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Ask HN: How did you quit procrastinating?

6 points by rick_2047 ↗ HN
Hey,

I am just a lazy boy, I know. But there was a time when there was a limit to my laziness. It turned into procrastinating somewhere between my first college assignment and my last internal assessment. I am just unable to complete my studies or anything I uninteresting in the short run. I have been working upon it (diagnosis, as they say, is the first step of curing), but with no luck. Now the problem is, I have finals on 20th and have done very less studies till date. Everytime I want to just get down and study my mind seems to have a knee jerk reaction and I find something else to do.

Have you ever coped up with such a situation? Please give your suggestions on how you solved it.

10 comments

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nato1138
This great book about time management by Lakein, suggests sitting in a chair and do _nothing_ ... no activity, no fidgeting... just sit there. After a several minutes, it's so unbearable, that you get inspired to go and tackle that task.

Pretty cool trick...

ledger123
Any trick I use is to mindlessly start doing anything, just anything, related to work. You will gain momentum after a brief period of activity.

While procrastinating, don't do anything which feeds it. (like facebook, browsing, HNing etc.)

rick_2047
Umm... if you have ever tried it, you might know its hard to quit HNing. Specially if you have a very curious mind
jacquesm
Interesting question, but given the context, anybody that answers you probably hasn't quit yet.

I sure can relate to your problems, only fortunately I'm no longer in school so the impact is limited, but it is a real problem.

When I really have to do stuff I resort to endless lists. Stuff only gets put on the list if it is useful, and I don't allow myself to do anything that is not on the list.

It's brutal but it seems to work.

mvp
Time boxing and pomodoro technique helps
GeneralMaximus
I'm dealing with this right now. My exams begin on Monday, and I just started preparing. I might fail a paper ... again :(

I believe your inaction is not really procrastination. You probably have a lot of material to cover and you don't know where to begin. This is inaction due to indecision. I guess you should decide what subjects you're going to tackle first, and in what order, and then just start studying. The more you think about the amount of stuff you still have to cover, the more indecisive you become.

I'm just hypothesizing, though. Take my advice with several spoonfuls of salt ;)

Next semester, I'm going to take PG's advice and treat college like a day job [1]. You might want to try the same approach.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html

rick_2047
Well even if its not procrastinating, its still not getting me anywhere. I am unable to concentrate.

I did something similar to what you said today. I made the list of 8 subjects which I have to prepare. Turns out there are 3 subjects for which I don't have to study at all (who the hell studies for Basics of C, Communication Skills and Basics of Sci)? 1 subject (Engineering Graphics) I don't will do with my friends.

That leaves me with only Elements of Electrical Engineering, Elements of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Maths and Engineering Mechanics. Which I can prepare.

After that I felt good and took ledger123's advice and started studying maths without thinking about anything else. I have completed two topics out of 10 in an hour, so this is working fine for today I think.

cmos
There is something inside you that you currently do not have control over. So 'double down' on it. Instead of planning to study, plan to not study. Instead of wasting time 'procrastinating' which usually means surfing the internet, plan outings and adventures.

Eventually your 'survival' instinct will kick in, and when it does you'll be well rested, relaxed, ready for the cram session you'll embark on, and not feeling bad for not studying as you filled the time with life experiences, not sitting at a desk not-studying.

Seriously. Take the 'inaction' that renders you useless into the still functional part of your brain. Once it knows your actually in control, you'll be able to translate that to anything you want, because you will stop feeling helpless against this unknown thing that isn't letting you study.

mattm
I would recommend taking a week off but since you have finals in just 12 days try taking 2-3 days completely off. Don't feel guilty about it. Enjoy it. Limit mental stimulation as much as possible. Don't watch TV. Don't use the Internet. Just go for walks or hang out with friends.

I read a study once of a similar experiment tried on a classroom of young children. They told the children they could do whatever they wanted. So for a couple days they just ran around outside but by the third day they were so bored of having nothing to do, they were begging the teachers for work.

Good luck!