[HN Gopher] Procrastination is flight, deadline is fight, freeze...
___________________________________________________________________
Procrastination is flight, deadline is fight, freeze is staring at
the screen
Author : stared
Score : 401 points
Date : 2021-03-07 00:19 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pmigdal.medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pmigdal.medium.com)
| yamrzou wrote:
| > From a distance, procrastination looks like a time management
| problem. There is growing evidence that it is rather an emotional
| management problem -- a flight response.
|
| It's eye opening how a lot of life struggles turn out to be an
| emotional management problem at their core: procrastination,
| addiction, stress.
|
| I wish I had that perspective earlier in my life. It completely
| changes the solution space from trying random productivity tools
| to focusing on one's emotions and possibly getting into therapy.
| Bakary wrote:
| The corollary to that is to understand that when you soothe a
| negative feeling with a short-term coping mechanism
| (distraction, drugs...), you prime yourself to feel more of the
| same in the future. Exposure to the negative feeling and
| learning to deal with it gradually is far more beneficial as
| the body learns that it is not so effective.
|
| This is particularly applicable to anxiety-based issues such as
| OCD but it can help for a variety of problems
| kristiandupont wrote:
| Agreed. And furthermore, I am continuously realizing how much
| my bodily well-being affects my mental state.
|
| I am not suggesting that exercise is the cure for depression,
| but when it comes to a normal "feeling low", I find that the
| solution often relates to the body: move, stretch or relax.
| Same with sleep. If I can't fall asleep I often just need to
| make myself aware of where I have tension in the body
| (https://kristiandupont.medium.com/cant-sleep-ask-yourself-
| wh...)
|
| On a higher level, diet obviously means a lot and so does air
| quality. I put an Awair in my office recently and have realized
| that I wasn't airing out nearly enough. I was basically sitting
| in a cloud of CO2 which I now realize was also making me feel
| tired.
| scaladev wrote:
| You get used to it after a while. I've been living in an area
| with extreme levels of outside air pollution (think Mumbai or
| Beijing, but much worse) for many years, so my windows are
| almost always closed shut. I have a CO2 meter and it reports
| an average of about 2000 ppm. I feel fine, and don't feel any
| difference to the normal level of 440 ppm. I'm pretty certain
| it would show on objective cognitive tests, but personally I
| really don't feel any difference.
| brainzap wrote:
| WHAT???
| hosteur wrote:
| This sounds seriously unhealthy. Consider finding different
| place to live if at all possible. Air pollution is a
| killer.
| wongarsu wrote:
| If I was in that situation I would consider opening the
| windows twice a day for 15 minutes, then running a good
| (and properly sized) air purifier on full blast for an
| hour.
| scaladev wrote:
| The sibling comment is right, it doesn't help very much.
| The CO2 level goes above 800 ppm (which is already
| considered unhealthy) in ~20 minutes, rises to ~2200-2400
| ppm (depends on wind speed and atmospheric pressure) in
| the course of a couple of hours, and then just stays
| there for days on end.
|
| I put all my pollution data into Grafana and it makes
| making decision when to open (or close) a window that
| much easier. (Yeah, you have to make a thought-out
| decision to not feel terrible. It's a whole ceremony.)
| burntoutfire wrote:
| Depending on the size of your house/apartment, you'll use
| up that oxygen in a couple of hours and will be back at
| 1000+ levels. Plus, there must be some ventilation in
| OP's setup already, as the CO2 levels are at 2000, and
| without ventilation they'd just rise until he passes
| out...
| maximente wrote:
| what hardware/software/data are you, or anyone else, using
| to get these readings?
| Bakary wrote:
| The biggest threat in your case is the PM2.5
|
| In Beijing, the difference before and after the air
| purifier was enormous in my own experience.
| laurent92 wrote:
| CO2: Excellent point. After 4 hrs in 30m2, we bathe in
| 1100ppm. After a night, 1800ppm. Normal levels are 500-600.
| After living in Australia, I've always attributed their
| taller average to being more outdoors and having well-working
| ventilation standards for buildings. Low CO2 might do wonders
| for mental development.
| hntrader wrote:
| Escaping noise pollution, having an empty calendar and
| removing the phone are 3 things that help me.
| [deleted]
| cainxinth wrote:
| Exercise might not be a "cure" for depression, but it's
| definitely an excellent treatment for it, potentially on par
| with pharmaceuticals:
|
| https://www.psychcongress.com/article/evidence-exercise-
| anti...
| thotsBgone wrote:
| In the theory of depression as an attractor state in a
| dynamical system[1], exercise would be one of many small
| cures for depression. To cure depression, one would likely
| have to combine several small cures, none of which would
| work on their own. For example: diet, exercise, amount of
| sleep, timing of sleep, pharmaceuticals, behavioural
| activation, cognitive distortions, social life, life
| circumstances, as well as any physical health issues which
| could be contributing to depression.
|
| I no longer have depression, and it was a combination of
| small factors which did it for me.
|
| 1: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/ontology-of-
| psychiatri...
| redis_mlc wrote:
| Thanks for the link.
|
| I tell people with mental health issues that cardio
| exercise is like acupuncture for your cardiovascular and
| nervous systems, but it's nice to have a Western medical
| reference too.
| odyssey7 wrote:
| This idea rings familiar to me as someone who got into the
| stoicism trend, but then realized issues with it. The problem
| isn't that your house fell down and you lost your job and now
| you can't afford therapy, the problem is that you haven't
| stopped to think how much worse it could be and how grateful
| you should feel about how things are right now.
|
| If we can reframe bad management and unfulfilling work into an
| employee's emotional problem, then suddenly everything is
| easier, isn't it? A good worker takes their medication before
| coming in, and goes to therapy to learn how to be better at
| following their manager's instructions, and takes more
| medication in the evening to feel good after a long day's work.
| Well, I guess there's nothing new under the sun, these things
| have been happening to some degree for a while, and especially
| self-medicating with things like weed and alcohol when not
| working.
|
| Will having a majority-un-medicated workforce soon put a
| country at an economic disadvantage? Will the alternative
| become a cultural relic that some countries fight to preserve
| through regulation, the way France preserves its traditional
| cheeses?
| Bakary wrote:
| The anglo-american repackaging of stoicism is precisely this:
| just a variation on hustle porn and blaming the individual.
| The same goes for mindfulness. Both of these industries (yes,
| they are industries) have been eagerly embraced by the
| private sector since they make fixing the mood of workers
| both a quantifiable goal and one where their own
| responsibility is no longer taken into consideration.
|
| In We by Zamyatin and Brave New World, the non-medicated
| elements of society eventually rebel against the new order.
| In our case, the scope of medication is already starting to
| show its limits so I don't think we will get to the scenario
| you describe. This sort of life is just too inherently
| unsatisfying to be masked by meds, not to mention that
| workers now can directly see just how poor they are compared
| to their masters and just how much surplus the masters
| capture.
| rchaud wrote:
| > The anglo-american repackaging of stoicism is precisely
| this: just a variation on hustle porn and blaming the
| individual.
|
| Agreed. I spotted this right at the time when I saw
| stoicism beginning to be 'productized' via books, journals,
| podcasts and courses.
| odyssey7 wrote:
| Ryan Holiday, who is an author of several stoicism books
| and even sells "memento mori" coins that you can keep on
| your person to remember that you will die, happens to be
| American Apparel's former marketing director.
|
| Incidentally, I learned more from his earlier, non-
| stoicism book, "Trust Me I'm Lying: Confessions of a
| Media Manipulator." A prescient book for the current wave
| of media manipulation.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| There's differences between talk therapy and simply taking
| psychiatric medication, though.
| Bakary wrote:
| I prefer to group the interventions based on their
| methodological intent. Meds and talk sound like they
| would have radically different outcomes, but if the core
| intention is just to paper over the worker's reluctance
| to work, they will tend to have similar effects and
| consequences over time.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| This seems like an overly dismissive response to
| individualistic health fads like wellness. Clearly mental
| health is a widespread issue in this society and merits a
| widespread push for availability and affordability, and
| exacerbates problems lower on Maslow's hierarchy. And
| besides, if the U.S. was a country that already had the
| wherewithal for top-down solutions at the scale of
| guaranteeing widespread access to affordable therapy, it
| would already be a country so much more advanced and
| friendlier to communal solutions than the one at present; one
| could imagine such a country has also made progress on other
| material concerns such as labor conditions and anomie
| resulting from the capitalist grind.
| [deleted]
| ottomanbob wrote:
| Figuring exactly this out in my early 20s. The problem is not
| the productivity framework, the problem is emotional.
| admissionsguy wrote:
| > It completely changes the solution space from trying random
| productivity tools to focusing on one's emotions and possibly
| getting into therapy
|
| Same thoughts here. I suspect no tomato-based super-agile time
| management technique has ever turned an inefficient person into
| an efficient one, long term.
| tmotwu wrote:
| Pomodoro works in theory but ultimately requires a lot of
| discipline because it's easy to just ignore the timer. Worse,
| maintaining half an hour of deep focus just doesn't work for
| some people, especially the types the article describes.
| Anyway, pomodoro's only advantage if you want to try to
| maximize the amount of productivity in a day without mentally
| bogging you down.
|
| What worked best for me is low-overhead simplicity. A
| notebook. Make it routine to realistically scope out, jot
| down, divide and conquer tasks. Just a few minutes every
| morning. No schedule. Take the task and work. Whenever your
| brain tells you to take a break, just take a break. But just
| keep on looking at what you aimed to accomplish for the day.
| That way, you're just mentally thinking about the tasks and
| not some stupid timer or how you planned it all out on a
| calendar.
|
| Ultimately, it's about managing emotions, but having this
| down helps because it clears your mind a little.
| Bakary wrote:
| That sort of pomodoro stuff only works on unpleasant tasks
| that don't require too much thought or creativity
| anaerobicover wrote:
| I haven't found that to be true. I have used it
| successfully at various points to help me stay focused on
| art projects or other work that I was choosing to do that
| should have been "fun" but that I was still procrastinating
| over. The two GUI software applications I've made that I
| consider "finished" (out of a dozen-plus incomplete) have
| Pomodoro journal pages in one of my notebooks.
| yowlingcat wrote:
| > I wish I had that perspective earlier in my life. It
| completely changes the solution space from trying random
| productivity tools to focusing on one's emotions and possibly
| getting into therapy.
|
| Hear, hear. For me, it was also figuring out how to cut out
| unneeded aggravations from my life.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| I think there's a case to be made for cutting out those
| things, especially ones that aren't directly visible, such as
| ambient noise.
|
| Many people think you get used to it, and maybe you don't
| consciously notice it anymore, but I think that the permanent
| background noise to which many people are exposed in cities
| contributes to their stress levels. Pretty much everywhere
| they go, there's constant noise:
|
| * random chatter / noises in the open office
|
| * AC hum / vibrations / etc at the office
|
| * traffic noise, while walking around or taking public
| transport
|
| * random traffic noise / honks / etc at home if the apartment
| is close to a street and badly soundproofed
| yowlingcat wrote:
| You read my mind! I moved out of a big city after
| lockdowns, and I realized that many of these little ambient
| noises or mental frictions which I had grown accustomed to
| -- it turns out that once I cut that out, it reduced my
| stress levels. I think there are a lot of parallels to draw
| from there to the workplace or other walks of life.
| lolinder wrote:
| Yep. I work with ear protection on (of the sort you'd use
| for mowing the lawn) most of the time for precisely this
| reason. I've found my anxiety levels are much lower after
| several hours of wearing them.
| yowlingcat wrote:
| Even before lockdowns, I found that my sanity levels went
| up significantly once I started moving to using Etymotic
| in-ear monitors. I used a fairly cheap pair for commuting
| and work [1]. The nice thing about them is that even if
| you don't have any music playing, they're effectively
| earplugs. And then if you do have music playing, you
| don't have to turn it up very loud to hear it well, so
| it's kinda a win win all around.
|
| [1] https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones/mk5.html
| laurent92 wrote:
| > cut out unneeded aggravations
|
| Some people? There is a thin line between cutting out people
| who step onto you, and becoming misanthropic/associal. Since
| lockdowns I went from 60 friends to ~4, because I can't stand
| them and I've come to realize their politics directly harm
| me. But now I'm alone. Working on this, but it is a very thin
| line.
| morlockabove wrote:
| You pay the price for your politics.
| DaniloDias wrote:
| I see you getting downvoted for a profoundly true
| statement. These are sad times.
| lolinder wrote:
| I don't know if this person is saying they disagree with
| their friends on politics or if the vitriol in their
| friends' political speech is harmful to them. If the
| latter, I sympathize: most political conversations today
| are so filled with hate that "direct harm" to listeners
| is not unreasonable to claim.
| yowlingcat wrote:
| Well, when it comes to work I think it pays to be a lot
| more ruthless with cutting out aggravations. But when it
| comes to friendships, I think the situation is a lot more
| gray. For me personally, as I've gotten older, I've found
| that it's rare for me to have close friendships with people
| who are too politically minded. It's a matter of
| practicality -- I find myself asking, can this person
| really hold enough space to tend to our friendship on an
| ongoing basis, or will it become lopsided and a real
| downer?
|
| On the other side of that -- I've found that I've also
| begun to gravitate much more to folks who are either
| expressly apolitical or who otherwise are willing to set
| aside their politics and focus more on the people around
| them. Now, it's true that politics isn't just some purely
| abstract thing -- it's very concrete, and as you say,
| sometimes folks have politics that directly harm you and
| then you can't really maintain friendships with them.
|
| But beyond that, I've gravitated much more to having close
| friendships with people who simply care about me, and
| that's it. Another thing I would say is that 4 friends --
| if they're truly good, close friends, who will see you
| through thick and thin -- is quite a lot. I can count maybe
| 4-8 close friends who I could rely on to that extent, and I
| consider myself extremely lucky as many folks rarely find
| even 1-2. If you do have 4 close friends, perhaps consider
| the silver lining -- sure, you've pared down your circle of
| interaction, but that also gives you more energy to invest
| into the friendships that really matter and which sustain
| you.
|
| My heart goes out to you regardless. That doesn't make this
| process simple. And having seen a lot of friendships drop
| in perhaps the same manner you have, I can say (perhaps as
| you too understand) that it really hurts. It stings. Even
| if I understand why it happens, and it all logically adds
| up, it really breaks my hurt. It's okay to feel heartbroken
| that way. Don't be too hard on yourself. This past year has
| been extremely hard on everyone. Best of luck.
| ycombinete wrote:
| On the related article of the ADHD tech stack. There's a great
| app for windows called _Lazar Focus_ [0]. It does time tracking
| at an OS level. It is made by a fellow HN user and blogger: CP
| Botha.
|
| - It tracks time spent in applications, as well as which browser
| tabs etc.
|
| - can block the opening of specific url, as well as .exe.
|
| - can export all data to a CSV
|
| [0] https://lazarfocused.com/
| superbcarrot wrote:
| And you can also freeze when you should fight. With only 1 or 2
| all-nighters to pull off before finishing my degree, I just froze
| and couldn't write a single word. I would stare at the screen not
| being able to type even one more character for those reports.
| Ended up submitting the incomplete versions knowing that they
| aren't good enough for a pass.
|
| That's how I droppped out of university with only two days to go.
| 4ggr0 wrote:
| > I would stare at the screen not being able to type even one
| more character for those reports
|
| Can confirm. My first job was as a Junior DevOps Engineer,
| turned out that all of my tasks were related to creating
| reports and maintaining the clusterfuck of a system which was
| creating these reports.
|
| Didn't want to quit, because "it could get better", "hang in
| there" etc.
|
| I was then asked to plan a project to create a new reporting
| system for the whole corp. My brain hates Excel sheets, but
| that's what I had to fill out for this project. I knew that it
| was too late when I experienced the same thing you described:
| Freezing instead of fighting. Ended up in a minor burn-out and
| got fired.
|
| Now I work as a Linux System Engineer in a company and team
| which actually values my skills and gives me interesting tasks.
| sdeep27 wrote:
| I like the take here, but I think it's also worth mentioning that
| procrastination is also an adaptive mechanism and can be a
| positive thing.
|
| As humans we have limited time and energy, and procrastination
| can be a signal that we are using our time and energy on the
| wrong project or activity.
|
| It can also be productive time for our subconscious to come up
| with creative directions for our {software architecture, novel,
| movie, music production, etc} when we are not sure what direction
| to consciously go in.
| mckirk wrote:
| I've come to realize the same thing: it's not all bad and at
| least makes sense in some regard.
|
| If you think of your will power as a limited resource for
| example, with blocking out distractions an actively depleting
| activity (not sure what the latest results on that are, afaik
| it's a generally valid model that sometimes doesn't hold up),
| it makes sense to wait with starting your work until the point
| where distractions simply aren't a viable option anymore.
| Basically, you conserve energy by making it easier for yourself
| to stay on task, by raising the 'importance gradient' until
| 'action selection' becomes effortless.
| Bakary wrote:
| The problem is that the procrastination is triggered from the
| subconscious realization that much of the work we have to do is
| nonsensical or the result of societal barriers being there
| because there is too much competition and too many other people
| around.
|
| For instance, in all of the steps needed to get job X, you have
| to expend effort on classes and activities in school that often
| do not have an impact on your actual life circumstances or
| intellectual world in and of themselves, but are necessary if
| you are to compete against other students for limited spaces in
| specific universities. Once in university, you have to continue
| a similar if albeit less absurd dance that is necessary to get
| a recognized certification that in turn is only needed because
| the employer has to sift through many applications and doesn't
| have time to evaluate you as an individual.
|
| In a service based economy, there also comes the realization
| that the result of your work is often in the most fundamental
| terms an attempt to funnel some surplus your way through a
| product or service that is often superfluous, redistributive,
| and/or reliant on its marketing. Or the job itself only exists
| because other humans are in a state of competition or
| artificial scarcity. The proportion of people who actually
| create non-virtual wealth or provide truly essential services
| is fairly low. In the end, it's pretty uncommon to have a job
| that only gives you autonomy and inherent joy in the task
| themselves but also the sense that you are making a tangible
| non-redistributive contribution. In the crab bucket, only a
| small portion of the work serves to better the human condition
| in a genuine, direct manner.
|
| Of course, there are many exceptions to this, and plenty of
| people are no doubt very satisfied with their occupations. But
| there is something about modern life in general that short-
| circuits the adaptiveness of procrastination you describe by
| providing only tasks that should ideally be procrastinated
| forever on.
| sdeep27 wrote:
| Fair - we all have obligations that would be better to do now
| rather than later, yet we procrastinate. I understand that.
|
| However, in your examples, again - I think procrastination
| provides a useful signal. If you already have your sights set
| on "job X" while in university, and you find yourself
| procastinating all your assignments - maybe it's time to re-
| evaluate your desire to have job X (maybe it came from your
| parents or societal pressure rather than an internal desire)
| and be more flexible in your goals.
|
| It's a bit idealistic, but I do feel that even in modern
| society, people can find fulfilling work even at the lower
| pay-grades - and if you're continually procrastinating all
| your tasks that are required for you to get that work, that
| is likely a useful sign that it is not the fulfilling work
| you are looking for.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I'll add that a skill in life is sensing from the get go what
| activity will bring more excitement than burden and say no or
| yes accordingly. You end up filling your days with joyful stuff
| or waiting to think what next good thing you'll do.
| kiba wrote:
| I wish this had been known and disseminated more widely ten years
| ago. I don't know if it would improve outcome back then, but I
| think I would have a better idea where to start.
|
| I feel my life outcome and success depends on emotional
| regulation more than anything else.
| iliketosleep wrote:
| > I feel my life outcome and success depends on emotional
| regulation more than anything else.
|
| Indeed. It wouldn't surprise me that assuming a person is of at
| least average intelligence, emotional regulation is the
| greatest predictor of success. Not to be held back by one's own
| demons is a big step towards success.
| hirundo wrote:
| Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings
| total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass
| over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the
| inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be
| nothing. Only I will remain.
| drawkbox wrote:
| "Father, the sleeper has awakened!"
| lioeters wrote:
| Face Everything And Rise!
| [deleted]
| Shared404 wrote:
| Devour fear, or be devoured.
|
| I've struggled my whole life with procrastination, and this
| article really resonated with me as to why. I've only recently
| started forcing myself to act first, as best as I can, and
| accept and deal with the consequences.
| rebyn wrote:
| I am in a similar situation. Lately I repeat to myself: "do
| not what you can, do what you must" to fight off my
| fight/flight response. It works about 40% of those situations
| that I was in.
| slickrick216 wrote:
| Dune is such a great book.
|
| For real though. I've had anxiety attacks and tried to put
| myself outside the situation like an observer. Just let the
| emotion wash over you but don't react to it. It'll pass and
| you'll feel better and come to terms with the issue that
| induced the fear.
| data_ders wrote:
| I've been procrastinating grad school to the extent that I spend
| more time these days feeling anxious and ashamed about grad
| school than actually doing any grad school. Very helpful to hear
| this message now -- Thanks Piotr!
| andbberger wrote:
| right there with you
| fock wrote:
| here as well. And worst thing is: every month there is a
| paper, for which I could write one page on its faults... and
| I'm struggling to produce anything, because everything
| "doesn't work" (in the sense that it can't reproduce/best the
| crappy papers of the past 5 years).
| strogonoff wrote:
| I have been pondering the state of _being in my head_ , which I
| noticed I often end up in "by default". It takes effort to
| refocus of my mind out of what seems to be somewhere in the
| frontal lobe out to the rest of the head and eventually the whole
| body, but it is possible and seems to be worthwhile, calming and
| (anecdotally) correlating with positive physiological effects.
|
| Unlike Piotr, I didn't make a connection between this state and
| flight and/or freeze response--this is an interesting idea that
| might adjust my understanding of this phenomenon. This article
| contains a lot of food for thought.
| jayonsoftware wrote:
| My biggest issue is starting on a task. I am very good at To-Do
| lists, breaking down the tasks, time boxing etc etc..but when it
| comes to doing the actual task (and this can be anything) I get
| the feeling like my hands a tied. Its like my brain saying "no i
| am not going to let you work on that".
| jspash wrote:
| I read this in high school (mid 80's) and it has helped me ever
| since. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eat-That-Frog-Important-
| Things/dp/1...
|
| The advice is essentially; do the hardest thing on your todo
| list first and the rest is a breeze.
|
| It's no magic bullet, and it still takes willpower. But if you
| persevere and it becomes as habit, you'll find yourself
| procrastinating less.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| Same here.
|
| I'm experimenting with the following method:
|
| I know exactly what I do to avoid working gaming, youtube). I
| could literally waste a whole day in one sitting switching
| between csgo and random youtube videos.
|
| I know doing that will get me nowhere.
|
| I know doing the tasks may help me get somewhere.
|
| So whenever I have to decide what to do next, I look at the
| task at hand, and investigate how I feel. If I feel weird, I'll
| think through whats wrong. My current task makes me afraid I'll
| break something. Then I think trough, that even if I break
| code, I have backups, so nothing can really go wrong.
|
| I've been sitting for like 10 minutes getting to the end of it,
| then I've been able to ease into doing the task.
|
| It all comes down into not letting myself instinctively jump
| into some instant gratification, but being brave enough to
| think myself to the bottom of the issue, then it will no longer
| be a beast that I want tk avoid, but just "well this is what I
| do next, and it's fine"
| xupybd wrote:
| I'm the opposite. I dive right into the doing part and fail the
| planning part.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| This is my problem, to a nearly pathological degree. I don't
| want to go to bed at night, I don't want to get up in the
| morning, etc.
|
| For the morning I have sleep as android as a backup, which
| requires me to go to the bathroom and scan a QR code to disable
| the alarm - effectively forcing me out of bed.
|
| For actually doing what I am procrastinating on, I have a dumb-
| watch where I can set an alarm for 10 minutes. I find that I
| can usually get started that way, and when the 10 minutes are
| up I don't want to stop (see previous pathological state).
| However, on occasion I will and that is totally fine too - if
| you expect to follow up on the deals you have made with others,
| you should follow up on the deals you made with yourself.
| cromka wrote:
| I learned way too late that I am procrastinating things that I
| already know, based on my experience, would take me forever to
| complete due to my perfectionism. And these don't necessarily
| have to be complicated tasks, but tasks that require choosing one
| option over the other, with several variables involved. The more
| I know, the older I get, the more experienced I become, the
| harder it is to make a good choice. It's a curse. But once I'd
| learned the emotional reason behind it, it has become much more
| manageable.
| infogulch wrote:
| I resonate with this sentiment. My current conclusion to fix
| prediction paralysis is that you have to let yourself accept
| the fact that your initial designs will be kinda crappy,
| instead focus on _iteration_. Don 't aim at perfection, aim to
| maximize the value of each iteration.
| cromka wrote:
| Yes, that's one of the tools in the shed. The other one is to
| look at my free time as a function of money. If the choice I
| am facing can somehow be correlated with money, too, then I
| decide if the time I'd spend on perfectioning that choice can
| otherwise be mitigated with throwing some money at it.
| Surprisingly it often is.
|
| Need a new MacBook, one with a best price/performance combo?
| Or should I build a PC myself instead and Hackintosh it? Will
| it take me 15 hours of research to find the answer and
| another 10 to build and set it up? Well, my 25 hours are
| worth a lot, so nowadays I just get one that is way better
| and more expensive than I'd normally fall for and be done
| with it. Knowing I saved so much time is enough to
| rationalize the choice and thus avoid buyer's remorse.
| rebyn wrote:
| Same for me. Extending an internal API with simple queries took
| me half a day to get my mind around to. Learning about a
| warehouse system with a bazillion schemas, toggles and cogs and
| endless conditionals can while a few days of mine and I came
| out feeling happy and content, and wanted to do more, nonstop.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| I found that something I didn't know what harder to
| procrastinate but doing my fifth RSA key derivation this month
| is so boring to do by hand for an assignment.
|
| Rigging a PDC in Unreal Engine, writing some python code for a
| simulator or writing a function for OpenFaaS and all of a
| sudden, I have no trouble getting to it right away.
| hojjat12000 wrote:
| If procrastination is flight, I'm a seasoned pilot.
| m463 wrote:
| This stuff is all a little like rock paper scissors in my life
| during the pandemic.
| geniium wrote:
| Very interesting paper. I hope to see more about psychology and
| self dev I the futur here. It's the root of a successful journey.
| bumbada wrote:
| I do not believe deer freeze in front of an incoming car because
| of instinctive reaction because I actually had the experience of
| being in front of an incoming van and truck and initially froze.
|
| The van incident happened because I was used to cross the road
| every day from the school to take a bus on the other side. One
| day I saw the bus coming so I started running without looking,
| until I looked and saw a van coming at 100Km/hour and froze.
|
| The reason I froze is because those things are extremely fast and
| if you cross the road and don't expect those things it takes time
| to react and understand what is happening. This time could be
| less than the time it takes for the vehicle to hit you.
|
| When I understood that I was going to be killed I jumped to the
| middle of the road like a ninja in both cases. In the van case
| the van hit my shoe but nothing serious happened.With the truck I
| reacted sooner.
|
| I don't consider freeze response common when people stare in
| front of a piece of paper or in front of a wall. Usually what
| happens is that people fly away and fantasize with their minds.
|
| This way they avoid the painful reality and can dream about
| having sex or being rich,famous,traveling or whatever that makes
| them feel good, just like the poor Indians do with Bollywood
| movies.
|
| In fact creative people need to dream a significant part of their
| work time. From the outside they look they do nothing, like
| Stephen Hawking doing nothing physical, but their minds are
| working.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| I had an experience with a truck almost hitting me aswell.
|
| It's strange because it happened in a place where i travel
| regularly and I was overconfident.
|
| The truck appeared from behind a bush at an angle I didn't
| expect.
|
| It honked and I froze, otherwise I'd have stepped infront of
| it.
|
| Anyways it taught me never to cross a red light, even when I'm
| 100% sure that it's safe, because in these cases you need only
| 1 mistake, and it's over.
| capableweb wrote:
| > I do not believe deer freeze in front of an incoming car
| because of instinctive reaction
|
| Isn't one of the biggest difference between humans and animals
| that animals always act on instinct and naturally so? Do
| animals do anything that can be considered not instinct?
| DaniloDias wrote:
| >> Do animals do anything that can be considered not
| instinct?
|
| All the time. Animals accumulate new behaviors through
| repetition, reward and corrective interactions. They also
| play. See dogs, cats and any other mammals humans have
| relationships with.
| Osiris wrote:
| I've recently learned that my procrastination is an emotion
| issue. It turns out that I don't like processing bad outcomes,
| so, ironically, my brain figures if it just doesn't do something
| then I'll never have to deal with the outcome.
|
| That, of course, is a logical fallacy. I procrastinate doing
| taxes because I don't want to find out I owe a bunch of money,
| but not filing them will have even worse outcomes.
|
| I literally have to convince myself that it's better for me to
| find out bad news sooner rather than later and that worse
| outcomes will happen if I don't do something.
|
| I've started using a whiteboard and adding items that need to be
| done. I can replace the fear of bad news by a good feeling of
| checking something off the todo list on the whiteboard. I'm
| trying to train myself to get a good feeling from getting things
| done to overcome the fear the drives my procrastination.
| snarfy wrote:
| You should change your tax deduction. There is no penalty for
| overpaying, and it's much nicer to receive a bunch of money
| every year than to possibly owe it. You won't miss it on your
| paycheck.
| kortilla wrote:
| > There is no penalty for overpaying
|
| Present value of money...
| andrewjl wrote:
| Opportunity costs hugely outweigh the present value of
| money in this case. Especially given current risk-free
| rates.
| isolli wrote:
| Thanks for the idea, I use a notebook to keep track (and
| hopefully cross out) todo items, but a whiteboard might be an
| even better idea. More visible, and more flexible...
|
| In my case, I have to battle the fallacy that, no matter how
| good it feels to cross out an item from the todo list, there
| will always be another item that follows, whereas if I don't do
| anything, then there will never be another item in my life :|
| slickrick216 wrote:
| Reduce work in progress. Similar to Dune WIP is the mind killer.
| Reducing WIP means you get more full outcomes and feel better
| about yourself.
| tharkun__ wrote:
| I like playing a paper airplane building exercise with my teams
| when I get a chance and it fits with what's been going on in
| the team. Shows the benefits of limiting WIP real nice.
|
| This is the first video and you'll find the second in there
| too: https://youtu.be/KSsWm1LxEQQ
| slickrick216 wrote:
| This looks fun. Going to try this out at work. Thanks.
| nisa wrote:
| This is all true but but I've been recently been diagnosed with
| adult adhd in my mid-30ies and on a low dose of slow release
| Methylphenidate and it's all the difference between getting
| things done and procrastinating like hell. If you exhausted all
| the articles and nothing worked and you have big problems for
| years (like this: https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html) give it a
| try. In the last weeks I managed to really learn in a structured
| way for the first time. Of course it's no magic solution to all
| your problems but it's a stark difference for me. I just want to
| leave that here as I've read these articles every other week and
| nothing sticked. Neither did counseling or talk theraphy - it
| helped but didn't solve the procrastination / time issues
| zingar wrote:
| 100%. I was considered bright but lazy / performing below
| potential throughout my schooling and first years of work. In
| my thirties I was diagnosed with a combination of anxiety and
| ADHD and the prescribed medication is immensely helpful. I view
| younger years of frustration/boredom/hyperactivity as somewhat
| wasted and I wish that the adults in my life has realised what
| was happening when I was a child.
|
| The physician who ultimately prescribed the medication informs
| me:
|
| 1. Methylphenidate aka Ritalin is not addictive (and I had no
| problem stopping it for some years when it made sense)
|
| 2. Probably every adult could benefit from its use at specific
| crunch times. (But not permanently unless you're actually
| diagnosed with ADHD)
|
| The FUD I've experienced when I mention Ritalin always
| surprises me.
| mckirk wrote:
| I'm curious, what does that specific anxiety+ADHD combination
| mean for treatment, in your experience?
|
| I'd imagine it could first of all be difficult to diagnose
| because the symptoms might occlude each other (i.e., 'getting
| important stuff done' despite the ADHD, thanks to the panic
| of failing something, up to a point) and also a challenge to
| medicate both at the same time, since I'd expect anything
| 'raising vigilance' to also cause anxiety and vice versa.
| gibquaaludes wrote:
| How does one get started with addressing those problems? Do I
| talk to a general practitioner? Are there specialists I
| should seek out?
| dalbasal wrote:
| unsolicited tip: Find your minimum effective dose and do some
| unmedicated work days too.
| nisa wrote:
| interesting - why would it be useful? my doctor said it's
| better to keep the dosage mostly constant because there are
| studies that switching on and off actually could increase the
| addiction and it's better for the brain to have not to adapt
| to these changes every other day.
| dalbasal wrote:
| Accounting for all the factors that need account is above
| my pay grade, so I'm not sure I can comment. Actual medical
| guidance is often considered more reliable than random
| internet advice.
|
| That said...let me start with my premises. (1) I don't
| think risks are very high/unknown, and this point (2) but
| let's face it... an adhd regimen is an "uppers" regimen.
| So... my bias is moderacy. At the least, it encourages you
| to be specific in your aims. Are you trying to be more
| productive 9-5, minimize pathological behaviours, or are
| taking uppers to handle that 9th or 12th hour of work.
| nisa wrote:
| Okay, sure I understand. At the moment it's really going
| from being a mess to managing life to that extend that I
| can at least be an mediocre student that passes exams and
| actually albeit late finishing some projects at work that
| require some upfront planning and reading. It's all
| pretty new for me and also working on getting exercise,
| relaxation and planning to work. The plan is to make a
| longer drug holiday 6 months in at the moment. But your
| are correct it's something to be careful with - but I've
| struggled with these issues all the way from middle
| school and I had so much trouble, lost opportunities,
| lost health, lost money due to messing simple things up
| so at the moment I'm just thankful that I have a tool in
| my toolbox that helps with these issues.
| dalbasal wrote:
| I didn't mean to be negative. A tool for a job is a good
| mindset.
| m_j_g wrote:
| I have very similar story, it was mind-blowing to me how
| methylphenidate pharmacotherapy helped me not only with
| procrastination but also gave me capacity to work on
| anxiety/depression and interpersonal issues.
|
| In no way I want to advertise mph as a silver bullet for such
| problems, but at least for some people it works like a charm.
| menomatter wrote:
| I do believe I have a form of ADHD. How does one get a
| confirmed diagnosis. I don't think mine is bad in such a way
| that interfere with my duties. But often at work, if I'm
| assigned a project or a task that isn't clear, I find myself
| spinning and ignoring other duties untill I have built enough
| momentum and clarity for the new task. Is this a symptom of
| ADHD?
| stared wrote:
| As a person with ADHD - there is one more layer: why some
| things cause stress in the first place--in my case, sending
| official letters causes a PTSD-like panic reaction. Usually, I
| procrastinate. If I try too hard to get over procrastination, I
| freeze or fight (which ends up with a meltdown, sometimes as
| hard as one culminating with a migraine aura).
|
| Only a few months ago, I started looking at it. It turns out
| that sending a letter is a multi-step process. From printing
| something, signing it, writing the address (I hate my
| handwriting), going to the post office (often too loud, with
| long waiting times), sending it (with a proper type of email).
| All with delayed feedback (a killer for ADHD-like motivation).
| All in a way that a SINGLE mistake (e.g. sending 2 copies
| instead of 3, page 5 being unsigned, a missed deadline, etc).
|
| Yes, therapy won't solve it. I am meeting weekly with a
| therapist for emotional stuff (but who is virtually clueless
| about sensory processing issues related to Autism/ADHD) and a
| "Psychologist on the Spectrum" (it's her FB page) purely for
| talking about such matters.
|
| Ad substances, in my case, Modafinil works better than
| Methylphenidate. Modafinil makes me focused while reducing
| anxiety.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25996353
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