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>you can't get focus to deal with it... working out a series of things to do to contain the task... brainstorm simple things I could do around my outcome... wri
by ryanklee 12y ago
>you can't get focus to deal with it... working out a series of things to do to contain the task... brainstorm simple things I could do around my outcome... writing a paragraph about why it feels hard... string together four or five tasks... Come back after rest for another go.
This is not what I consider procrastination, and I consider myself a major procrastinator, struggling constantly with time management issues because of it.
What you are describing is a context of ancillary effort surrounding the task. These are Things Being Done To Do The Thing.
Necessary but insufficient. Secondary, but nonetheless essential.
Procrastination, on the other hand, is the Absolute Evasion Of All Things Related To The Task At Hand.
Not lead up. Not preparation. Not sequencing. Not anything.
Anything But.
Do Something, but make damn well sure it's Not The Thing That Relates To What You Ought To Be Doing.
Email fidgeting. Netflix grazing. Guitar strumming. Water boiling watching. But not The Thing. And not Near The Thing.
Anything But The Thing.
This is doubly hard when creative (read: conceptual, thinking, fuzzy, ethereal, imaginative) work is The Thing To Be Done. Because sometimes Not Doing The Thing is what Needs To Be Done To Do It.
But just as often, oh man, do we like to fool ourselves into even avoiding Not Doing The Thing Needed To Do the Thing We Need To Do by simply Not Even Doing That.
If you pack batteries all day into tiny boxes in a warehouse filled with angry and watchful foremen (I've done this), there's no possibility for confusion between Getting It Done and Not Getting It Done.
But if you've got 600 words to write on how SEC New Rule 506(c) pertains to real estate crowdfunding, who's to say that sitting on your ass and watching 7 episodes of Adventure Time isn't integral to your effort. (It's not. But still, who's to say?)
Don't even get me started on billable hours. That's a whole nother can of worms.
- CaRDiaK 12y agoWhat you describe here my friend, doesn't seem to be procrastination. The above are pretty much all the hallmark signs of resistance. An interesting read; "The war of Art" -Steven Pressfield. edit: care to explain the downvote?
- ryanklee 12y agoIt wasn't me, but you posed an non-intuitive distinction without explaining it, which makes it difficult to discern what you're trying to claim.
- squeaky-clean 12y agoAlso not the downvoter, but I can also see why. Your comment doesn't really give me much to understand or respond to. What do you mean by it is not procrastination? You're going to have to explain that. The only thing I could about resistance in the sense you use was a small paragraph on Wikipedia about a term coined by Steven Pressfield. So it's probably not something known by anyone who has not read that book (which does seem interesting by the way, thank you). Even then, the way it was described, it doesn't sound like procrastination and resistance need to be mutually exclusive. Also looking into it (just based on the wiki blurb, not having read the book. So it's entirely possible I'm misunderstanding it). But a "universal force that he claims acts against human creativity" sounds cheesy. There's no external force acting against me when I watch Adventure Time instead of accomplishing something (I'm guilty of that too), or browse HN while at the office. I'm just being lazy and doing something easy and enjoyable, instead of something hard but beneficial. And that matches the definition of procrastination pretty well.
- CaRDiaK 12y agoThanks for taking the time to explain this to me, I really appreciate the feedback. I shall ensure replies are more thought out in future. Sometimes it takes someone pointing something out to me, to allow me to course correct and I thank you. I guess I really connected with what you said and it was well written. You said it in a way that would take me quite some time to get across, and described it much better than I could. That blended pretty well with my own experiences. I could procrastinate about procrastinating myself, it's not a good place and a frustrating feeling. I tried to read as many books and read about as many other people as possible to try better my understanding of why I do it so much, so often, despite me knowing a lot of data about it. I believe what Petsfold is trying to do is to personify procrastination to a recongizable point, like a character, so you can consciously choose to not let that character win. That's my main takeaway from the book. It's certainly helped me. I still procrastinate, but I feel like I know a little more. Almost like "what is it I'm resisting about x that's making me procrastinate so much". This can sometimes, not always, help me identify and act on variables that might be affecting me at that moment in time. Best of luck, and thank you again.
- lesterbuck 12y agoI've read "Do The Work", the later, shorter companion to "The War of Art". Resistance and procrastination and related, but not identical. You get resistance about creative acts that expose you to public assessment of your work, or really anything that might upset the status quo in your life. Sure, you can procrastinate about a 600 word article or a term paper. But when you avoid even starting to write your first novel, or coding on your side project startup, that's getting into resistance. I think the more ego we wrap up into a task, the more resistance rears its ugly head.