
Show HN: Why Do I Procrastinate? –  Web MD for Procrastination - ppterodactyl
https://whydoiprocrastinate.com/
======
skriticos2
Well, maybe sometimes this happens to me..

"I just go check the headlines on my favorite news sites and then I start my
productive day.. and I drink this cup of coffee." .. 2 hours later. "Just this
one headline, then I'm ready." .. 2 hours later. "Damn, where did the day go
all of a sudden?"

Of course the solution is to first do the work and then read the news.. but
that's the rational part of my brain speaking - not the sleepy, non-morning
person persona of myself.

Of course ToDo lists, interesting tasks, deadline pressure and gamification
work. Like pretending to be a character in an RPG - playing the game of my
life. And then come up with ideas on how to level, quest and progress with the
tasks/projects I have. Questlog: You have leveld up. You are now a level 14
code conjurer. You have completed the quest: Subjugate the data.. And then
come up with fun side-quests (rewards) that I can only unlock at specific
levels or after a particular quest is completed - like building a project RPG
gamification tracker utility.

On the other hand, I am very productive once the day is over and I sit in
front of the screen at night in the natural light of my computer screen, so
there is that.

~~~
padobson
Self discipline definitely has a momentum effect.

My most productive days are the ones that start at 5am with a run, followed by
a shower, meditation, and writing up a list of things I want to accomplish
that day. Then I start working with my noise cancelling headphones and my
flow-state playlist. It's very deliberate from start to finish.

My least productive days are the ones where I roll out of bed randomly, when
the sun has been up for a while, and sit down at my desk still in my pajamas.
HN or YouTube tend to be my first tasks of the day, and sometimes I don't get
to any others. These types of days seem to be something that's happening to
me, rather than something I'm choosing.

I struggle with depression, and I find the second kind of day is a feedback
loop of anxiety and procrastination. The first kind of day is a virtuous cycle
of productivity and serenity.

That 5am alarm is the best way I know to set the whole thing in motion.

~~~
isostatic
I'm the opposite. If my brain has to engage before 10am the day's a waste. If
I "ease into the day" then once I've dealt with the world on fire stuff about
11.30 I'll power through and before I know it it's 9PM and I've been massively
productive.

~~~
vinbreau
This is me as well. My brain is useless until close to lunch time. After lunch
I start feeling productive and this feeling begins to steamroll into the
evening. When I am allowed to structure my day I don't even plan to start work
until 6pm and can maintain great focus from then until 1am. Admittedly I
imagine my ADHD has much to do with that and the habits I formed to cope with
it as a child.

~~~
mattlondon
Interesting. My productivity _ends_ after lunch! It's all downhill from there
- lack of focus, easily distracted, silly mistakes, is-it-5pm-yet thoughts
etc.

I think it is breaking for lunch that does it. When I didn't have any team
mates in my office and I'd just eat at my desk I'd still get good work done
after eating. Now I have team mates in the same office as me and we go for a
"proper" lunch break - something about stopping and then having to go back to
work I guess.

~~~
unicornporn
[https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24292-first-
physical-...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24292-first-physical-
evidence-of-why-youre-an-owl-or-a-lark/) perhaps.

------
WhompingWindows
Procrastination is the avoidance of activity due to a discomfort/fear/anxiety
and subsequent inability to scale the discomfort wall that exists between you
and the tasks' completion. Other comments mention a pointlessness or lack of
purpose, which I consider secondary, since it's arguable if it's truly
procrastination if the work is truly pointless. Procrastination as a term
seems best applied to important/mandatory tasks. Though, I acknowledge many BS
tasks of today's workplace are both pointless and mandatory.

~~~
yoodenvranx
> Procrastination is the avoidance of activity due to a
> discomfort/fear/anxiety and subsequent inability to scale the discomfort
> wall that exists between you and the tasks' completion.

I am pretty sure my main reason for procrastination is the fact that I never
learned to endure suffering/discomfort while growing up.

I grew up very sheltered and I was never forced to do anything which I did not
like (bring out the trash, clean up the room, talk to people, ...). It was
kinda nice growing up like this but when you turn 18 and have to enter the
real world you realize you miss all the coping mechanisms which you need to do
uncomfortable stuff.

~~~
vbtemp
I'd warmly encourage you to not make excuses or find reasons from your past to
justify current maladaptive behaviors. If you're 18+ and grew up in safety,
comfort, and with education you possess all the necessary executive
functionality to take hold of what life will deal you.

~~~
mproy
I agree with what I think is the spirit of what you say, but it's unhelpfully
reductive.

Many, many people who meet your criteria in fact are severely lacking in
executive function.

Neurological conditions aside, surely you understand that an adult who's
developing years formed a healthy "reward system" for accomplishing tasks will
have a much easier time getting things done.

While, yes, most of us have the ability to correct past habits and develop
discipline ... It's no different than an athlete who began training at an
early age versus someone who took up a sport later in life. The difference in
skill and ability is predictably and consistently stark.

------
Yen
There's another potential cause for procrastination, that this website doesn't
seem to diagnose or offer advice on -

I have a hypothetical task in front of me, which is interesting, impactful,
within my skill range, well-defined, and I know the first couple steps to
start on it. I estimate that I can complete the task with 2~3 hours of solid
work. This sounds like the _ideal_ anti-procrastination scenario, right?

But, I know I have a meeting at some point in the next 20~40 minutes, and that
meeting will end 15~5 minutes before lunch starts.

And then, hypothetically, the meeting gets canceled, or is shortened to ~5
minutes, and basically the whole morning's worth of time has been wasted.

Any advice for either

> how to overcome the hump of starting to spin up on a deep work task you're
> likely to be interrupted for

or

> how to commit to starting a deep work task in a known uninterrupted block of
> time later in the day, and find _meaningful_ shallow work to do now, in a
> way that won't delay spinning up on the important task when the time becomes
> available

~~~
Retric
If you have 10 minutes or more then trying to spin up is still useful.

You are not going to make progress directly, but you will have a few hooks to
think about during the meeting. If it's a wasteful meeting you get something
worthwhile to do, and if it's a useful meeting then no harm done.

------
r3bl
Can I suggest either carefully stripping away user input or not using it at
all in questions?

Clear security issue appeared when I typed:

    
    
        <script>alert("this is bad")</script>
    

...as a reason of my procrastination:
[https://imgur.com/a/Xmdi9VQ](https://imgur.com/a/Xmdi9VQ)

EDIT: Further reading: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-
site_scripting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting)

~~~
jannyfer
Mind explaining how that text input field creates an XSS opportunity?

> XSS enables attackers to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by
> other users.

Nobody other than you will see your alert("this is bad") so this doesn't seem
like XSS.

~~~
erickj
that's until OP decides tonight that the tool is so pouplar that sticking a
database behind it to serve anonymous examples MUST be a good idea, e.g.

------
nickjj
One thing that helped me with procrastination is to expose it for what it
really is.

Let's say you wanted to quit smoking (I've done it cold turkey after smoking a
pack a day for over 10 years btw). The only real way you'll have a fighting
chance to quit without any alternative drugs is to really want to quit. Not
"oh man I wish I could stop smoking", but "ok, I'm done with this, I'm ready
to stop".

If you break down and smoke again, you're just creating a negative feedback
loop on your self worth while taking the short term gains on how smoking makes
you feel. You get some nicotine, but every time you "cheat" on yourself it's a
constant reminder that you lack willpower and are worthless. Then suddenly you
become that person who thinks they can't quit because it's wired in your DNA,
when really, it's just poor habits.

Procrastination is the same thing. Instead of smoking, you're doing something
else (reading HN, Youtube, playing games) instead of what you "should" be
doing. Sometimes I still need to remind myself that what I'm working on is
worth doing and nothing works better than a simple pros / cons sheet. Then you
can prove to yourself how ridiculous it is to sit there and spend 6 hours
watching Youtube instead of moving towards your goals which likely have very
positive benefits to your life.

No apps or gimmicks needed. You'll eventually cure yourself of all
procrastination (which by the way shouldn't be confused with taking breaks and
giving yourself some time to slack off, because that's completely fine).

~~~
WhompingWindows
Interesting comparison between smoking and procrastination. If we examine the
neurology of both, we see a dopamine-centric reward system behind task
completion, and probably a very small dopamine hit after procrastination.
Similarly, nicotine has been shown to affect the very dopaminergic pathways
involved in reward/pleasure systems. So, in a very real neurological way, the
comparison is apt. I wonder if people who succesfully go cold-turkey off
nicotine have some tendency to procrastinate or not? Or generally, do those
who smoke have a tendency to procrastinate or not?

~~~
aidenn0
Smoking and procrastination are both correlated with ADHD (for which dopamine
has also been implicated) so there almost certainly is a correlation between
them.

~~~
WhompingWindows
Oh true, I studied ADHD a bit, it's a neuro-developmental disorder of the
dopaminergic system. Specifically, the motor cortex will develop more
quickly/strongly than the executive function system, leading to a
hyperactivity of motor activity and a hypo*activity of the "secretary" of the
mind which filters/prioritizes/plans behaviors. Now there is a subset of
primarily inattentive ADHD, which has less to do with movement and more to do
with "spacing out" and lack of focus/attention, which can be combined with
hyperactivity in the combined type (CT), versus the primarily inattentive
subtype (PI). Also, yes, those with ADHD are much more likely to abuse
stimulants, marijuana, and alcohol, anything with which to alter the brain
chemistry away from a normal modality which might be stressful to be in. I
have heard anecdotal tales about ADHD medications as revelations bordering on
spirituality, people crying after taking their first dose at age 30 and
realizing how much more "normal" it might make them. Really good to know that
people can react so positively, though we also know that many non-ADHD
individuals abuse the drugs as well.

~~~
beat
I was one of those people, who got diagnosed in my early 30s (wasn't hyper as
a child, therefore not AD"H"D, so). My medication, dexadrine, was indeed a
revelation. But daily use for a couple of years led to a major mental
breakdown, all the "amphetamine psychosis" symptoms. I was paranoid, angry,
depressed, and suicidal.

I long ago stopped taking medication for it at all - I don't even have a
prescription anymore. I just use coping strategies, many of which are about
avoiding situations where it's a problem entirely. I have ADD, and I live with
it. Because medication was better, until it was worse.

------
tfolbrecht
PERSONAL ANECDOTE ALERT: Since I've began working from home, something I've
found helpful is assigning context to a physical space and moving from space
to space to context switch.

For example, I browse the internet and read news on my front porch, but my
office is strictly work mode. My living room is strictly a space for relaxing
and entertaining guests, my kitchen/dining area is for cooking and eating. It
may sound weird but if I get a phone call or have to make an email. I move to
my office ( my note pads, and desktop is ready to go which is a plus )

I think the work-from-anywhere play-from-anywhere meme has been damaging to my
productivity and happiness. I feel a lot less anxious and more focused.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
100% agree on the importance of managing environmental queues!

Also not just physical spaces but other things like type of background noise,
light conditions, even trivial things like posture, I feel they all seem to
influence my ability to get into a state of 'flow'.

------
nihil75
This questionnaire is entirely incompatible with enterprise environments,
where the work is not only boring, but also pointless (as results are way
further down the line and deliverables will surely change multiple times).

~~~
quadrangle
[http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/](http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/) …
and the full-length new book it inspired… to the heart of what you're saying

------
atemerev
“You have impulsiveness — by far the worst form of procrastination”

Yeah, thank you, as somebody with severe adult ADD diagnosis I know this
perfectly well. The problem is what to do with it. I always will crave new
things, to the point of ignoring anything else. I will always be distracted.
The problem is what to do with all that...

------
tgb
Seems like a good idea. Two thoughts. I always dislike conjuctions in these
kinds of questions: "Today, I tried working on [X], and got distracted
everytime." I worry that if I answer 1 out of 5 that it'll assume that that I
didn't get distracted every time while instead I just haven't tried working on
[X] today. Even if the website handles this correctly, why not make it two
questions with the second only done if the first is a yes?

How well supported are the suggestions of this site? One of the ones I got was
to imagine the worst case scenario if you kept procrastinating. But, okay, I
imagined the worst case scenario and it meant I just had to wing something on
the spot and do a little worse at it. Is that supposed to motivate me to stop
procrastinating? Or is it supposed to make me realize that "everything's okay,
stop worrying about it and maybe you'll enjoy doing it more"?

------
droidist2
WebMD? So the reason you procrastinate: you probably have a brain tumor?

~~~
bausshf
I lost

------
kibwen
With regard to dealing with impulsiveness on the internet by "throwing away
the keys", the site recommends the StayFocusd extension for Chrome, but
doesn't recommend anything for other browsers. For Firefox users, I recommend
LeechBlock, which has a long history of maintenance, lots of users, and
versions for both old and new Firefox: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng/)

~~~
abagh0703
freedom.to costs money but works across multiple browsers and your mobile
devices. not free but I've found it's worth the cost.

------
grafelic
I wish had the time to procrastinate more.

Ironically, my job, which is the reason for my lack of procrastination time, I
got directly as a result of the many hours I procrastinated during the last
year of university.

Sometimes procrastination pays of, you just don't know it whilst
procrastinating, which makes it valid procrastination at the time.

~~~
kaybe
How did you procrastinate during your final university year?

~~~
grafelic
How: When the deadline for handing in your thesis is many months ahead and you
spend countless hours in a quiet setting with an old laptop "in need of
optimization", an okish internet connection and an endless array of Linux
subjects (all terrifically more exciting than the thesis) to delve into,
procrastination instead of writing said thesis was no problem at all and
proved not to be in the long run.

N.b. I did actually hand in the thesis on time. The last push to get in done
was excruciating hard due to time pressure - the price of procrastination I
guess.

------
lucideer
> _Oops._

> _Sorry, we can 't seem to find what the problem is._

> _TRY AGAIN?_

A little disappointing but the link to the book this is based on at the bottom
of the page is good. Maybe put that front-and-centre for failures like this?

------
iamben
I see and work on a lot of content marketing pieces. This is an example of
content marketing executed _reeeeallyy_ well. Massive props to Boss As A
Service.

------
asimpletune
Looks cool! I was going to fill it out, but I decided to put it off.

------
debt
The people in life that are most successful are usually the ones that are
compelled to do a thing for whatever reason.

If you're procrastinating; it's simply an indication you don't want to do a
thing. Sure, you can use hacks etc to get the thing done, but at the end of
the day, there's no real, underlying driving will within yourself to get the
thing done.

Perhaps spending time finding the things you willfully do rather than focusing
on the things you tend to avoid might be great way to avoid procrastination.

I get it though. That buzzing lazy feeling of getting some things done but not
all the things; or the things you need to get done while lazily avoiding the
things you supposedly want to do.

I have noticed in my life that I willfully do some things to completion
because I just have an underlying will to get it done.

------
0xbxd
Ok, so what actual science is this based on? Why should I give out personal
stuff like "What are you avoiding right now" if it doesn't have an effect on
the outcome when completing this form (because you're probably trying to
figure out what people procrastinate most often...)?

Anyways, not sure about this type of application. In general one should avoid
medical apps or forms put together by a start up. It typically doesn't involve
any science or actual medical advice, and with things that can also be caused
by some serious medical issue (procrastination can be caused by depression) I
don't really think this is the right way to go.

If you actually did not just pull a content marketing thing, and this is based
on actual science, then why not include some sources?

------
hindsightbias
Incubating has saved me 1000's of hours of wasted work time going down the
wrong path.

[http://interactions.acm.org/blog/view/the-joy-of-
procrastina...](http://interactions.acm.org/blog/view/the-joy-of-
procrastination)

------
hesk
"Oops. Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is."

I guess I should stop procrastinating by finding out why I'm procrastinating
and go back to work.

------
cmplxconjugate
My one little life hack for the morning procrastination is this:

Always make sure you have set yourself a simple task to complete/continue the
following morning.

It gives an achievable goal that can help kickstart your working flow for the
day.

~~~
dctoedt
> _Always make sure you have set yourself a simple task to complete /continue
> the following morning. [¶] It gives an achievable goal that can help
> kickstart your working flow for the day._

Or as Admiral William McRaven (Navy SEAL, at the time the head of Special Ops)
put it: "Make your bed." [0]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OoCaGsz94](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6OoCaGsz94)

------
sritrisna
In my case, I believe I managed to identify the root cause: 90% of the work I
do is slightly over my head. As a bootstrapped solo founder and to stretch out
the money I saved up I must do a lot of the tasks myself, which you would
usually hire a specialist to do. This is not restricted to the technical
aspect of my business but also concerns the legal, financial and sales side.
So, imagine you’re a top of the line DBA with many years of experience and I
ask you to take care of the front-end of the app as well as the backend, deal
with the GDPR (without the help of a lawyer) and figure out sales in a market
where traditional sales don’t work, you will eventually spread yourself thin.
Now, this is how I overcome the challenge: as soon as I get a task which I
don’t know how to tackle e.g. getting a firm grasp on double taxation
avoidance agreements and procrastination sets in because I’m unsure where to
get started, I break everything down into a single task and try to conquer it.
Depending on the complexity of the task and lack of my knowledge how to tackle
it the greater the procrastination. That procrastination, however, helps me,
in turn, to process the task in ‘the background’ until I find a way to get
started. Not sure if this makes sense, or if it is just me. On the other hand,
constantly working on different tasks across professions has helped me to
quickly learn the fundamentals of each sector/topic/issue/field. If it is
really needed I can still consult with a specialist and save some money,
because there is a baseline for discussion and I know exactly what I
need/want.

------
logeek
Nice concept, but all I got was: "Oops.

Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is."

~~~
have_faith
Ditto. In my case it's just that the amount of work I would have to do to be
happy with my own side projects causes me to procrastinate on starting them,
as I don't have a perfect image in my head of an objectively successful
outcome yet so I just delay.

~~~
DigitalBison
The way you put this really resonates with me. Often when I'm procrastinating
it's because a task seems/feels/sounds really daunting, but the "daunting"
feeling is because I'm imagining just how __damn hard __it 's going to be to
do the task perfectly. It creates this mental barrier to getting started
because completing it perfectly (or, to my expectations) seems too hard.

Breaking out of this by realizing that "perfect" is not the goal, and setting
more attainable sub-goals for myself is key, but hard.

------
mendelsd
I believe I procrastinate because life is so demanding and complex that I am
constantly straining against the limits of my productivity for imposed work.
It is due largely to a mismatch between my natural interests and society's
demands. The question is what to do about that so I can be more effective.

"Because baboons are rarely threatened by famine, plague or predators, they
are good models for socialized disease, Sapolsky says: 'Baboon societies are
ironically a lot like Westernized humans. We're ecologically privileged enough
that we can invent social and psychological stress. Baboons in the Serengeti,
who only work three hours a day to meet their caloric needs, are similarly
privileged. They ulcerate because of social complexities.'" [1]

Procrastination, it seems to me, ultimately falls in the category of
"ulcerating because of social complexities".

[1]
[https://news.stanford.edu/news/2001/february21/aaassapolsky-...](https://news.stanford.edu/news/2001/february21/aaassapolsky-221.html)

------
abrichr
"Oops. Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is."

~~~
52-6F-62
Also same here. And here I thought I was uniquely troubled

------
Flimm
This quiz is based on the The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel, which
is perhaps the best book I have read on the topic.

------
throw7
"Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is."

------
vfinn
Procrastination is due to not doing things on your own terms, which means that
what you feel you have to do comes from the outside. Often this symptom comes
from disparity between what you think you want to do and what should be done
(the outside). For example, what you do in the university is something you
want to do, but not always in a way you think things should be done. Here
procrastination comes along. The solution is to do things on your own terms as
often as possible. It's debatable how far you can go with this idea, because
in the end it becomes a question of what's the meaningful relationship between
you and the society. When you have to give in to outside pressure, then some
tricks might help you. But what I said before that, IMHO, is what the issue is
really about.

------
spraak
Also check out "The Now Habit". Sounds corny but it really identifies the
baste causes of procrastination and has some great tools for overcoming it. I
can't say I'm completely cured yet, but it did help me to read it.

------
callesgg
I don’t like to do the thing I need to do cause it has no instant internal
feedback.

It has long term goal feedback. Like the feedback comes sort of in 6 months.
And even then it was only a step to more work.

Hard work leads to gratification.

Fuck ADHD.

------
sandrobfc
"The reason you’re procrastinating is simply that you find this task
unpleasant to do."

Well... that wasn't very helpful, was it? Isn't this the usual reason that one
can easily identify?

------
DannyB2
March is national procrastination week.

So it is okay to procrastinate then, in observance of the event. But people
don't always get around to observing it right at the beginning of March.

------
rudedogg
The iProcrastinate podcast
([http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/](http://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/)) is
really good. Some of the early episodes have audio issues, but they are worth
listening to. The host has been researching procrastination for like 20+
years.

Their main website is
[http://www.procrastination.ca/](http://www.procrastination.ca/)

------
mariedm
Smooth, went to the end of the quizz and appreciated the suggestions. Now I
need to apply the advice :) Makes me want to read the book mentioned.

------
enodios
I had pretty low expectations when I opened this, but was pleasantly
surprised. It's not that the advice was that helpful (I enjoyed the reminder,
but I've heard that all before), but simply asking me questions like "can you
do successfully do this, once you start?" helped adjust my thinking.

By choosing "I can do this", I remembered that I can

------
ekoczwara
Every time I hear about procrastination it reminds me about great talk by Evan
Czaplicki and his approach to Elm development, actually it can be good thing
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSjbTC-
hvqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSjbTC-hvqQ) see 19:15 Batching Work).

------
1maginary
It'd be cool see some stats for the results people get. I'm sure a lot of
people are taking the quiz right now. Could we find what makes people
procrastinate most often?

Spoiler, I got 'lack of value' and for some reason I bet it's gonna be a
winner, at least when it comes to the HN userbase

------
stared
One remark: with "What are you avoiding doing right now?" it prompts to answer
many activities. In my case they were different (chores vs creative and open-
ended stuff), so it was not easy to answer questions in a meaningful way.

(It should clearly prompt to write a single thing/activity.)

------
cableshaft
So how do these suggestions work if what you're procrastinating on is your
job? Asking for a friend.

------
mbdharan
I don't want to take the test right now. Maybe tonight. I know there is
something motivational at the end of the test that would make me want to do
it, but I'm not going to do it anyway. Basically, I'm procrastinating by
writing this comment and not doing the test.

------
esseti
nice one, and good advertising for BAAS = boss as a service .

PS: how many user does BAAS have, and: is it automated?

------
delinka
“Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is.”

I know what the problem is: it’s a hobby project and 1) employer work takes
priority and 2) I’m so stinking tired at the end of a day and 3) adult chores
take priority on the weekend.

------
mrleinad
The service sounds really good, though I think the subscription payment should
also include Paypal. I think many people would like to avoid handing over
their credit card information to more sites if they can.

------
lamename
Kind of a step by step walk that takes you through this:
[https://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/](https://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/)

~~~
diimdeep
Wow, this is really handy!

------
hessenwolf
I just used it to consult with a young woman who cancelled her open heart
surgery today, which gives her two years to live. The result was low
expectancy, and the advice is indeed helpful.

~~~
owenversteeg
Wow, that's a heavy thing to deal with. Why'd she cancel the surgery and how
was it related to procrastination?

~~~
hessenwolf
Low in expectation. The site argued she just didn't expect it to be
successful.

She seemed to agree.

------
User23
One of the major causes of procrastination is being assigned obviously
pointless busy-work. It's hard to be motivated when you know that you're just
box-checking.

------
keyle
I liked the gamification hints:

\- give yourself a clock, and race against the clock

\- it may be boring, so add some difficulty to it, extra challenges, stretch
goal.

neither may apply to all task though.

------
yranadive
Too many questions to answer IMHO. Can't see anyone using this tool more than
once.

Should narrow it down to 5 questions tops to get any value on daily basis

~~~
latexr
“ _Twelve questions?_ I’ll do it later.”

------
Siah
My biggest source of procrastination is Hacker News!

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swarnie_
Might just be me but the start button over laps with the "Made with" message
and sends me off on a hyperlink somewhere else.

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sasaf5
You procrastinate because you are tired. Sleep, and entertain yourself with
the presence of good people. Boom, procrastination gone.

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lmagno
"Nobody procrastinates doing what they enjoy." I'm guessing mental illnesses
are out of the picture here then.

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willart4food
[https://imgur.com/a/asNrBd2](https://imgur.com/a/asNrBd2)

~~~
sandmanxc
[https://imgur.com/IPV0YJ1](https://imgur.com/IPV0YJ1)

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JeanMarcS
I tried doing this during breakfast. So I was honest and said that’s what I’m
doing.

Made no sense :D !

I’ll try it later during a procrastination break.

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zacts_pi
I would perhaps argue that most modern procrastination is fundamentally due to
tech and social media addiction.

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bitL
Insert "hurting my brain" as the first answer and enjoy a comedy of questions.

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marv3lls
Oh wait. I input "lying in bed" cuz I should be asleep. That was kinda meta…

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tmhussain
"Sorry, we can't seem to find what the problem is."

Neither can my friend, neither can I.

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chinmayan
Okay, I'll read it later!

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Senderman
Protip: Typing in the word "Nothing" makes this pretty hilarious.

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Yokohiii
They couldn't find out why I am procrastinating. We are on par.

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maximp
Just wanted to say - this is great, and I enjoyed it! thank you!

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dintech
OK I'll read this, just gotta check facebook first...

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rhacker
I found BossAsAService through this. Nice idea.

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iblaine
Site needs a favicon.ico

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jgladch
feeling like you have to do something is dopamine resistance.

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sharemywin
Did you create this?

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arfo
Pretty useful app.

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0xbxd
Could you elaborate why? To me this seems like your typical, not based on
actual science, 1 minute to conclude form put together by content marketing in
typeform or something similar.

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mariedm
It's based on a book mentioned at the end, "The Procrastination Equation".
There is also a link explaining how the equation works.

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virusduck
Whew! I thought this was going to be a link to tvtropes!

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anoncoward111
It turns out that I'm procrastinating on my work because I feel it isn't
valuable to society or rewarding. I wonder if I'm right!

~~~
hh3k0
And you do valuable things when you procrastinate?

~~~
anoncoward111
That's actually debatable. I certainly do _rewarding_ things for myself when
procrastinating.

And my job honestly is a negative value to society. I am a salesman at a rent
seeking corporation.

I would literally do society more good if I wasn't driving a gas guzzler to
work every day and sitting in a giant air conditioned office.

~~~
haskellandchill
I’m in the same boat, advertising with big data and generative deep learning.
Harmful garbage if you ask me. I have no savings but I’m quitting as soon as I
get an offer. I don’t care if I get fired, I’d rather be homeless.

~~~
anoncoward111
Haha +1 username btw.

I've done homelessness in between jobs for this very reason (I used to work
for Oracle lol). It was awesome. And I don't mean to imply that I was on the
streets, needle in my arm, skid row type homeless. Those men and women and
kids are going through really rough shit.

I mean that I was sleeping in my car in the woods or at national parks or in
corporate parking lots (not Walmart, more like Regional Shipping Corporation
INC after 7PM and all the employees have gone home).

It was the most liberating and freeing period of my life. I came back to work
because I want more money and I thought I could save enough money to put an
actual roof over my head (and my gf's too). Apparently I'm wrong- this is the
most expensive housing market ever, and many cities/towns/counties don't want
to let me put a pre-fab house on any piece of land in their jurisdiction...

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aclsid
I know people hate to admit it and create these fancy terms for ages old
behavior. Procrastinate is being lazy,as simple as that. Reading news and
watching YouTube videos while you are getting paid to do work is being lazy
with a capital L.

So yeah, please stop coming up with excuses if you procrastinate as if it is
some sort of disease, drop the distractions and just get to work.

