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Anything that we perceive as hard or boring is a task for procrastination. We simply don't want to do it because it isn't fun. I am not a games tester; therefor

Anything that we perceive as hard or boring is a task for procrastination. We simply don't want to do it because it isn't fun. I am not a games tester; therefore video games are still fun. But when I was first starting as a programmer, I did it because I was having a blast, and it made me successful. It has nothing to do with being told to do something, and it has everything to do with our brains - especially creative people - being bored and only wanting to satisfy our ID. We really do want to dream all day. But as I've gotten older I've learned to reign that in and also how to balance it out. We must push ourselves if we want to improve. We must ask ourselves the hard questions. I have often called this 'throwing myself to the wolves' when I embark on a new endeavor...I know it will be hard. I know I will fail, badly. I know the established community will tear into me. But I will push myself and keep fighting and eventually, what was once hard will become easy.

kevinstubbs 15y ago
Many times, my cause for procrastinating is usually due to a sense of fear. That if I start, I will not know what to do, or that the direction I must take on a task is too unclear for me to feel comfortable starting... Many times, the quickest way to fix this is just to write a todo list and do a few items. Every few hours I'll just compile a new list and keep going off that.
- silverbax88 15y ago
  One of the best anti-procrastination hacks I ever heard was right here on HN: When you absolutely cannot get motivated to finish something, make a detailed list of exactly the steps needed to finish the task/project. Once the list is complete you will automatically begin working on the first step. Not my idea but it works for me 100% of the time.
  - sdoctor 15y ago
    how often do you procrastinate on making the list? by the time you've started making the list, you weren't going to procrastinate any longer anyway.
    - silverbax88 15y ago
      it turns out, never. Making a list is one of the things we, or at least I, do as 'busy work' to avoid real work. In this case, it turns out that once we have a detailed step-by-step course to resolution, hard tasks suddenly seem quite easy.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- jodrellblank 15y ago
  That if I start, I will not know what to do, or that the direction I must take on a task is too unclear for me to feel comfortable starting... That doesn't sound like a well examined state; go looking for why you fear "not knowing what to do", there's bound to be one or many things hiding behind that description.

kevinstubbs 15y ago

Many times, my cause for procrastinating is usually due to a sense of fear. That if I start, I will not know what to do, or that the direction I must take on a task is too unclear for me to feel comfortable starting... Many times, the quickest way to fix this is just to write a todo list and do a few items. Every few hours I'll just compile a new list and keep going off that.

silverbax88 15y ago
One of the best anti-procrastination hacks I ever heard was right here on HN: When you absolutely cannot get motivated to finish something, make a detailed list of exactly the steps needed to finish the task/project. Once the list is complete you will automatically begin working on the first step. Not my idea but it works for me 100% of the time.
- sdoctor 15y ago
  how often do you procrastinate on making the list? by the time you've started making the list, you weren't going to procrastinate any longer anyway.
  - silverbax88 15y ago
    it turns out, never. Making a list is one of the things we, or at least I, do as 'busy work' to avoid real work. In this case, it turns out that once we have a detailed step-by-step course to resolution, hard tasks suddenly seem quite easy.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
jodrellblank 15y ago
That if I start, I will not know what to do, or that the direction I must take on a task is too unclear for me to feel comfortable starting... That doesn't sound like a well examined state; go looking for why you fear "not knowing what to do", there's bound to be one or many things hiding behind that description.