 6y ago
The problem when the procrastination has nothing to do with the phone or applications, or fear, but instead with reading and writing a lot because you actually want to write at least one novel but that isn't going to make you money (most likely). Oh, well, still a good article.
BaitBlock 6y ago
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- solarkraft 6y ago
  Maybe your posts would be more appreciated if you posted them with your personal account and didn't write totally write them like ads. Oh, and if they were more relevant to what's being posted. I don't procrastinate because of clickbait. I'm afraid that you'll get this account restricted if you continue like this. You're also tarnishing your brand. Edit: Another notorious project-poster is burtonator, which I also find mildly annoying, but whenever he posts about his project at least it's actually tangentially related to what is being discussed. He's a good bit less over the line than you are, in my opinion.
dt3ft 6y ago
Self-discipline is key. Either get better at it, or don't own a smartphone or a computer.
- davzie 6y ago
  Indeed. And I'm hoping that the steps I've taken here help build that self-discipline to a level that I'm personally happy with :)
- michaelbrooks 6y ago
  The brain is very good at self-sabotaging when it can't figure out what or how to deal with certain situations though. The best thing to do is figure out why you're procrastinating before trying to fix it.
  - nicklaf 6y ago
    Paradoxically, I think just acknowledging procrastination as an example of a bad thing, but not the most important one, might work well. I say this because anxiety around needing to do something important is one possible cause of procrastination in the first place, and yet there is nothing more anxiety-inducing than telling yourself that by procrastinating, you're failing to do the most important things first. Whereas instead, if you only go so far as to make a mental note of it when you catch yourself procrastinating, you'll give yourself a moment to reflect without giving yourself anxiety that perpetuates further procrastination. Also, you may have a subconscious reason for not doing something. Procrastinating could simply just be your brain's way of letting a better idea about how to do it percolate. That said, forming habits of doing certain unproductive things could be a pointless loss of productivity. Like if you have a habit of checking social media several times a day you might try blocking yourself from that and see how much productivity you've gained. And after all, there are better ways of procrastinating than by checking social media, like going for walks, trying new healthy recipes if you cook, or even cleaning (I actually don't know how many times I've thought of a good solution while cleaning), etc. Once you've done that, you can think about it in terms of optimizing time spent working vs. time spent in leisure, and acknowledge that the "good" forms of procrastinating are an important form of leisure, which, if you've optimized the ratio well, boost your productivity by restoring mental energy and increasing creativity. Technically this includes sleep as well. :-)
- eitland 6y ago
  This has been a problem since long before smartphones or even computers. Socializing, gardening, etc. Anything including literally self harming seems to be done by someone somewhere in this world to postpone work. I had to find a way to deal with procrastination a few years ago and the most important thkng I learned was to banish perfectionism and admit that good results are more likely to emerge from repeated iterations than from carefully acting out a perfect plan made the first day you heard about the project.
- kitd 6y ago
  That's the "what". Many people would like to know the "how" though.
mnky9800n 6y ago
I find that a lot of my procrastination comes from the anxiety of the thing I want to start doing not being completed. Literally, because I am worrying that the thing I want to work on is not already completed, I procrastinate from doing it. This is obviously counter productive and creates a feedback loop. Something I'm bad at but seems to work is to have a conversation with myself that sort of comforts me about the anxiety and says "hey, what does this todo list look like? does it really matter that everything won't be completed today? You've spent years on this project so why would it be done today? Okay now go and address this one thing you have to do."
- michaelbrooks 6y ago
  I'm usually very scared of "breaking" something and if there's nothing there to break in the first place, why would I create something that will potentially break at some point. I'm getting better at knowing that this is my issue though and just think to myself "If I break it, I can go back a few steps or just fix the problem as it comes".
  - jerzyt 6y ago
    That can be another productivity killer. You inherit some app to maintain/modify, and you're afraid to touch it. So you essentially fork the code, start making small tweaks to reassure yourself that you're not breaking anything and it's all good. But at some point you have to take a bigger bite and it's still scary.
- jerzyt 6y ago
  I see the same on a micro-scale. I have a task that will take an hour of concentrated effort - I'm afraid to start because I know I'll be interrupted. But it accumulates.
  - bradstewart 6y ago
    Wow, that one really hit home. I knew I rarely get work done when there's upcoming events on my calendar, but I think _fear of being interrupted_ is the real source of procrastination there.
nautical 6y ago
I have made "device of purpose" that fixes this behavior over time. 1) Laptop is for work only ( every thing else is blocked ) 2) Mobile is for social media and procrastination ( I switch off internet while working. )
- davzie 6y ago
  This is my next thing I want to trial. Complete block on anything non work related on the laptop. Complete block on anything that doesn't further my values on the phone. But then have an iPad for mucking around and consuming junk content. The idea that it's not easily accessible since the iPad won't be with me at work and it won't be in my pocket being constantly accessible.
  - vitabenes 6y ago
    I used to have Twitter (my main source of distraction) on my phone and iPad, now I don't have it on any device and it's helped tremendously. On my computer, I block all distracting sites with the extension I built until noon, then I have 20 minutes for mostly Twitter, then all blocked until 4PM, another 20 min break, and then blocked until 8PM. 8PM-midnight, I do whatever I want. I've found this a fair agreement with myself that I have no reason to break. It created a rhythm for me. So perhaps if a complete block is too big a stretch, you can give yourself a couple well-defined "fun breaks".
- anthonypasq 6y ago
  You can just turn the internet back on though...
  - wool_gather 6y ago
    Because the action of checking the feeds or whatever is so ingrained, it's effortless and, more importantly, thoughtless. Even though that extra step is tiny, it can often be just enough of a jolt to make you notice the habit and decide more consciously whether to indulge it this time. After becoming conscious of it more and more, you can choose to break it. Although, in my experience, it's easy for it to come creeping back, too. Once you've destroyed the reflexive nature of it, setting some rules around it can be helpful. And again, even though those rules are just simple, easily-overcome agreements with yourself, they can be enough.
necovek 6y ago
I've long had the habit of putting stuff that I know I can waste a lot of time on into my /etc/hosts to point to the void (news sites, forums).
Tepix 6y ago
If you're in your home office, don't keep your private phone around. Put it in a separate room, ideally in flight mode and on silent. On your work phone, remove all distractions. Fore Firefox, the "impulse blocker" add-on can be helpful.
linux_devil 6y ago
I often put my phone on DND and only allow calls , that really helps. From morning 9 to 6 and everytime I am on my bed. Removing social media apps also helps. I wont say its 100% effective but I see drastic reduction in my screen time.
vitabenes 6y ago
> Procrastination is actually my mind trying to tell me something that I’m not attuned enough to realise in the first place. Yeah, procrastination is a teacher. There's a reason why you or I procrastinate. Sometimes it takes only a couple minutes to figure out. Regarding the fear part, I find re-framing it to be useful. Fearing failure? Well, if you haven't started yet, you're already failing. What will you learn, even if you fail? Fearing endless work? Do you enjoy the process? If not, could you make it more enjoyable? Fearing judgement or putting something imperfect into the world? 1) We're all imperfect. 2) You can create, try, and fail in private. You don't have to show your first bad attempt to anyone. You can work on it until it's good enough and then show it to someone else. And about that "break it down" advice, yes it does help, but I prefer to think about it as clarifying. Clarify the work, identify the unresolved issue, hazy details, decisions not made. What am I ignoring? What's unclear? What's giving me anxiety? Any of those questions help. Hope that helps a bit. And as you say in the article that you're looking for more tools for defeating procrastination, I feel obliged to point you to the collection of anti-procrastination tools I've built at deprocrastination.co.
maheart 6y ago
I think I've successfully managed to "beat" procrastination by adopting the pomodoro technique. I've shipped software for years now. What I've come to realise however is that the brain/body can only do so much work in a day. I can program for a few hours a day (on a good day) and then it becomes increasingly more effort to do more coding. Sometimes, depending on the task, I'll be able to switch to another task. However, my point in all of this is, if you have a serious procrastination problem -- find a way to overcome it, but also recognise that your brain/body only has so much "fuel" each day, and you need to decide what to put it towards (e.g. work, hobbies, exercise, study, family, etc).
- have_faith 6y ago
  I've come to a different conclusion. I used to think it was a "fuel" problem until I realised that if I moved onto some other non work related task that I was interested in, which could include programming, all of a sudden fuel wasn't an issue. For me it came down to motivation and interest with "mental fuel" rarely being the deciding factor. I manage to conjure up fuel when I'm sufficiently motivated by a problem. Obviously this might not be the case for everyone and I have hunch it is related to ADD behaviour I exhibit (self diagnosed). Tricking my brain into investing into the outcome of work I am not interested in takes up most of my time now trying to get over procrastination. And of course I have a deadline today and I'm writing this message on HN... but like any good developer that needs some pressure to work I've got the plates all spinning for now.
- superpermutat0r 6y ago
  pomodoro also works for me, I've had weeks of doing almost nothing, after I started simple 25 min bits with pauses, for some reason it can go on forever.
  - ignoramous 6y ago
    Any mobile or desktop app you use specifically for this that you'd recommend?
    - 6y ago
shodan666 6y ago
I highly recommend installing following software: -RescueTime (keeps tracking of all windows, websites, programs during the work hours) -ManicTime (free and Open Source but lacks good reporting as in RescueTime, on other hand it does work 100% offline)
laurentdc 6y ago
> On my iPhone I move every single application into a folder named “.”. I then move that onto the second screen. My phone dock has four apps: Phone, Headspace, Things and SMS: Yawn. When I read these minimalism tips I always wonder if people giving this advice ever had a real job or if their job is actually giving people minimalism advice. Good luck trying to justify being the only one without Skype/Slack/Gmail
- codegladiator 6y ago
  Its like the advice "set your watch 10 mins behind" so you always reach on time. No shit I know its 10 mins behind every time I see the watch.
  - Mvandenbergh 6y ago
    Sure, and yet... why is anyone ever late to anything? Let alone why are some people persistently late, in circumstances where that matters, and they know it's an issue? Rationally that makes no sense so dismissing techniques for resolving it that also don't make rational sense on that basis seems wrong.
    - codegladiator 6y ago
      Not sure what you are trying to say here. Do you mean "because we don't know why people are getting late so dismissing a solution which I know doesn't work seems wrong" ? But you do being the reply with "sure" so was that an agreement ?
      - Mvandenbergh 6y ago
        If you know that it doesn't work for you then obviously that's simply a fact. I thought you were making a more general statement that this doesn't work because it doesn't make sense (anyone using it would just adjust their timings).
    - ahmedalsudani 6y ago
      Humans are not rational (for the most part).
k__ 6y ago
Procrastination is a very delicate problem. I mostly embraced it. As long as I'm procrastinating good things by doing other good things, it works pretty well. It also helps to do things you like. I'm still on my smartphone 90% of the day and sleeping until 12 every day, btw.
- deskamess 6y ago
  I think that's it too. It's another thing that is considered odd/not normal when it is probably a perfectly valid condition/feeling that needs to be handled kindly. I have come to see it as having a parallel in extrovert/introvert - for many introverts interacting with people is just fine, but it cannot be a marathon - we have to recharge after that. Interaction is very brain energy consuming in such scenarios. Similarly, procrastination is something similar on a different time scale. I can be intensively 'productive' for a long time (2-3 days or so), but then I have to do nothing or, in some rare cases, something else that does not involve, I am guessing, that part of the brain. Rinse repeat.
septimus111 6y ago
I would encourage everyone who struggles with procrastination to try CBT techniques as described in "Feeling Good" by Dr. Burns. These address the psychological reasons for procrastination directly.
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
I like his writing style. One of the biggest tools that I employ, is a fairly rigid schedule. I work @home, these days (like everyone, but I've been at it longer). I get up at 5AM, even though I don't need to. I do my morning exercise, even though I don't need to. I start my workday at around 6:30AM, and try to wrap it up by 5 (seven days a week -my GitHub page is solid green). I plan to do unpleasant, boring things when I set up my projects; for example, configuration management, refactoring, testing, release coordination, and...yuck...documentation. And then...I do it! Shipping (as opposed to writing) software has a lot of boring, repetitive, pedantic stuff. I have to be careful not to fall into the automation trap, where I see automation (especially release automation) as a "silver bullet" cure for boredom. But that's just me. YMMV.
petargyurov 6y ago
A key insight that helped me beat procrastination is to recognise when your brain is trying to procrastinate. We all experience lulls in productivity and instinctively open that social or news website link - when you do this you need to actively tell yourself that your brain is getting distracted. This comes from a study (which I can't find, but I think it was featured on the BBC not too long ago) - procrastination impulses come and go in waves - when you know how to effectively tackle the wave, you can return to the calm seas of productivity.
roland35 6y ago
I am also a procrastinator! Keeping distractions away, especially the phone, is the most important to me as well, although I don't go to the extremes the author does! I found that the bigger and more open ended the task is, the quicker I fizzle out and get distracted. The key for me is to get to some quicker reward point. For example I am currently working on an electronic toy project, and my current goal is to only test the music generation. Anything bigger gets hard to focus!
makkesk8 6y ago
I've found that when I procrastinate it's due to the fact when I start a new project I can work on it for days until I realize, why am I doing X when I can do Y? and in this case X could be using a good o'l rest api instead of graphql or a completely new way of fetching data. Then I stop working because I did realize I can use something else that will be smarter and more efficient in the long run, So then my mind goes: OK! lets start working on that, and there the endless cycle begins. Because when I start working on the thing that will make the first thing better I also realize a day or two in, that this is stupid and I need to get back to the original thing but I can't do it because X is not as efficient as Y would have been. Then I try to think of something else for Y. So in a sense I'm stuck in a cycle where I try to improve and get my self to write less code before the project even has taken off in a meaningful way. It's just like in devops when people try to scale something before you have the users... which doesn't even make sense. And I'm guilty of that as well.
krm01 6y ago
What boosted my productivity was thinking about and realizing that procrastination is a choice you make. Anything you do, you choose to do so. Even the things that seem like you have no choice. You do. You dont HAVE to eat. The consequence is that at some point your body doesnt get what it needs but you have the power to choose to not to eat. You dont have to work on your project. But each choice has a consequence nonetheless. So in short. What worked for me is realizing that EVERYTHING is a choice. You have to think back from the consequence and then choose what happens if you do something now vs you do something later
dusted 6y ago
I'm gonna read that one, later.
findthewords 6y ago
Disable internet. It takes 2 clicks. You can always get it back, it doesn't go anywhere. Do this for your workstation. Use a laptop to browse stackexchange. Set email to sync every hour, unless your job is to answer emails as they come. Checking once an hour is enough.
kugelblitz 6y ago
I use #2 (blocking distractions by editing the /etc/hosts) and it does work. Mostly because it's already a reflex strategy to go on these websites. Stuck on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine trigger. But just adding the 127.0.0.1 to the 3-5 most frequented websites is enough to stop me from reading them. It's like now I have to consciously decide: "Do you REALLY want to check this website?" It would be similar to Netflix not jumping to the next episode during a binge watch, but rather pushing you to their homepage after an episode. You "break the default" in a way.
- cfontes 6y ago
  "Stuck on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine trigger" This sucks and it is absolutely true, but to me it's more about boredom, you know that monkey job you absolutely need to do but is terribly boring to the sleep inducing level? That immediately makes me search for some other thing to focys, fighting it is very hard, I don't smoke but I think this is the closest that comes to my mind when I feel the "rush".
  - kugelblitz 6y ago
    Yep, boredom is definitely one reason. Also, when I was assigned to a new project where I get to work on a modern tech stack and create a proof of concept, I was able to got 6-10 hours of high productivity (sort of like a honeymoon phase with new tech) for several days. But then I got re-assigned to a project with a tech stack that I really don't like e.g. a "hot reload" would take 5-10 seconds and it would trigger every time I save a file + the project structure doesn't make sense - but people who worked on it have since left the project + I'm not learning anything useful. I've tried focusing on the tech challenges, but my tasks are mostly to fix bugs. Refactoring is not wanted, since the idea is to ship a less buggy version as soon as possible. Fortunately I'm a contract freelancer, once this project ends in 2 months, I won't extend and will look for a new company.
gatestone 6y ago
What has somewhat worked for me is Focusmate. You make a video call to a stranger, and you both commit to 50 minutes of work. I guess you could do that with a workmate or a friend, if you dare be honest in needing that kind of basic childlish psychological support. Actually, I have almost picked a habit of doing the same commitment alone, which is nice. :-) Even that does not work, if you are tired, exhausted, depressed, sad, angry, desperate and lost. Fix that first.
gatestone 6y ago
Another cruel tip is to put all your procrastination prone Web accounts behind complex login controls (passwords behind 2 factor authentication Lastpass with paranoid settings), and purge your cookies often.
- mettamage 6y ago
  In a similar vein: put your guilty pleasure accounts in a browser that you hate, log yourself out of there. Make fake accounts on your primary browser, so that whenever you have the urge to log in or are accidentally logged in, you find nothing there. I do this for Facebook. I'm considering to do it for YouTube.
msadowski 6y ago
Here's what worked for me in lockdown (I had issues working at home) : aim to do minimum 6 pomodoros a day, where each pomodoro is 55 minutes long. When measuring time I try to focus on a single task that's not related to admin work (answering emails etc.) I figured that 6 hours of productive work is not far off from what most people probably get done in an office environment anyway.
- spookybones 6y ago
  How long of a break in between?
  - msadowski 6y ago
    5 minutes. Sometime if I get in the flow or I'm in a middle of the meeting I'll skip the break and restart the timer.
svat 6y ago
> One of the biggest things that can get you drawn into procrastinating is to go into a crazy website checking loop where you loop through Twitter, Hackernews, Reddit, BBC, etc in the hope for a new bit of information that probably has no real relevance to your life. As someone personally familiar with this phenomenon (for example, I remember smiling at https://xkcd.com/477/ https://xkcd.com/477/ when it was posted in 2008, nearly 12 years ago), and as someone too familiar with procrastination in general, here's one insight I had recently, and an old insight: 1. Firstly, “epiphany addiction” — I encountered it on the blog of Aaron Swartz (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders): > The irony, of course, is that the books are totally useless unless you take their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking “that’s so insightful! that changes everything,” but never actually doing anything different, then pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you’ll start searching for another book to fill the void. Chris Macleod calls this “epiphany addiction”: “Each time they feel like they’ve stumbled on some life changing discovery, feel energized for a bit without going on to achieve any real world changes, and then return to their default […]. They always end up back at the drawing board of trying to think their way out of their problem, and it’s not long before they come up with the latest pseudo earth shattering insight.” 2. Beware of searching for one true method by which you will finally “defeat” procrastination. I remember this excitement when some trick used to work, and the urge to write a post like this (BTW, congrats on writing and finishing this post — I never got around to writing something so “finished”), having found “the answer”. But eventually some trick that used to make you productive may stop helping so much. (Because there are other unaddressed root issues, which seem to find a “workaround”: this is the "procrastination as wily adversary" metaphor, as in War of Art etc.) Ultimately, it seems we need a complementary set of approaches, both external (like Steps 1 to 3 in this blog post: changing your habits), and internal (being more aware of your feelings and drives, etc). Procrastination (for many) seems to be discomfort-avoidance, where the discomfort can be some combination of fear, anxiety, distaste, dread, uncertainty, ambiguity, conflict with (some of) one's values, etc. It helps to become more aware about the nature of your discomfort, and get to the root of it. But ultimately you can't think your way out of the procrastination problem. Things like mindfulness, talking to a therapist, good exercise,… all help; just don't pin your hopes too strongly on one of them, to the exclusion of other approaches. (I had given up blocking websites as it had stopped working for me, but after reading this post I just added a major time-waster to my /etc/hosts file, thank you.) The goal is to get to a state where you don't feel out of control of your own mind, where you can decide to do something and just do it — but it can be a process to get there. Good luck to you, me, and all of us. “You can't think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.”
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bmmayer1 6y ago
It's great to see this article at the top of Hacker News, my number one source of procrastination.
nickswan 6y ago
There’s actually some science behind procrastination and the steps you can do to beat it: http://nickswan.net/procrastination/ http://nickswan.net/procrastination/ These are my notes from Tim Pychyl’s lecture that was posted on here a few months ago. Link to the YouTube video included in my blog posts. It’s a really good watch.
- dmos62 6y ago
  > Ask myself : What negative emotions do I have associated with project or task x,y,z? That's a valuable tip. Drilling down to what stresses you out and finding a way to integrate that into self is central to overcoming procrastination.
placebo 6y ago
I wonder how beating procrastination can be bootstrapped. A professional procrastinator will also procrastinate reading this article even though they know it's exactly what they need. For example, I clicked the "how to be ultra spiritual" video in that article and was then curious about other videos made by the same person and pretty soon found myself in the usual procrastinator's state, forgetting the article or the fact that I got to this article in the first place by procrastinating implementing an algorithm that I've been wanting to complete for a couple of weeks and instead checking what's new on HN ... I guess one needs to get to a certain point of being determined enough to make a strategic change in one's productivity, and the incentives required for such a change are probably specific to each person
- hinkley 6y ago
  For a professional procrastinator, bargaining to defer an onerous task will often include doing less onerous tasks that are more often overlooked. I know I'm not studying for my final but look at how clean the bathroom is!
kerrsclyde 6y ago
Write your distractions down. Look at them at lunch / end of the day (and by then you'll find they don't seem so important).
Ensorceled 6y ago
If you are have a lot of procrastination problems and if you have always had those problems from an early age, don't dismiss the idea that you may actually have ADHD. There really isn't adult onset ADHD, but there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD. Take an online screening test and that will tell you if you might want to see somebody about a full test. This article is talking about the idea that we can train our brains to act like we have ADHD and how to break that brain plasticity cycle, but these techniques would be helpful if you also have ADHD.
- nikofeyn 6y ago
  but people should be careful assuming they have it. people should do as you say and simply see professionals about it and be tested for it. stress and anxiety can present symptoms that overlap with ADHD symptoms.
  - Ensorceled 6y ago
    Yep, that's why a big part of a real diagnosis is "did you have these problems in elementary school". If they started when you got your first iPhone after university ... it's not ADHD.
- rorykoehler 6y ago
  At this stage I'm beginning to wonder if not having ADHD is the condition and ADHD is the norm?
- tasuki 6y ago
  > there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD Are there even people who don't have ADHD these days?
- hinkley 6y ago
  In some people, sensory overload can trigger ADHD like symptoms. For most of us, lack of sleep or poor sleep quality can trigger a mountain of different symptoms.
jyriand 6y ago
I see lot of people focusing on some kind of lifehacks and tips to beat procrastination. The truth is(in my opinion) that it doesn't really matter how ergonomic your workflow is, or how distraction free your office/desktop/phone becomes. In the back of your mind you still know about these things. You know you can open youtube any time you want and browse for videos aimlessly. For me, it's all about stress. Procrastination is a good sign when I feel too much pressure and there's too much weight on my shoulders. Procrastination becomes a way of self-medication, shutting your mind off and forgetting about all the issues you might be facing in daily life. For some people, the only time they have the luxury to be alone and not disturbed, is when they are at work, sitting behind their computer, headphones on -- and that's the best time to procrastinate.
- dmos62 6y ago
  True, stress is the central motivator of procrastination, but if you get a handle on it, suddenly other things become important as well. Such as not being disturbed or eating well or task management or whatever. It's like oxygen: if you don't get it, you feel like it's the only thing you need. Once you have it, there's a whole bunch of things you need.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  I agree that developing "lifehacks", when taken too far, can be a form of procrastination itself. ...and that the underlying cause is emotional. Nevertheless - we still need to do them. I think the answer is both simpler and more difficult than most people are characterizing here. 1. Discipline takes training (preferably from a young age). If you practice overcoming those mental blocks, you will be more accustomed to doing them and recognizing and avoiding those escape behaviors that we call procrastination. 2. Visualizing and regularly reinforcing the Goal - that final benefit that puts all the work in between in context. 3. Planning/chunking the work. It's a form of gamification - but don't let it itself become a form of procrastination. 99% of people _already_ _know_ what needs to be done, right now. Personally, I have a simple system. Three Google Docs. 1. Is a short, somewhat vague list of goals I revisit every year at tax time. 2. Is a list of projects in a rough order of priority (actually it's a folder of Docs with one doc for each project). ...and most importantly, 3. The daily journal, where I add to the top each day the date and a rough list of things I'm working on. People get lost in making sure their prioritizing is perfect, or adding too many things to their daily TODOs. In fact, in the context of doing what's important, I find that one of the key skills is being militant about things you're NOT going to do - and ignoring requests from others that don't fall in line with your own goals.
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bogrollben 6y ago
too long didn't read :)
golfer 6y ago
For years I was a major procrastinator to the point that it was really affecting my job performance and my relationship. That all changed when I got a sleep evaluation and realized I had severe sleep apnea. My quality of sleep was terrible. As a result I had zero motivation. I got a CPAP machine, and after an initial period of adjustment, it was a profound change. The year after I received the machine was the most productive in my entire life. Take sleeping seriously. It may help you in ways you never imagined!
system2 6y ago
In my case, procrastination is a sign of depression. It is an escape mechanism. I found myself dropping clients after procrastinating instead of completing their projects because something about them always stressed me, made me hate money or what I do for a living. 30 minutes or 3 hours of shutting my brain off, telling myself I will do it later is my way of escaping. There is something subconscious about it always after I 'meditate' enough to pinpoint what the problem was. These are episodes coming and going once in a while.
- stevewodil 6y ago
  This is true for me as well. Procrastinating happens when I feel shitty (which is essentially every morning). It's my brain requesting easy dopamine hits like YouTube or CS:GO so that it can feel better. But those things only help your brain feel better in the very short term (ie. while they are occurring). After you're done and you close YouTube or the video game, you still feel shitty so you need another easy dopamine source to stimulate your brain again. This continues the cycle and it's very hard to break out of because each source of easy dopamine leaves you feeling crappy after engaging with it, so you find another one which does the same thing. Once you've started that cycle for any given day it's extremely difficult to break because your brain was built to be addicted to dopamine. This worked when we only got hits of dopamine for following animal tracks to hunt or when we saw the smoke from the sticks we were rubbing together and were about to start fire, but today it just doesn't work. To solve this the steps listed in the article are pretty good actually, but for me it is unrealistic to just remove all the apps on my phone/computer. It doesn't solve the underlying problem and is pretty simple to just download whatever app again or use my tv instead in a moment of boredom/sadness/frustration. The real key is to make each task that you have to do for work so incredibly simple (ie break them down to the smallest units possible) that avoiding the task becomes an absolute joke. I basically start with super specific tasks to get me started, and then ramp up once I'm engaged. Sometimes the first few tasks are literally "Open the codebase", "Change the header text to something better", "make element x have a border radius". One thing I've noticed is that I always try to think of every edge case and what the best way to code something would be before even typing anything. Planning is good, but eventually it hits a point where I get annoyed or stressed because I can't find the most optimal way to do something and then....I procrastinate. So what I've started doing is if I feel this starting to happen I implement the feature or whatever I'm working on in the EASIEST way I can think of at that moment. If I have even a tiny idea of how it could be done, I start working on it that way, and then later as I get further along I can clean it up or reimplement it a different way. That's been pretty useful to me, it kind of goes back to breaking problems down but it's slightly different. The last thing is exercise in the morning. Starting my day with something difficult sets the tone for the whole day. Sure, I could still go watch YouTube after working out but usually I feel good about the workout and my body that I don't need the easy dopamine hits after that and it's easier for me to get started on work. I do wish there was an inherent way to make productive work the source of easy dopamine hits but I haven't quite figured that one out, yet. Depression is momentum. If you're feeling bad, it's a spiral down (wasting time watching TV, then your brain is so fried from that that you don't cook dinner and instead just eat an unhealthy meal, then dessert because you're still sad, etc). If you're feeling good it's a spiral up. Keep trying, keep working at it. Harder things (like work and exercise) will help you feel better in the long term. The things we try to avoid; YouTube, tv, video games, will make your brain stimulated in the moment but you fall further and further into depression (or I do at least). Hopefully any of that was helpful but it may not even apply to you at all
jccalhoun 6y ago
I have found that having a decent computer really helps my productivity. As a grad student, an adjunct, and now a full time faculty member, I have consistently had shitty slow computers in my office on campus. I have found that because it is so slow that when I grade a paper online, i hit submit and the browser takes so long to load the next paper that I get distracted by checking email or twitter or facebook. Now that I'm stuck at home, I have noticed that my personal computer is so much faster that the next paper loads almost instantly and I get less distracted even though i have tons of more things here that could distract me than in the office.
premachb 6y ago
If you don't want to modify your /etc/hosts file manually you can always use https://selfcontrolapp.com/ https://selfcontrolapp.com/ which will do it for you. Pomodoro technique has really helped me as well. I feel it forces me to just start right away and get into the flow. The only thing you have to build the habit of is actually starting the timer.
arijun 6y ago
I'm sure it's been said many times before, but there's a special irony to reading an essay about procrastination in order to avoid doing work.
tiborsaas 6y ago
This article really helped me realise what's behind my procrastination habits. It's not about time management, or self control, but managing emotions. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-pr... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238
VieEnCode 6y ago
I've bookmarked this to go in the large folder of articles on beating procrastination that I've amassed. I'll get around to reading them all sometime soon.
asdfman123 6y ago
To me there are two keys: 1) Keep the phone far out of reach 2) Every time I get overwhelmed, try to stop thinking about the big picture and think "What's the smallest piece I can do right now?" Starting my IDE, starting the software, fixing some obvious typo. Whatever. 3) Yes, block distracting apps, but not permanently. If I do that, I relapse and feel guilty. Instead, I use a Chrome app called Focus (there's a million of them out there) to block distractions for 30 minutes at a time. Enough for me to do work, but not enough where I want to give up.
luckylion 6y ago
I know plenty of people consider it some form of cheating, but medication can help. I've been regularly taking armodafinil for quite some time now and it helps immensely to start doing things, to get into concentrated work and to stay there.
nbaksalyar 6y ago
I think the main problem with advice on 'how to beat procrastination' is the assumption that everyone is the same. Which is not the case, of course, because people have different sleep patterns, different habits, and different reasons to procrastinate. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and one trick or tool that works for me wouldn't necessarily work for you. And it can be really hard to find something that works.
sumfoni 6y ago
One thing i'd like to post here: I started talking ritalin when i tried a degree again with ~22?) and it was day and night to the same year before: My metal wall of starting/doing was gone. I'm still struggling with even talking ritalin regularly and there are downsides to it, but i do have the feeling that it is something which helps, something i actually really should talk regularly. Its like 'i don't need glasses' 'holy shit how was i able to walk around without glasses?' 'Oh no wonder why i had to sit at thefirst row while everyone else had no issue at all reading' 'how did that go so bad suddenly?'
Dave_TRS 6y ago
Is anyone aware a way to identify this window of potential high productivity using a Fitbit/Apple Watch or other device that measure physical body characteristics like heart rate, temperature, etc? I find that on some days my productivity window comes and goes and is wasted during times I have a meeting, or need to deal with something urgent but simple and then my brain is fried when I need to tackle a complex creative task. Knowing with some certainty that the window has arrived might help more actively block out other things.
- astral303 6y ago
  No, learn how to listen to your body. Heart rate, temperature are side effects in response to an emotional block (e.g. anxiety, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown). We have been taught a giant lie that the head is separate, reigning over the “dumb” body. “I think therefore I am” is a load of bull, or a delusion. Your body is your subconscious, your stomach your primitive brain. Your body is chock-full of hard-learned lessons, all delivered to you subconsciously as instincts. Don’t ignore these instincts. We are animalistic creatures, heavily driven by instinct, and rightly so. To discard your instincts is actually irrational! Observe what your body is telling you. Why is there anxiety? Think to a physical manifestation of your anxiety. Is it tightness in your chest or a lump in your throat, where do you feel that anxiety? Observe it. Do not rationalize it, do not explain it, do not deconstruct it, do not jump to any conclusions. The moment you reach to touch it with your fingers of reason, the truth (body instinct) will slip away. That’s why you just have to observe, non-judgementally. As you observe and think more about the physical manifestation of your anxiety, see what thoughts and reasons rise up. The more in touch you get with your body, the less information you will be throwing out. You don’t need external devices to tell you how you are feeling for productivity potential, you just need to A) accept that observing subconscious reactions is a huge source of information, B) your gut feel is correct, but it takes time to process and understand what the gut is telling you, and C) it will take time to get in touch with all your body. Urgent but simple — have you considered how much of an emotional toll that takes on you? No wonder that can put you into a state where you feel maybe knocked off rails, or some kind of self criticism starts up and you’re beating yourself up for the root cause of urgent task or you’re lamenting the team situation that got you there. These are heavy background burdens, though they may be emotional, are still background threads your brain gives slices to. Now your brain scheduler has less brainpower available for your complex task. Another way to put it is: They are clouds in your heads sky, obscuring the sun of creativity and productivity. Learn to feel the productivity window by feel, by gut. The same gut feeling will also tell you when to stop. Procrastination often involves avoidance of something, for whatever reason. The trick is to observe what you are avoiding and what feelings are there when you think about this avoidance.
laurieg 6y ago
I'm glad that the article acknowledges procrastination as an emotional issue, not an organisational one. Reading Getting Things Done or using a new Todo list app does not do anything for procrastination. The slight bump is just down to novelty.
shireboy 6y ago
I may try this, but a couple thoughts I'd love feedback/ideas on: 1) I routinely get into these "browser time loops" while waiting for a build. App's got 30s build time? Ah, I'll check reddit. 30 minutes later ... I have found that autosave has helped, and hot module reload in Webpack, but for server code that requires build (.NET), still looking for a way to reduce that. Similar for publishing code. It takes a few minutes to publish to web host, let's go read the news... I feel like a really good CI would help with this. 2) I value being informed. I use Feedly to monitor news, especially industry news. So part of me doesn't want to block sites on principal. I keep saying "I value staying up to date on these topics. I'll just avoid when I should be working" but never do. A way to time access would probably be worthwhile. 3) I question too much focus on "productivity" as defined by spending time looking at an IDE. I don't have 24x7 cranking out code as a goal. I'd much rather focus on extending time "in the zone" where I'm focused and writing quality code. Pomodoro breaks that for me. Music helps sometimes, but can also distract. Caffeine helps, but requires more and more.
michalstanko 6y ago
The only thing that helps me concentrate on work (coding) is exercising. When I come back from bike/run/whatever, catch my breath and take a shower, only after that my mind is calm enough so that I can concentrate well for ~2 hours. After that, you have to eat again, participate in a meeting, read your email, deal with messages from family, check the news, the latest coding tutorial, etc etc, and the concentration is gone, no matter how hard I try again later.
ogre_codes 6y ago
Step one: Stay out of Hacker News comments section...
f0ok 6y ago
"That mother-fucker!"
deleted 6y ago
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beamatronic 6y ago
Bookmarked to read later.
asimjalis 6y ago
I fundamentally disagree with all the tips in the article. Mostly because I’ve tried them and tips like this in the past. They work but only for brief periods. They all require force. Forcing behavior on yourself. The mind becomes a critical parent to the mind. I realize this is a negative comment. “What works then?” you might ask. That’s something I’m still figuring out. However a negative result is useful because it saves you from wasting time on dead ends.
lawtalkinghuman 6y ago
Implement all these life hacks and you too can crank out 4% more JavaScript per day and don’t even have to worry about politics, current affairs or what is going on in the country or the world. It’s not like being informed is an important part of being a citizen.
rajaravivarma_r 6y ago
I too believed that my procrastination problem was ADHD. Almost everything I read about ADHD symptoms agreed on to my behaviour. This went on for like 8 years and one day I decided to visit a Psychiatrist. He said it could be general anxiety and prescribed me medicines. I came back home and googled the medicine to find out that it is an anti-depressant, SSRI if you want to know. Then I said to myself, "crap ADHD is due to the lack of Dopamine and not Serotonin, this is not going to workout". But I chose to take it according to the prescription, hoping that after the tablets are over I can go back to the second session and get my psychiatrist prescribe me ADHD medications. After two weeks, I could feel the change. Suddenly there was motivation to work, my mind was not constantly fantasizing about the "perfect" work that will interest me. I could see interesting tasks to do in my current job (I am a web developer). I could sense business needs rather than writing the perfect code. I was productive. Challenges did not scare me. I could understand things in meetings without confusion, or obsessing over details. I stopped using pomodoro. My obsession to constantly check Reddit, HN, Twitter, Youtube was rapidly dying out. Going to sleep did finally feel like going to rest, rather than one more "task" to struggle. Most surprisingly, I did not give up on physical tasks. Usually I would give up the last rep when I am lifting, but under the medication I did reps to failure and that was the first time I did not give up something which is difficult. I was still checking Reddit, HN out of habit, but I could stop when I want to. Even my relationship with my wife improved. This was indeed magical. Things I struggled to do or couldn't do became easier and I could do it naturally. All of this, though lasted only for a few months, as I discontinued the medication for various reasons: people close to me were questioning like, "for how long are you going to depend on it", slowly I developed some tolerance for it, and some minor reversible-side-effects. Now I regret not forming habits when I had the chance with the medication. The point being, the symptoms of OCD, anxiety disorder, ADHD and ADD all overlap, and don't assume yourself anything. Talk to a psychiatrist, because they know better. Hope this information helps someone or at the least gives them hope.
- trevas 6y ago
  I'm identifying myself a lot with your story. I think I might have ADHD and my psychiatrist is thinking of prescribing me SSRI. Do you end up taking ADHD medication or was the SSRI enough for you to fell the change?
patrickwiseman 6y ago
The DNS hack is a nice low fidelity way to avoid procrastination helpers. I have also used https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/ which provides a bit more of a polished interface for accomplishing the same effect.

448 points by davzie 6y ago

The problem when the procrastination has nothing to do with the phone or applications, or fear, but instead with reading and writing a lot because you actually want to write at least one novel but that isn't going to make you money (most likely). Oh, well, still a good article.

BaitBlock 6y ago

[deleted]

solarkraft 6y ago
Maybe your posts would be more appreciated if you posted them with your personal account and didn't write totally write them like ads. Oh, and if they were more relevant to what's being posted. I don't procrastinate because of clickbait. I'm afraid that you'll get this account restricted if you continue like this. You're also tarnishing your brand. Edit: Another notorious project-poster is burtonator, which I also find mildly annoying, but whenever he posts about his project at least it's actually tangentially related to what is being discussed. He's a good bit less over the line than you are, in my opinion.

dt3ft 6y ago

Self-discipline is key. Either get better at it, or don't own a smartphone or a computer.

davzie 6y ago
Indeed. And I'm hoping that the steps I've taken here help build that self-discipline to a level that I'm personally happy with :)
michaelbrooks 6y ago
The brain is very good at self-sabotaging when it can't figure out what or how to deal with certain situations though. The best thing to do is figure out why you're procrastinating before trying to fix it.
- nicklaf 6y ago
  Paradoxically, I think just acknowledging procrastination as an example of a bad thing, but not the most important one, might work well. I say this because anxiety around needing to do something important is one possible cause of procrastination in the first place, and yet there is nothing more anxiety-inducing than telling yourself that by procrastinating, you're failing to do the most important things first. Whereas instead, if you only go so far as to make a mental note of it when you catch yourself procrastinating, you'll give yourself a moment to reflect without giving yourself anxiety that perpetuates further procrastination. Also, you may have a subconscious reason for not doing something. Procrastinating could simply just be your brain's way of letting a better idea about how to do it percolate. That said, forming habits of doing certain unproductive things could be a pointless loss of productivity. Like if you have a habit of checking social media several times a day you might try blocking yourself from that and see how much productivity you've gained. And after all, there are better ways of procrastinating than by checking social media, like going for walks, trying new healthy recipes if you cook, or even cleaning (I actually don't know how many times I've thought of a good solution while cleaning), etc. Once you've done that, you can think about it in terms of optimizing time spent working vs. time spent in leisure, and acknowledge that the "good" forms of procrastinating are an important form of leisure, which, if you've optimized the ratio well, boost your productivity by restoring mental energy and increasing creativity. Technically this includes sleep as well. :-)
eitland 6y ago
This has been a problem since long before smartphones or even computers. Socializing, gardening, etc. Anything including literally self harming seems to be done by someone somewhere in this world to postpone work. I had to find a way to deal with procrastination a few years ago and the most important thkng I learned was to banish perfectionism and admit that good results are more likely to emerge from repeated iterations than from carefully acting out a perfect plan made the first day you heard about the project.
kitd 6y ago
That's the "what". Many people would like to know the "how" though.

mnky9800n 6y ago

I find that a lot of my procrastination comes from the anxiety of the thing I want to start doing not being completed. Literally, because I am worrying that the thing I want to work on is not already completed, I procrastinate from doing it. This is obviously counter productive and creates a feedback loop. Something I'm bad at but seems to work is to have a conversation with myself that sort of comforts me about the anxiety and says "hey, what does this todo list look like? does it really matter that everything won't be completed today? You've spent years on this project so why would it be done today? Okay now go and address this one thing you have to do."

michaelbrooks 6y ago
I'm usually very scared of "breaking" something and if there's nothing there to break in the first place, why would I create something that will potentially break at some point. I'm getting better at knowing that this is my issue though and just think to myself "If I break it, I can go back a few steps or just fix the problem as it comes".
- jerzyt 6y ago
  That can be another productivity killer. You inherit some app to maintain/modify, and you're afraid to touch it. So you essentially fork the code, start making small tweaks to reassure yourself that you're not breaking anything and it's all good. But at some point you have to take a bigger bite and it's still scary.
jerzyt 6y ago
I see the same on a micro-scale. I have a task that will take an hour of concentrated effort - I'm afraid to start because I know I'll be interrupted. But it accumulates.
- bradstewart 6y ago
  Wow, that one really hit home. I knew I rarely get work done when there's upcoming events on my calendar, but I think _fear of being interrupted_ is the real source of procrastination there.

nautical 6y ago

I have made "device of purpose" that fixes this behavior over time. 1) Laptop is for work only ( every thing else is blocked ) 2) Mobile is for social media and procrastination ( I switch off internet while working. )

davzie 6y ago
This is my next thing I want to trial. Complete block on anything non work related on the laptop. Complete block on anything that doesn't further my values on the phone. But then have an iPad for mucking around and consuming junk content. The idea that it's not easily accessible since the iPad won't be with me at work and it won't be in my pocket being constantly accessible.
- vitabenes 6y ago
  I used to have Twitter (my main source of distraction) on my phone and iPad, now I don't have it on any device and it's helped tremendously. On my computer, I block all distracting sites with the extension I built until noon, then I have 20 minutes for mostly Twitter, then all blocked until 4PM, another 20 min break, and then blocked until 8PM. 8PM-midnight, I do whatever I want. I've found this a fair agreement with myself that I have no reason to break. It created a rhythm for me. So perhaps if a complete block is too big a stretch, you can give yourself a couple well-defined "fun breaks".
anthonypasq 6y ago
You can just turn the internet back on though...
- wool_gather 6y ago
  Because the action of checking the feeds or whatever is so ingrained, it's effortless and, more importantly, thoughtless. Even though that extra step is tiny, it can often be just enough of a jolt to make you notice the habit and decide more consciously whether to indulge it this time. After becoming conscious of it more and more, you can choose to break it. Although, in my experience, it's easy for it to come creeping back, too. Once you've destroyed the reflexive nature of it, setting some rules around it can be helpful. And again, even though those rules are just simple, easily-overcome agreements with yourself, they can be enough.

necovek 6y ago

I've long had the habit of putting stuff that I know I can waste a lot of time on into my /etc/hosts to point to the void (news sites, forums).

Tepix 6y ago

If you're in your home office, don't keep your private phone around. Put it in a separate room, ideally in flight mode and on silent. On your work phone, remove all distractions. Fore Firefox, the "impulse blocker" add-on can be helpful.

linux_devil 6y ago

I often put my phone on DND and only allow calls , that really helps. From morning 9 to 6 and everytime I am on my bed. Removing social media apps also helps. I wont say its 100% effective but I see drastic reduction in my screen time.

vitabenes 6y ago

> Procrastination is actually my mind trying to tell me something that I’m not attuned enough to realise in the first place. Yeah, procrastination is a teacher. There's a reason why you or I procrastinate. Sometimes it takes only a couple minutes to figure out. Regarding the fear part, I find re-framing it to be useful. Fearing failure? Well, if you haven't started yet, you're already failing. What will you learn, even if you fail? Fearing endless work? Do you enjoy the process? If not, could you make it more enjoyable? Fearing judgement or putting something imperfect into the world? 1) We're all imperfect. 2) You can create, try, and fail in private. You don't have to show your first bad attempt to anyone. You can work on it until it's good enough and then show it to someone else. And about that "break it down" advice, yes it does help, but I prefer to think about it as clarifying. Clarify the work, identify the unresolved issue, hazy details, decisions not made. What am I ignoring? What's unclear? What's giving me anxiety? Any of those questions help. Hope that helps a bit. And as you say in the article that you're looking for more tools for defeating procrastination, I feel obliged to point you to the collection of anti-procrastination tools I've built at deprocrastination.co.

maheart 6y ago

I think I've successfully managed to "beat" procrastination by adopting the pomodoro technique. I've shipped software for years now. What I've come to realise however is that the brain/body can only do so much work in a day. I can program for a few hours a day (on a good day) and then it becomes increasingly more effort to do more coding. Sometimes, depending on the task, I'll be able to switch to another task. However, my point in all of this is, if you have a serious procrastination problem -- find a way to overcome it, but also recognise that your brain/body only has so much "fuel" each day, and you need to decide what to put it towards (e.g. work, hobbies, exercise, study, family, etc).

have_faith 6y ago
I've come to a different conclusion. I used to think it was a "fuel" problem until I realised that if I moved onto some other non work related task that I was interested in, which could include programming, all of a sudden fuel wasn't an issue. For me it came down to motivation and interest with "mental fuel" rarely being the deciding factor. I manage to conjure up fuel when I'm sufficiently motivated by a problem. Obviously this might not be the case for everyone and I have hunch it is related to ADD behaviour I exhibit (self diagnosed). Tricking my brain into investing into the outcome of work I am not interested in takes up most of my time now trying to get over procrastination. And of course I have a deadline today and I'm writing this message on HN... but like any good developer that needs some pressure to work I've got the plates all spinning for now.
superpermutat0r 6y ago
pomodoro also works for me, I've had weeks of doing almost nothing, after I started simple 25 min bits with pauses, for some reason it can go on forever.
- ignoramous 6y ago
  Any mobile or desktop app you use specifically for this that you'd recommend?
  - 6y ago

shodan666 6y ago

I highly recommend installing following software: -RescueTime (keeps tracking of all windows, websites, programs during the work hours) -ManicTime (free and Open Source but lacks good reporting as in RescueTime, on other hand it does work 100% offline)

laurentdc 6y ago

> On my iPhone I move every single application into a folder named “.”. I then move that onto the second screen. My phone dock has four apps: Phone, Headspace, Things and SMS: Yawn. When I read these minimalism tips I always wonder if people giving this advice ever had a real job or if their job is actually giving people minimalism advice. Good luck trying to justify being the only one without Skype/Slack/Gmail

codegladiator 6y ago
Its like the advice "set your watch 10 mins behind" so you always reach on time. No shit I know its 10 mins behind every time I see the watch.
- Mvandenbergh 6y ago
  Sure, and yet... why is anyone ever late to anything? Let alone why are some people persistently late, in circumstances where that matters, and they know it's an issue? Rationally that makes no sense so dismissing techniques for resolving it that also don't make rational sense on that basis seems wrong.
  - codegladiator 6y ago
    Not sure what you are trying to say here. Do you mean "because we don't know why people are getting late so dismissing a solution which I know doesn't work seems wrong" ? But you do being the reply with "sure" so was that an agreement ?
    - Mvandenbergh 6y ago
      If you know that it doesn't work for you then obviously that's simply a fact. I thought you were making a more general statement that this doesn't work because it doesn't make sense (anyone using it would just adjust their timings).
  - ahmedalsudani 6y ago
    Humans are not rational (for the most part).

k__ 6y ago

Procrastination is a very delicate problem. I mostly embraced it. As long as I'm procrastinating good things by doing other good things, it works pretty well. It also helps to do things you like. I'm still on my smartphone 90% of the day and sleeping until 12 every day, btw.

deskamess 6y ago
I think that's it too. It's another thing that is considered odd/not normal when it is probably a perfectly valid condition/feeling that needs to be handled kindly. I have come to see it as having a parallel in extrovert/introvert - for many introverts interacting with people is just fine, but it cannot be a marathon - we have to recharge after that. Interaction is very brain energy consuming in such scenarios. Similarly, procrastination is something similar on a different time scale. I can be intensively 'productive' for a long time (2-3 days or so), but then I have to do nothing or, in some rare cases, something else that does not involve, I am guessing, that part of the brain. Rinse repeat.

septimus111 6y ago

I would encourage everyone who struggles with procrastination to try CBT techniques as described in "Feeling Good" by Dr. Burns. These address the psychological reasons for procrastination directly.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

I like his writing style. One of the biggest tools that I employ, is a fairly rigid schedule. I work @home, these days (like everyone, but I've been at it longer). I get up at 5AM, even though I don't need to. I do my morning exercise, even though I don't need to. I start my workday at around 6:30AM, and try to wrap it up by 5 (seven days a week -my GitHub page is solid green). I plan to do unpleasant, boring things when I set up my projects; for example, configuration management, refactoring, testing, release coordination, and...yuck...documentation. And then...I do it! Shipping (as opposed to writing) software has a lot of boring, repetitive, pedantic stuff. I have to be careful not to fall into the automation trap, where I see automation (especially release automation) as a "silver bullet" cure for boredom. But that's just me. YMMV.

petargyurov 6y ago

A key insight that helped me beat procrastination is to recognise when your brain is trying to procrastinate. We all experience lulls in productivity and instinctively open that social or news website link - when you do this you need to actively tell yourself that your brain is getting distracted. This comes from a study (which I can't find, but I think it was featured on the BBC not too long ago) - procrastination impulses come and go in waves - when you know how to effectively tackle the wave, you can return to the calm seas of productivity.

roland35 6y ago

I am also a procrastinator! Keeping distractions away, especially the phone, is the most important to me as well, although I don't go to the extremes the author does! I found that the bigger and more open ended the task is, the quicker I fizzle out and get distracted. The key for me is to get to some quicker reward point. For example I am currently working on an electronic toy project, and my current goal is to only test the music generation. Anything bigger gets hard to focus!

makkesk8 6y ago

I've found that when I procrastinate it's due to the fact when I start a new project I can work on it for days until I realize, why am I doing X when I can do Y? and in this case X could be using a good o'l rest api instead of graphql or a completely new way of fetching data. Then I stop working because I did realize I can use something else that will be smarter and more efficient in the long run, So then my mind goes: OK! lets start working on that, and there the endless cycle begins. Because when I start working on the thing that will make the first thing better I also realize a day or two in, that this is stupid and I need to get back to the original thing but I can't do it because X is not as efficient as Y would have been. Then I try to think of something else for Y. So in a sense I'm stuck in a cycle where I try to improve and get my self to write less code before the project even has taken off in a meaningful way. It's just like in devops when people try to scale something before you have the users... which doesn't even make sense. And I'm guilty of that as well.

krm01 6y ago

What boosted my productivity was thinking about and realizing that procrastination is a choice you make. Anything you do, you choose to do so. Even the things that seem like you have no choice. You do. You dont HAVE to eat. The consequence is that at some point your body doesnt get what it needs but you have the power to choose to not to eat. You dont have to work on your project. But each choice has a consequence nonetheless. So in short. What worked for me is realizing that EVERYTHING is a choice. You have to think back from the consequence and then choose what happens if you do something now vs you do something later

dusted 6y ago

I'm gonna read that one, later.

findthewords 6y ago

Disable internet. It takes 2 clicks. You can always get it back, it doesn't go anywhere. Do this for your workstation. Use a laptop to browse stackexchange. Set email to sync every hour, unless your job is to answer emails as they come. Checking once an hour is enough.

kugelblitz 6y ago

I use #2 (blocking distractions by editing the /etc/hosts) and it does work. Mostly because it's already a reflex strategy to go on these websites. Stuck on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine trigger. But just adding the 127.0.0.1 to the 3-5 most frequented websites is enough to stop me from reading them. It's like now I have to consciously decide: "Do you REALLY want to check this website?" It would be similar to Netflix not jumping to the next episode during a binge watch, but rather pushing you to their homepage after an episode. You "break the default" in a way.

cfontes 6y ago
"Stuck on a problem? Check Hacker News or Reddit for a short-term dopamine trigger" This sucks and it is absolutely true, but to me it's more about boredom, you know that monkey job you absolutely need to do but is terribly boring to the sleep inducing level? That immediately makes me search for some other thing to focys, fighting it is very hard, I don't smoke but I think this is the closest that comes to my mind when I feel the "rush".
- kugelblitz 6y ago
  Yep, boredom is definitely one reason. Also, when I was assigned to a new project where I get to work on a modern tech stack and create a proof of concept, I was able to got 6-10 hours of high productivity (sort of like a honeymoon phase with new tech) for several days. But then I got re-assigned to a project with a tech stack that I really don't like e.g. a "hot reload" would take 5-10 seconds and it would trigger every time I save a file + the project structure doesn't make sense - but people who worked on it have since left the project + I'm not learning anything useful. I've tried focusing on the tech challenges, but my tasks are mostly to fix bugs. Refactoring is not wanted, since the idea is to ship a less buggy version as soon as possible. Fortunately I'm a contract freelancer, once this project ends in 2 months, I won't extend and will look for a new company.

gatestone 6y ago

What has somewhat worked for me is Focusmate. You make a video call to a stranger, and you both commit to 50 minutes of work. I guess you could do that with a workmate or a friend, if you dare be honest in needing that kind of basic childlish psychological support. Actually, I have almost picked a habit of doing the same commitment alone, which is nice. :-) Even that does not work, if you are tired, exhausted, depressed, sad, angry, desperate and lost. Fix that first.

gatestone 6y ago

Another cruel tip is to put all your procrastination prone Web accounts behind complex login controls (passwords behind 2 factor authentication Lastpass with paranoid settings), and purge your cookies often.

mettamage 6y ago
In a similar vein: put your guilty pleasure accounts in a browser that you hate, log yourself out of there. Make fake accounts on your primary browser, so that whenever you have the urge to log in or are accidentally logged in, you find nothing there. I do this for Facebook. I'm considering to do it for YouTube.

msadowski 6y ago

Here's what worked for me in lockdown (I had issues working at home) : aim to do minimum 6 pomodoros a day, where each pomodoro is 55 minutes long. When measuring time I try to focus on a single task that's not related to admin work (answering emails etc.) I figured that 6 hours of productive work is not far off from what most people probably get done in an office environment anyway.

spookybones 6y ago
How long of a break in between?
- msadowski 6y ago
  5 minutes. Sometime if I get in the flow or I'm in a middle of the meeting I'll skip the break and restart the timer.

svat 6y ago

> One of the biggest things that can get you drawn into procrastinating is to go into a crazy website checking loop where you loop through Twitter, Hackernews, Reddit, BBC, etc in the hope for a new bit of information that probably has no real relevance to your life. As someone personally familiar with this phenomenon (for example, I remember smiling at https://xkcd.com/477/ https://xkcd.com/477/ when it was posted in 2008, nearly 12 years ago), and as someone too familiar with procrastination in general, here's one insight I had recently, and an old insight: 1. Firstly, “epiphany addiction” — I encountered it on the blog of Aaron Swartz (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/anders): > The irony, of course, is that the books are totally useless unless you take their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking “that’s so insightful! that changes everything,” but never actually doing anything different, then pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you’ll start searching for another book to fill the void. Chris Macleod calls this “epiphany addiction”: “Each time they feel like they’ve stumbled on some life changing discovery, feel energized for a bit without going on to achieve any real world changes, and then return to their default […]. They always end up back at the drawing board of trying to think their way out of their problem, and it’s not long before they come up with the latest pseudo earth shattering insight.” 2. Beware of searching for one true method by which you will finally “defeat” procrastination. I remember this excitement when some trick used to work, and the urge to write a post like this (BTW, congrats on writing and finishing this post — I never got around to writing something so “finished”), having found “the answer”. But eventually some trick that used to make you productive may stop helping so much. (Because there are other unaddressed root issues, which seem to find a “workaround”: this is the "procrastination as wily adversary" metaphor, as in War of Art etc.) Ultimately, it seems we need a complementary set of approaches, both external (like Steps 1 to 3 in this blog post: changing your habits), and internal (being more aware of your feelings and drives, etc). Procrastination (for many) seems to be discomfort-avoidance, where the discomfort can be some combination of fear, anxiety, distaste, dread, uncertainty, ambiguity, conflict with (some of) one's values, etc. It helps to become more aware about the nature of your discomfort, and get to the root of it. But ultimately you can't think your way out of the procrastination problem. Things like mindfulness, talking to a therapist, good exercise,… all help; just don't pin your hopes too strongly on one of them, to the exclusion of other approaches. (I had given up blocking websites as it had stopped working for me, but after reading this post I just added a major time-waster to my /etc/hosts file, thank you.) The goal is to get to a state where you don't feel out of control of your own mind, where you can decide to do something and just do it — but it can be a process to get there. Good luck to you, me, and all of us. “You can't think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.”

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bmmayer1 6y ago

It's great to see this article at the top of Hacker News, my number one source of procrastination.

nickswan 6y ago

There’s actually some science behind procrastination and the steps you can do to beat it: http://nickswan.net/procrastination/ http://nickswan.net/procrastination/ These are my notes from Tim Pychyl’s lecture that was posted on here a few months ago. Link to the YouTube video included in my blog posts. It’s a really good watch.

dmos62 6y ago
> Ask myself : What negative emotions do I have associated with project or task x,y,z? That's a valuable tip. Drilling down to what stresses you out and finding a way to integrate that into self is central to overcoming procrastination.

placebo 6y ago

I wonder how beating procrastination can be bootstrapped. A professional procrastinator will also procrastinate reading this article even though they know it's exactly what they need. For example, I clicked the "how to be ultra spiritual" video in that article and was then curious about other videos made by the same person and pretty soon found myself in the usual procrastinator's state, forgetting the article or the fact that I got to this article in the first place by procrastinating implementing an algorithm that I've been wanting to complete for a couple of weeks and instead checking what's new on HN ... I guess one needs to get to a certain point of being determined enough to make a strategic change in one's productivity, and the incentives required for such a change are probably specific to each person

hinkley 6y ago
For a professional procrastinator, bargaining to defer an onerous task will often include doing less onerous tasks that are more often overlooked. I know I'm not studying for my final but look at how clean the bathroom is!

kerrsclyde 6y ago

Write your distractions down. Look at them at lunch / end of the day (and by then you'll find they don't seem so important).

Ensorceled 6y ago

If you are have a lot of procrastination problems and if you have always had those problems from an early age, don't dismiss the idea that you may actually have ADHD. There really isn't adult onset ADHD, but there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD. Take an online screening test and that will tell you if you might want to see somebody about a full test. This article is talking about the idea that we can train our brains to act like we have ADHD and how to break that brain plasticity cycle, but these techniques would be helpful if you also have ADHD.

nikofeyn 6y ago
but people should be careful assuming they have it. people should do as you say and simply see professionals about it and be tested for it. stress and anxiety can present symptoms that overlap with ADHD symptoms.
- Ensorceled 6y ago
  Yep, that's why a big part of a real diagnosis is "did you have these problems in elementary school". If they started when you got your first iPhone after university ... it's not ADHD.
rorykoehler 6y ago
At this stage I'm beginning to wonder if not having ADHD is the condition and ADHD is the norm?
tasuki 6y ago
> there are a fair number of adults who have undiagnosed ADHD Are there even people who don't have ADHD these days?
hinkley 6y ago
In some people, sensory overload can trigger ADHD like symptoms. For most of us, lack of sleep or poor sleep quality can trigger a mountain of different symptoms.

jyriand 6y ago

I see lot of people focusing on some kind of lifehacks and tips to beat procrastination. The truth is(in my opinion) that it doesn't really matter how ergonomic your workflow is, or how distraction free your office/desktop/phone becomes. In the back of your mind you still know about these things. You know you can open youtube any time you want and browse for videos aimlessly. For me, it's all about stress. Procrastination is a good sign when I feel too much pressure and there's too much weight on my shoulders. Procrastination becomes a way of self-medication, shutting your mind off and forgetting about all the issues you might be facing in daily life. For some people, the only time they have the luxury to be alone and not disturbed, is when they are at work, sitting behind their computer, headphones on -- and that's the best time to procrastinate.

dmos62 6y ago
True, stress is the central motivator of procrastination, but if you get a handle on it, suddenly other things become important as well. Such as not being disturbed or eating well or task management or whatever. It's like oxygen: if you don't get it, you feel like it's the only thing you need. Once you have it, there's a whole bunch of things you need.
koheripbal 6y ago
I agree that developing "lifehacks", when taken too far, can be a form of procrastination itself. ...and that the underlying cause is emotional. Nevertheless - we still need to do them. I think the answer is both simpler and more difficult than most people are characterizing here. 1. Discipline takes training (preferably from a young age). If you practice overcoming those mental blocks, you will be more accustomed to doing them and recognizing and avoiding those escape behaviors that we call procrastination. 2. Visualizing and regularly reinforcing the Goal - that final benefit that puts all the work in between in context. 3. Planning/chunking the work. It's a form of gamification - but don't let it itself become a form of procrastination. 99% of people _already_ _know_ what needs to be done, right now. Personally, I have a simple system. Three Google Docs. 1. Is a short, somewhat vague list of goals I revisit every year at tax time. 2. Is a list of projects in a rough order of priority (actually it's a folder of Docs with one doc for each project). ...and most importantly, 3. The daily journal, where I add to the top each day the date and a rough list of things I'm working on. People get lost in making sure their prioritizing is perfect, or adding too many things to their daily TODOs. In fact, in the context of doing what's important, I find that one of the key skills is being militant about things you're NOT going to do - and ignoring requests from others that don't fall in line with your own goals.

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bogrollben 6y ago

too long didn't read :)

golfer 6y ago

For years I was a major procrastinator to the point that it was really affecting my job performance and my relationship. That all changed when I got a sleep evaluation and realized I had severe sleep apnea. My quality of sleep was terrible. As a result I had zero motivation. I got a CPAP machine, and after an initial period of adjustment, it was a profound change. The year after I received the machine was the most productive in my entire life. Take sleeping seriously. It may help you in ways you never imagined!

system2 6y ago

In my case, procrastination is a sign of depression. It is an escape mechanism. I found myself dropping clients after procrastinating instead of completing their projects because something about them always stressed me, made me hate money or what I do for a living. 30 minutes or 3 hours of shutting my brain off, telling myself I will do it later is my way of escaping. There is something subconscious about it always after I 'meditate' enough to pinpoint what the problem was. These are episodes coming and going once in a while.

stevewodil 6y ago
This is true for me as well. Procrastinating happens when I feel shitty (which is essentially every morning). It's my brain requesting easy dopamine hits like YouTube or CS:GO so that it can feel better. But those things only help your brain feel better in the very short term (ie. while they are occurring). After you're done and you close YouTube or the video game, you still feel shitty so you need another easy dopamine source to stimulate your brain again. This continues the cycle and it's very hard to break out of because each source of easy dopamine leaves you feeling crappy after engaging with it, so you find another one which does the same thing. Once you've started that cycle for any given day it's extremely difficult to break because your brain was built to be addicted to dopamine. This worked when we only got hits of dopamine for following animal tracks to hunt or when we saw the smoke from the sticks we were rubbing together and were about to start fire, but today it just doesn't work. To solve this the steps listed in the article are pretty good actually, but for me it is unrealistic to just remove all the apps on my phone/computer. It doesn't solve the underlying problem and is pretty simple to just download whatever app again or use my tv instead in a moment of boredom/sadness/frustration. The real key is to make each task that you have to do for work so incredibly simple (ie break them down to the smallest units possible) that avoiding the task becomes an absolute joke. I basically start with super specific tasks to get me started, and then ramp up once I'm engaged. Sometimes the first few tasks are literally "Open the codebase", "Change the header text to something better", "make element x have a border radius". One thing I've noticed is that I always try to think of every edge case and what the best way to code something would be before even typing anything. Planning is good, but eventually it hits a point where I get annoyed or stressed because I can't find the most optimal way to do something and then....I procrastinate. So what I've started doing is if I feel this starting to happen I implement the feature or whatever I'm working on in the EASIEST way I can think of at that moment. If I have even a tiny idea of how it could be done, I start working on it that way, and then later as I get further along I can clean it up or reimplement it a different way. That's been pretty useful to me, it kind of goes back to breaking problems down but it's slightly different. The last thing is exercise in the morning. Starting my day with something difficult sets the tone for the whole day. Sure, I could still go watch YouTube after working out but usually I feel good about the workout and my body that I don't need the easy dopamine hits after that and it's easier for me to get started on work. I do wish there was an inherent way to make productive work the source of easy dopamine hits but I haven't quite figured that one out, yet. Depression is momentum. If you're feeling bad, it's a spiral down (wasting time watching TV, then your brain is so fried from that that you don't cook dinner and instead just eat an unhealthy meal, then dessert because you're still sad, etc). If you're feeling good it's a spiral up. Keep trying, keep working at it. Harder things (like work and exercise) will help you feel better in the long term. The things we try to avoid; YouTube, tv, video games, will make your brain stimulated in the moment but you fall further and further into depression (or I do at least). Hopefully any of that was helpful but it may not even apply to you at all

jccalhoun 6y ago

I have found that having a decent computer really helps my productivity. As a grad student, an adjunct, and now a full time faculty member, I have consistently had shitty slow computers in my office on campus. I have found that because it is so slow that when I grade a paper online, i hit submit and the browser takes so long to load the next paper that I get distracted by checking email or twitter or facebook. Now that I'm stuck at home, I have noticed that my personal computer is so much faster that the next paper loads almost instantly and I get less distracted even though i have tons of more things here that could distract me than in the office.

premachb 6y ago

If you don't want to modify your /etc/hosts file manually you can always use https://selfcontrolapp.com/ https://selfcontrolapp.com/ which will do it for you. Pomodoro technique has really helped me as well. I feel it forces me to just start right away and get into the flow. The only thing you have to build the habit of is actually starting the timer.

arijun 6y ago

I'm sure it's been said many times before, but there's a special irony to reading an essay about procrastination in order to avoid doing work.

tiborsaas 6y ago

This article really helped me realise what's behind my procrastination habits. It's not about time management, or self control, but managing emotions. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-pr... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238

VieEnCode 6y ago

I've bookmarked this to go in the large folder of articles on beating procrastination that I've amassed. I'll get around to reading them all sometime soon.

asdfman123 6y ago

To me there are two keys: 1) Keep the phone far out of reach 2) Every time I get overwhelmed, try to stop thinking about the big picture and think "What's the smallest piece I can do right now?" Starting my IDE, starting the software, fixing some obvious typo. Whatever. 3) Yes, block distracting apps, but not permanently. If I do that, I relapse and feel guilty. Instead, I use a Chrome app called Focus (there's a million of them out there) to block distractions for 30 minutes at a time. Enough for me to do work, but not enough where I want to give up.

luckylion 6y ago

I know plenty of people consider it some form of cheating, but medication can help. I've been regularly taking armodafinil for quite some time now and it helps immensely to start doing things, to get into concentrated work and to stay there.

nbaksalyar 6y ago

I think the main problem with advice on 'how to beat procrastination' is the assumption that everyone is the same. Which is not the case, of course, because people have different sleep patterns, different habits, and different reasons to procrastinate. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and one trick or tool that works for me wouldn't necessarily work for you. And it can be really hard to find something that works.

sumfoni 6y ago

One thing i'd like to post here: I started talking ritalin when i tried a degree again with ~22?) and it was day and night to the same year before: My metal wall of starting/doing was gone. I'm still struggling with even talking ritalin regularly and there are downsides to it, but i do have the feeling that it is something which helps, something i actually really should talk regularly. Its like 'i don't need glasses' 'holy shit how was i able to walk around without glasses?' 'Oh no wonder why i had to sit at thefirst row while everyone else had no issue at all reading' 'how did that go so bad suddenly?'

Dave_TRS 6y ago

Is anyone aware a way to identify this window of potential high productivity using a Fitbit/Apple Watch or other device that measure physical body characteristics like heart rate, temperature, etc? I find that on some days my productivity window comes and goes and is wasted during times I have a meeting, or need to deal with something urgent but simple and then my brain is fried when I need to tackle a complex creative task. Knowing with some certainty that the window has arrived might help more actively block out other things.

astral303 6y ago
No, learn how to listen to your body. Heart rate, temperature are side effects in response to an emotional block (e.g. anxiety, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown). We have been taught a giant lie that the head is separate, reigning over the “dumb” body. “I think therefore I am” is a load of bull, or a delusion. Your body is your subconscious, your stomach your primitive brain. Your body is chock-full of hard-learned lessons, all delivered to you subconsciously as instincts. Don’t ignore these instincts. We are animalistic creatures, heavily driven by instinct, and rightly so. To discard your instincts is actually irrational! Observe what your body is telling you. Why is there anxiety? Think to a physical manifestation of your anxiety. Is it tightness in your chest or a lump in your throat, where do you feel that anxiety? Observe it. Do not rationalize it, do not explain it, do not deconstruct it, do not jump to any conclusions. The moment you reach to touch it with your fingers of reason, the truth (body instinct) will slip away. That’s why you just have to observe, non-judgementally. As you observe and think more about the physical manifestation of your anxiety, see what thoughts and reasons rise up. The more in touch you get with your body, the less information you will be throwing out. You don’t need external devices to tell you how you are feeling for productivity potential, you just need to A) accept that observing subconscious reactions is a huge source of information, B) your gut feel is correct, but it takes time to process and understand what the gut is telling you, and C) it will take time to get in touch with all your body. Urgent but simple — have you considered how much of an emotional toll that takes on you? No wonder that can put you into a state where you feel maybe knocked off rails, or some kind of self criticism starts up and you’re beating yourself up for the root cause of urgent task or you’re lamenting the team situation that got you there. These are heavy background burdens, though they may be emotional, are still background threads your brain gives slices to. Now your brain scheduler has less brainpower available for your complex task. Another way to put it is: They are clouds in your heads sky, obscuring the sun of creativity and productivity. Learn to feel the productivity window by feel, by gut. The same gut feeling will also tell you when to stop. Procrastination often involves avoidance of something, for whatever reason. The trick is to observe what you are avoiding and what feelings are there when you think about this avoidance.

laurieg 6y ago

I'm glad that the article acknowledges procrastination as an emotional issue, not an organisational one. Reading Getting Things Done or using a new Todo list app does not do anything for procrastination. The slight bump is just down to novelty.

shireboy 6y ago

I may try this, but a couple thoughts I'd love feedback/ideas on: 1) I routinely get into these "browser time loops" while waiting for a build. App's got 30s build time? Ah, I'll check reddit. 30 minutes later ... I have found that autosave has helped, and hot module reload in Webpack, but for server code that requires build (.NET), still looking for a way to reduce that. Similar for publishing code. It takes a few minutes to publish to web host, let's go read the news... I feel like a really good CI would help with this. 2) I value being informed. I use Feedly to monitor news, especially industry news. So part of me doesn't want to block sites on principal. I keep saying "I value staying up to date on these topics. I'll just avoid when I should be working" but never do. A way to time access would probably be worthwhile. 3) I question too much focus on "productivity" as defined by spending time looking at an IDE. I don't have 24x7 cranking out code as a goal. I'd much rather focus on extending time "in the zone" where I'm focused and writing quality code. Pomodoro breaks that for me. Music helps sometimes, but can also distract. Caffeine helps, but requires more and more.

michalstanko 6y ago

The only thing that helps me concentrate on work (coding) is exercising. When I come back from bike/run/whatever, catch my breath and take a shower, only after that my mind is calm enough so that I can concentrate well for ~2 hours. After that, you have to eat again, participate in a meeting, read your email, deal with messages from family, check the news, the latest coding tutorial, etc etc, and the concentration is gone, no matter how hard I try again later.

ogre_codes 6y ago

Step one: Stay out of Hacker News comments section...

f0ok 6y ago

"That mother-fucker!"

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beamatronic 6y ago

Bookmarked to read later.

asimjalis 6y ago

I fundamentally disagree with all the tips in the article. Mostly because I’ve tried them and tips like this in the past. They work but only for brief periods. They all require force. Forcing behavior on yourself. The mind becomes a critical parent to the mind. I realize this is a negative comment. “What works then?” you might ask. That’s something I’m still figuring out. However a negative result is useful because it saves you from wasting time on dead ends.

lawtalkinghuman 6y ago

Implement all these life hacks and you too can crank out 4% more JavaScript per day and don’t even have to worry about politics, current affairs or what is going on in the country or the world. It’s not like being informed is an important part of being a citizen.

rajaravivarma_r 6y ago

I too believed that my procrastination problem was ADHD. Almost everything I read about ADHD symptoms agreed on to my behaviour. This went on for like 8 years and one day I decided to visit a Psychiatrist. He said it could be general anxiety and prescribed me medicines. I came back home and googled the medicine to find out that it is an anti-depressant, SSRI if you want to know. Then I said to myself, "crap ADHD is due to the lack of Dopamine and not Serotonin, this is not going to workout". But I chose to take it according to the prescription, hoping that after the tablets are over I can go back to the second session and get my psychiatrist prescribe me ADHD medications. After two weeks, I could feel the change. Suddenly there was motivation to work, my mind was not constantly fantasizing about the "perfect" work that will interest me. I could see interesting tasks to do in my current job (I am a web developer). I could sense business needs rather than writing the perfect code. I was productive. Challenges did not scare me. I could understand things in meetings without confusion, or obsessing over details. I stopped using pomodoro. My obsession to constantly check Reddit, HN, Twitter, Youtube was rapidly dying out. Going to sleep did finally feel like going to rest, rather than one more "task" to struggle. Most surprisingly, I did not give up on physical tasks. Usually I would give up the last rep when I am lifting, but under the medication I did reps to failure and that was the first time I did not give up something which is difficult. I was still checking Reddit, HN out of habit, but I could stop when I want to. Even my relationship with my wife improved. This was indeed magical. Things I struggled to do or couldn't do became easier and I could do it naturally. All of this, though lasted only for a few months, as I discontinued the medication for various reasons: people close to me were questioning like, "for how long are you going to depend on it", slowly I developed some tolerance for it, and some minor reversible-side-effects. Now I regret not forming habits when I had the chance with the medication. The point being, the symptoms of OCD, anxiety disorder, ADHD and ADD all overlap, and don't assume yourself anything. Talk to a psychiatrist, because they know better. Hope this information helps someone or at the least gives them hope.

trevas 6y ago
I'm identifying myself a lot with your story. I think I might have ADHD and my psychiatrist is thinking of prescribing me SSRI. Do you end up taking ADHD medication or was the SSRI enough for you to fell the change?

patrickwiseman 6y ago

The DNS hack is a nice low fidelity way to avoid procrastination helpers. I have also used https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/ which provides a bit more of a polished interface for accomplishing the same effect.