
Good and Bad Procrastination (2005) - jeremylevy
http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html
======
dm2
I am constantly struggling with procrastination even though I love my job and
what I do. It seems like sometimes I'd rather do anything other than what I'm
actually suppose to do and what pays the bills, almost like a mental disorder.

I've tried setting goals, blocking websites, uninstalling games, creating logs
and even creating rewards for doing X amount of work, none of those seem to
really help so far.

The procrastination article is from 9 years ago and has been posted numerous
times before on HN, yet it's at the top of HN. I suspect that procrastination
is a horrible problem for programmers due to the vast amount of distraction
available via the internet.

Also,
[http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html](http://paulgraham.com/distraction.html)

I'm installing Watch Dogs for the 4th time right now rather than doing my real
work (which is very fun, time critical, and offers REAL rewards), wtf is wrong
with me.

~~~
psychometry
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD-PI](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD-PI)

Would you say this describes you?

~~~
emerongi
I have always found self-diagnosing as idiotic, but honestly, this is 100% me.
Can't concentrate on anything, hesitate and procrastinate a lot, also am
forgetful. Never had major problems though, always have had good grades for
whatever reason. Should I seek help or try to keep it under control myself? I
am almost out of school and I feel relieved; so much pressure when you try to
concentrate on the topic, but just physically can't. I feel much more
comfortable learning the topics I personally like.

~~~
reitanqild
There are plenty people with ADHD-PI and good grades. Many goes undiagnosed
into adult life as well.

Seek help. Be prepared to have to explain it a few times. Some doctors are
amazingly reluctant to accept that ADHD doesn't mean stupid, lazy or crazy.
(Yes, there is a book by about that name. Can't vouch for it yet.)

Also, medicine or not, be aware that you might have a few advantages: When
everyone else freeze (exam, first to an accident etc) if you are prepared you
can think clearly when few others can. You most likely can study very well on
your own (but going to class is still recommended just to have an idea of what
the school/teacher/professor thinks is important.)

Try to use your special abilities like: thinking outside the box (automate
things), eye for details (something is fishy), people skills etc. I'd also
like to think that a job were you are clearly ON or OFF would be an advantage.

------
charlieirish
I was talking to my father about this topic last week. We talked about the
best strategies for combating procrastination. He used to be in the British
Army and suggested that a militaristic approach has always worked for him. He
talked about the button polishing, the bed sheet folding and the shirt
starching. These were tasks that were set by the commanding officers and
needed to be performed flawlessly. They weren't pleasurable, they were boring
and often felt unnecessary. Failing these tasks meant severe punishment and
potentially being kicked out of the army.

This gave him a framework for success. The knowledge that however boring
something is, it _needs_ to be done. A combination of a carrot and a stick can
help this process.

Another approach, from a member of a mastermind group that I attend, has a
'dull day'. On Monday of every week he does all the administrative work that
he hates. This includes dealing with expenses, filing, bug fixing, documenting
etc. He has been doing it for months and loves the fact that he can start the
day on Tuesday with a clear head and clear conscience.

So, breaking this down (from my admittedly small sample set):

\- Be Strict -

Be strict with yourself and use incentives or disincentives. There are plenty
of ways to provide a disincentive for failure. This startup has just launched
and asks you to pay if you fail to hit your goals:
[https://gofuckingdoit.com/](https://gofuckingdoit.com/) [0]

\- Have a Routine -

Habits are formed using triggers, routines and rewards. Try to set a good
habit by working on your project using a trigger, a routine and a reward. You
could try the Tiny Habits Method:
[http://tinyhabits.com/](http://tinyhabits.com/) [1]

\- Make Time -

Make time for your project (rather than finding the time)Be honest with
yourself and know that procrastination will happen. But, you can _make_ time
to get stuff done: [http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-
project/](http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-project/) [2]

[0] [https://gofuckingdoit.com/](https://gofuckingdoit.com/)

[1] [http://tinyhabits.com/](http://tinyhabits.com/)

[2] [http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-
project/](http://www.startupclarity.com/blog/make-time-side-project/)

~~~
swah
A professional procrastinator like myself knows that button polishing can
become a very interesting task if it means you can postpone what you really
should be doing. See
[http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/)

------
beambot
No conversation about procrastination is complete without mentioning John
Perry's (Stanford Prof) essay on "structured procrastination":
[http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/)

Basically... "the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and
important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more
important." Like John, I've accomplished a quite a bit by procrastinating like
crazy.

~~~
symmetricsaurus
Perry actually won the Ignobel price for this essay:
[http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2011](http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2011)

(you may have to scroll down a bit to see it)

------
amirmc
Possibly off-topic, but I wonder when PG will be writing more essays. I
remember that one of the things he was looking forward to when sama took over
YC was the extra time to work on projects and write more.

------
jpwagner
This essay is mostly spot on, but there is some "more important work" that is
harder to define: emotional/social work, raising a family etc. These things
are mentioned in your eulogy, but not your obituary.

I'm pretty sure this essay was written before pg had kids. I wonder how/if his
perspective has changed.

------
pmoriarty
_" The starting point for understanding why you procrastinate is to treat
yourself with enough respect to assume that behind your inactivity lies an
excellent, if not immediately apparent reason. And this reason is to be found
in an altogether different attitude or trait _inside yourself _that
precipitated your procrastinating reaction...

What is [it] a reaction to? What is the unknown factor that provokes such a
highly visible and aggravating response? The nature of the invisible stimulus
can be partly deduced from the extremely emotional and hostile nature of the
reaction. For however much you may want to see it as a kind of passive
paralysis, procrastination ... is a very aggressive act: it is a pushing away,
a rejection._

 _Tragically, this stubborn rebellion by the unconscious usually triggers even
more severe and desperate measures from you, its hapless guardian, to impose a
strict regimen of work: total isolation, twelve-hour days, endless changes of
locale and paraphanelia. But it is all for nothing. Attempts to be ruthless
with yourself in order to 'overcome procrastination' must always lead directly
back to the hated condition itself, thereby engendering stalemate. Under these
highly sensitized conditions even a reasonable order, _as long as it is an
order _, will be rejected. The sense of failure and frustration increases
exponentially as the vicious circle clicks back into gear._

 _People who accuse themselves of procrastination are not procrastinators.
They are accusers. Far from being lazy, they are driven by such extremes of
self-distrust and compulsive overcontrol that they throttle the spontaneous
contact with self that all creative activity requires. "_ \-- Victoria Nelson,
_" Writer's Block"_

------
rpm4321
You should add a (2005) to the end of the title.

~~~
S4M
Yeah, I got all excited thinking it would be a new essay from PG.

------
lubos
For long time I was trying to beat procrastination. Guess what, I'm still
procrastinating more than 50% of time and for last 2-3 years it's no longer a
problem.

The breaking point for me was another essay by PG called "The Top Idea in Your
Mind"
([http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html))

The concept is that if you get stuck on some problem, even if you
procrastinate, you are still unconsciously thinking about the problem and will
come up with solutions while doing something completely unrelated (paying
games, watching videos etc.) - so this would be another example of good
procrastination that you don't have to feel guilty about. For me,
procrastination is now part of the process.

~~~
higherpurpose
I was reading before about a solution to procrastination that said you should
have 2-3 different tasks. And when you aren't in the mood to do one, do the
other. Could work for some, but maybe not everyone. Procrastination is usually
not "not doing anything", but doing something else _instead_ of what you
should be doing. So try to make that "something else" a task that you need
finished anyway.

~~~
jey
[http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/)

------
graeme
I lived this for a few years starting my business actually. I put off
basically other priority to get things off the ground.

It worked! I accomplished more in two years than I ever thought possible. I
now have a large measure of freedom in my work and life.

But, now I do more errands. I found a lot of non-work priorities really fell
by the wayside when I took the monomaniacal approach.

I'm still not sure which is better. I have more of a social life now. I'm in
better shape. I have a few hobbies. I'm reading more. I feel like I'm enjoying
life.

Yet I also feel I'm at an inflection point workwise, where if I just returned
to the old levels of productivity for six months, I'd pass into a level where
I'm suddenly earning far more than I need, and can pull back even more than I
have.

I'm 28 now. Turning 29 in a few months. I've come to terms with the finite
amount of time available to me, and that certain activities are easier and
harder at given ages.

It feels like I can trade off six months of the last year of my 20s to gain
much freedom in the first years of my 30s. I don't think I'm going to do it,
because I'm making pretty good progress as is, and I think there's still room
to do more work by cutting out distractions (like HN) while continuing to
focus on leisure I truly enjoy.

The short version is that I was a type C procrastinator for a bit. I think it
was worth it, but I'm not sure if it's worth continuing at the same level.

------
simonebrunozzi
Nice essay. The "small stuff" that you mention has a function - to enable a
society. If you don't shave and shower, you will look terrible, and for
biological reasons people will think that you're nuts, that's you're an
outliar, and expect strange things from you. It is not necessarily too bad,
per se.

However, I argue that balance (some small stuff, but not too much, so you have
time for important stuff) is better than being a great, smelly procrastinator.

~~~
_feda_
Society can be pretty tolerant of eccentricity and a lack of personal hygiene
when it's accompanied by genius. Look at Albert Einstein and even Richard
Stallman.

------
jakub_g
I think the pg's message is good on a higher level, though think about what
would happen in an average software development team if everyone followed the
rule.

Everyone would be working on fancy, interesting, big problems, while there
would be no one to fix the leaking ceiling until after the sudden storm has
started.

Oops, it seems it's actually the case in majority of the projects. Most people
prefer doing new development than fixing bugs and writing docs, because it's
way easier to crush hundreds of new lines of code than to write a good
documentation, and it's more enjoyable than trying to reproduce a weird edge
case. Also, usually new development is adding more business value than fixing
bugs (provided that the whole product is not a one big bug).

------
dmd149
Here's a good, quick post by Cal Newport titled, "Don't fight distraction,
make it irrelevant" that his some of the same points that PG makes:

[http://calnewport.com/blog/2014/06/05/dont-fight-
distraction...](http://calnewport.com/blog/2014/06/05/dont-fight-distraction-
make-it-irrelevant/)

"Distraction, from this perspective, is not the cause of problems in your work
life, it’s a side effect. The real issue comes down to a question more
important than whether or not you use Facebook too much: Are you striving to
do something useful and do it so well that you cannot be ignored?"

------
alexdowad
So could reading this article qualify as a form of "type B" procrastination?

------
artellectual
I think sometimes the mind just needs to think about other things. I mean, I
love what I am doing now too, and I have moments where I'll want to just spend
all day and night on it, but there are also times where I would rather do
something else like watch funny videos on youtube or enjoy a karaoke session
with my 2 year old daughter. It just makes me a happier person to be doing
other things as well. I think diversity is important for the mind, that's why
we procrastinate.

------
bottled_poe
Good? Bad? There is only the value that you place on your own time. It may be
that shaving/maintaining friendships/health do not offer rewards that you
value. That's your decision. In the end, if your occupation doesn't reward you
in a way you value, you will find an alternative way to spend your time.

edit: If you are concerned about how you spend your time, I would suggest that
you should spend some time reflecting on why you are making those choices.

------
crawshaw
As the essay mentions Hamming's talk, here's a recording:
[http://youtu.be/a1zDuOPkMSw](http://youtu.be/a1zDuOPkMSw)

------
pajtai
I like this definition of unimportant stuff, "What's "small stuff?" Roughly,
work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary."

If you you have children, hopefully they will write your obituary, so putting
of cleaning the house to go camping with the kids might result in a, "loving
dad" on your obituary.

This is in addition to all the obvious big career stuff I thought of initially
after reading that definition.

------
gregpilling
My wife is an absent minded professor. This part "The mildest seeming people,
if they want to do real work, all have a certain degree of ruthlessness when
it comes to avoiding errands" describes her perfectly.

God forbid if you disturb her while she is working, you will get an earful.
She is very determined to get her work done, regardless (at times) of what her
husband and kids want out of her.

------
nazgulnarsil
This is why I think it's so silly for people to be such strong detractors of
meal replacement products (like mealsquares, ambronite, and soylent), not
wanting to eliminate EVERY meal from your life is quite understandable, but
wasting hours of your day when you're deep in flow state on food is a terrible
tradeoff in much the same way laundry is.

------
s_dev
Graham hits the nail on the head again. I don't beat myself up about
procrastinating too much -- as long as the procrastinating includes reading
Hacker News, iOS Dev News, Good Stack Overflow comments and conversations,
basically anything that will make me broadly a better and happier programmer.

------
Oculus
I've slowly found that by focusing on interesting things (and sometimes
productive) instead of dedicating time to school projects that are merely time
wasters, I can complete projects I want whilst doing satisfactory in school
with minimal effort.

------
the_af
I agree with the article's opinion about errands, and believe it's true these
small boring tasks end up killing inspiration for the more interesting stuff
we'd rather be working on.

HOWEVER, am I the only one who thinks Paul's redefinition of procrastination
is nonstandard? When people advise you not to procrastinate, they are usually
telling you to do your damn job (or to study for an exam, you get the idea)
instead of doing something else that could clearly wait. Most people
understand that procrastination means doing anything -- no matter what --
instead of a mandatory task that is boring or too hard. Nobody will ever tell
you to do your taxes _instead_ of working on that rocket science project,
which is what Paul seems to be implying...

------
lawl
> _What 's the best thing you could be working on, and why aren't you?_

Because that probably will probably not make me enough money to pay the rent.

If I were rich and didn't need to work. I would.

~~~
jey
Then just work enough to pay rent and eat. I bet you earn more than you
strictly need.

------
wiradikusuma
Very unrelated but biting me hard due to procrastination: Does anyone know any
tax preparer in the US with reasonable rate?

I'm a non-US citizen/resident. I incorporated a C-corp in Delaware exactly
last year through an agent (remotely). The company has been dormant since its
inception.

Its fiscal year is March 31, which means the deadline should be June 15 this
year. I need someone who can do e-filing for me. One guy I found online quoted
me $500 which I think ridiculously expensive :(

~~~
read
You are indeed bitten due to procrastination, but it might not be for the
reason you think you are. If the company has been dormant since its inception,
why are you worried about paying taxes? The IRS doesn't come after dormant
companies that don't have revenue. There's nothing to come after.

Are you using paying taxes as a way of procrastinating from real work? A much
harder problem is making something people want. Worry more about that.

------
epa
Ironic that i'm reading this at work.

------
treborinato
I'll have to remember to read this later.

