31 ms·

'Ugh fields', or why you can’t even bear to think about that task

543 points by robertwiblin 6y ago

gitpusher 6y ago
Wow, this hit close to home. It's refreshing to know that this happens to other people as well!
- air7 6y ago
  Same. On a meta-note, it's amazing how many times I rediscover that unpleasant parts of my psyche are not unique to me, and still I'm under the illusion that my hardships are mine alone.
- core-e 6y ago
  Same. I thought it was just part and parcel with me being a procrastinator by nature. I'm sure that's part of why it resonates so much. But yeah, it's always nice to know you're not as alone in your head as you think you are.
- zrail 6y ago
  Same. I get trapped in these often and for large ones I've felt like I've needed to make drastic life changes like quit jobs or move to escape them. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that feels these things.
nullsense 6y ago
>Most people experience this from time to time. If you're unlucky enough to be at the tail end of the distribution where basic tasks make you feel this way every day it's no longer called an 'Ugh Field' instead it's called the "Wall of Awful" https://youtu.be/Uo08uS904Rg https://youtu.be/Uo08uS904Rg One of the absolute best techniques I've found for breaking it is a trick I learned from DBT called "Improve the moment" where you simply think about what pleasant sensory experience could you introduce right now to make you feel better and then you do that quickly. I find if I put on a song or smell the lemon scented dishwashing liquid or run my hand under warm water it helps me to get moving on a task. It's not fool proof but it's a good tool to have in the toolbox.
- ohazi 6y ago
  That... that channel is amazing. Wow. Thanks!
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    The first thing I noticed about that channel is it's one of the few that are mostly talking but I don't have to turn the speed up. I think that's called "knowing your audience"
    - WalterSear 6y ago
      By contrast, I couldn't sit through any of the episodes I've tried. IMHO, the series feels targeted at people who are only slightly on the spectrum.
      - aidenn0 6y ago
        I think there are lots of other issues that are comorbid with ADHD that would make those episodes inaccessible (e.g. APD), but I'm certainly not only slightly ADHD.
  - systemvoltage 6y ago
    I feel like the opposite - they're popularizing ADHD and I just watched "What is ADHD?" episode and pretty much every human on this planet can relate to it. Who doesn't make careless mistakes? Who isn't ever late to anything? Who hasn't had a hard time to focus on something? It is doing a disservice because people who actually have severe ADHD are perhaps shunned and the weight of the word "ADHD" becomes less meaningful. It is similar to the urban popularization of "OCD". It is even used in regular conversation without people realizing that it is a serious condition that can't be lightly taken.
    - nullsense 6y ago
      It's not popularizing it. It's a channel by ADHDers for ADHDers. Everyone has _most_ of the same experiences, yes, but frequency, intensity, and duration are markedly different for those of us with ADHD. When it's such that all major facets of your life are negatively impacted by it you have a problem. I remember watching the ADHD Tax video and it was like lightbulbs going off in my head. That channel helped a lot when I was first figuring it out.
ep103 6y ago
I've adopted the following strategy for Ugh work. I would love to hear other people's suggestions, because while I have found that the below algorithm works, any improvement would be greatly helpful. 1 - Is the Ugh work so small, that if I just power through it, it can be done in ~15 minutes? If so, give yourself an hour break or so, then just slam your head into that wall. 15 minutes is hardly any time at all. Otherwise, follow the general below pattern: 2 - Document out the task. Figure out exactly that needs to be done. Most procrastination research I've seen, and personal experience validates, that just documenting out the task moves it from the theoretical (and easier to procrastinate) to something more tangible (and therefore less likely to be avoided / less scary). 3 - Break the task out into small, concrete components. The smaller the components, the better. (procrastination research also strongly suggests this, as small concrete tasks are easier to visualize just doing and getting done, and feel less scary than big unknown problems). 4 - Out of all of those tasks you just broke out, can we throw any in the trash and ignore them? Once this became an "ugh" task, we stopped trying to solve this task perfectly. At this point, we just want completion, because this is holding up something more important (otherwise, why are we doing it at all?). 5 - Out of all those tasks you just broke out, are all of them ugh tasks? Or are some of them neutral / easy? Often, just breaking things out into small tasks gets rid of the ugh factor, because now you can handle it in pieces. Its the combination of trying to do all the pieces at once that gives it an "ugh" factor (for example, doing all of the chores on a Sunday can be an Ugh. But having a list of chores I need to do in the next few days, and just do one or two now? Not bad at all, provided I never have to look at the entire list and get overwhelmed again, and can just pluck one from the top and feel good about my progress). Either way, do the easy / neutral ones left. 6 - At this point, hopefully, the Ugh task is now just a fraction of the size it once was. If we're under 15 minutes, just brute force it, and have some ice cream / whiskey / outdoor time as a reward. 7 - If the remaining ugh task still exists, or is atomic, estimate the amount of time it is going to take you. 10X that estimate. That is now the amount of time you must dedicate to that task, in order to get through it sanely and happily. It was going to take you ~1-2 hours to look up that financial data that you really hate standardizing in excel? Great, that's what YOUR ENTIRE SATURDAY is now dedicated to. Take breaks, play video games, do other things. Because in reality, you're going to work for 15 minutes, then take a break for an hour, then work for 30 minutes, then go to the store for 2 hours, then work for 20 minutes, then cook dinner, etc, etc, etc. An Ugh task with an estimate of 1 hour is usually an annoying task with an estimate of 10 hours (9 of which are positive, happy activities).
sandymcmurray 6y ago
This is me too. I have learned, slowly and painfully, that I need to wait 24 hours before saying yes to any optional assignment. I'm too optimistic about my available time and wired to be a people pleaser. When I'm asked to help and I recognize a gap I can fill, I tend to volunteer, even if I'm not the right person for the job. Days or weeks later, I realize it was the wrong decision then the Ugh feelings start up in earnest. It's important for me to realistically assess whether I have the knowledge, desire, and time to do the task. I'm learning to say no more often than I would like, and to be less afraid of the consequences of saying no. Promising to do something I can't or won't do is bad for everyone. Better to think on the decision and politely say no up front if I don't have the time or interest or enthusiasm required to get the job done.
- pliu 6y ago
  That's really great introspection. I have the same tendency which has led to creating some really deeply unpleasant situations for myself. I hadn't thought about it quite in the same way until I read your comment, thank you for sharing this. I think I've just had a light blink on in my head.
- sharkweek 6y ago
  Yeah same - I get excited about new balls to chase which has on multiple occasions left me feeling overwhelmed and stuck with a longer to-do list than I can handle without wanting to pull my hair out. I like the 24 hours tip, that seems like a good tool to help let the initial excitement of something new and exciting cool off a bit.
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  Me: You need it when? Whenever? Whenever is never. Pick a date. Me: How long? Couple of days. Which means a week. Which means it won't ship for a month.
- chrisweekly 6y ago
  I can relate. One thing that's helped me has been to remember that saying "yes" to thing A means saying "no" to many other things B-Z (not to mention sometimes then being _expected_ to say yes to A again in future). Good luck!
ncmncm 6y ago
The Ugh field must be a close relative of the SEP field: "somebody else's problem". As Douglas Adams noted, it's the closest thing to invisibility possible in this universe.
CodeWriter23 6y ago
My wife’s expedient solution, she says “It’s work, just do it”.
- DiabloD3 6y ago
  People like that are somewhat ignorant of the day to day struggles of people surviving in the mundane reality that is the modern world, and how people are not interchangeable cogs in the machine of productivity. That isn't a solution, its a dismissal.
  - bscphil 6y ago
    To be fair to OP's wife, this is probably intended to be something that works for her, but not necessarily for you or me.
  - olyjohn 6y ago
    Sometimes all these techniques and tips to get started on things just don't work for me. Sometimes they do help... When they don't work, the only thing left for me is to "just do it." Usually about 10-15 minutes after I start, I get on a roll. But it's not without a huge amount of anxiety for that first 10-15 minutes. It's fucking painful sometimes. Sometimes that is your only option. And I will recognize that if you could always make that your first option, you spend a whole lot less time thinking about it. It bypasses me from having to get up and go do something to make myself feel better. The act itself of doing the task eventually makes me feel better anyways. I would rather be the person who can just sit down and do it every time, and not have these fucking issues.
  - CodeWriter23 6y ago
    Bottom line, the ugh field is a series of thought and feelings of one’s own creation. I find it empowering to dispense with the self-made prison of paralysis, and get to work.
beervirus 6y ago
This happens to me sometimes with a work project. Typically the only way I can break the logjam is to just pull an all nighter, refuse to go to bed until it’s done.
- alonmower 6y ago
  Same, though I wish I could be better at avoiding these
clktmr 6y ago
Glad the author mentioned taxes, which are definitely my 'ugh field'. However I already pay a professional to do most of the work, but it doesn't help.
- Finnucane 6y ago
  If doing taxes is not in your ugh field, there is something wrong with you. I don't even especially object to paying taxes, I think it's necessary. But the process is awful.
  - teach 6y ago
    I'd disagree that filing taxes is "awful". For most of my adult life, it only took me one hour per year to do my taxes. Form 1040-EZ, filled out on paper.
    - bostonvaulter2 6y ago
      But how sure are you that you didn't leave any money on the table that you could have recouped?
      - teach 6y ago
        Who cares? This is the sort of thinking that leads taxes to be stressful.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    - hinkley 6y ago
      If you have been doing a 1040EZ “most of your adult life”, you probably need a financial planner.
      - teach 6y ago
renewiltord 6y ago
You can beat this with amphetamines and deadline fear. You can also beat it with CBT-style self-reorganization but if you find yourself stuck and you have gotten to the part where you identify the problem but are unable to solve it, use amphetamines and apply some close up deadline terror.
- mrspeaker 6y ago
  Really? I feel like I'd just skip the task completely... does that approach actually "get it done"? (seriously asking!)
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Hey, everyone's different. Works for me.
- nefitty 6y ago
  Maybe the downvoted are from the use of the word, “amphetamines”, but at that point I assume the amphetamines are prescription Adderall or such.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Yep!
    - anon124523 6y ago
      Any advice on what words an adult in the US might say to their primary care physician if are interested in trying pharmaceutical aids to ugh problems but don't really suspect an ADHD diagnosis?
      - balfirevic 6y ago
        Taken from https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-mo... "There are whole websites for this: How To Convince Your Shrink You Have ADHD [0], How To Get Your Doctor To Prescribe You Adderall In Five Easy Steps [1], et cetera. But I can’t imagine most people need them. Just talk about all the times in your life that you had attention and concentration problems, and if your doctor asks you a more specific question (“Do you often lose things?”) you give the obvious right answer (“Wow, it’s like you’ve known me my whole life!”). Aren’t psychiatrists creepy wizards who can see through your deceptions? There are people like that. They’re called forensicists, they have special training in dealing with patients who might be lying to them, and they tend to get brought in for things like evaluating a murderer pleading the insanity defense. They have a toolbox of fascinating and frequently hilarious techniques to ascertain the truth, and they’re really good at their jobs. But me? At best, I can have a vague suspicion you’re not telling the truth. And how many patients genuinely in need of treatment do I want to risk accidentally rejecting just so I can be sure of thwarting you? A lot of 100% honest psychiatric patients’ stories are pretty unbelievable, really, and I don’t want to have to treat every patient like a convicted murderer. Unless you give me some specific reason to doubt you, I start with the assumption that you’re telling the truth. Think about how wasteful all of this is. We throw people in jail for using Adderall without a prescription. We expel them from colleges. We fight an expensive and bloody War on Drugs to prevent non-prescription-holders from getting Adderall. We create a system in which poor people need to stretch their limited resources to make it to a psychiatrist so they can be prescribed Adderall, in which people without health insurance can never get it at all, in which DEA agents occasionally bust down the doors of medical practices giving out Adderall illegally. All to preserve a sham in which psychiatrists ask their patients “Do you have ADD symptoms?” and the patients say “Oh, yeah, definitely,” and then the psychiatrists give them Adderall. It’s like adding twenty layers of super-reinforced concrete to a bunker with a wide-open front door. (Also, if by some chance a psychiatrist doesn’t give a patient Adderall, that patient practically always goes to another psychiatrist, and that next psychiatrist does. Trust me, no matter how unsuitable a candidate you are, no matter how bad a liar you are, somewhere there is a psychiatrist who will give you Adderall. And by “somewhere”, I mean it will take you three tries, tops.)" [0] - http://exiledonline.com/adderall-tips-how-to-convince-your-shrink-you-have-addadhd/all/1/ http://exiledonline.com/adderall-tips-how-to-convince-your-s... [1] - https://thoughtcatalog.com/sarah-miller/2015/03/how-to-get-your-doctor-to-prescribe-you-adderall-in-5-easy-steps/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/sarah-miller/2015/03/how-to-get-y...
fizixer 6y ago
'Grading homeworks and exams'. I'm sorry the only way I could get over it is by leaving academia.
- s17n 6y ago
  Did you try getting drunk?
  - fizixer 6y ago
    Good point. I didn't. I would've done it if it had occurred to me, given my desperation with my research workload. And it's pretty clear to me that instruction in a research university is a really bad sideshow that very few take seriously. (but then I could go on for hours about the broken academic system ...)
viburnum 6y ago
Telling myself I only have to do it for five minutes and then I can quit is usually enough to get me started. Never actually have to quit. Another approach is to take three steps back and think about how to change your life so these tasks are never your problem anymore.
torotonnato 6y ago
I’m relieved this phenomenon is widespread enough to have a name, giving names to things is really a underestimated power. One technique I use to cope with this mental state: do complain, but only after you started doing that terrible job.
luord 6y ago
Great read. This puts a name (sort of) to something I've been struggling with for a long time. Knowing that it's common actually does help a lot, and I'll start having that, and the rest of the advice, in mind more often.
zanecraw 6y ago
Good read. I never knew this existed, but now I can put a name to what i've been feeling.
tetha 6y ago
I know these tasks all to well. Another good strategy I've found is to break it into small actionable pieces and do one of them. Like, don't have a task "Clean the entire place", that's big and scary. Clean up the sink and create a reminder to do it again next week. Don't build the entire dumb thing at once. Add in a necessary config value. Then think further and add another. Slow, steady, methodical, habit enabling progress isn't flashy, but powerful.
Apocryphon 6y ago
HN has always had productivity articles, but I've noticed some particularly good procrastination ones in the past few months [0]. I think this is another excellent addition, one that really examines the problem and goes beyond "break it into manageable chunks" or "work on it for just ten minutes." For many, even those standard tactics are not enough, you really need to examine the most discrete and atomic feelings of discomfort that cause procrastination. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24170531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24170531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24039887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24039887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23537317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23537317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24360966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24360966
- pimlottc 6y ago
  I think it’s a response to the pandemic. Many people thought they’d be really productive during the lockdown, only to find that lack of free time was not necessarily their biggest barrier.
gfody 6y ago
> Just recognising and labelling the Ugh Field phenomenon can make it less bad, because it’s an accurate systemic explanation for what’s going on, rather than a misleading personal one like “I’m hopeless and never get things done”. great this does seem helpful > If Ugh Fields are a constant issue for you, it might be best to try tackling those underlying [mental] health and well-being issues first It started out strong categorizing a sort of mental rut but then goes and blames it on underlying mental health issues? Not even anything specific just woolly depression/anxiety/etc. - not helpful in the least!
Igelau 6y ago
> all the normal literature on overcoming procrastination Enough for weeks, months, years of reading... and plenty of other people reading it to argue about it with!
ComputerGuru 6y ago
I cannot upvote this enough. As a single founder of a few different initiatives, this more than anything else has been the bane of my existence, exactly as it’s described with low-priority, low-effort but still required tasks that start off innocuously enough on my todo list but end up, thanks to not so much procrastination as resource starvation in a highly prioritized and always full queue, so delayed and as a direct result a thousand times the psychological burden than they ever deserve to be. I wish I could just write my own tasks scheduler and flash my brain with the upgrade. I know, on paper, exactly what I should be doing and when I should do it; I know that I need a time slot for low priority tasks to empty the queue and prevent resource starvation; I know that intellectually rewarding tasks shouldn’t get a VIP pass that lets them short-circuit the line; I know that I need to give boring management tasks at least some weight on my daily to-do list as compared to the doing-it-myself tasks; but I just can’t.
- mleonhard 6y ago
  I'm in the same situation. I benefit from telling another person about tasks that I've been putting off. Would you like to try a regular 5-min "standup" meeting with me?
p1mrx 6y ago
I've found that it's harder to get stuff done when sitting alone in a box for 6 months, and the (non)completion of tasks has no bearing on whether I'll continue sitting alone in a box.
- ep103 6y ago
  yeah, this is burnout. I feel like I burn out much faster when working alone day after day.
hlecuanda 6y ago
That used to be me. I was lucky to be working with friends who noticed these behaviors and suggested that I should seek proffessional mental health advise. I ended up being diagnosed with AvPD (Avoidant Personality Disorder, ICD-10-CM F60.6). I started cognitive behavioral therapy and some prescriptions to manage anxiety and the related dysthymia (mild depression) that came with AvPD. The fact that I can go about my life without procastination and anxiety is a testament to the correct diagnosis and accurate dosing that my Psychiatrist prescribed. Before actually seeking pro advise, I tried self-help, willpower, spirituality, you name it. Things were getting worse and fast. I was very lucky to be around people who cared about me and acted on their concerns. ¿Best product of health science ever? It's a blue pill and it's active ingredient is Clonazepam.
- dri_ft 6y ago
  Can you explain? I'm used to seeing people talk about ADD/ADHD with relation to struggling with productivity/procrastination/attention (naturally), but I am surprised to see you link it to a personality disorder. I know a little about avoidant personality disorder thanks to some reading I did a while ago on the basis of self-diagnosing with schizoid PD/avoidant PD (depending on exactly how finely one wishes to split that particularly hair), so you don't have to explain that half to me.
- cJ0th 6y ago
  > The fact that I can go about my life without procastination and anxiety is a testament to the correct diagnosis and accurate dosing that my Psychiatrist prescribed. So whenever you now have to carry out a task you simply dispassionately do it? Taxes, cleaning the house, starting projects you do not understand yet... There is no putting it off for days or even weeks? Really trying to understand this as I assumed that doing this is at least to some extend pretty normal.
sasaf5 6y ago
This reminds me of the way Donald Knuth prioritizes his tasks. He wakes up in the morning and tackles his TODO list starting from the "Ugh"iest task.
- b0rsuk 6y ago
  This reminds me of the book "Eat That Frog" by Brian Tracy, which recommends doing the least pleasant but important task in the morning. His rationale is that it 1) makes you stop thinking about the dreaded task because it's finally done 2) gives you a boost of satisfaction.
raindropm 6y ago
'Ugh fields' This will be my next go-to word when facing with, um, Ugh fields.
shannifin 6y ago
I've had this for the past couple months working on the GUI for a web app; it all just feels like "ugh". The back end is where all the magic is, the front end is boring. If I could afford to hire someone, I wouldn't think twice. In the past, I've found streaming on Twitch helped a lot with "ugh" GUI dev. It reframed the activity; the main task was actually to stream, and I felt rewarded when people commented or followed me. (Also learned from people more experienced.) I can't stream my current project, but I suspect somehow reframing the activity in a similar manner will help. I just need to think of a way to do that... In the meantime, I'm enjoying the comments here!
paraschopra 6y ago
The way I deal with essential ugh work is to schedule it at a time when I’m most likely to be energetic and productive - which is morning time usually. But I do make sure I don’t stack too many ugh work in a day and that my day has at least one enjoyable work that I can look forward to after I’m done with ugh work.
aaron695 6y ago
Two ideas 1. Tell someone else. 2. Just start it, something really small, you can 100% then stop after doing it with a reward, but you are allowed to continue if you want.
- dmoo 6y ago
  Re 2. My technique is to do the easiest part first, somehow moving from pending to in progress helps.
royletron 6y ago
My 'ugh field' right now is making a staging environment for a Wordpress blog that has been left untouched for quite a few years. Anyone raise me?
- hrishios 6y ago
  Mine is a glucose tracking app that I made for my girlfriend. I did all the reverse engineering of the CGM, electronics, design and coding and published it so she can use it. Except it hit a bug a few weeks ago and the "ugh" of setting up the dev environment with frontend tooling, Gradle and android just to fix it has left me procrastinating forever.
ralphstodomingo 6y ago
I've had some recent success at confronting these incidents by finding some secondary purpose or source of fun in the activity. For example, there's a company-wide report I'm in charge of curating every week. I've been doing it for the last 37 weeks or so, and have started to become dreadful to finish. Took me an upwards of 2 hours every week to accomplish. It deals with people's submissions and cleaning them up, and checking for erroneous entries, so only a fraction of the whole report can be automated. Until 3 weeks ago, I started considering timing myself doing the thing, and making note of what improvements I could do to speed up my next run. Within 3 weeks, I reduced the overall time for that task by around 75%, as it just takes me around 30 minutes now. This last run I did today I think I carved out more than 10 minutes of my previous run.
rjkennedy98 6y ago
Some of the advice in this article is really on point. I particularly liked this one: > If you think about it calmly, you may well find that the task actually isn’t as important as it has come to feel. The person you imagine is disgusted by your failure may only be 2/10 annoyed, or perhaps not even have noticed. And to add to this, if that person wants to de-prioritize it, let them do so. I've had an 'ugh field' trying to finish a data migration and my manager offered to put it back in the backlog because he could see I was struggling with it. I resisted for 3 straight sprints, but finally said OK yesterday. I felt an enormous sigh of relief.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
cpcallen 6y ago
I am flinching while reading the article because it makes me think about the specific examples in my own mind. I'm not even sure I can finish reading the link; it is just too uncomfortable. Guess I'll have to find a different displacement activity now.
drinkwell 6y ago
'And pity poor PhD students whose entire programs seem designed to make their life one enormous Ugh Field.' This is uncomfortably on point for me. I'm mildly dyslexic and suffer with mild anxiety issues. Currently I'm trying to write up my PhD thesis and the whole process has got to the point where it is fairly unbearable. The problem is I'm the person that will probably be let down the most if I don't complete. I'm a part time student, requesting my third extension, and have now accumulated 10 years worth of 'ugh'. It's embarrassing.
MithrilTuxedo 6y ago
As a backend Java developer working on projects built using Maven, I'm still trying to overcome this with the tool our regression team chose to standardize on for integration and regression testing: SOAP-UI.

543 points by robertwiblin 6y ago

gitpusher 6y ago

Wow, this hit close to home. It's refreshing to know that this happens to other people as well!

air7 6y ago
Same. On a meta-note, it's amazing how many times I rediscover that unpleasant parts of my psyche are not unique to me, and still I'm under the illusion that my hardships are mine alone.
core-e 6y ago
Same. I thought it was just part and parcel with me being a procrastinator by nature. I'm sure that's part of why it resonates so much. But yeah, it's always nice to know you're not as alone in your head as you think you are.
zrail 6y ago
Same. I get trapped in these often and for large ones I've felt like I've needed to make drastic life changes like quit jobs or move to escape them. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that feels these things.

nullsense 6y ago

>Most people experience this from time to time. If you're unlucky enough to be at the tail end of the distribution where basic tasks make you feel this way every day it's no longer called an 'Ugh Field' instead it's called the "Wall of Awful" https://youtu.be/Uo08uS904Rg https://youtu.be/Uo08uS904Rg One of the absolute best techniques I've found for breaking it is a trick I learned from DBT called "Improve the moment" where you simply think about what pleasant sensory experience could you introduce right now to make you feel better and then you do that quickly. I find if I put on a song or smell the lemon scented dishwashing liquid or run my hand under warm water it helps me to get moving on a task. It's not fool proof but it's a good tool to have in the toolbox.

ohazi 6y ago
That... that channel is amazing. Wow. Thanks!
- aidenn0 6y ago
  The first thing I noticed about that channel is it's one of the few that are mostly talking but I don't have to turn the speed up. I think that's called "knowing your audience"
  - WalterSear 6y ago
    By contrast, I couldn't sit through any of the episodes I've tried. IMHO, the series feels targeted at people who are only slightly on the spectrum.
    - aidenn0 6y ago
      I think there are lots of other issues that are comorbid with ADHD that would make those episodes inaccessible (e.g. APD), but I'm certainly not only slightly ADHD.
- systemvoltage 6y ago
  I feel like the opposite - they're popularizing ADHD and I just watched "What is ADHD?" episode and pretty much every human on this planet can relate to it. Who doesn't make careless mistakes? Who isn't ever late to anything? Who hasn't had a hard time to focus on something? It is doing a disservice because people who actually have severe ADHD are perhaps shunned and the weight of the word "ADHD" becomes less meaningful. It is similar to the urban popularization of "OCD". It is even used in regular conversation without people realizing that it is a serious condition that can't be lightly taken.
  - nullsense 6y ago
    It's not popularizing it. It's a channel by ADHDers for ADHDers. Everyone has _most_ of the same experiences, yes, but frequency, intensity, and duration are markedly different for those of us with ADHD. When it's such that all major facets of your life are negatively impacted by it you have a problem. I remember watching the ADHD Tax video and it was like lightbulbs going off in my head. That channel helped a lot when I was first figuring it out.

ep103 6y ago

I've adopted the following strategy for Ugh work. I would love to hear other people's suggestions, because while I have found that the below algorithm works, any improvement would be greatly helpful. 1 - Is the Ugh work so small, that if I just power through it, it can be done in ~15 minutes? If so, give yourself an hour break or so, then just slam your head into that wall. 15 minutes is hardly any time at all. Otherwise, follow the general below pattern: 2 - Document out the task. Figure out exactly that needs to be done. Most procrastination research I've seen, and personal experience validates, that just documenting out the task moves it from the theoretical (and easier to procrastinate) to something more tangible (and therefore less likely to be avoided / less scary). 3 - Break the task out into small, concrete components. The smaller the components, the better. (procrastination research also strongly suggests this, as small concrete tasks are easier to visualize just doing and getting done, and feel less scary than big unknown problems). 4 - Out of all of those tasks you just broke out, can we throw any in the trash and ignore them? Once this became an "ugh" task, we stopped trying to solve this task perfectly. At this point, we just want completion, because this is holding up something more important (otherwise, why are we doing it at all?). 5 - Out of all those tasks you just broke out, are all of them ugh tasks? Or are some of them neutral / easy? Often, just breaking things out into small tasks gets rid of the ugh factor, because now you can handle it in pieces. Its the combination of trying to do all the pieces at once that gives it an "ugh" factor (for example, doing all of the chores on a Sunday can be an Ugh. But having a list of chores I need to do in the next few days, and just do one or two now? Not bad at all, provided I never have to look at the entire list and get overwhelmed again, and can just pluck one from the top and feel good about my progress). Either way, do the easy / neutral ones left. 6 - At this point, hopefully, the Ugh task is now just a fraction of the size it once was. If we're under 15 minutes, just brute force it, and have some ice cream / whiskey / outdoor time as a reward. 7 - If the remaining ugh task still exists, or is atomic, estimate the amount of time it is going to take you. 10X that estimate. That is now the amount of time you must dedicate to that task, in order to get through it sanely and happily. It was going to take you ~1-2 hours to look up that financial data that you really hate standardizing in excel? Great, that's what YOUR ENTIRE SATURDAY is now dedicated to. Take breaks, play video games, do other things. Because in reality, you're going to work for 15 minutes, then take a break for an hour, then work for 30 minutes, then go to the store for 2 hours, then work for 20 minutes, then cook dinner, etc, etc, etc. An Ugh task with an estimate of 1 hour is usually an annoying task with an estimate of 10 hours (9 of which are positive, happy activities).

sandymcmurray 6y ago

This is me too. I have learned, slowly and painfully, that I need to wait 24 hours before saying yes to any optional assignment. I'm too optimistic about my available time and wired to be a people pleaser. When I'm asked to help and I recognize a gap I can fill, I tend to volunteer, even if I'm not the right person for the job. Days or weeks later, I realize it was the wrong decision then the Ugh feelings start up in earnest. It's important for me to realistically assess whether I have the knowledge, desire, and time to do the task. I'm learning to say no more often than I would like, and to be less afraid of the consequences of saying no. Promising to do something I can't or won't do is bad for everyone. Better to think on the decision and politely say no up front if I don't have the time or interest or enthusiasm required to get the job done.

pliu 6y ago
That's really great introspection. I have the same tendency which has led to creating some really deeply unpleasant situations for myself. I hadn't thought about it quite in the same way until I read your comment, thank you for sharing this. I think I've just had a light blink on in my head.
sharkweek 6y ago
Yeah same - I get excited about new balls to chase which has on multiple occasions left me feeling overwhelmed and stuck with a longer to-do list than I can handle without wanting to pull my hair out. I like the 24 hours tip, that seems like a good tool to help let the initial excitement of something new and exciting cool off a bit.
Gibbon1 6y ago
Me: You need it when? Whenever? Whenever is never. Pick a date. Me: How long? Couple of days. Which means a week. Which means it won't ship for a month.
chrisweekly 6y ago
I can relate. One thing that's helped me has been to remember that saying "yes" to thing A means saying "no" to many other things B-Z (not to mention sometimes then being _expected_ to say yes to A again in future). Good luck!

ncmncm 6y ago

The Ugh field must be a close relative of the SEP field: "somebody else's problem". As Douglas Adams noted, it's the closest thing to invisibility possible in this universe.

CodeWriter23 6y ago

My wife’s expedient solution, she says “It’s work, just do it”.

DiabloD3 6y ago
People like that are somewhat ignorant of the day to day struggles of people surviving in the mundane reality that is the modern world, and how people are not interchangeable cogs in the machine of productivity. That isn't a solution, its a dismissal.
- bscphil 6y ago
  To be fair to OP's wife, this is probably intended to be something that works for her, but not necessarily for you or me.
- olyjohn 6y ago
  Sometimes all these techniques and tips to get started on things just don't work for me. Sometimes they do help... When they don't work, the only thing left for me is to "just do it." Usually about 10-15 minutes after I start, I get on a roll. But it's not without a huge amount of anxiety for that first 10-15 minutes. It's fucking painful sometimes. Sometimes that is your only option. And I will recognize that if you could always make that your first option, you spend a whole lot less time thinking about it. It bypasses me from having to get up and go do something to make myself feel better. The act itself of doing the task eventually makes me feel better anyways. I would rather be the person who can just sit down and do it every time, and not have these fucking issues.
- CodeWriter23 6y ago
  Bottom line, the ugh field is a series of thought and feelings of one’s own creation. I find it empowering to dispense with the self-made prison of paralysis, and get to work.

beervirus 6y ago

This happens to me sometimes with a work project. Typically the only way I can break the logjam is to just pull an all nighter, refuse to go to bed until it’s done.

alonmower 6y ago
Same, though I wish I could be better at avoiding these

clktmr 6y ago

Glad the author mentioned taxes, which are definitely my 'ugh field'. However I already pay a professional to do most of the work, but it doesn't help.

Finnucane 6y ago
If doing taxes is not in your ugh field, there is something wrong with you. I don't even especially object to paying taxes, I think it's necessary. But the process is awful.
- teach 6y ago
  I'd disagree that filing taxes is "awful". For most of my adult life, it only took me one hour per year to do my taxes. Form 1040-EZ, filled out on paper.
  - bostonvaulter2 6y ago
    But how sure are you that you didn't leave any money on the table that you could have recouped?
    - teach 6y ago
      Who cares? This is the sort of thinking that leads taxes to be stressful.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
  - hinkley 6y ago
    If you have been doing a 1040EZ “most of your adult life”, you probably need a financial planner.
    - teach 6y ago

renewiltord 6y ago

You can beat this with amphetamines and deadline fear. You can also beat it with CBT-style self-reorganization but if you find yourself stuck and you have gotten to the part where you identify the problem but are unable to solve it, use amphetamines and apply some close up deadline terror.

mrspeaker 6y ago
Really? I feel like I'd just skip the task completely... does that approach actually "get it done"? (seriously asking!)
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Hey, everyone's different. Works for me.
nefitty 6y ago
Maybe the downvoted are from the use of the word, “amphetamines”, but at that point I assume the amphetamines are prescription Adderall or such.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Yep!
  - anon124523 6y ago
    Any advice on what words an adult in the US might say to their primary care physician if are interested in trying pharmaceutical aids to ugh problems but don't really suspect an ADHD diagnosis?
    - balfirevic 6y ago
      Taken from https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-mo... "There are whole websites for this: How To Convince Your Shrink You Have ADHD [0], How To Get Your Doctor To Prescribe You Adderall In Five Easy Steps [1], et cetera. But I can’t imagine most people need them. Just talk about all the times in your life that you had attention and concentration problems, and if your doctor asks you a more specific question (“Do you often lose things?”) you give the obvious right answer (“Wow, it’s like you’ve known me my whole life!”). Aren’t psychiatrists creepy wizards who can see through your deceptions? There are people like that. They’re called forensicists, they have special training in dealing with patients who might be lying to them, and they tend to get brought in for things like evaluating a murderer pleading the insanity defense. They have a toolbox of fascinating and frequently hilarious techniques to ascertain the truth, and they’re really good at their jobs. But me? At best, I can have a vague suspicion you’re not telling the truth. And how many patients genuinely in need of treatment do I want to risk accidentally rejecting just so I can be sure of thwarting you? A lot of 100% honest psychiatric patients’ stories are pretty unbelievable, really, and I don’t want to have to treat every patient like a convicted murderer. Unless you give me some specific reason to doubt you, I start with the assumption that you’re telling the truth. Think about how wasteful all of this is. We throw people in jail for using Adderall without a prescription. We expel them from colleges. We fight an expensive and bloody War on Drugs to prevent non-prescription-holders from getting Adderall. We create a system in which poor people need to stretch their limited resources to make it to a psychiatrist so they can be prescribed Adderall, in which people without health insurance can never get it at all, in which DEA agents occasionally bust down the doors of medical practices giving out Adderall illegally. All to preserve a sham in which psychiatrists ask their patients “Do you have ADD symptoms?” and the patients say “Oh, yeah, definitely,” and then the psychiatrists give them Adderall. It’s like adding twenty layers of super-reinforced concrete to a bunker with a wide-open front door. (Also, if by some chance a psychiatrist doesn’t give a patient Adderall, that patient practically always goes to another psychiatrist, and that next psychiatrist does. Trust me, no matter how unsuitable a candidate you are, no matter how bad a liar you are, somewhere there is a psychiatrist who will give you Adderall. And by “somewhere”, I mean it will take you three tries, tops.)" [0] - http://exiledonline.com/adderall-tips-how-to-convince-your-shrink-you-have-addadhd/all/1/ http://exiledonline.com/adderall-tips-how-to-convince-your-s... [1] - https://thoughtcatalog.com/sarah-miller/2015/03/how-to-get-your-doctor-to-prescribe-you-adderall-in-5-easy-steps/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/sarah-miller/2015/03/how-to-get-y...

fizixer 6y ago

'Grading homeworks and exams'. I'm sorry the only way I could get over it is by leaving academia.

s17n 6y ago
Did you try getting drunk?
- fizixer 6y ago
  Good point. I didn't. I would've done it if it had occurred to me, given my desperation with my research workload. And it's pretty clear to me that instruction in a research university is a really bad sideshow that very few take seriously. (but then I could go on for hours about the broken academic system ...)

viburnum 6y ago

Telling myself I only have to do it for five minutes and then I can quit is usually enough to get me started. Never actually have to quit. Another approach is to take three steps back and think about how to change your life so these tasks are never your problem anymore.

torotonnato 6y ago

I’m relieved this phenomenon is widespread enough to have a name, giving names to things is really a underestimated power. One technique I use to cope with this mental state: do complain, but only after you started doing that terrible job.

luord 6y ago

Great read. This puts a name (sort of) to something I've been struggling with for a long time. Knowing that it's common actually does help a lot, and I'll start having that, and the rest of the advice, in mind more often.

zanecraw 6y ago

Good read. I never knew this existed, but now I can put a name to what i've been feeling.

tetha 6y ago

I know these tasks all to well. Another good strategy I've found is to break it into small actionable pieces and do one of them. Like, don't have a task "Clean the entire place", that's big and scary. Clean up the sink and create a reminder to do it again next week. Don't build the entire dumb thing at once. Add in a necessary config value. Then think further and add another. Slow, steady, methodical, habit enabling progress isn't flashy, but powerful.

Apocryphon 6y ago

HN has always had productivity articles, but I've noticed some particularly good procrastination ones in the past few months [0]. I think this is another excellent addition, one that really examines the problem and goes beyond "break it into manageable chunks" or "work on it for just ten minutes." For many, even those standard tactics are not enough, you really need to examine the most discrete and atomic feelings of discomfort that cause procrastination. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24170531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24170531 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24039887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24039887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23537317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23537317 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24360966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24360966

pimlottc 6y ago
I think it’s a response to the pandemic. Many people thought they’d be really productive during the lockdown, only to find that lack of free time was not necessarily their biggest barrier.

gfody 6y ago

> Just recognising and labelling the Ugh Field phenomenon can make it less bad, because it’s an accurate systemic explanation for what’s going on, rather than a misleading personal one like “I’m hopeless and never get things done”. great this does seem helpful > If Ugh Fields are a constant issue for you, it might be best to try tackling those underlying [mental] health and well-being issues first It started out strong categorizing a sort of mental rut but then goes and blames it on underlying mental health issues? Not even anything specific just woolly depression/anxiety/etc. - not helpful in the least!

Igelau 6y ago

> all the normal literature on overcoming procrastination Enough for weeks, months, years of reading... and plenty of other people reading it to argue about it with!

ComputerGuru 6y ago

I cannot upvote this enough. As a single founder of a few different initiatives, this more than anything else has been the bane of my existence, exactly as it’s described with low-priority, low-effort but still required tasks that start off innocuously enough on my todo list but end up, thanks to not so much procrastination as resource starvation in a highly prioritized and always full queue, so delayed and as a direct result a thousand times the psychological burden than they ever deserve to be. I wish I could just write my own tasks scheduler and flash my brain with the upgrade. I know, on paper, exactly what I should be doing and when I should do it; I know that I need a time slot for low priority tasks to empty the queue and prevent resource starvation; I know that intellectually rewarding tasks shouldn’t get a VIP pass that lets them short-circuit the line; I know that I need to give boring management tasks at least some weight on my daily to-do list as compared to the doing-it-myself tasks; but I just can’t.

mleonhard 6y ago
I'm in the same situation. I benefit from telling another person about tasks that I've been putting off. Would you like to try a regular 5-min "standup" meeting with me?

p1mrx 6y ago

I've found that it's harder to get stuff done when sitting alone in a box for 6 months, and the (non)completion of tasks has no bearing on whether I'll continue sitting alone in a box.

ep103 6y ago
yeah, this is burnout. I feel like I burn out much faster when working alone day after day.

hlecuanda 6y ago

That used to be me. I was lucky to be working with friends who noticed these behaviors and suggested that I should seek proffessional mental health advise. I ended up being diagnosed with AvPD (Avoidant Personality Disorder, ICD-10-CM F60.6). I started cognitive behavioral therapy and some prescriptions to manage anxiety and the related dysthymia (mild depression) that came with AvPD. The fact that I can go about my life without procastination and anxiety is a testament to the correct diagnosis and accurate dosing that my Psychiatrist prescribed. Before actually seeking pro advise, I tried self-help, willpower, spirituality, you name it. Things were getting worse and fast. I was very lucky to be around people who cared about me and acted on their concerns. ¿Best product of health science ever? It's a blue pill and it's active ingredient is Clonazepam.

dri_ft 6y ago
Can you explain? I'm used to seeing people talk about ADD/ADHD with relation to struggling with productivity/procrastination/attention (naturally), but I am surprised to see you link it to a personality disorder. I know a little about avoidant personality disorder thanks to some reading I did a while ago on the basis of self-diagnosing with schizoid PD/avoidant PD (depending on exactly how finely one wishes to split that particularly hair), so you don't have to explain that half to me.
cJ0th 6y ago
> The fact that I can go about my life without procastination and anxiety is a testament to the correct diagnosis and accurate dosing that my Psychiatrist prescribed. So whenever you now have to carry out a task you simply dispassionately do it? Taxes, cleaning the house, starting projects you do not understand yet... There is no putting it off for days or even weeks? Really trying to understand this as I assumed that doing this is at least to some extend pretty normal.

sasaf5 6y ago

This reminds me of the way Donald Knuth prioritizes his tasks. He wakes up in the morning and tackles his TODO list starting from the "Ugh"iest task.

b0rsuk 6y ago
This reminds me of the book "Eat That Frog" by Brian Tracy, which recommends doing the least pleasant but important task in the morning. His rationale is that it 1) makes you stop thinking about the dreaded task because it's finally done 2) gives you a boost of satisfaction.

raindropm 6y ago

'Ugh fields' This will be my next go-to word when facing with, um, Ugh fields.

shannifin 6y ago

I've had this for the past couple months working on the GUI for a web app; it all just feels like "ugh". The back end is where all the magic is, the front end is boring. If I could afford to hire someone, I wouldn't think twice. In the past, I've found streaming on Twitch helped a lot with "ugh" GUI dev. It reframed the activity; the main task was actually to stream, and I felt rewarded when people commented or followed me. (Also learned from people more experienced.) I can't stream my current project, but I suspect somehow reframing the activity in a similar manner will help. I just need to think of a way to do that... In the meantime, I'm enjoying the comments here!

paraschopra 6y ago

The way I deal with essential ugh work is to schedule it at a time when I’m most likely to be energetic and productive - which is morning time usually. But I do make sure I don’t stack too many ugh work in a day and that my day has at least one enjoyable work that I can look forward to after I’m done with ugh work.

aaron695 6y ago

Two ideas 1. Tell someone else. 2. Just start it, something really small, you can 100% then stop after doing it with a reward, but you are allowed to continue if you want.

dmoo 6y ago
Re 2. My technique is to do the easiest part first, somehow moving from pending to in progress helps.

royletron 6y ago

My 'ugh field' right now is making a staging environment for a Wordpress blog that has been left untouched for quite a few years. Anyone raise me?

hrishios 6y ago
Mine is a glucose tracking app that I made for my girlfriend. I did all the reverse engineering of the CGM, electronics, design and coding and published it so she can use it. Except it hit a bug a few weeks ago and the "ugh" of setting up the dev environment with frontend tooling, Gradle and android just to fix it has left me procrastinating forever.

ralphstodomingo 6y ago

I've had some recent success at confronting these incidents by finding some secondary purpose or source of fun in the activity. For example, there's a company-wide report I'm in charge of curating every week. I've been doing it for the last 37 weeks or so, and have started to become dreadful to finish. Took me an upwards of 2 hours every week to accomplish. It deals with people's submissions and cleaning them up, and checking for erroneous entries, so only a fraction of the whole report can be automated. Until 3 weeks ago, I started considering timing myself doing the thing, and making note of what improvements I could do to speed up my next run. Within 3 weeks, I reduced the overall time for that task by around 75%, as it just takes me around 30 minutes now. This last run I did today I think I carved out more than 10 minutes of my previous run.

rjkennedy98 6y ago

Some of the advice in this article is really on point. I particularly liked this one: > If you think about it calmly, you may well find that the task actually isn’t as important as it has come to feel. The person you imagine is disgusted by your failure may only be 2/10 annoyed, or perhaps not even have noticed. And to add to this, if that person wants to de-prioritize it, let them do so. I've had an 'ugh field' trying to finish a data migration and my manager offered to put it back in the backlog because he could see I was struggling with it. I resisted for 3 straight sprints, but finally said OK yesterday. I felt an enormous sigh of relief.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

cpcallen 6y ago

I am flinching while reading the article because it makes me think about the specific examples in my own mind. I'm not even sure I can finish reading the link; it is just too uncomfortable. Guess I'll have to find a different displacement activity now.

drinkwell 6y ago

'And pity poor PhD students whose entire programs seem designed to make their life one enormous Ugh Field.' This is uncomfortably on point for me. I'm mildly dyslexic and suffer with mild anxiety issues. Currently I'm trying to write up my PhD thesis and the whole process has got to the point where it is fairly unbearable. The problem is I'm the person that will probably be let down the most if I don't complete. I'm a part time student, requesting my third extension, and have now accumulated 10 years worth of 'ugh'. It's embarrassing.

MithrilTuxedo 6y ago

As a backend Java developer working on projects built using Maven, I'm still trying to overcome this with the tool our regression team chose to standardize on for integration and regression testing: SOAP-UI.