The oversimplification and promises that if you just buy their thing you'll have a distraction free life in 14 days really irks me.
I struggled with this stuff for over 40 years. Only last year, after a disastrous crash, did I start learning about ADHD, which finally gave me the language and tools and access to support that I needed to start making a meaningful difference.
Without the understanding that diagnosis gave me, I'd tried every productivity technique and app, and came up with my own ad hoc systems, but they didn't stick and just reinforced the cycle of seeing myself as someone who's just doomed to live the life of a chronic procrastinator, always stressed out and overwhelmed.
A course like this would have done nothing but separate me from some money and give me a temporary feeling that I found the magic answer to everything, leading to disappointment and self hatred when I inevitably dropped it all.
I only have a personal anecdote, but if it sounds familiar, maybe there's some advice buried in it.
It's the classic situation of someone without ADHD telling us "just focus!" or "you just need to write things down!" or "you're just lazy".
I have ADHD, and I also do not have a sense of smell (lost it in a TBI when I was a teenager). I tell people, "you take for granted what it's like to have a sense of smell. It affects every moment of your day, catching your interest and directing your attention all the time. Imagine not having a sense of smell. Imagine not smelling dinner or smelling your wife or smelling your baby. Imagine not smelling flowers or not smelling a gas leak. So much of what you take for granted comes from your sense of smell. Having ADHD is like that. You take executive function for granted, and can't imagine what it's like to not have that. When you say 'just write things down!' it's like saying 'just smell harder!'"
I could have written this... I've spent thousands on productivity and organization courses, and put a lot of effort into them, only to find myself unable to follow the system, for reasons I don't understand.
My whole life I've suffered from massive guilt, shame, and stress over not getting things done that were really important to me, and nobody understanding. "Clearly it's not important to you, or you would just do it."
I was actually diagnosed with ADHD 12 years ago, and the first medication and dose I tried didn't work, so I stopped, and basically forgot I even had ADHD. In part, I think I internalized the shame and dismissals from other people and still believed I was just "lazy" and "bad" and needed to try harder even despite having a clinical diagnosis.
It didn't help that my (now ex) wife also was totally dismissive of the idea that I had ADHD, as were most of my friends and family. Even from other people I know with ADHD, they would get angry or dismissive when I mentioned my diagnosis, saying I can't possibly have ADHD because I have been successful so far in my career.
I just recently decided to start looking into it again, now that my son has also been diagnosed. If I can learn how to help myself, maybe it will help me help him.
I recently heard a podcast interview with Jessica McCabe, and she said something that was mind blowing to me: that there is no one solution or cure for ADHD, and we need to stop looking for that. You will need a large toolbox of things to help, and will need to keep adapting and changing this, and it still won't ever be a "cure."
If anyone has any good info or resources to learn more about ADHD, please post them.
Sorry to heard that. I also have adhd and I’ve looking for solutions since I was 11 years old, now I am 29 years old and pretty much tested all the vitamins, exams, medication, therapy and bunch of other things. Today I found how to manage my adhd, the basic stuff, eat well, exercise and sleep well. It seems so simple but we need to find a synergy between all the basic, vitamins we sometimes have to take, CBT and so on. The doctor Le Grand on YouTube helped to discover a lot of alternative treatments and it worked, so well that I think I am using the super power of adhd and not longer controlled by a incessant mental energy.
This isn't at all what they claim. Can you point out where they say that "if you just buy their thing you'll have a distraction free life in 14 days" ?
What it actually claims is to get you to "bearable levels of procrastination", which I find refreshing, since it seems like a very achievable and realistic goal for those of us that procrastinate. In fact, this claim is nearly the opposite of what you're railing against.
You also said you have personally started making a meaningful difference, but gave zero hint about what you have done, and what impact it has made. And you leave us with "maybe there's some advice buried in it". I'd like to say, no, there's none I can see, unless you'd like to offer something specific and helpful. I'm curious to see what you have done.
My first couple of weeks at Bridgewater I was diagnosed with a fear of failure - deep reluctance to set off on a journey unless I could see the entire path through to the other side.
I thought that was a good way to be actually (keeps you safe from doomed endeavors) but obviously keeps you from progressing on things where the only way to figure out the path is to walk it.
In retrospect it’s a form of anxiety. If you assume the world is against you and dangerous then setting into an ambiguous space is probabilistically negative. If you have faith that things work out for the best, it lets you set out on such a path easier.
I think this isn’t just me. We tend to procrastinate in the absence of “perfection “ because we perceive some sort of danger / downside for ourselves from that imperfection. Whereas the better way to think is with the end in mind: what outcome do I really care about? Does this messy step X make that outcome a bit more likely? If yes then you do it with excitement.
To lessen the cost of the first step that begins The Thousand Mile Journey: I plan to do everything at least twice. Leave room for failure in the prediction to (at least partially) avoid the planning fallacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy (if you haven't encountered this one weird quirk yet, it's a must read/skim). I believe most mammals tend toward optimism... They naturally have less fear of doomed endeavors.
I had an essay on Emergent Design Principles around here somewhere... For instance, I do a quick and dirty stab in the dark to map the problem space. Then totally rewrite and refactor now that I can make a more educated guess. Right then I generate the API and all (public function stubs), organizing and documenting everything. Management will demand I "ship it" without full docs and full of kluges otherwise...
I'll save the rest of that for a more on-topic thread. The gist is that procrastination can be countered by allotting time to play around in the problem space (incorporate procrastination into workflow -- can't beat it, join it). At worse I try a deliberate attempt at failure (well I knew it wouldn't have worked, but it would have been cool if it had), and at least I got myself into "code mode" doing something at all. No fear of failure, since I planned to fail that time anyway. Then I'll at least know a bit better the "lay of the land" (problem space features to fit against). It's oft the first step for me that's the hardest.
My favorite trick is to have at least one side project that I work on as procrastination of doing main projects. Without fail I'll be worrying about the main project enough that I'll realize some side-project procrastination-code I've just written shows an elegant way forward in the main project and I can no longer resist the urge to see it in action. At the least I'll be making some manner of progress, and getting closer to that "Zen" state wherein I do my main project work.
I can definitely relate to this, and I found the only way past it (for me) was to not plan at all. Just show up and hope for the best, basically. Requires a different kind of prep (good habits vs direct planning) and an adjustment of attitude (it's fine if things aren't perfect).
One thing you have to practice is the art (science?) of separating emotion from action. My historical crutch is suffering from the emotion of failure or anticipation of failure and not learning as much from that failure. And, what looks like failure at the start of something may in fact turn the other way. Life, process, things evolve somewhat out of your control.
That ties to my other point. I think it's important to learn to give up power/control. Try to look things with an objective lens. What can you do, what can't you do, where do you need help, and methodically tackle. Worry less about where the power and control comes from and do things that drive toward an outcome.
Interesting that pretty much all submissions on the first page of results from this domain is both by the same user and broadly seems to be about the same overarching theme of procrastination.
Is OP the author of the site?
(OP also posts links to other sites, so not saying OP is doing anything wrong though.)
Since 7 of the last 30 submissions by OP are that site and the pattern continues, I find it absolutely understandable and good-faith to become suspicious.
I don't want to participate in a witch hunt here, but HN needs to stay vigilant against spam and self-promotion that exceeds the reasonable intersection with honestly showing personal projects.
Discussions including "human interest" topics like this one are often of exceptional quality here. It would be bad to lose that.
So I think it is fair to dicuss this openly. Sorry if I am being coming across as rude towards a one man enterprise or something, but self-promotion on HN should follow strict rules and if this is indeed promotion, it is breaking the rules.
I post whatever I find interesting and occasionally throw in one of the articles I worked on. If people find it interesting or useful, great, if not, that's okay too.
I'm not comfortable taking advice on "deprocrastination" from someone who made procrastination their career (or side gig?), except for the advice "if you find yourself procrastinating, quit your job and make what you'd rather do your job". But that rarely pays the bills .
Gee, I wish I had something stable that I'd "rather do". The problem is that even though I've had hundreds of hobbies, once I get good at something, I stop being able to do it. Not a single one of those hobbies lasts long enough to be a job.
All these advice on productivity ultimately seem to wanna turn you into some sort of assembly line robot, achieve maximum productivity, produce!
Well funk that, in the end what matters is persistence. You don't need to work 12 hours per day, heck don't even need to work 8 ;) ;) ;) I mean like everyone knows the productivity window is at best a couple hours. But those couple hours add up and in the end somehow stuff gets done, tasks get completed, company carries on.
And on my own side projects I'm applying the same philosophy. Ideally a little bit from time to time (not even every day coze it starts to look too much like work). And if it happens that I start working and some interruption comes along, so be it, there will be another day. I don't have to ship tomorrow as long as I finish eventually. Over the years this has added up to quite a bit of accomplishments.
I also suggest to add a physical signal on your typical life accessories like phone or watch.
E.g. swapping or adding a special colored case during productive time to remind you to return to focus on production when you tend to break into "day-dreaming".
Does not make you start the day, but lets you keep going longer (ok, that might sound wrong, but let's keep it for its mnemonic value).
I have a little silicone thumb ring I use for this. No idea why I bought a handful of them in the first place but they're useful for this sort of thing!
If I'm wearing it, there's still work stuff on my todo list that needs doing today.
Brings me back to the PC rather than coming in from a walk and doing a bunch of housework I notice on the way in haha. Hard to miss being on my hand, almost anything I could do while procrastinating will make me see it :)
Great ideas. I believe that dealing with a messy ambient or situations is a nice skill to develop, some people can't handle it at all.
With time, you'll start to appreciate the imperfections, the fact that you can't absolutely focus for a task because people are sending you messages, will have a smaller impact on your emotions and your overall focus will improve.
Having the goal of having absolute uninterrupted time and the stars aligning so you can just do what you need is the root of all procrastination, doing something 10% is better than 0%.
I'm a perfectionist and as soon as I've started thinking, reflecting and accepting real and even half-assed solutions to problems, my life started to improve, and it became lighter as well.
You also don't need to worry, you can't unlearn being a perfectionist, but indeed, you need a few things or moments of your day to unleash that "perfection' energy, it just doesn't need to be everytime.
> I've started thinking, reflecting and accepting real and even half-assed solutions to problems, my life started to improve, and it became lighter as well.
Love it. Great job. I feel the same. Good enough works well in many situations.
Especially valuable piece of advice is to find 25-30 minutes of uninterrupted time and aim to knock out one small task. Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot.
Taking notes will both help you track progress and give you a sense of movement. It will also make sure that you can easily regain context in the next attempt.
I agree wholeheartedly. I've been stuck in a rut of procrastination for the last several years, during which I hardly ever started side projects or experiments due to tired old excuses such as "I simply don't have enough time", "This would at least need x hours per day", etc.
When I eventually tried to start something, it would inevitably be delayed by other daily things to carry out (work, family, other life related stuff), so not taking notes would always result in "" have no idea what I was aiming for last time".
Add to that a fairly (un)healthy dose of perfectionism coming from working in the same field, and you have a recipe for years wasted on complete inactivity.
Another fiend of this kind, friendly to procrastination, is the inability to decide what to actually work on, especially when you have a lot of interests.
Then the question becomes "I have hours available to work on something, but I cannot pull the trigger on any of those things that interest me", so back again to square 1 with year wasted on indecisiveness with nothing to show for it.
I don't have tasks I can do in 25 or 30 minutes, except for the exact kind of "marking messages read" tasks that leave me feeling empty at the end of the day.
> Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot.
For me, these notes would mostly be "spent 25 minutes rebuilding context, got pulled away" over and over again.
I think there are some good techniques in this article. Taking notes is good.
But I don't think embracing the chaos is the way to go, I think being a lot more proactive and firm about giving yourself the time you need to focus and do high quality work is the better approach.
If every day is becoming a mess, start by figuring out how to fix that.
I like to think about discipline in terms of habits, either built in a perfect environment or real and messy, as described in the article. The perfect ones are what we aim to achieve, but they are flimsy because once we are in a different environment, the habits disappear. The latter are much more prone to changes but harder to initialize.
This is the conclusion that I've come to as well after trying for way too long to find inspiration to those things that I either want to do (on some level) or need to do.
Habits are things you do that don't have a big hurdle. For years I've been able to run without feeling that there's a great resistance in doing it (I don't normally identify as a runner). But picking up some work that I want to do but don't feel it's the right moment to do has been a lot harder. Lately I've had some progress with at just doing tasks because it's become a habit when I have some time over.
There is also the idea that the common thing is more important than the extraordinary. Common everyday tasks should be higher priority than the extraordinary tasks.
I was suffering from procrastination last 3 years. The reason was 1) burnout. 2) some biological health issues I did not know about. Once I fixed that it went away. No philosophy was needed. So no, no amount of incantations will help, if you are biologically unwell.
In my experience the best way to solve procrastination, provided you have a tangible goal, is to do at least one small thing towards it per day. This will often (but not necessarily) put you in the mindset to do more things.
Tiny successes in something like this - I've got a whole system of timers that are either tracking what I'm doing or tracking the time when I'm not doing something during work time.
From there I've got an automation that will send me a notification warning me the timewaster timer is about to start and that I should start working on something. There's a tiny slither of shame in there that seems to be helping! :)
I am also working on a more thought out app/system/service/bot that does indeed use GPT (and regular old if statements and cron jobs) to help me schedule out my tasks for the day, recover my schedule after missing tasks, shame me via a messenger interface for leaving a task on my list too long, etc... but in the most obvious case of irony I keep procrastinating on actually building it. It's getting there slowly :)
If you look at their stuff on addiction, they have no grounding in current theory. And by current theory, that's from science to religious ideas like prayer, nothing they talk about matches anything in the world from hard numbers to mysticism. They also have no explanation why they break with all the current theories or where their theories come from.
By now they are a HN institution, but I'd be very wary following their advice if you medically depend on it working.
deprocrastination.co is like a surreal movie, I think I like it, but I'm glad sites like these are not everywhere, like Scientology, fun because it's different. OP you should also create a new religion and run a site, you'd be good I think. That's not facetious-ism, but you'd have to be morally ok with it.
[edit] As an example of what I'm saying related to this article - "Imperfect action > perfect nothing" has no real meaning. It's simplified to "action > nothing"
What would be meaningful is "wrong action > perfect nothing" or "action > planning"
But as you can see HN eats up stuff like "Imperfect action > perfect nothing" It's good writing.
I think you may be right about the rest, but I don't understand your last point. "Imperfect action > perfect nothing" is not meaningless and does not simplify to "action > nothing". It's just a different (not nearly as evocative, IMO) way to say "don't let perfect be the enemy of good". And I think this is indeed an important point that chronic procrastinators constantly struggle with.
masto|2 years ago
I struggled with this stuff for over 40 years. Only last year, after a disastrous crash, did I start learning about ADHD, which finally gave me the language and tools and access to support that I needed to start making a meaningful difference.
Without the understanding that diagnosis gave me, I'd tried every productivity technique and app, and came up with my own ad hoc systems, but they didn't stick and just reinforced the cycle of seeing myself as someone who's just doomed to live the life of a chronic procrastinator, always stressed out and overwhelmed.
A course like this would have done nothing but separate me from some money and give me a temporary feeling that I found the magic answer to everything, leading to disappointment and self hatred when I inevitably dropped it all.
I only have a personal anecdote, but if it sounds familiar, maybe there's some advice buried in it.
prometheus76|2 years ago
I have ADHD, and I also do not have a sense of smell (lost it in a TBI when I was a teenager). I tell people, "you take for granted what it's like to have a sense of smell. It affects every moment of your day, catching your interest and directing your attention all the time. Imagine not having a sense of smell. Imagine not smelling dinner or smelling your wife or smelling your baby. Imagine not smelling flowers or not smelling a gas leak. So much of what you take for granted comes from your sense of smell. Having ADHD is like that. You take executive function for granted, and can't imagine what it's like to not have that. When you say 'just write things down!' it's like saying 'just smell harder!'"
UniverseHacker|2 years ago
My whole life I've suffered from massive guilt, shame, and stress over not getting things done that were really important to me, and nobody understanding. "Clearly it's not important to you, or you would just do it."
I was actually diagnosed with ADHD 12 years ago, and the first medication and dose I tried didn't work, so I stopped, and basically forgot I even had ADHD. In part, I think I internalized the shame and dismissals from other people and still believed I was just "lazy" and "bad" and needed to try harder even despite having a clinical diagnosis.
It didn't help that my (now ex) wife also was totally dismissive of the idea that I had ADHD, as were most of my friends and family. Even from other people I know with ADHD, they would get angry or dismissive when I mentioned my diagnosis, saying I can't possibly have ADHD because I have been successful so far in my career.
I just recently decided to start looking into it again, now that my son has also been diagnosed. If I can learn how to help myself, maybe it will help me help him.
I recently heard a podcast interview with Jessica McCabe, and she said something that was mind blowing to me: that there is no one solution or cure for ADHD, and we need to stop looking for that. You will need a large toolbox of things to help, and will need to keep adapting and changing this, and it still won't ever be a "cure."
If anyone has any good info or resources to learn more about ADHD, please post them.
charliebwrites|2 years ago
This is something I also struggle with and as I get older it feels like I’m losing opportunities to do the things I want to do to ADHD
dovelome|2 years ago
LeafItAlone|2 years ago
patrick451|2 years ago
slingnow|2 years ago
What it actually claims is to get you to "bearable levels of procrastination", which I find refreshing, since it seems like a very achievable and realistic goal for those of us that procrastinate. In fact, this claim is nearly the opposite of what you're railing against.
You also said you have personally started making a meaningful difference, but gave zero hint about what you have done, and what impact it has made. And you leave us with "maybe there's some advice buried in it". I'd like to say, no, there's none I can see, unless you'd like to offer something specific and helpful. I'm curious to see what you have done.
xyzelement|2 years ago
I thought that was a good way to be actually (keeps you safe from doomed endeavors) but obviously keeps you from progressing on things where the only way to figure out the path is to walk it.
In retrospect it’s a form of anxiety. If you assume the world is against you and dangerous then setting into an ambiguous space is probabilistically negative. If you have faith that things work out for the best, it lets you set out on such a path easier.
I think this isn’t just me. We tend to procrastinate in the absence of “perfection “ because we perceive some sort of danger / downside for ourselves from that imperfection. Whereas the better way to think is with the end in mind: what outcome do I really care about? Does this messy step X make that outcome a bit more likely? If yes then you do it with excitement.
codelobe|2 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_fallacy (if you haven't encountered this one weird quirk yet, it's a must read/skim). I believe most mammals tend toward optimism... They naturally have less fear of doomed endeavors.
I had an essay on Emergent Design Principles around here somewhere... For instance, I do a quick and dirty stab in the dark to map the problem space. Then totally rewrite and refactor now that I can make a more educated guess. Right then I generate the API and all (public function stubs), organizing and documenting everything. Management will demand I "ship it" without full docs and full of kluges otherwise...
I'll save the rest of that for a more on-topic thread. The gist is that procrastination can be countered by allotting time to play around in the problem space (incorporate procrastination into workflow -- can't beat it, join it). At worse I try a deliberate attempt at failure (well I knew it wouldn't have worked, but it would have been cool if it had), and at least I got myself into "code mode" doing something at all. No fear of failure, since I planned to fail that time anyway. Then I'll at least know a bit better the "lay of the land" (problem space features to fit against). It's oft the first step for me that's the hardest.
My favorite trick is to have at least one side project that I work on as procrastination of doing main projects. Without fail I'll be worrying about the main project enough that I'll realize some side-project procrastination-code I've just written shows an elegant way forward in the main project and I can no longer resist the urge to see it in action. At the least I'll be making some manner of progress, and getting closer to that "Zen" state wherein I do my main project work.
dakial1|2 years ago
One of the main things holding me back in life is this fear of taking risks (which translates into a lot of things, like procrastination)
I'm great at mapping project risks though. So there is that. :)
hirvi74|2 years ago
I have seen zero evidence that this is not true in my 31 years on this planet.
> If you have faith that things work out for the best, it lets you set out on such a path easier.
As Louis C.K. said:
> "An optimist is somebody who says, 'Maybe something nice will happen?' Why they fuck would anything nice ever happen?"
larrik|2 years ago
grvdrm|2 years ago
One thing you have to practice is the art (science?) of separating emotion from action. My historical crutch is suffering from the emotion of failure or anticipation of failure and not learning as much from that failure. And, what looks like failure at the start of something may in fact turn the other way. Life, process, things evolve somewhat out of your control.
That ties to my other point. I think it's important to learn to give up power/control. Try to look things with an objective lens. What can you do, what can't you do, where do you need help, and methodically tackle. Worry less about where the power and control comes from and do things that drive toward an outcome.
I'm practicing constantly!
snikeris|2 years ago
codetrotter|2 years ago
Interesting that pretty much all submissions on the first page of results from this domain is both by the same user and broadly seems to be about the same overarching theme of procrastination.
Is OP the author of the site?
(OP also posts links to other sites, so not saying OP is doing anything wrong though.)
moritzwarhier|2 years ago
Other users have been accusing the same https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28894120
I don't want to participate in a witch hunt here, but HN needs to stay vigilant against spam and self-promotion that exceeds the reasonable intersection with honestly showing personal projects.
Discussions including "human interest" topics like this one are often of exceptional quality here. It would be bad to lose that.
So I think it is fair to dicuss this openly. Sorry if I am being coming across as rude towards a one man enterprise or something, but self-promotion on HN should follow strict rules and if this is indeed promotion, it is breaking the rules.
vitabenes|2 years ago
lupire|2 years ago
LoganDark|2 years ago
rapnie|2 years ago
bookofjoe|2 years ago
MichaelRo|2 years ago
Well funk that, in the end what matters is persistence. You don't need to work 12 hours per day, heck don't even need to work 8 ;) ;) ;) I mean like everyone knows the productivity window is at best a couple hours. But those couple hours add up and in the end somehow stuff gets done, tasks get completed, company carries on.
And on my own side projects I'm applying the same philosophy. Ideally a little bit from time to time (not even every day coze it starts to look too much like work). And if it happens that I start working and some interruption comes along, so be it, there will be another day. I don't have to ship tomorrow as long as I finish eventually. Over the years this has added up to quite a bit of accomplishments.
So one word: persistence.
hoc|2 years ago
E.g. swapping or adding a special colored case during productive time to remind you to return to focus on production when you tend to break into "day-dreaming".
Does not make you start the day, but lets you keep going longer (ok, that might sound wrong, but let's keep it for its mnemonic value).
corobo|2 years ago
If I'm wearing it, there's still work stuff on my todo list that needs doing today.
Brings me back to the PC rather than coming in from a walk and doing a bunch of housework I notice on the way in haha. Hard to miss being on my hand, almost anything I could do while procrastinating will make me see it :)
thiago_fm|2 years ago
With time, you'll start to appreciate the imperfections, the fact that you can't absolutely focus for a task because people are sending you messages, will have a smaller impact on your emotions and your overall focus will improve.
Having the goal of having absolute uninterrupted time and the stars aligning so you can just do what you need is the root of all procrastination, doing something 10% is better than 0%.
I'm a perfectionist and as soon as I've started thinking, reflecting and accepting real and even half-assed solutions to problems, my life started to improve, and it became lighter as well.
You also don't need to worry, you can't unlearn being a perfectionist, but indeed, you need a few things or moments of your day to unleash that "perfection' energy, it just doesn't need to be everytime.
grvdrm|2 years ago
Love it. Great job. I feel the same. Good enough works well in many situations.
loneranger_11x|2 years ago
Especially valuable piece of advice is to find 25-30 minutes of uninterrupted time and aim to knock out one small task. Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot.
Taking notes will both help you track progress and give you a sense of movement. It will also make sure that you can easily regain context in the next attempt.
bru3s|2 years ago
When I eventually tried to start something, it would inevitably be delayed by other daily things to carry out (work, family, other life related stuff), so not taking notes would always result in "" have no idea what I was aiming for last time".
Add to that a fairly (un)healthy dose of perfectionism coming from working in the same field, and you have a recipe for years wasted on complete inactivity.
Another fiend of this kind, friendly to procrastination, is the inability to decide what to actually work on, especially when you have a lot of interests. Then the question becomes "I have hours available to work on something, but I cannot pull the trigger on any of those things that interest me", so back again to square 1 with year wasted on indecisiveness with nothing to show for it.
sanderjd|2 years ago
I don't have tasks I can do in 25 or 30 minutes, except for the exact kind of "marking messages read" tasks that leave me feeling empty at the end of the day.
> Even if you didn't finish it, note down progress and next steps. Go at it again in the next slot.
For me, these notes would mostly be "spent 25 minutes rebuilding context, got pulled away" over and over again.
I think there are some good techniques in this article. Taking notes is good.
But I don't think embracing the chaos is the way to go, I think being a lot more proactive and firm about giving yourself the time you need to focus and do high quality work is the better approach.
If every day is becoming a mess, start by figuring out how to fix that.
__natty__|2 years ago
mingusrude|2 years ago
Habits are things you do that don't have a big hurdle. For years I've been able to run without feeling that there's a great resistance in doing it (I don't normally identify as a runner). But picking up some work that I want to do but don't feel it's the right moment to do has been a lot harder. Lately I've had some progress with at just doing tasks because it's become a habit when I have some time over.
detourdog|2 years ago
SomeoneFromCA|2 years ago
xyzzy4747|2 years ago
tokai|2 years ago
hindsightbias|2 years ago
thefatboy|2 years ago
adadadadadad|2 years ago
I wonder if you could prompt it to be a vicious task master boss who demands regular status updates and can adequately shame you.
corobo|2 years ago
From there I've got an automation that will send me a notification warning me the timewaster timer is about to start and that I should start working on something. There's a tiny slither of shame in there that seems to be helping! :)
I am also working on a more thought out app/system/service/bot that does indeed use GPT (and regular old if statements and cron jobs) to help me schedule out my tasks for the day, recover my schedule after missing tasks, shame me via a messenger interface for leaving a task on my list too long, etc... but in the most obvious case of irony I keep procrastinating on actually building it. It's getting there slowly :)
hindsightbias|2 years ago
aaron695|2 years ago
If you look at their stuff on addiction, they have no grounding in current theory. And by current theory, that's from science to religious ideas like prayer, nothing they talk about matches anything in the world from hard numbers to mysticism. They also have no explanation why they break with all the current theories or where their theories come from.
By now they are a HN institution, but I'd be very wary following their advice if you medically depend on it working.
deprocrastination.co is like a surreal movie, I think I like it, but I'm glad sites like these are not everywhere, like Scientology, fun because it's different. OP you should also create a new religion and run a site, you'd be good I think. That's not facetious-ism, but you'd have to be morally ok with it.
[edit] As an example of what I'm saying related to this article - "Imperfect action > perfect nothing" has no real meaning. It's simplified to "action > nothing"
What would be meaningful is "wrong action > perfect nothing" or "action > planning"
But as you can see HN eats up stuff like "Imperfect action > perfect nothing" It's good writing.
sanderjd|2 years ago
Apocryphon|2 years ago
adadadadadad|2 years ago
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mustafabisic1|2 years ago
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