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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

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 7y 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 7y 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.
- funnybeam 7y ago
  Very similar to my process. Most people struggle with prioritising because they think that it is deciding what order to do things in - I like to say that far more important than that is deciding what things you are NOT going to do.

dmos62 7y 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 7y 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.

funnybeam 7y ago
Very similar to my process. Most people struggle with prioritising because they think that it is deciding what order to do things in - I like to say that far more important than that is deciding what things you are NOT going to do.