I have a few tricks for handling procrastination that are in this ballpark:
1. When I see myself wanting to procrastinate, I ask myself 'If I follow this feeling, will it increase my power (i.e. capacity/agency/utility) or decrease it?'. Then I have a dialogue with myself: Nope, let's refocus, maybe try reading things out loud or draw a diagram or some other perspective change OR Yeah, I should stop for now, do something else, as long as that increases my power.
2. I observed that usually procrastination really is tied to novelty, quite similar with how it's presented in the article so I did this thing: instead of going on YouTube or games I started typing exercises online. After some time, I realised that I could get better at typing and get some extra-novelty by typing an existing book! So I have a Tampermonkey script that, whenever I try to go on a random typing website, redirects me to a website where I can type books (I could push it as a gist if anyone's interested). It stores in Local Storage what page I reached and from where I left them of. I got to read On the Origin of Species this way and now I type around 100 WPM from 80 WPM.
The whole of it seems more a question of an easily distracted mind. For one side because caveman brain looks away and does not adress the negative emotion , from the other because it's easily diverted from new shiny object. It's a question of effectively polish focus.
Budhist monks would simply do a mandala for the sake of it. Then they destroy it afterward, the whole purpose is to get some reps training focus.
Great article, especially appreciated the graphs. The idea of "keep adding novelty" is probably what separated my successful long term projects from the unsuccessful ones.
I previously attributed that to having lots of variety and freedom, but the consequence of those factors was indeed novelty.
I want to mention Neil Fiore's excellent book The Now Habit, which is a practical manual on overcoming procrastination. The core thesis is training yourself out of the Victim Mindset, with language like "I have to", and into the Producer Mindset, with language like "I choose to."
What's interesting to me is that this isn't an arbitrary choice. "I have to" is actually a delusion.
Think of the most extreme scenario. Someone has a gun and is "forcing" you to blow up a school. Do you "have to" do it? Or would it be better to say no?
If that freedom holds even in the most extreme scenario... doesn't it always hold?
Sometimes your options are truly terrible, but you always have a choice.
That might sound too philosophical, but I think that's an important distinction to learn to recognize in everyday life.
Because the failure to recognize it is what supports this delusion of "I have to", which seems to be the main cause of procrastination: the resentment and pushing against perceived loss of autonomy.
So my meaning here is that it isn't just more useful to think this way, as some psychological trick, but that it is actually more true as well.
Also the dead bot comment is right about the Unschedule! Another technique from the same book :)
I use that one and have found it provides a massive benefit to mental health, at least for my personality type which tends to be consumed with work.
In the "Unschedule", a.k.a. Guilt-Free Play Time, you deliberately set away time for enjoyable activities. You put them in your calendar. (And then you actually do them!)
This removes a major cause of resentment, "life's all work and no play" which drives that psychological resistance to work.
While I'm at it, I'll mention one more :) The Work of Worrying... for a situation you're avoiding, intentionally go through the worst case scenario, and then realize, actually, I'll still be okay. Even if that terrible situation happens... I'll survive, I'll move on, I'll be okay.
I have a few tricks for handling procrastination that are in this ballpark:
1. When I see myself wanting to procrastinate, I ask myself 'If I follow this feeling, will it increase my power (i.e. capacity/agency/utility) or decrease it?'. Then I have a dialogue with myself: Nope, let's refocus, maybe try reading things out loud or draw a diagram or some other perspective change OR Yeah, I should stop for now, do something else, as long as that increases my power.
2. I observed that usually procrastination really is tied to novelty, quite similar with how it's presented in the article so I did this thing: instead of going on YouTube or games I started typing exercises online. After some time, I realised that I could get better at typing and get some extra-novelty by typing an existing book! So I have a Tampermonkey script that, whenever I try to go on a random typing website, redirects me to a website where I can type books (I could push it as a gist if anyone's interested). It stores in Local Storage what page I reached and from where I left them of. I got to read On the Origin of Species this way and now I type around 100 WPM from 80 WPM.
The whole of it seems more a question of an easily distracted mind. For one side because caveman brain looks away and does not adress the negative emotion , from the other because it's easily diverted from new shiny object. It's a question of effectively polish focus.
Budhist monks would simply do a mandala for the sake of it. Then they destroy it afterward, the whole purpose is to get some reps training focus.
If you struggle with procrastination please get assessed for ADHD.
A positive diagnosis is life changing.
Only if you are okay with the idea of taking stimulant medication.
Great article, especially appreciated the graphs. The idea of "keep adding novelty" is probably what separated my successful long term projects from the unsuccessful ones.
I previously attributed that to having lots of variety and freedom, but the consequence of those factors was indeed novelty.
I want to mention Neil Fiore's excellent book The Now Habit, which is a practical manual on overcoming procrastination. The core thesis is training yourself out of the Victim Mindset, with language like "I have to", and into the Producer Mindset, with language like "I choose to."
What's interesting to me is that this isn't an arbitrary choice. "I have to" is actually a delusion.
Think of the most extreme scenario. Someone has a gun and is "forcing" you to blow up a school. Do you "have to" do it? Or would it be better to say no?
If that freedom holds even in the most extreme scenario... doesn't it always hold?
Sometimes your options are truly terrible, but you always have a choice.
That might sound too philosophical, but I think that's an important distinction to learn to recognize in everyday life.
Because the failure to recognize it is what supports this delusion of "I have to", which seems to be the main cause of procrastination: the resentment and pushing against perceived loss of autonomy.
So my meaning here is that it isn't just more useful to think this way, as some psychological trick, but that it is actually more true as well.
Also the dead bot comment is right about the Unschedule! Another technique from the same book :)
I use that one and have found it provides a massive benefit to mental health, at least for my personality type which tends to be consumed with work.
In the "Unschedule", a.k.a. Guilt-Free Play Time, you deliberately set away time for enjoyable activities. You put them in your calendar. (And then you actually do them!)
This removes a major cause of resentment, "life's all work and no play" which drives that psychological resistance to work.
While I'm at it, I'll mention one more :) The Work of Worrying... for a situation you're avoiding, intentionally go through the worst case scenario, and then realize, actually, I'll still be okay. Even if that terrible situation happens... I'll survive, I'll move on, I'll be okay.
See structured procrastination for a slightly different approach.
https://structuredprocrastination.com/
In reference to the first line, how can it be possible to skip rope with seaweed? Is it really that strong?
There are many different types of seaweed, and some, like kelp, can be very strong: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQZjvH1iYnB/
How to disable seeing other viewer cursors on screen? Makes it unreadable
Yeah, sorry about that. Not really made for many visitors at the same time. I’ll add a limit. (update: removed the cursor interaction from blog posts)
What's the purpose of having this at all?
It’s meant to be a fun reference to Figma, since it’s my design portfolio. I gather you’re not a fan. Noted!
scroll down and click turn turn off fancy cursors