Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=procrastinating-again&print=true

by makimaki • 18 years ago

98 46 18 years ago

sciam.com

justindz• 18 years ago

Stop reading HN?

palish• 18 years ago

Use the "noprocrast" profile feature.

dmpayton• 18 years ago

I always override. I'm weak. :(

We need a "disable override" function.

technoguyrob• 18 years ago

Bookmarked this HN page for later so I can make the obvious joke about this article.

tsally• 18 years ago

I know! Read a long article about how not to procrastinate.

icky2• 18 years ago

I'll do it later...

Edit: I was reading this article while procrastinating taking my sister-in-law to the DMV. Meanwhile, she discovered that she had forgotten to bring her passport (for ID), and couldn't actually go today.

Hooray for procrastination! :D

xiaoma• 18 years ago

Sadly, I actually have had the article open in a tab for three days and I still haven't finished reading it.

shaunxcode4• 18 years ago

The only time I find myself procrastinating is when I am not working on something meaningful or "new" (to me). Thus I use the technique of having my procrastination actually be more productive than trudging through the mundane. i.e. if I am working on something rote or repetitious yet it HAS to be done that way (deadlines, client spec etc.) I spend my procrastination time implementing a class, a library, a syntax, dsl.. language.. .some more clever way of tackling the problem in the future. I will seriously do the boring stuff and then beneath in a comment block write my musing version of a syntax that I wish I could have used instead which later on I may try and implement etc.

shaunxcode4• 18 years ago

a relevant update: its 10:42 the night of a deadline. To keep myself stimulated I am working on my native s-expression php syntax (I wouldn't call it "a lisp" but it does lend itself to much more elegant constructs and the "transmogrifier" [takes s-expresisons and fwrites to "normal" php including expansion of special forms] is written in php alone) hahah!

dangrover• 18 years ago

You're a madman!

pavelludiq• 18 years ago

My personal problem is focus. I have no problem with procrastination, other that the side effect of not being able to focus for a long time. The last few days I've been thinking a lot about my habits and the way i work, trying to find an answer to my problem. Since then I've redefined that problem from "how to cure procrastination" to "how to be more productive in general". This redefinition helped a little bit, because now i have a general strategy. I simply have to train my self to focus. Its like learning to touch type, or edit in vim, its hard in the beginning, but then, after repetition of the proces your subconscious kicks in and you learn to focus. The specific tactics are the standard anti-procrastination tricks, unplugging my internet, eliminating as many distractions as possible, make work a little bit more interesting, reward your self for good work, at least try to focus for some amount of time, etc. I've managed to get to 3 hours of focused work(by work i mean either code, read a book or write a long blog post, and edit it a few times), and i hope to improve. Its been only a few days since i started doing this. I would like other ideas and suggestions. I've also found out that i need procrastinotion, some of my best ideas came when i spend the whole day not working, good thing i write them down, but I've realized very few, which is what I'm trying to fix.

kirse• 18 years ago

Just look back on tasks you've completed with ease and figure out what worked for you in that instance. For you it might be different, for me it's usually:

- Eliminate external distractions - put in headphones and listen to music. Sometimes I stop for air guitaring though.

- Focus - use Timeboxing to separate times when you'll work and when you'll goof off

- Deal with the Adversion to "Hard" Tasks - I personally procrastinate least when I take a huge task, split it all up into a list, and then do the absolute easiest part first. It's all about inertia, if you view something as a single giant task, it's going to be much harder to get started.

Too often people procrastinate because they picture a task as the total effort involved in a task (and doing it all at once) -- well anyone in their right mind would never want to make all that effort at once! In reality though it's a combination of tiny bits of effort that gets a whole task completed.

jodrellblank• 18 years ago

The solution is "just get started"?

Well ok, that sounds easy enough. I'l just tidy my coat out of the way and grab a coffee first...

puns• 18 years ago

Put that coffee down!! Coffee's for closers only.

steveplace• 18 years ago

Anyone else find it ironic that I just tagged it in my delicious to read it later?

jd• 18 years ago

Antidote for procrastination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P785j15Tzk

( See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9NgXIkyiwk&feature=relat... - works every time. Ps: 1972 )

quickpost• 18 years ago

God damn. That is disturbing. I need to get my shit together.

Thanks for posting those. :)

jamesbritt2• 18 years ago

> God damn. That is disturbing.

You've made me nervous about watching it, but then my dopamine receptors took charge, so I've clicked the links ...

tlrobinson3• 18 years ago

I just have to make sure no one has responded to my comments on Hacker News then I'll almost be ready...

dood• 18 years ago

The article's title is poorly chosen, it offers very little advice or insight into "how to kick the habit" beyond what most people already know.

jcl2• 18 years ago

To the article's credit, I didn't know that I might be able to cure my procrastination by using DNA antisense to partially shut down my rhinal cortex's dopamine receptors.

icky2• 18 years ago

And all this time, I've been injecting it into the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Oh, what a fool I've been!

sh1mmer• 18 years ago

The most useful article I saw on HN about this subject was Structured Procrastination (http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/).

I've found that structured procrastination is extremely helpful in "just getting started" and once you are rolling you aren't procrastinating any more.

The basic theory to sum up, is to have some that feels giant and important and impending to avoid which allows you to work on other stuff to avoid it. The trick is to feel pressured to avoid something that really doesn't matter so much, even though it appears to on the surface. It's total cognitive hacking.

paulgb3• 18 years ago

Good read, thanks for posting.

His essay on perfectionism is great too http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/perfectionism...

donniefitz2• 18 years ago

I'll read this later.

zitterbewegung• 18 years ago

I think I will finish this com

tdavis• 18 years ago

No due dates. That's something that helps me. If I give something a due date, I will procrastinate until the due date has arrived (or in the case of non-critical stuff, I might just not do it at all). It doesn't even matter what the task is, either. "Finish ticket #30 by Friday" and "drink a beer by 9pm" are essentially equivalent; I will avoid doing both until the last minute. And I love beer!

For instance, I make it a point to never tell myself "tomorrow when you wake up, go to the gym." I just wake up, think "hey, you should go to the gym, jackass" and I go. There's no time for excuses or rationalizations against the task. No, "There's no way it will take me 2 days to do this; I will wait until tomorrow!"

Having known I run on impulse for a long time, I've developed a few tricks. When it comes to work, I try to make vague plans for what I want to accomplish the next day, but I try not to think too much about them. This way when the time comes I can just start working and wait to get sucked in. The best tasks are things like "research X" or "learn more about Y" because they're easy to start and usually easy to get lost in and/or branch into other tasks. The key is not making any concrete plans. If I decide "tomorrow I will have X done by Y time" it's like there's another part of me who, just to be an asshole, decides to prove I won't accomplish that.

As for life, well, I just take 90% of the stuff I want to do/say and throw it out the window. The other 10% gets me in enough trouble as it is.

P.S. If you're really desperate, having to survive in the Army taught me another trick: Learn to turn off your brain. It helps.

Conceptual• 18 years ago

Parkinson's Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

jmtame• 18 years ago

I think the article is missing two big ones. [1] Observing those around you that are very successful and entrepreneurial. I could name 5 people right now, I've seen all of their YouTube videos (probably more than once), read all their interviews. [2] Surrounding yourself with highly driven people. The same applies if you surround yourself with apathetic and lazy people. It probably sounds cliche by now, but that energy is contagious and will affect how you work, think, behave, etc.

debt• 18 years ago

Just do it.

tlrobinson3• 18 years ago

You were down-voted, but there is truth to those words. Personally I find it helps to add an expletive:

"Just fucking do it"

Or as this post http://seoblackhat.com/2007/01/29/do-it-fucking-now/ (which inspired me) says:

"Do it fucking now"

cturner• 18 years ago

Error in the article?

    To determine a task’s utility and therefore how likely a
    person is to do it right away, Steel puts together four
    basic factors, expectancy (E), value (V), the delay until
    reward or punishment (D), and personal sensitivity to
    delay (P), in the following equation:

    U =  (E x V) / (R x D)

-> Those codes don't correspond to the equation. Any hints from someone who knows the source?

TechStuff2• 18 years ago

I assumed it was typo.

U = (E x V) / (P x D)

TechStuff2• 18 years ago

This article is a mulligan stew of observations and opinions about several different problems that have earned the label "procrastination."

I fit the profile of what Ferrari calls an "avoidance procrastinator." Pychyl and Steel have got my number.

Schraw, on the other hand, seems to be guilty of post hoc, ergo propter hoc (thank you Aaron Sorkin). I do not procrastinate to have a better mental life; I do it because the alternative seems worse. To quote Pychyl, I feel lousy about a task so I walk away to feel better. I don't feel good, understand. Just not as bad.

Here's what I know - I hope it helps any other avoidance procrastinators who are reading:

Most of my task avoidance is based on uneasiness about the task; uneasiness caused (or multiplied) by not fully understanding the parameters and/or goals of the task.

That's it. For me, that's the key.

It is difficult - nearly impossible - to do my taxes each year. However, it is easy to do the various steps involved in doing my taxes, when I have a prepared list of the steps involved, and the order in which they should be carried out.

Clean out the garage is another good example of a task that I will never be able to do. But I have no problem doing the various small tasks that are hidden inside the phrase "clean out the garage" as long as someone can tell me what they are.

And this is the problem. I seem to lack the Project Planning gene that allows other people to break large, vague projects into smaller tasks. When I get help with this, and can approach a big project as a bunch of smaller tasks arranged in logical order, I have no problem. (Well, I still have the problems of laziness, perfectionism, distraction, etc., but no more than regular people.)

The trouble comes when the assignment lacks clarity.

This, I believe, is why procrastinator students in Schraw's study chose a detailed syllabus versus "a rough sketch of the assignments" -- not because "such specificity allowed for 'planned' procrastination" but because this approach removes the task ambiguity that triggers "my" type of procrastination.

Finally, saying, "Just do it" to a procrastinator is like saying, "Cheer up" to someone who's clinically depressed.

Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit.

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