Don't worry about what this article talks about. If you're a writer, or an artist, or a musician, etc and are having trouble getting things done, the solution is as simple as this:
Set a time slot everyday where you will sit down and do nothing but work on creating your art. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, your only job is to sit there and create for the whole time period. That's the key, is consistently trying to do it.
He also talks about the concept of "Resistance", which is basically a force of nature that's works against you getting things done, and that gets stronger the closer you are towards doing work that is meaningful to you.
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
I'm an amateur writer / hobbyist. Having had a decade+ practice of this back-and-forth procrastination with my writing, I'd add "blank page" to War of Art and your excellent comment.
"Blank Page" refers to having a separate notebook, or open document page on your computer, that you write why you don't want to write, during your time period.
If I don't want to write, I write that: "I don't feel like writing today. It's not going to mean anything, or I'm bored with the story. Today wasn't that good of a day.." etc. Eventually, it dumps the things distracting you, and after five minutes I'm typically back into writing my actual work.
Creative endeavors/procrastination has always been interesting to me, as I haven't had an issue dumping 90-120 hours into different employers, but have the issue with my own writing.
This is also a tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in various forms of use, namely, sleep. If you can't sleep at night, sometimes you need to dump everything in your brain on paper (which many times turns into a huge to-do list).
Yep, I agree with this. I wrote my first novel during my daily commute (40 minutes each way), and part of the trick was getting into the habit of opening my laptop as soon as I sat down. I also discovered a lot about writer's block. I wrote about the whole thing here: https://medium.com/@gabrielgambetta/how-i-wrote-my-first-nov... (the companion article about the open source pipeline to get it published was discussed in HN earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12311200)
I have no troubles with writing. When I start a new novel, I start with the plot and quickly lay out each chapter by starting it with 1-2 summary paragraphs, which are later discarded. Then I simply write until the novel is finished.
I write only in cafés, so watching other people is my main distraction, but surfing the net and checking emails is also nice from time to time. Procrastination is an important part of writing, I don't see what the problem is with it. Are there still writers who are paid by page/minute?
Personally, I don't trust machine gun writers' writing very much. Whether it's creative or scientific writing, nobody can think that fast, and producing good texts takes a lot of time, corrections and rewriting anyway.
Now if I only knew how to sell my German Sci-Fi novels and make at least a little bit of money from them. That's the real problem. :-/
I also second that book. I think the other possibility that people who are struggling with getting things done is maybe they like the idea of something more than actually doing it. I came to that realization when it came to programming. I discussed with one of my teachers (who also happens to be a life coach) my struggles, and when he suggested maybe I just like the idea of being a programmer more than actually wanting to be one. It definitely got me to think about things. Now I'm just spending more time learning about what I'm good at and focusing on my strengths.
You're completely spot on about consistency. I was told long ago that when practicing guitar (scales, ideas, etc) it's important to actually focus on the activity, not just half-way paying attention while watching TV or something. The focus made the connection, and from there growth and results came forward. After 20+ years of guitar, not as my source of income, granted, I gave the Eric Clapton method (myth?) a try: Put it down for 6 months. That was really refreshing. Callouses come back.
Also, totally a personal experience thing, but I've tended to favor music creation when in "cheerful" head space (usually summer) and gravitate more toward writing projects when in "downer" like conditions (usually winter). They barely overlap, and the pattern has taken me years to notice, but it's there. I've frequently felt like creativity in my realm is not often controllable, but more like an eruption to be harnessed. Thus the discipline and "making time" for hobby-like efforts in the creative realm is where the real effort and hang-ups tend to happen for me.
Someone needs to make a writing editor that disguises itself as forum threads, because I can write paragraphs off the cuff in response to Reddit and Hacker News no problem, but when I sit down to a blank editor I ...well it's hard to even sit at the blank editor to begin with, but it takes a lot of effort to get going.
If it weren't for Nanowrimo and being reminded consistently to participate in a short story anthology every year, I'd be a writer who didn't write (except comments on HN/Reddit).
I've turned lots of off the cuff reddit posts into full length blog posts. In fact, it's my default when it's been two weeks since I last posted and I need to write something. Just go through comment history and find one that's at least a hundred words long with a lot of upvotes, and spin it out.
Problem is that information snacks like news and forums are the intellectual equivalent of vending machine junk food. We know it's better for us to cook our own food but we get lazy. Same with forum posts. We feel like we're actually doing something when we're not.
There have been successful epistolary novels and plays. Maybe two or three people writing dialog in a forum as the characters would be an interesting way to attempt a collaborative work.
Hardly unique to writers, I've had much of the same issues with procrastination when working on personal programming projects. Much as they describe writer's fear of writing a bad novel, I give up when I think no one will want to use the app I'm working on, I think the project be too difficult to finish, or I'm worried about letting people see my badly written code.
Obviously there are some differences - there's a more specific barrier to making software that is functional serves it's intended purpose, compared to a story that might be badly written. But I think "I'm working on an app" may be our generation's version of the "I'm writing a novel" cliche
If the managers call it "content", it's yeoman's work, and you're not going to get a lot of good writing in; the writers will phone it in.
Also, the longer the writing project, the more potential for procrastination. 1000 word articles are easier to wrap up than 10,000 features or books...
It's staggering to me how practice on a keyboard has transitioned to very, very fast train of thought typing. Compared to "thoughtful" writing - such as a fiction piece - it's easily 3 or 4 times faster.
I'm getting a strong impression that the article wanted to talk about hard work, growth mindset, and participation trophies, and not actually analyze why writers put off writing.
I believe things like this can only be properly understood through empathy, and all the talk about millennials and hard work and procrastination, being blame behavior, is already putting one in the wrong mindset.
Perhaps the author should try writing some heavy books, herself.
One simple explanation is that procrastination starts as a symptom of breadth-first search behavior (which can look like slow progress, and is slow progress if you have a poor algorithm/memory), and then it gets significantly aggravated by a shame/guilt feedback loop.
The point about being too worried about writing something that isn't good is likely why I write about half of what I should be writing. Because every time I consider it done, I go back through the article, reword the intro, change a bunch of sentences that don't sound right this time around and still keep thinking "no, this is nowhere near as good as it could be".
I don't believe talent is innate or anything like that (which seems to be the main assumption in the article, that people who procrastinate believed skill is fixed). I believe full well anyone can become a better writer.
It's just my ambition is probably higher than my actual skill level, and I simply can't accept anything I don't see as 'perfect'. So I get stressed, take a break to do something else, get stressed even more and only get the determination to finish on some random day when I feel like finishing everything.
On another note, I wonder how much worse this 'imposter syndrome' and 'perfectionism' has become with the move to CMS systems like WordPress?
Because if you install certain plugins for those scripts (like Yoast), it grades everything you write according to a Flesch–Kincaid readability test. As a result, I find it's very easy to get distracted and worried by the giant warning saying 'improvement required' and end up focusing more on that than what you're actually supposed to be writing about.
Makes me wonder how many writers have been left paralysed with the fear their work isn't 'good enough' simply because of the script they use to write their work in...
My thesis is that procrastination comes from cognitive dissonances. And that's the reason, why I don't understand these articles. They make a "science" out of something rather simple. The reason I (as a hobbyist) "can't" write a book or finish a piece of music is that I have ridiculously high, idealistic standards when it comes to producing a work of art. I much rather produce nothing than something mediocre. I don't even feel bad about it. I embrace fatalism in this area. If I don't produce anything worthwhile, so be it. I can't help it but start one musical project after the other. On rare occasions I've got the feeling I am onto something. In that case finishing is no problem. It could turn out that nobody likes what I do but in that case it doesn't matter because I absolutely feel that I did the right thing.
On the other hand, there are professionals: people who create for a living. (I am not talking about extraordinary people like J.K Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien but people who have to work every day just to fulfill a need of the market) If you decide to go this route then idealistic thinking is (mostly) out of the question. If I had to write a pop song or light fiction I'd just do it. All that is required is knowing the basics of your craft and top down planning and then you just work through the list like a maniac. It may be hard work but it's easy to do because there are no contradictions. It's like knowing that you have to walk 10k to get back home. That may be inconvenient but you quickly realize that you have to do it and then you simply do it.
Nobody starts out creating things that meet their idealistic standards. The only people that create such wonderful things are the people that trudged through that period where they knew they were making crap, but kept going.
you can't trivialise procrastination. Multiple books have been written on the subject, many of which go into the details of biology and economic theory.
1) I may not like what I write even though I _know_ I won't be any good at the start (or ever).
2) Although I know the style I want to write in and read that style a lot, I can't think of a good plot and so I convince myself that I need to do this before even beginning to write. If that makes _any_ sense at all.
Just about every group of people does that (including programmers). Belonging to a group is one of the basic desires of every human, and one easy way to create a feeling of belonging to one group is to differentiate its members from everyone around.
This is a great article thanks for posting it. My SO, in her not-day-job is a writer and stand up comic.
She has set a self imposed 100 word minimum per day and has been going over 3 months now in an attempt to combat this type of procrastination.
It seems to not only be working for her but people who read about what she's doing have also been motivated (but not me, and it's past my bed time ;)) to work on their own projects whatever they may be.
One of my favorite recent fantasy series is Kingkiller Chronicle, but its author is notorious for procrastinating. It sucks because his books are so beloved by the community, but he spends a ton of his time committing to other projects like his podcast and video series, without ever providing any updates on the status of his writing. It's like having a loved one missing and never knowing their whereabouts.
Well, I feel like I could write the same thing except swap "writers" for a different profession and then swap "English" for a different school subject. Engineers are inveterate procrastinators because they easily did well in math. Politicians, because they did great in social studies. And so on.
[+] [-] kdamken|9 years ago|reply
Set a time slot everyday where you will sit down and do nothing but work on creating your art. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, your only job is to sit there and create for the whole time period. That's the key, is consistently trying to do it.
I highly recommend reading the The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, he goes into this a lot more - https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1...
He also talks about the concept of "Resistance", which is basically a force of nature that's works against you getting things done, and that gets stronger the closer you are towards doing work that is meaningful to you.
[+] [-] ramblerman|9 years ago|reply
-- From "Art and Fear"
[+] [-] salemh|9 years ago|reply
"Blank Page" refers to having a separate notebook, or open document page on your computer, that you write why you don't want to write, during your time period.
If I don't want to write, I write that: "I don't feel like writing today. It's not going to mean anything, or I'm bored with the story. Today wasn't that good of a day.." etc. Eventually, it dumps the things distracting you, and after five minutes I'm typically back into writing my actual work.
Creative endeavors/procrastination has always been interesting to me, as I haven't had an issue dumping 90-120 hours into different employers, but have the issue with my own writing.
This is also a tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in various forms of use, namely, sleep. If you can't sleep at night, sometimes you need to dump everything in your brain on paper (which many times turns into a huge to-do list).
[+] [-] ggambetta|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnStrange|9 years ago|reply
I write only in cafés, so watching other people is my main distraction, but surfing the net and checking emails is also nice from time to time. Procrastination is an important part of writing, I don't see what the problem is with it. Are there still writers who are paid by page/minute?
Personally, I don't trust machine gun writers' writing very much. Whether it's creative or scientific writing, nobody can think that fast, and producing good texts takes a lot of time, corrections and rewriting anyway.
Now if I only knew how to sell my German Sci-Fi novels and make at least a little bit of money from them. That's the real problem. :-/
[+] [-] haraball|9 years ago|reply
The videos in that link seems to be down, but the whole talk is worth a watch: https://vimeo.com/121544005
[+] [-] spaceisballer|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 6stringmerc|9 years ago|reply
Also, totally a personal experience thing, but I've tended to favor music creation when in "cheerful" head space (usually summer) and gravitate more toward writing projects when in "downer" like conditions (usually winter). They barely overlap, and the pattern has taken me years to notice, but it's there. I've frequently felt like creativity in my realm is not often controllable, but more like an eruption to be harnessed. Thus the discipline and "making time" for hobby-like efforts in the creative realm is where the real effort and hang-ups tend to happen for me.
[+] [-] feklar|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsprogrammer|9 years ago|reply
Laziness is a virtue; at least among programmers. "Writers" just use different language.
Writing to say you write is just creating needless noise at best, and perhaps a kind of technical debt at the worser ends.
If you have something to write, write it. If you don't, you don't (because you are doing something else).
[+] [-] cableshaft|9 years ago|reply
If it weren't for Nanowrimo and being reminded consistently to participate in a short story anthology every year, I'd be a writer who didn't write (except comments on HN/Reddit).
[+] [-] munificent|9 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Sweet_Rome
[+] [-] dredmorbius|9 years ago|reply
This started as a comment in a G+ thread, _including_ the 37 footnotes: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/5l_8MqtVwLLvX_DabPjY-g
This got written (along with the research for the numbers) because I'd gotten sufficiently pissed off at zero-information-basis discussions on the topic: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/nAya9WqdemIoVuVWVOYQUQ
A re-share of a meme that struck me as slightly too-good-to-be-true inspired this: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/39w8u4/jp_morg...
Follow-ups to the Google numbers piece above inspired this: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/trackin...
I've also used forums to try out ideas I'm developing, solicit feedback, etc., etc.
Most of my writing is nonfiction and explores topics, or reports on findings based on explorations, usually of literature within one or more fields.
And I've considered shopping a few of these pieces around, though I've not yet done so.
[+] [-] Kluny|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rm_-rf_slash|9 years ago|reply
Problem is that information snacks like news and forums are the intellectual equivalent of vending machine junk food. We know it's better for us to cook our own food but we get lazy. Same with forum posts. We feel like we're actually doing something when we're not.
[+] [-] cestith|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wjoe|9 years ago|reply
Obviously there are some differences - there's a more specific barrier to making software that is functional serves it's intended purpose, compared to a story that might be badly written. But I think "I'm working on an app" may be our generation's version of the "I'm writing a novel" cliche
[+] [-] jkot|9 years ago|reply
In other terms, image as coder you are paid by number of lines you produce. And there is no compiler, no unit tests...
[+] [-] frandroid|9 years ago|reply
Also, the longer the writing project, the more potential for procrastination. 1000 word articles are easier to wrap up than 10,000 features or books...
[+] [-] 6stringmerc|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] projektir|9 years ago|reply
I believe things like this can only be properly understood through empathy, and all the talk about millennials and hard work and procrastination, being blame behavior, is already putting one in the wrong mindset.
Perhaps the author should try writing some heavy books, herself.
[+] [-] leot|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CM30|9 years ago|reply
I don't believe talent is innate or anything like that (which seems to be the main assumption in the article, that people who procrastinate believed skill is fixed). I believe full well anyone can become a better writer.
It's just my ambition is probably higher than my actual skill level, and I simply can't accept anything I don't see as 'perfect'. So I get stressed, take a break to do something else, get stressed even more and only get the determination to finish on some random day when I feel like finishing everything.
On another note, I wonder how much worse this 'imposter syndrome' and 'perfectionism' has become with the move to CMS systems like WordPress?
Because if you install certain plugins for those scripts (like Yoast), it grades everything you write according to a Flesch–Kincaid readability test. As a result, I find it's very easy to get distracted and worried by the giant warning saying 'improvement required' and end up focusing more on that than what you're actually supposed to be writing about.
Makes me wonder how many writers have been left paralysed with the fear their work isn't 'good enough' simply because of the script they use to write their work in...
[+] [-] cJ0th|9 years ago|reply
On the other hand, there are professionals: people who create for a living. (I am not talking about extraordinary people like J.K Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien but people who have to work every day just to fulfill a need of the market) If you decide to go this route then idealistic thinking is (mostly) out of the question. If I had to write a pop song or light fiction I'd just do it. All that is required is knowing the basics of your craft and top down planning and then you just work through the list like a maniac. It may be hard work but it's easy to do because there are no contradictions. It's like knowing that you have to walk 10k to get back home. That may be inconvenient but you quickly realize that you have to do it and then you simply do it.
[+] [-] lifeformed|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] llamaz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|9 years ago|reply
1) I may not like what I write even though I _know_ I won't be any good at the start (or ever).
2) Although I know the style I want to write in and read that style a lot, I can't think of a good plot and so I convince myself that I need to do this before even beginning to write. If that makes _any_ sense at all.
[+] [-] kiddz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] veddox|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pattisapu|9 years ago|reply
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n17/robert-hanks/on-putting-things-...
[+] [-] icc97|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waspleg|9 years ago|reply
She has set a self imposed 100 word minimum per day and has been going over 3 months now in an attempt to combat this type of procrastination.
It seems to not only be working for her but people who read about what she's doing have also been motivated (but not me, and it's past my bed time ;)) to work on their own projects whatever they may be.
[+] [-] JohaRiz|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emodendroket|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sambobeckingham|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ctdonath|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jimmy|9 years ago|reply
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