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Getting Past Procrastination
- litoE 1y agoOf course the correct term is procrastination, and not procastination. But we'll fix it tomorrow.
- kernelsanderz 1y agoI’ll read this tomorrow
- rented_mule 1y ago> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around. I've found this to be very true. A trick I found that made this easier for me is to leave a trivial task to start tomorrow with, often with notes to remind myself what to do. Ideally the trivial task is on the way to something bigger, not finishing something. That gets me into my editor, gets me running the code / tests / etc., and gives me a trivially easy way to get moving. Then the motivation kicks in and I can start moving for real. The same approach helps me with tasks outside of software development, and even outside of work.
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- jraph 1y agoYep. When there are no clear tasks, I sometime leave a syntax error at the place work should continue tomorrow. This is quite effective. It can make the answer to the "Where was I?" question immediate instead of taking a few seconds and this is one fewer barrier.
- euroderf 1y agoYes. It's funny how this kind of trick can instantly snap the entire working context back into your mind. Essentially leaving you free to forget about the context during your free time and overnight. Truly a useful "hack". It's also useful to jot down a quick list of (say) three items that are at the top of your mind when you leave work for the day, and they too will help with a context restore.
- bravesoul2 1y agoAlso just chuck Todo comments in the code The magic of Git means you can immediately find them in the working index and get back on to it. Just remember to remove them before the commit.
- diggan 1y ago> The magic of Git means you can immediately find them in the working index How does git help you find certain texts in files? `grep` should do the trick just fine, unless I misunderstand what "chuck Todo comments in the code" mean, the code lives on your disk no?
- cjbillington 1y agoThey'll show up in the diff. Grep will find them too, but any in the diff you'll know for sure were added by you.
- diggan 1y agoParent mentioned specifically finding them from the index, so they've been added but not committed, so they're not even remote nor have an author associated with it, yet. And why it matters to get them from the diff if they're on disk already? Literally one command to find all of them, rather than going through git?
- tmoertel 1y agoThat's Hemingway’s trick: “You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.” https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fi...
- roudaki 1y agothere are so many different names for this. and time blocking. but it really works. small reminder. it works even when, like me, someone has serious case of ADHD. but its slightly different and there are extremes on both end. where it does not work or it works to well. but it always work. what I am trying to say if you feel its not efficient you still have to feel it out until you find how it works for you in whatever form it works.
- hippari2 1y agoYeah, on the other side went I really pushed to finish a PR in today I am completely lost next morning.
- veunes 1y agoIt's way easier to ride the momentum of "just one quick thing" than to start cold and stare into the void of a blank screen or a big to-do list
- parpfish 1y agoI’ve heard this called “park facing downhill”
- agumonkey 1y agoSame, it's so much easier to quit just when you hit your limit and keep a 2 min window to bookmark your solution search and leave some potential follow ups. Makes restarting your job a lot easier.
- shortrounddev2 1y agoIt doesn't matter what I need to do, I start every day by building my code. It gets me typing commands in the terminal and more often than not there's a build error or warning I need to address
- jspash 1y agoIt most definitely does work the other way around. The problem of course is that you can’t just wait for motivation to appear. But you can start an action. I’m just stating the obvious, but I find it odd that the author states the opposite isn’t true.
- atoav 1y agoWhile directing actors on the film set one of the questions to ponder is whether you first need to put people into an emotional reality so they can produce gestures matching that reality or whether you tell them how to move and then they find their emotional reality within the movements. In my experience both works and some actors prefer one and some the other. But you can try it yourself, think of a sad thing, slumb together make a sad gesture and listen (emotionally) what happens on the inside.
- kennethh 1y agoI remember being on a session with the pragmatic programmers (ie the people from the book) and they recommended making a compile error on purpose as the last thing one did before leaving work. The next day you compiled the code and get an error, fix this and they continue working. You are already doing work. This sets your mind on the right track from they day before. I gave used this a bit and it works pretty well.
- nasretdinov 1y agoI've personally found LLMs to be particularly helpful to get started with something I have trouble with: surely, they'll most certainly get it wrong (unless it's something trivial), but it gives you enough momentum to keep going even if you end up discarding its original output completely
- g3z 1y agoI’ll read this later
- bravesoul2 1y ago[flagged]
- baxtr 1y ago> Action leads to motivation, not the other way around. For me, this sounds a bit tautological. Of course the opposite of procrastination is action. It’s similar to saying, “If you want to lose weight, just eat less.” It’s certainly true on a meta level, but very difficult for some people to implement.
- lazyasciiart 1y agoNo - it’s aimed at people who say they can’t do x because they aren’t in the right headspace/feeling creative/they’re too tired, they will do it when inspiration strikes. People who are waiting for some uncontrollable muse before they finally write their novel, and waiting until they feel like a creative person to start taking drawing lessons, or waiting til the essay idea jumps fully formed into their head before they start drafting. That isn’t a description of all procrastination.
- maerch 1y agoIt’s about taking small steps to get the flywheel turning, not about “just doing it.” You need small wins to build up motivation for the bigger, more complicated tasks. If you want to lose weight but don’t feel motivated, it might be because you associate getting started with a strict workout routine and highly restrictive dieting. But taking smaller steps in the right direction can spark motivation. From my own experience, I know I naturally start eating healthier as soon as I get back into running.
- roncesvalles 1y ago"If you want to lose weight, just eat less" is not as tautological as you may think. Many people don't actually know that if you just eat the same calories as someone 20 lbs lighter than you, you will eventually weigh 20 lbs lighter, that you don't need to "do" anything else to shed those 20 lbs.
- JustinCS 1y agoThis isn't really true, everyone has a different basal metabolic rate, and effectiveness with absorbing calories from food can vary as well. Even small differences can add up to large effects, the difference between being at net-zero, or having caloric surplus or deficit every day. That said, in practice it may be reasonable advice on average, but there's also a problem where it's not very practical to eat the "same" calories as someone else, unless they are together with you all the time.
- madduci 1y agoThe article focuses more on procrastination at work, what about those who procrastinate outside of work instead?
- rkachowski 1y agoI mean, its the same concept. what are you procrastinating on?
- madduci 1y agoSometimes on house chores or small repairs to do.
- cjfd 1y agoI do not know much or anything about your situation, but here is one thing that might work. I would suggest picking a fixed point in time every week. At this point in time you will finish (if they are small enough, otherwise split in multiple steps) on of these chores/repairs. E.g., every Saturday afternoon from 1 am you will finish one of these. The rest of the time you then do not need to think about these which is your reward for doing one chore/repair.
- jventura 1y agoEveryday I have to prepare dinner and put the plates, glasses, forks and knifes in the table, and, I don't know why, get that feeling that I'd rather do anything else (or, most times, nothing at all). So I always start everything by putting the towel in the table (don't know if it's called like that in EN, not a native speaker). It seems to click something and the rest follows. Maybe the idea can help you starting things? It also helps that, sometimes, when the tasks are big, I convince myself that I can finish it later. Many times I do not have to finish it later..
- slumberlust 1y agoIs the towel for wiping your mouth? If so I'd call that a napkin. If the plate goes on top of it it's more a placemats. If serving dishes get set out on it and it runs the length the table, a runner.
- JustinCS 1y agoRelated to taking tiny steps, I've set up a daily habit checklist with the lowest bar possible, even lower than the author's suggested log statement. When it comes to software dev, it's just "open my IDE and look at my notes for what to do next". This usually just takes 10 seconds, but it's the first step in starting and usually leads to me doing at least a bit more, so it's helpful when I'm at my lowest in terms of energy. And even if I do nothing else, I get some satisfaction that I at least completed my to-do and did a tiny bit more than nothing for the day.
- unkulunkulu 1y ago++ for the “lowest bar” and constantly negotiate with oneself on if every line is still valuable and brings profit and not despair. Like “brush teeth”, “do nothing at all for half an hour after work” “remove trash photos for the day in the phone”, “finish working” (here I have a detailed sublist ending with “close computer lid”) “move todos I did not have time for today to tomorrow” another cool habit is “I did list”: add items that you did that were not planned, because we sometimes forget why we did not do something “planned”, because we actually did something else important that we are just blind to when “planning”. for example, “meal”, “took some rest that I actually need”, “took out trash”, “told someone irritating to fuck off” etc etc
- verisimi 1y agoIn defence of procrastination, perhaps there are good reasons for failing to have enthusiasm for whatever-it-is. Perhaps trying to do something but being unable to muster the energy is an indication that this is not the thing you really ought to be doing. That the thing you believe to be a worthy goal is itself a false goal, and not where your heart is at, and that you need to take a second, deeper look. Or maybe that is just another excuse :)
- unkulunkulu 1y agoThere is a lot of truth in what you’re saying I believe. At least, in the “cadence of work”. They say in the article about consistent productivity for example. But lets think about consistency and quantitative productivity (ie amount of work per day). of course we are pressured to be “consistently highly productive”. But is it healthy and sustainable for everyone? Probably not. So I would start with “consistently bare minimum productive” and not demand more from myself. If I demand more, the “procrastination” kicks in, because my body knows that it needs rest and relaxation. we are not robots: work for us and not we for work.
- verisimi 1y agoI agree. I even see support of this in the seasons. If you think about the difference in light between summer and winter, it is far more natural to be up and about when there is more light, and far more likely to be 'lazy' in the winter. The workweek however is constant, even though the quality of time is entirely different. So, in this example 'time' throughout the year is not the same - feeling less energetic in winter is perfectly acceptable, and not a problem. You can characterise this real factor (quality of time over the year) as 'procrastination' but I think this is unfair. Other factors such as joy/depression, meaning in work, personal circumstances, etc also come in to play. But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination.
- unkulunkulu 1y agoWow! You probably just opened my eyes to the “spring productivity boost” pattern clearly observed in my life :) > But yeah, if 'work' is the highest principle one has, these are just excuses for procrastination. exactly! And even rhyming some other thread here, this might happen if “work” is procrastination for the life itself. I honestly feel myself here now: work figured out as process, but life… oh my I better go write some code. It’s like you’re cornered: you’re like deer in the headlights concerned with “work”, if you’re not “productive”, you devalue yourself completely. It could happen if you chose work as your primary value long before you realized that the same patterns will lead you into the corner inside work itself. It’s like running away from one world to another to another until there is no further escape. Then hopefully, you start to find the way back, because you have the Ariadne’s thread in your hands. Good luck to us all :)
- anal_reactor 1y agoThe older I get, the more I realize there's no point. I'll never be rich. I'll never have a family. I'll never go to space. I'll never take part in Olympics. Best I can do is beating a video game on medium. So I try to focus on that, instead of spending 80% of my life trying to make myself 20% more productive.
- nasretdinov 1y agoThis vibe matches perfectly with your nick name :)
- hi41 1y agoRegarding the family part. Don’t feel terribly bas about not having a family. There is the possibility of a divorce and the resulting court ordered payments that can be far more devastating. It’s simply too hard to keep someone else happy all the time. Frustrations add up, more fights, more insults, more angry words. As humans I don’t think we can ever be happy.
- anal_reactor 1y agoI know, but it still sucks to be alone. It's instinct to seek partnership
- 331c8c71 1y ago> It’s simply too hard to keep someone else happy all the time It's definitely going to be too hard as it is imo simply not possible and is a non-goal for a marriage.
- nasretdinov 1y agoOn a serious note, you never actually _know_ that e.g. you'll never be rich. E.g. KFC founder was ~62 years old when they founded the company. The median age of (successful) founders is also roughly 40, if not more.
- em-bee 1y agosee my comment above. i know that i'll never be rich, nor do i want to, because trying to get rich it would interfere with how i want to live my life...
- imjonse 1y ago"Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination [...] I was not making progress on the things that mattered." Maybe unless one can really convince themselves that their daily work matters (really matters and not just for their team/company metrics) one is bound to procrastinate as a symptom of some subconscious sense of pointlessness.
- veunes 1y agoYep, it's hard to summon genuine motivation when, deep down, something feels meaningless. You can build all the productivity systems in the world, but if the work itself feels hollow...
- xorcist 1y agoRelentlessly trying to lock up as much of the world's information as possible behind your login wall, I'd be struggling with procrastination as well. Maybe the answer isn't so much finding new tricks to play on your mind, but finding something to do that doesn't involve codifying more power in the strong leader, to increase his masculinity in the worklace or whatever the political issue du jour is.
- etcimon 1y agoPower and control over people's lives and public image is what they get off on, how can anyone feel like they have purpose working on that is beyond me, so it's true that innovation would be thwarted by procrastination - if they give them the "next big thing" it'll be monopolized and weaponized rather than given to the people like tcp/ip initially was. The key term is decentralization, and it's being blown up in favor of locked up datacenters behind layers of digital policing.
- ndr42 1y agoI observe the opposite: the more important something is the more afraid I am to approach it. I procrastinate because it is important.
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- kubb 1y agoMy goodness, a FAANG coaster is founding a tech startup -_-
- nilirl 1y agoThe warrant for this claim: The smaller the action you ask from yourself, the easier it is to choose it over inaction. But sometimes it's not inaction we're choosing against; it's discomfort. In that case, this becomes simplistic.
- veunes 1y agoBreaking things down can still help, but it doesn't magically erase the discomfort. It's more like easing into cold water
- melodyogonna 1y agoI've found that sometimes the first action doesn't even have to involve directly working on the problem, just trying to write down a series of actions you need to take in a todo list can unblock you mentally.
- parpfish 1y agoSometimes I can trick myself into getting started that way. The trick is to come up with a tiny goal and give yourself permission to quit once you reach it so it’s not like your overwhelmed by the full task. The smallness of the task is important, but it’s even more important that you genuinely give yourself permission to stop when it’s done. If you don’t do that, it’s not “one small task”, it’s “step one in a big task” and you’ll keep procrastinating For coding it’s a sequence of: “Ill just get all the software and documentation open and organized” “I’ll create a few empty files on a new branch” “I’ll just stub out a few things I KNOW I’ll need” … For other non-code writing, I’ve occasionally been able to hack it in a similar way by writing progressively more detailed outlines. For physical projects, sometimes it’s just about gathering supplies and organizing tools.
- raincole 1y agoI don't know why prestigious institutions like IEEE and Nature all have blogs to post fluff and opinion pieces today. Why do they need page views?
- veunes 1y agoThe "action precedes motivation" idea is underrated. I've definitely found that once I take that first tiny step (open the file, write the first test, whatever), things start to flow. It's weirdly easy to forget that when you're stuck in that doom-scroll-procrastinate spiral.
- hliyan 1y agoTo me, procrastination is the brain overestimating (or perhaps just estimating) the unpleasantness of a task in the future. The unpleasantness could come from general lack of pleasure in performing the task, anticipation of frustration or irritation due to a gap in the skills or resources required, anxiety about not being able to successfully complete the task, or the output of the task not meeting one's personal expectations. One example for me is getting out of the house: I loathe the idea of getting dressed, getting into the car and driving, whenever I contemplate it, but once I'm behind the wheel, the thought always is "this isn't so bad". If I think about the getting dressed bit, that too, thought of in isolation, isn't so bad. It seems it is the anticipation of a seemingly complex sequence of tasks that tend to put the brain off.
- rofrol 1y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N65NPYRN8z8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N65NPYRN8z8
- cardanome 1y agoIt is normal to struggle with procrastination from time to time but if is a regular occurrence you need to check the actual causes. You might have ADHD. And is is very important to know whether you have it or not because all that advice for neurotypical people will not work for you then. In fact it will harm you. It will make you feel as a failure. You need to figure out how your brain works and only then you will finally manage to make lasting changes.
- parpfish 1y agoWhat’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work? (I’m always curious to learn other potential diagnostic markers for adhd)
- jasode 1y ago>What’s an example of the kind of advice that doesn’t work? For some people struggling with chronic lifelong procrastination, the oft-repeated advice from the author such as "Action leads to motivation, not the other way around." ... and similar variants such as, "Screw motivation, what you need is discipline!" ... and other related big picture ideas such as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams' "Systems instead of Goals" -- all do not work. And adding extra rhetorical embellishments to the advice such as using the phrase "it's simple [...]", and using the word "[...] just [...]" as in: - "Stopping procrastination isn't that hard to solve. It's simple. Just chop up the task into much smaller subtasks and just start on that tiny subtask. That will give you momentum to finish it." ... also doesn't work. Some procrastinators just procrastinate the initiation of starting that tiny subtask! For the few that actually do try to start with that first step, they'll quickly lose steam because of boredom/distraction/whatever and the overall task remains unfinished. A lot of books and blogs about time management repeat the same advice that many procrastinators have all heard before and it doesn't work. The procrastinators understand the logic of the advice but it doesn't matter because there are psychological roadblocks that prevent them from following it. EDIT reply to: >That doesn't mean the advice is bad, I'm not saying the advice is wrong. Instead, I'm saying that some well-meaning people who give that repeated advice seem surprised that it doesn't work on some people. Because the advice givers believed "Action Precedes Motivation" worked on themselves, they automatically assume that imparting those same words to other procrastinators will also work. It often doesn't. The meta-analysis of that advice and why it sometimes doesn't work is not done because the people giving that advice are the ones who used that technique successfully. This creates a self-confirmation bias.
- yodsanklai 1y ago> Across a decade working at hypergrowth tech companies like Meta and Pinterest, I constantly struggled with procrastination I used to procrastinate a lot when I was a PhD student and later in academia. Sometimes, it was literally weeks of doing nothing and stressing out. I eventually migrated to big tech and I now rarely procrastinate. We have pretty tangible goals, good results are rewarded and lack of results would raise concerns pretty quickly. In my case, working in the right environment helped a lot with procrastination.
- jrrrp 1y agoIt's good to read this while being in one of those nothing-months myself. I have extended the deadlines and my goals are not clear. Incidentally, I have a supervisor who felt the exact same way when he was doing his PhD and fled to industry. Evidently he found that there was something to be enjoyed in the freedoms of research and returned.
- shreddit 1y ago> lack of results would raise concerns pretty quickly. In my case, working in the right environment helped a lot with procrastination. Sounds more like fear than “not” procrastinating. But on the other hand fear is a good motivator
- wseqyrku 1y agoThere was one quote that helped me get past this, "self-discipline is a form of self-respect" and there's no way around that if you don't have any.
- haunter 1y agoI need something like that not for work... but for hobbies.
- predkambrij 1y agoI like to have phone with 30min countdown, this helps me keep sense of time. Sort of like pomodoro, but for a different purpose.
- ednite 1y agoSome great comments in this thread and I agree, a lot of it comes down to understanding yourself. In my case, not always, but often, procrastination shows up when fear is involved. Fear of failure, of not doing something perfectly, of the task being too big. What’s helped me is turning the task into a challenge, because I know that personally, I thrive on challenges. It re-frames the fear into something exciting, and once I get started, I follow all of the other advice such like breaking it down into small steps. Thanks for sharing.
- athenot 1y agoI’ve had a similar experience. If it’s a “I must do” with high stakes, I get a fear of failure, fear of disappointing and if left unchecked it unfortunately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, challenges that start with “I wonder if”—like wondering if some bold idea just might actually be possible—give me a huge reservoir of energy to work well beyond my normal limits and find new solution that truly make a difference. Of course in most projects, actual innovation is only a fraction of the work so some reframing of “run the business” tasks is necessary. That’s when I tap into gratitude: for being able to work on a project, for being entrusted with a particular task, etc.
- ednite 1y agoI like your approach of reframing with gratitude, may borrow that. Thanks!
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- subhro 1y agoMake your own bed (?) Ref: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70
- throwpoaster 1y agoSometimes what one self-describes as procrastination is actually ADHD or values misalignment — sometimes one cannot work for reasons that are not personal failings. I have found that “procrastination” is not a particularly helpful word because, for me, its meaning includes a shame component that can obfuscate causes.
- yde_java 1y agoBefore coding on the actual problem I usually start with a tiny refactoring of something that's related. That's my warming up sports before tackling the actual exercise. Works 100% for me.
- kriro 1y agoI disagree with the idea that getting past procrastination should (always) be the target. Mostly because I don't think procrastination is inherently bad. There's a lot of stigma attached to procrastination as it's seen as being "unproductive". But I think procrastination can lead to great insights. Your brain is telling you that it is not interested in the current task. The question is: Why? Overworked and needs a break? Much more interested in exploring something else? Protecting against the pain of failure? Investigating the why instead of forcing "overcoming" is quite fruitful in my personal experience. My guess is "action leads to motivation" might be helpful for solving one of the root causes (likely fear of failure/imposter syndrom) but not all of them.
- Kiro 1y agoThat's nice and all but when your procrastination prevents you from doing anything at all for months it doesn't really feel like it's a good thing.
- HappMacDonald 1y agoOne can model procrastination as a reaction to some form of mental pain. Doing the work hurts one in some way, so one subconsciously finds excuses to do something else instead. But pain is a valuable signal, and often learning and resolving the root cause of the pain can be more valuable than reaching for the oxycodone to power past it.
- andoando 1y agoI think the same thing applies. Have you been procrastinating for months for example, perhaps because you utterly hate your job? Perhaps you should switch jobs.
- CharlieDigital 1y agoI procrastinate a lot on hard tasks and usually it's because I don't yet fully understand the risks with each decision that goes into the design. I think for younger engineers "fail fast" makes a lot of sense; there's not enough of a foundation of experience to tell right from wrong so the only way to learn is to fail. For more experienced engineers, there's a greater sense of "I have a sense where this can fail; how do I design around that?" It's not that a more experienced engineer will know exactly how it fails, but that there are modalities of failure that have been encountered so the goal is to design with some flexibility or optionality in mind. And sometimes, this just requires a bit of "gestation" or "percolation" before carving the path. I think of it like an experienced sculptor sizing up a block of marble before making the first strike with a chisel. It's a kind of procrastination, but really, its a process of visualizing the path.
- devenson 1y agoWhen stuck I do what I call "prepping". Don't try to do the task, just prep for it -- clean the room, the desk, close distracting websites, gather the materials. It's lowering the activation energy so the reaction can happen more easily.
- polishdude20 1y agoI notice cleaning had a huge effect on greasing the wheels for me. It's the decluttering for me which I think prevents me from thinking about all the stuff on the counter in some far off place in my mind.
- em-bee 1y agocleaning for me is just another form of procrastination. the reason i think that is because once i am done cleaning i feel no better or more motivated to do the work. on the contrary i feel frustrated by how much time i spent cleaning up.
- JohnKemeny 1y agoAlways be knolling.
- satisfice 1y agoProcrastination is not a problem. The problem is being unhappy with procrastination. I accept it as part of my life, because I believe it is an intuitive process that protects me from doing bad work. There are times when I really have to get something done, and then I need to put pressure on myself. But mostly I have learned to listen to and respect my procrastination.
- fHr 1y agoI read this to Procrastinate of course...
- adamnemecek 1y agoProcrastination is a sign that you don’t give a shit.
- Ericson2314 1y agoIt is correct on self-esteem and procrastination being bidirectionally linked
- 4ndrewl 1y agoDon't forget folks, Always Be Productive!
- chistev 1y agoThey say we procrastinate when we feel anxious about the task we are supposed to be doing.
- kazinator 1y agoI'm not addicted to procrastination. I can start any time I want to!
- uptownfunk 1y agoMaybe fighting it itself is a form of exercise. Maybe fighting it is an end in itself regardless if you got anything done. But not trying is the failure.
- agumonkey 1y agoSome people describe that as momentum preserving workflow.
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- D-Coder 1y ago"Procrastinate later — there's always tomorrow!"
- tom89999 1y agoWhen beeing unemployed for some months, i got up every morning as if i had to go to work. I cleande my apartment, did some paperwork and joined a social welfare project where poeple can maintain a structure. That was working in a cafe or doing garden work. I received free coffee for that and met some people i sometimes meet. The worst thing is to stay in a bubble of netflix series, social networks and rotting away. I have suffered depression but i forced myself out of it by that.
- admiralrohan 1y agoLack of motivation isn't an issue, we procrastinate when we have lack of power to do the task. The core point of the article is breaking down the task, which he made it look trivial but it's not that simple. In my experience, higher expectations leads to trying to control the outcome which leads to perfectionism and procrastinating for "ideal" time. So the key is to reduce expectations, which is under our control. Once I reduce expectation I can try random stuffs which usually lead to breakthrough and the flywheel mentioned in the article.
- justanything 1y agoI am terribly suicidal because of my procrastination combined with no conscientiousness.
- Caelus9 1y agoI also found that I was most likely to procrastinate when the goal was too vague and the task was too big. So now I will break the task into super small steps, such as "open a file" or "run a test." It sounds a bit silly, but it really works. Maybe sometimes the brain does not need a motivational speech, but just a gentle push.