At the End of a Procrastinated Day

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At the End of a Procrastinated Day

Procrastination is the worst feeling ever. Sitting there, staring at the screen. Watching web videos—a full two-hours stupid documentation and not enjoying one second of it. Then, surfing the web once more. Refreshing Hacker News and my four favorite news sites in rotation, every minute—all the goddamn day. And my work is just one Command-Tab away. Even my new 3.99-Pomodoro-app won't bring me back to work.

Getting me some water from the kitchen. After all, some movement away from Chrome and thousands of open tabs. Eating a banana and listening to music which I just bought somewhere in the net.

I've still no clue why humans procastrinate. It feels so bad and I know I'd feel better if I was working again.

But I won't.

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6 months ago james responded:

dude, I feel ya. I procrastinated (and failed) my way through university. lack of motivation, living in the future, distraction, perfectionism, running away from myself and the present. for everyone else who says they just push themselves harder or learned a few techniques/tools and thought about their motivation, I just want to give data point that procrastination is a symptom of a whole-life problem for me. addictions, relationships, family, etc. Scared the crap out of me to realize that but now that I am addressing the root causes, I can accomplish something I'm proud of and feel "normal". I was always living in my head and couldn't see why I couldn't just finish stuff like all those stupid other people could. and I beat the shit out of myself. I recognized some of my former despair in what you write and just want to say, there's hope, don't be scared to look at yourself deeply.

6 months ago KAMOBO (Twitter) responded:

this might inspire You: http://dudye.com/get-in-to-action-77-thoughts-on-motivation

6 months ago Amir Zonozi responded:

I'm supposed to be writing a final term paper as I type this.... but I'm procrastinating. You're not alone unfortunately. Closing my brewer after this =(

6 months ago hah (Twitter) responded:

I find meditation extremely powerful when it comes to overcoming procrastination. Call me insane - I'm by no means well practiced. I just head out to the park & sit in the grass, close my eyes & focus on my other senses. Listening to people walk by with their dog's collar making noise - hearing someone across the park answer a phone call. Closing out your sense of sight for a little bit is extremely refreshing for lack of a better term. When you open up your eyes & look around again, you'll notice more colors and textures. It's all about heightening all of your senses & enjoying the after-effects.

6 months ago Miike responded:

Maybe you don't want to do what you think you want to do. Maybe you don't want to accept something or give something up, and thats more real to you than whatever benefits or rewards your work might result in.

What is 'work' what makes it different from regular living or what you want to do?

6 months ago jene responded:

I think my procrastination is related - maybe even caused by - my depression. When my meds are dialled in and I am living healthy (diet, exercise, sleep), I procrastinate less and am more capable of breaking habits of procrastination. When I'm in bad shape, though, procrastination is terribly difficult to overcome and reinforces and perpetuates my depression.

6 months ago hah (Twitter) responded:

I'll second Jene's response. Us tech folk are at high risk for depression - and I think the majority of us struggle with it from time to time. Physical exercise and a healthy diet are the foundation to a good lifestyle, and it's all the more important to us since we sit at our damn desks all day long.

6 months ago suhastech (Twitter) responded:

My thoughts exactly...

My observation: Yesterday, I stayed over at one of my cousins' place. They had the crappiest Internet connection possible (think 56 k era). I did cover quite a bit of the portions then.

After that, one trick that helps me now (albeit for a tiny while), I turn off the WiFi. I have to go to our living room to turn it on and my procrastinating brain is like "Ahh, it's not worth the trouble". Try it.

PS: I need to study a ton of material for my exam as I type this comment and it's 2 AM here. *goes to turn off his Wifi*

6 months ago Fran responded:

You are addicted to computers. And lazy.

6 months ago Chad Seaman (Facebook) responded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ2T4-rUUcs

http://youarenotsosmart.com/

Great book, check it out... it's an eye opener.

6 months ago Chad Seaman (Facebook) responded:

Also, Fran is an idiot.

6 months ago peteforde (Twitter) responded:

I suspect that you might be pushing against your natural inclination to do things that you love.

http://www.humblepied.com/jessica-hische/

I always find Jessica's perspective to be inspiring.

6 months ago pratik.deoghare@gmail.com responded:

Meditation? Motivational clips and quotes? Seriously?
THOSE THINGS DON'T WORK. If they did the people who suggested them wouldn't be here procrastinating.

Everyone is procrastinating by giving you advice. But I am a procrastinator and proud of it. I don't know why but everything was fine before I learned the word procrastination. Then I started procrastinating searching internet for how not to procrastinate. And I found this http://www.sinuousgame.com/ Just a link from fellow procrastinator. ;-) <hat>

Point is procrastination is incurable disease but it won't kill you. You feel bad sometimes but it will be over soon. And you will be happily procrastinating again.

Time you enjoyed wasting wasn't the time wasted. -- Oscar Wilde

6 months ago Pratik responded:

Meditation? Motivational clips and quotes? Seriously?
THOSE THINGS DON'T WORK. If they did the people who suggested them wouldn't be here procrastinating.
Everyone is procrastinating by giving you advice. But I am a procrastinator and proud of it. I don't know why but everything was fine before I learned the word procrastination. Then I started procrastinating searching internet for how not to procrastinate. And I found this http://www.sinuousgame.com/ Just a link from fellow procrastinator. ;-) <hat>

Point is procrastination is incurable disease but it won't kill you. You feel bad sometimes but it will be over soon. And you will be happily procrastinating again.

Time you enjoyed wasting wasn't the time wasted. -- Oscar Wilde

NOTE: Please delete my previous comment. I think I am inviting spam.

6 months ago vannitotaro (Twitter) liked this post.

6 months ago vannitotaro (Twitter) responded:

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I feel your pain. Really.
Procrastination is a real and widespread issue.

To help people fighting this plague I'm building asaclock™ (http://www.asaclock.com), an anti-procrastination web community for startup single founders and people working on side projects.

6 months ago Ersan Seer responded:

Hey bud,

I used to struggle with procrastination and a screwed up sleep schedule. Hardcore. I even dropped out of college twice. It's taken me a few years to build up to this stage, but *I don't struggle with procrastination anymore.* In fact, I get shit done, and I have been for almost 5 years.

Now let's talk about you.

You're so full of judgment against yourself. You're all clenched up inside around the issue of procrastination.

Here's one way to unclench:

Create a day DEDICATED to procrastinating. A day where your sole intention is to PLAN nothing. You need to learn how to be okay with yourself for doing nothing productive. Because right now, you haven't a clue how.

I have something else for you to consider. If you can really grasp this concept, you will get freedom from procrastination:

You think you are committed to not procrastinating.
But you are actually committed to the STRUGGLE against procrastinating. Which means procrastination will continue to occur for you, for the rest of your life.

I learned all this from a special training course. No, I'm not selling their shit. I don't receive a commission. I don't represent them. I'm a futurist (by day, web manager for a law firm) who doesn't procrastinate anymore. I see how much you're struggling with procrastination and I emphathize, and I know a way out. It helped me, and I am certain it can help you.

Email me if you want to know more about the training.

6 months ago bijanbwb (Twitter) liked this post.

6 months ago @fscosta responded:

Believe me, You just need to feel again the sentiment of be productive, doing what you really love.

If the sentiment of procrastinat is bad, the oposite is so good that fill your mind.

I just was in that two situation, and today, at the very end of the day, I feel good to had finished everything that I planned to do.

6 months ago Plinz (Twitter) responded:

Why do we procrastinate? It seems that the root cause is buried in our motivational system, and really quite simple.

Next to our physiological and social drives, we also have cognitive drives. One of those is related to competence. The acquisition of competence creates a pleasure signal (think of leveling up!), and failure creates displeasure.

If our subconscious decision processes evaluate what we should do next, they do not only assess the anticipated pleasure of succeeding in a difficult intellectual task, but also the pain of possible failure. As a result, we might go into a powerful avoidance mode, and attempt to go for a different task that we are competent for, for instance, doing your dishes, checking your email, sharpening your pens. That is not laziness: we just jump for anything that can save us from the anticipated pain.

Unfortunately, that increases the risk of failure at the main task, which leads us into a vicious circle. How can we break free?

A simple trick:

Just do a few preliminary notes before you go to bed. Everything that springs to mind, you can get back to it later. End mid-sentence when you go to bed, so you can continue where you left off without thinking.
For mild cases, that may be enough to break free. If not, there are some sledgehammer methods:

1) Take the task less seriously. This runs against all instincts, because we feel so afraid of failing and want to try even harder. But if we manage to remove importance from that task, then failure is no longer much of a threat, and we may just try to do it for the fun of it. But you may find it difficult to adjust that feeling, your mileage may vary.

2) Adopt an even more difficult and daunting task. If you can really convince yourself, you may do the original task in order to procrastinate away from the new challenge. As long as you stay productive, you may become a very successful person.

If nothing else works:

3) Remove absolutely all distractions and possibilities for procrastination. Install an internet blocker (like SelfControl), deinstall all games, move to a public library. If that is not enough, book a room with breakfast on a remote, unexciting island, and take nothing but your laptop and your notes with you. (This method has gotten many hardcore procrastinators their PhDs.)

No matter what you do: once you manage to make progress on the task without interruptions, you may enter the state of flow. Make sure nothing breaks it, and all is well. The ultimate cure for procrastination is finishing the task.

6 months ago Skhan responded:

It means that the brain is tired, thus lacking your creativity. Put everything down, turn off the phone and get proper sleep.

6 months ago Shrutarshi Basu responded:

If you don't know why humans procrastinate you should ask the people who do know, namely neuroscientists and psychologists. Luckily someone has done the asking for you and gathered the answers. Here is an article based on scientific research and analysis, not random facts and anecdotes. Good luck.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/3w3/how_to_beat_procrastination/

6 months ago seociety (Twitter) responded:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/01/how-to-avoid-procrastination-think.php

6 months ago marajit responded:

Its not you its the work.
Work needs to include communication. When it separates it becomes dead. The work you and most of the developed world is doing is pure puff-cloud magic. Its the developed world!

6 months ago tanja pislar liked this post.

6 months ago Louis-Philippe Simard liked this post.

6 months ago ed_lea (Twitter) responded:

this topic came up recently on reddit

"People overestimate the value of the reward if the reward is imminent, and increasingly discount the value of the reward, the further away it is in time."

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/mkwf2/why_do_humans_procrastinate...

6 months ago fromvilnius (Twitter) liked this post.

6 months ago fromvilnius (Twitter) responded:

That is exactly, how I experience procrastination. Sometimes it's so strong, that quotes and tips are really helpless. The only thing that can keep me from wasting my time is the same that Jobs used. The life is finite. Today there was a brilliant article on Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/2011/12/09/the-diagnosis.html

It reminds me to do meaningful things. And if you do not feel like doing anything, than don't. Always remember self-indulgence - http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html

6 months ago William responded:

> I've still no clue why humans procastrinate. It feels so bad

The fact that it feels bad is a clue I think. There is an *attraction* to guilt, crazy as this may seem, because it strengthens one's sense of self (particularly in a smart person who identifies with the thinking mind).

There are other ways people do apart from procrastinating. Some are brutal and uncivilised, e.g. starting fights in bars (where's the sense in that?!)

6 months ago datt responded:

In the old day's procrastinating means behaving lazy but now it carries doing boring work daily which we don't like at all.This kind of environments you see frequently in software industry especially in maintenance.

6 months ago Bryan Livingston responded:

I fight this by using opendns to ban the news sites on my desktop, but I can still read them on the iPad.

6 months ago itneversleeps (Twitter) responded:

I'm a recovering perfectionist and procastinator. I've spent the past year learning about and wrestling with both of these. I blog about it here - http://www.itneversleeps.net with the idea others could benefit from my experience. I would also recommend The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

6 months ago CodeJoust (Twitter) responded:

I tend to procrastinate by doing more interesting work or talking to others.
Instead of working on what I should be working on (generally essays), I work on a fun web project instead.

5 months ago Victor Torres responded:

Ever heard of organized procrastination? Essentially you save up the tasks that you have to do that take less mental effort, for the inevitable lulls of the day. That way, when you need it most, you can give your brain a rest yet still be somewhat productive.

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At the End of a Procrastinated Day