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Ask HN: How to Avoid Procrastination

9 points by golanggeek ↗ HN
Whenever I am about to start working on some more critical software problems or even say to do some activity (pay bills) for which the deadline is not immediate, inadvertently I change to my browser and start reading some new sites.

I have installed all the necessary blocking software in my system, but being a software engineer I see myself circumventing it almost always (there are so many other ways - phone, another laptop, your wife's phone, television...). It is as if, when the time comes my brain is hesitant to put that extra effort and tries to push me to take the easy route.

After I have spent the whole time on unproductive things, the next day morning I make up my mind to say - I should not get into this cycle. Then 11am starts and I again go into this.

I'm looking for some tips here on how to make myself do it.. and to understand why one does this.. is it just me or are there more people who face this same issue.

8 comments

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luckylion
I found Work Cycles [0] to be somewhat helpful. I also saw a doctor and found out I had some vitamin-levels too low, got a few shots and now get a refresher about every six months since apparently absorption of vitamins isn't working great from food for me.

What really completely changed the game, and I know people here don't like that, was Modafinil. If you're not anti-medication, I strongly recommend to look into that.

[0] https://www.ultraworking.com/cycles

throw51319
Which vitamins?
luckylion
In my case it was a severe lack of B6, B9/Folate and B12, which was diagnosed via blood test (but which they apparently don't check for in your average blood test in Germany). Had four shots a week apart to "fill me up" and one every six months since.
Pick-A-Hill2019
To quote from [1] "....the momentary relief we feel when procrastinating is actually what makes the cycle especially vicious. In the immediate present, putting off a task provides relief — “you’ve been rewarded for procrastinating,” Dr. Sirois said. And we know from basic behaviorism that when we’re rewarded for something, we tend to do it again. This is precisely why procrastination tends not to be a one-off behavior, but a cycle, one that easily becomes a chronic habit."

Sometimes understanding the 'why' helps us to solve the 'how'

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-pr... (posted to HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19482238 in 2019)

[2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/20160...

kleer001
In terms of completely mental steps these are the two that work for me:

1) Existential Panic.

2) Having something bigger and/or more important to procrastinate against.

krrishd
i've found it helpful realizing that in procrastinating, my mind tricks itself into the nice, subconscious feeling of passing on the task to someone else who's more likely to do it.

basically worth reminding myself when i procrastinate that i'm passing the baton onto someone with no more interest/discipline than i have right now -- so if i'm passing it on, why wouldn't he?

tubularhells
Therapy helped me more than any self-starter plan or lifehack ever did.
gcheong
Understand that it is primarily a problem of avoiding negative emotions around starting a task than it is a discipline problem. Dr. Timothy Pychyl's work on this may be useful to you , his book - Solving the Procrastination Puzzle - is a short guid to the most current research on the subject and strategies that have been shown to work for people.